BiblicalInsights.net

There is a strong push to legalize marijuana in the United States.  However, the dangers of this drug are not completely known.  We are still in the process of discovering all of the detrimental aspects of its use.  A recent study published March 12, 2015 in the journal Hippocampus revealed that teens who were heavy marijuana users–smoking it daily for three years–had an abnormally shaped hippocampus and performed poorly on long-term memory tasks.
The hippocampus is that part of the brain important to long-term memory (also known as episodic memory), which is the ability to remember autobiographical or life events.  Young adults who abused cannabis as teens performed about 18 percent worse on long-term memory tests than young adults who never abused cannabis.  “The memory processes that appear to be affected by cannabis are ones that we use every day to solve common problems and to sustain our relationships with friends and family” (Dr. John Csernansky, the Lizzie Gilman professor and chair of psychiatry and behavior sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital–a senior author of the study).
The study is the first to say the hippocampus is shaped differently in heavy marijuana smokers and the different looking shape is directly related to poor long-term memory performance. Previous research by the same Northwestern team showed poor short-term and working memory performance and abnormal shapes of brain structures in the sub-cortex including the striatum, globus pallidus and thalamus.  Marijuana is detrimental to brain function.  Decriminalization will inevitably lead to greater abuse.  In the United States, marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug.  Young adults have the highest and growing prevalence of use.  Young adults who abuse this drug are damaging their brains and  mortgaging their futures.
The study also found that young adults with schizophrenia who abused cannabis as teens performed about 26 percent more poorly on memory tests than young adults with schizophrenia who never abused cannabis.
The study is titled, “Cannabis-related episodic memory deficits and hippocampal morphological differences in healthy individuals and schizophrenia subjects.” The other Northwestern authors include: senior authors Lei Wang and  Hans C. Breiter and coauthors Derin J. Cobia, James L. Reilly, Andrea G. Roberts and Kathryn I. Alpert.  The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health. (The details of the study were reported at www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2015).
While we are concerned about the physical effects of obesity among our young people and spending large sums of money to improve their health, we, at the same time, are pushing to legalize marijuana which is damaging to their brains!  Such hypocrisy is tolerated only because we are driven by greed and desire to indulge the flesh.  The lusts of the flesh war against the soul (I Peter 2:11).
The Christian virtue of temperance is sorely needed today (II Pet. 1:5-8).  Temperance is self-control.  Every Christian should strive to bring their body under the control of God’s will and wisdom.

Eli was high priest at the time that Hannah and her husband Elkanah dedicated Samuel to the service of the Lord.  This was during the time of the judges in Israel.  Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.  Both of them served in the priesthood.  However, they were evil men.  First, the Scriptures refers to them as sons of Belial and states that they knew not the LORD.  Second, they abused the sacrifices and took more for themselves than the Law permitted.  Third, they committed fornication with the women that assembled at the door of the congregation (I Sam. 2:22).  Eli rebuked them for their sin, but he did not restrain them (stop them from serving in the priesthood).
A man of God (unnamed) came to Eli and prophesied against him because he permitted his sons to do evil things without restraining them.  The prophet predicted that Eli’s house would be cut off.  The sign would be that Hophni and Phinehas would be killed in the same day.  Samuel’s first prophecy (I Sam. 3:1-10) confirmed the previous prophecy from the man of God.  God revealed His judgment against Eli and his house through Samuel.
Eli’s failure involved at least four things.  First, he rebuked his sons, but he did not restrain them.  Eli rebuked his sons, but they did not listen to him.  Eli should have removed them from the priesthood. Did his familial ties keep him from doing the right thing?  Eli’s failure to restrain his sons was detrimental to their spiritual relationship with God.  While he may have thought he could preserve his familial ties, he sacrificed something greater–their souls. Second, Eli failed to honor God.  Part of the indictment against Eli was that he honored his sons before God (I Sam. 2:29).  God said through the prophet, “Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed” (I Sam. 2:30).  Eli failed to honor God and God no longer honored him.  To honor is to hold in high esteem, to value or to favor.  Eli showed more respect for his evil sons that he did a holy God!  Third, Eli failed to uphold God’s Word.  Eli knew the law of God, but he did not uphold it.  To uphold it, he had to defend righteousness and put away evil even if it meant putting his own sons out of the priesthood.  To know what is right and fail to do it is sin.  Eli’s sons caused others to devalue righteousness and elevate and normalize evil.  They were supposed to be the spiritual leaders of Israel.  To whom much is given, much is required.  Fourth, Eli failed to put God first.  When it comes to family or God, God must come first.  When it comes to a job or God, God must come first.  God does not accept second place in our hearts.  When we put other things ahead of God we make an idol out them.  When Eli honored his sons above God, he made an idol out of his own family.
Eli’s failure cost him his sons, his reputation, and his family’s future service in the priesthood. When you or I fail God, we lose.  That’s a huge lesson.

Preventing Suicide by Karen Mason is a very useful book on a difficult topic.  It is a comprehensive look at the subject of suicide from a special point of view.  The author focuses on religious workers who have to minister to those who are suicidal and those who may have a loved one or friend who has committed suicide.  The overall message of the book is that suicide can be prevented.  A review of this book is now available on the Book Reviews page of this blog.