Covid Wars -- What Are Our Liabilities?

Some quick updates:

My dad says he’s fine, but still has no taste and smell. 

Many in our family and in our business are still sick or recovering, but mostly recovering.

  

Our beloved Pastor Joe and his wife Peg are both back home, and Pastor Joe wasn’t even followed home by an oxygen tank! The announcement filled our church with elation, and I have no doubt he was watching the church livestream on Sunday or that he will watch the replay, wishing he could be among us. We’re still praying for complete healing of his lungs, and that he’ll get his speaking voice back quickly, with full strength.

There are still people falling sick, still people in the hospital. But when you are asked, “So where did you get the virus?” the correct response is, “Who knows? The virus is everywhere.” And it is.

Eric and I were back in church on Sunday, victorious and full of energy. I told everybody in an announcement that we are having a Christmas program of some kind next Sunday, with whatever able-bodied participants we can find. The Covid-recovered are our best bet, and the number of participants will be impossible to predict, but I think we’ll have enough to do it. The reaction from the church was priceless. The Devil can’t win this one – we will react to the attack with praise to our God! The children are ready to do battle with their lungs, whether or not they can carry a tune in a bucket.

Next, you should know that Monday morning, after reaching for an itchy sensation in the palm of my right hand, I noticed a lump. It was a small blood clot – just like one my friend Angi told me about on Sunday, that had appeared on her palm after she had Covid in August.

To make a long story short, I’ll just say that by 12:30, I was on my way to an urgent care facility in Lafayette. I had experienced too many frustrations with the Lafayette emergency rooms and thought to get a better response with urgent care.

I had a conversation with God on the way. It went like this:

“Father, remember when I prayed this morning about ‘Whatever happens, we will praise Your Name and give You the glory?’ Remember, I said something like, ‘Whether we live or die, we belong to You and we are comfortable with that’?

“Well, I meant it and I’m not taking it back. But it was only a couple hours later that I got this blood clot. Now I know this is a test. Blood clots can move and that pharmacist I spoke with said they can go into your brain and cause a stroke, or into your heart and cause a heart attack. And she said if my blood vessel bursts, I could lose the use of my hand, or if I wait too long it might have to be amputated.

“Now, I’m not crying like Hezekiah, because I’m not in love with this place. You know I’ve been praying that you will come quickly and take us home. But I made a promise to the church yesterday, and to those little kids in the Sunday School. So for their sake, I pray that You will dissolve this clot and completely heal me. And besides, You didn’t tell me it’s my time yet, so I’m going to believe it’s not. I’m going to be fighting this, and fighting for others who need me.”

The clot, still on my hand when I arrived at the urgent care facility, was gone except for about a one-inch long bruise by the time the doctor saw me. She did send me over to a radiologist to have a scan taken. There, I found the reason I had been sent to Lafayette – a sweet woman about my size from India, who knew enough to understand the great fraud being foisted upon the whole world, but not even as much as what I wrote about in my last post. I made a new friend and left for home with a big smile and a “Thank You, Jesus, for the Divine Appointment.”

The Princess Bride

This has probably already been done in many contexts, but I will continue with my examples from The Princess Bride. This brilliant classic movie has been memorized by several of our kids and used in literary allusions in the Haley Household constantly since it was first produced, so it is very appropriate here.

Last week I spoke of ROUS’s – the Rodents of Unusual Size. That had to do with Covid starting off like a tiny, cute “pocket pet” mouse and ending up as a roaring enemy. The problem with the ROUS’s in the movie is that our hero, Westley, is trying to persuade Buttercup that the Fire Swamp is safe for her, so even though he catches glimpses of the enemy rodents, he doesn’t tell Buttercup, and the famous line is:

“The Rodents of Unusual Size? I don’t believe they exist.” 

This is followed immediately by an attack from behind, where Buttercup stands helplessly by and watches her True Love battle the brute himself.

What does this show us? Do comforting words help to make scary enemies go away, or do they just catch us by surprise? Obviously, it’s the latter. If we are going to do battle, we need a true assessment of the situation, and then, we need to fight!

