A friend of mine, who is also an ordained Minister of the Gospel, recently had major surgery to repair a shoulder he had injured earlier in life. While his prospects for a full recovery are very good, his time recuperating is nonetheless aggravated by the fact that he is left-handed; and it was his left shoulder that was repaired.
While I was visiting with him earlier this week, he shared something that was, for me at least, amazing. It seems that as he was being prepped for surgery, a technician came in and drew an extensive amount of blood. Not wanting to appear uncooperative, yet at the same time, overcome with curiosity, my friend inquired as to why so much blood was being drawn.
The technician responded by telling him that the doctor had ordered the blood drawn so that it could be put through a separation process. Thereafter, certain components of this blood (from him as the patient) would then be prepared in a solution that would later be applied to his incisions after the surgery. These components would then greatly aid in the healing of his own surgically induced wounds.
Ever curious, I could not wait to find time to research this matter. And while I am no authority on the subject, an internet search seemed to indicate that something known as “Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy” is indeed a method of healing that is often applied to promote cellular growth after surgery, producing faster recovery and reducing scarring from incisions.
Of course, the preacher in both my friend and me could not help but see the parallels to the healing power of the blood of Jesus Christ! Like many of you, my readers, we both grew up singing these powerful lyrics as penned by the hymn-writer Lewis E. Jones:
Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you o'er evil a victory win?
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide;
There's wonderful power in the blood.[Chorus]
Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Sin stains are lost in its life giving flow;
There's wonderful power in the blood.[Chorus]
Would you do service for Jesus your King?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you live daily His praises to sing?
There's wonderful power in the blood.[Chorus]
I praise the Lord that we live in a day and age when medicine has advanced to the point that we can extract from our own blood those components that effect our healing and work to make us whole. And yet, I know that no matter how advanced our technology becomes, we will never be able to affect a cure for that which constitutes our greatest affliction – the tainting of our souls with what the Bible calls sin.
The cure for that affliction – indeed the only cure – is not found in the shedding of our own blood, or in the shedding of the blood of some sacrificial animal, but rather in the shedding of Divine blood. For this reason, therefore, Jesus Christ came into this world: to give His life as a redemptive sacrifice for our sins, cleansing us and making us whole in the process.
As the Bible says (in the Apostle Paul’s New Testament Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 3-8):
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love 5he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8that he lavished on us.
How right Lewis Jones was! How right the Apostle Paul was! For indeed there is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God given for the redemption of the world!
HYMN LYRICS SOURCE:
https://hymnary.org/text/would_you_be_free_from_the_burden_jones.
SCRIPTURE SOURCE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/ephesians/1.htm.
NOTE: A simple internet search for “Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy” will help provide more information on the process whereby autologous conditioned plasma, also known as Platelet-rich plasma (or PRP), for the purpose of expediting wound healing through the process of centrifugation in order to remove red blood cells, is produced.
While I was visiting with him earlier this week, he shared something that was, for me at least, amazing. It seems that as he was being prepped for surgery, a technician came in and drew an extensive amount of blood. Not wanting to appear uncooperative, yet at the same time, overcome with curiosity, my friend inquired as to why so much blood was being drawn.
The technician responded by telling him that the doctor had ordered the blood drawn so that it could be put through a separation process. Thereafter, certain components of this blood (from him as the patient) would then be prepared in a solution that would later be applied to his incisions after the surgery. These components would then greatly aid in the healing of his own surgically induced wounds.
Ever curious, I could not wait to find time to research this matter. And while I am no authority on the subject, an internet search seemed to indicate that something known as “Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy” is indeed a method of healing that is often applied to promote cellular growth after surgery, producing faster recovery and reducing scarring from incisions.
Of course, the preacher in both my friend and me could not help but see the parallels to the healing power of the blood of Jesus Christ! Like many of you, my readers, we both grew up singing these powerful lyrics as penned by the hymn-writer Lewis E. Jones:
Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you o'er evil a victory win?
There's wonderful power in the blood.
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide;
There's wonderful power in the blood.[Chorus]
Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Sin stains are lost in its life giving flow;
There's wonderful power in the blood.[Chorus]
Would you do service for Jesus your King?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you live daily His praises to sing?
There's wonderful power in the blood.[Chorus]
I praise the Lord that we live in a day and age when medicine has advanced to the point that we can extract from our own blood those components that effect our healing and work to make us whole. And yet, I know that no matter how advanced our technology becomes, we will never be able to affect a cure for that which constitutes our greatest affliction – the tainting of our souls with what the Bible calls sin.
The cure for that affliction – indeed the only cure – is not found in the shedding of our own blood, or in the shedding of the blood of some sacrificial animal, but rather in the shedding of Divine blood. For this reason, therefore, Jesus Christ came into this world: to give His life as a redemptive sacrifice for our sins, cleansing us and making us whole in the process.
As the Bible says (in the Apostle Paul’s New Testament Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 3-8):
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love 5he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8that he lavished on us.
How right Lewis Jones was! How right the Apostle Paul was! For indeed there is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God given for the redemption of the world!
HYMN LYRICS SOURCE:
https://hymnary.org/text/would_you_be_free_from_the_burden_jones.
SCRIPTURE SOURCE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/ephesians/1.htm.
NOTE: A simple internet search for “Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy” will help provide more information on the process whereby autologous conditioned plasma, also known as Platelet-rich plasma (or PRP), for the purpose of expediting wound healing through the process of centrifugation in order to remove red blood cells, is produced.