Health And Healing

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:4–5

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:11

Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Isaiah 58:8

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Psalm 107:19–20

I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.
Psalm 118:17

And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. 
Deuteronomy 7:15

... Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness — by whose stripes you were healed.
1 Peter 2:24

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
3 John 1:2

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:2

And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.
Matthew 14:14

...and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.
Matthew 14:36

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10:10

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise. 
Jeremiah 17:14

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
Matthew 4:23

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling
Psalm 91:9–10

My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.
Proverbs 4:20–22

When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”
Matthew 8:16–17

But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all.
Matthew 12:15

... God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
Acts 10:38

But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing.
Luke 9:11

And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.
Mark 16:17–18

And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 
Matthew 8:2–3

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases
Psalm 103:2–3

With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.
Psalm 91:16

Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.
Jeremiah 33:6

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:21

'For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord, ‘Because they called you an outcast saying: "This is Zion; no one seeks her.”’
Jeremiah 30:17

He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among His tribes.
Psalm 105:37

So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you. No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfil the number of your days.
Exodus 23:25–26

"… I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”
Exodus 15:26

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness— by whose stripes you were healed.

I Peter 2:24 NKJV

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)

Just started using the new Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) in March 2017. I didn't managed to find a lot of online user reviews on this phone so I kinda based on my past usage experience with the A5 (2016) to decide on buying this phone. I compared the specs of the A series 2016 and 2017, the difference is not much but here are some of the useful features in the new A7 (2017)

Dual SIM
This is great for those who are like me. You have two SIM cards which you need to have access to calls, SMS and WhatsApp. In the past, I used to carry two devices with me everywhere I go.

The A series 2016 is already having this feature, however 2G networks will be closed in Singapore from 1st Apr 2017. The A series 2017 supports 3G on SIM 1 and SIM 2, allowing users to have both SIM on 3G at the same time. However, only 1 SIM can be on 4G so choose the one with more data for your Data. Not to worry, you can switch out which default SIM to use for call, SMS and data from the SIM manager. For calls and SMS, you can easily choose which SIM to use to call out from the phone and message app.

In terms of WhatsApp, Samsung introduced Secure Folder (previous known as My Knox). This feature allows users to have a set of apps which are of a new "instance" apart from the main device. In my case, I used this feature to enable my A7 (2017) to have two instances of WhatsApp on one phone. Think of Secure Folder like a Virtual Machine.

With these features, users are future proof from the closure of 2G network and users no longer need to bring 2 different devices for work and personal use anymore. So simple.

Battery Life
The battery life on this device surprised me. Maybe it was due to the lesson which Samsung learnt from the Note 7 recall, Samsung did a lot more QC and testing on this series of device.

I am able to easily get 14 to 16 hours of use each day. And if I am not actively using the phone in the day, I will typically be left with about 40% of juice left after 12 hours of use.

Under Setting, Device Management, there is also a feature to automatically optimise the device to close background apps. The other useful feature is the Always on Display feature. This feature doesn't use a lot of battery and on the contrary, it save a lot of battery. I no longer need to click on the Home or power button to activate the screen to see if I have any notification waiting for me. All I need to do is to pull out my phone and the Always On Display will show me if I have any notification. The phone is also smart enough to turn off the screen when you put it in your pocket or bag, saving even more battery. You can also set the time for Always on Display to be active, then keep the feature off when you are asleep.

This phone also supports USB Type C so you can expect fast charging for this phone as well.

NFC Features
This phone support Samsung Pay, Android Pay, Dash, NFC Transit (for taking bus and train). With these features, you can safely say that this phone is able to handle most of the cashless transaction which you need as long as the merchant supports it. Lesser cards to bring around in the wallet.

Ease of use
For any android users, this phone is easy to lean and use. There is no learning curve for any existing android users.

iPhone users may take a while to get use to this phone, similar to any other android devices.

Samsung had kept the skin to the minimum. There is nothing fanciful about the skin. Just plain simple and easy.

Dust and Water Resistance (IP68)
This device had been designed to be IP68 standard. I had not tested it out nor do I do water activities often. But this feature does give users some assurance that the device is safe when accidents do happen.

Camera
This phone have a 16M camera. I am not very particular about image quality nor am I a professional photographer. But in general, the camera is able to take some decent photos without much issue. I do have a say that the camera doesn't perform so well in low light situation.

Overall
If you are looking for a "perfect" phone, then you can skip this phone as you may be disappointed. You will probably be happier if you get a iPhone or Galaxy S series phone. However, for a mid-range phone, this phone is "perfect" for the budget seeker. Although I must say that it is not the cheapest phone around. There are other mid-range phones out there with a lower price tag.

This phone shine when it comes to the support you can get with the brand name of Samsung. You can be sure that if there are apps which need the device to have finger print sensor or NFC support, this phone will most likely be supported and tested by the apps developer.

For software and firmware update, you can also look out for at least 2 years worth of update from Samsung. Until A7 2019 arrive, you will probably be still using this phone until then.


Article written on 20th Mar 2017
Jus Sayin Oni


Disclaimer
I do not work for Samsung nor get paid for writing this article. I am just writing out of interest and to share my personal usage experience. Stones and poison emails are NOT welcome.