What army goes out to fight against the enemy, with the scout coming back after a reconnaissance mission only to tell them soothingly, “Oh it’s okay – the enemy force isn’t that big!” If it is, the army needs to know about it, and be prepared! In fact, in 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18, when The Lord wanted to persuade evil King Ahab to go to battle against Syria so that he would be killed in battle, a lying spirit volunteered to make all his prophets give the King assurances that he would win a great victory. Ahab would not listen to the one prophet who told the truth, and sure enough, he was killed in the battle.

No, you will not have a happy life by believing a lie, nor by not paying attention. You will only be unprepared.

Next quote from Westley, to the evil Six-Fingered Man:

“We are men of action. Lies do not become us.”

Last week, we had our hands full. As soon as we got our thinking abilities back, we set to work. We had to protect our family, protect our business, and protect our church. We did battle on their behalf, in prayer, practical help, and with the best advice we could give them. For those who could not think because of the disease, we understood, and helped with decision making. For those who were weepy or anxious or crabby, we understood, and we forgave. Shortness of breath is often accompanied by shortness of temper. We had been there and done that ourselves.

But the Truth is valuable. You cannot do battle without all the facts.

When Westley swallows a “miracle pill,” he comes back full of energy from being “mostly dead all day,” ready to take on all his enemies at once. 

Then he asks why he can’t move his arms – they weren’t useful yet. But, he could use his brain.

He asks two questions:

1. What are our liabilities?

2. What are our assets?

I’ll only be able to cover the first question today, but let’s take a look at the enemy we must fight -- our liabilities -- and only one of our major assets. Next week, I’ll cover the other assets in greater detail.

What are our liabilities?

The truth about our liabilities is that all counties in Indiana are in the red zone for Covid right now. Also, all counties in our surrounding states are in the red zone for Covid. There are people who have been given the Covid shot, who are shedding spike proteins. This means they are contagious to those around them, whether or not those people have had the shot. People do not know they are contagious, as mentioned in my last post, because this is the “cold and flu season,” and they assume their sniffle is a cold. So, it is very easy to catch this potentially dangerous disease, and also to feel guilty about it if you think someone got it from you when you didn’t know.

The other truth about our liabilities is that all it takes for a doctor or hospital to “drink the Kool-Aid,” as my friend Angi put it, is to read JAMA – the Journal of the American Medical Association. It only contains the “narrative” now, and that is dangerous.  Outstanding medical personnel have been fired everywhere because of their refusal to take the shot and go against the unconstitutional mandates from Joe Dictator Biden, creating personnel shortages (duh!) and causing chaos. 

Joe Rogan is a broadcaster for UFC (boxing, for you uninitiated non-sports fans!) with a popular podcast, who was highly criticized because he had been “spreading misinformation” about treatments like Ivermectin. Basically, he had done his homework, and when he contracted Covid in October, he knew what to do. It was not “the narrative” speaking – it was the truth.

Then recently, the head of the UFC, Dana White, also got Covid, even though he had been compliant in taking the Covid shot. But he knew what to do: he called Joe Rogan. Here’s what he said:

“Listen, I’m vaccinated,” White said. “It’s not like I’m some crazy anti-vax conspiracy theorist or some of that stuff but Rogan is a very brilliant guy. Very smart guy who talks to the best and the brightest out there and I’m not a believer in the narrative. But at the end of the day, this is a free country. Cause what happens when you get this stuff, they tell you stay home for the next 10 days until you don’t test positive. That doesn’t seem smart to me. Just like when we went through COVID, I believe in finding solutions to problems and answers.”

 

What are our assets? 

This is a picture of the list I was making a week ago when I fainted at the kitchen counter, though now it’s a little stained up from being in the kitchen all this time. This was what my doctor had prescribed for me, and I had to figure out how to fit it into a workable schedule.  I show you this, not because this is how much of everything you should take, but because it speaks of “assets” loud and clear. As President Trump made clear to us from the beginning, there are good, useful therapeutics available, and we need to use them.

Ivermectin. 

This is the key therapeutic right now, along with hydroxychloroquine. I mentioned these two last week, but it is important to know what to do with them.

There are doctors who have been fired or had their medical licenses threatened for using Ivermectin to battle Covid, and most hospitals refuse to touch it. It became politicized because it is relatively inexpensive compared to the Emergency Use Authorization drugs Big Pharma wants to sell. The hospitals get kickbacks from using those expensive drugs and they want those given to the patients as much as possible.

As a result, people have been gaslighted for suggesting Ivermectin can cure Covid. It is mocked and called “horse de-wormer.” Every time it is mentioned on Facebook, the “Fact Checkers'' will slap a warning label on your post and talk about how using it for Covid is dangerous. Today’s news is that a federal court ordered a hospital to allow a family to try Ivermectin for their dying mother or pay $10,000 per day fines, also allowing the family a police escort into the hospital if needed. It shouldn’t be this hard!

Ivermectin is not dangerous. This drug is safe and effective, and it has been approved by the FDA for a variety of maladies for a number of years, whereas the other drugs are at best not completely tested. Yes, it was first used for animals, but human applications followed shortly thereafter and its inventors were awarded a Nobel Prize in 2015.

Ivermectin is effective both for prophylactic use (prevention) and therapeutic use (treatment). The dosages are different, as you would expect. You do have to take more of it to kill viruses that have been multiplying in your body.  It is prescribed for therapeutic use according to a patient’s height and weight, and it is very important to get that dosage information before starting your course.

When you find a good doctor – and sometimes you have one close at hand! – who will write you a prescription for this good drug, you must send that script to a pharmacy that will fill it without a diagnostic code. Many pharmacies, upon hearing that it’s for Covid, even though it is prescribed by a real doctor, will refuse to fill it. This includes pretty much all of the chain stores like CVS and Walgreen’s.

Yes, there are some people who have been desperate enough to find Ivermectin at a Rural King, where it is easily accessible for your animals. But there are no dosages for humans on the package, so it’s all guesswork, and many people have not taken enough of it to help. Some farm stores have even taken it off the shelf. You must go to a friendly doctor and a friendly pharmacist, usually a small family-owned store. It is cheaper to find a pharmacy that does its own compounding. No insurance company is going to cover it, but you need this. 

See the end of my post from last week for some resources to find friendly doctors and pharmacists to help you.

One more thought. The FDA has published disclaimers saying they have not approved the off-label drug Ivermectin to “cure Covid.” Well, if you have an invading army ready to descend upon you, and all you have on hand are hunting rifles, will you wring your hands in despair because you have no AK-47s? 

As you can see, the discussion of our first asset has liabilities built into it. The urgent care doctor asked me what I had taken for Covid and I told her the list, starting with the Ivermectin.

“Oh that! Well, that “Invermectin” (sic) stuff probably didn’t help any, but I’m sure the other things you took were what made the difference.”

Considering this medical professional could not even pronounce the name of this wonder drug and all my friends can, what does that tell you about the medical establishment right now?

“Don’t argue with the doctor,” my new friend had said.  

So I didn’t. I just praised God that I had been healed. The ultrasound revealed no blood clots in my neck or arm. The Holy Spirit had zapped it for me!

I must continue the discussion of our assets next week, so stay tuned.  

 

Here’s your verse for the day. Eric and I read it this morning and the song we know that goes with it has been stuck in our heads all day:

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe.”

~Proverbs 18:10

Doesn’t that sound like a powerful asset?

“Lord and Father, Your Name is great and strong, and we pray your Name over all Your people who are fighting battles of various kinds today.  Safety, true safety, is in You, and always will be.  We pray for Your safety and protection over our pastors and the leadership of the churches of Jesus Christ. We thank you that Pastor Joe and Peggy are home now, without any meds or oxygen!  Please continue to heal them and others, and give us the strength to continue to do battle against the enemy forces with our prayer, our praise, and our total trust and reliance in You.”

Here’s the link for the YouTube Channel for Calvary Chapel of Lafayette, in case you want to see a victorious children’s Christmas program, conducted totally without a dress rehearsal, Sunday December 19, at 10:30 AM Eastern

https://www.youtube.com/c/CCLafayette