Fathers tortued for Christ

Some have asked me, "Why do you have helping the persecuted church in your purpose statement?" It is because the persecuted church is composed of born again believers whose suffering is most horrible, indeed.
Many of them spend their lives going in and out of prison because of their faith. They are like those spoken of in Hebrews;

Women received back their dead by resurrection ; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment.They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword ; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated; men of whom the world was not worthy (Hebrews 11:35-38).

The Persecuted Church page on our website is one of the most frequented. It, as do those with mental illness and bereavement, suffer greatl of body, mind and mood. We are commanded in Scripture, Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.

This is found in Hebrews 13:3.


Pastor T, a Mennonite from Ho Chi Minh City, was arrested on June 26, then beaten and taken to an unknown location. Nu, Pastor T’s wife, said her husband left home around 10 p.m. and phoned 15 minutes later to say he was being held at Ward 26 of Binh Thanh District Police Station. Nu and other church members went to the heavily guarded police station, but authorities denied having Pastor T in custody. Nu called out to her husband from a back door, and he responded, “I’m here. They have brutally beaten me. My jaw and hand are broken, and they have shackled my legs and hands. I’m very tired and am in pain.” Nu pleaded with police to let her see her husband, but they refused. Later, she saw him being taken by car to another location. Pastor T’s condition and location are unknown, and his house has been raided. Please pray for Pastor T’s health, and pray that God will strengthen and comfort him and his wife.
Please pray for these Christians. For more information about people who are being persecuted go to: http://heartfeltcounselingministries.com/persecution.aspx

CAMI - Christians Afflicted with Mental Illness

Many of you have expressed to Robyn and to me the isolation and loneliness you feel while trying to cope with your “brain storms.” In many places the evangelical church does little to shed light on depression, bipolar disorder, etc. and in other places it actually belittles and mocks those who are mentally ill. Heartfelt Counseling Ministries has an answer to this lack of community and offers solidarity.

It is called CAMI, which stands for Christians Afflicted with Mental Illness. It is for those of us who are true believers in Christ and have a burden for the afflicted or are afflicted ourselves with a mental illness. We have copyrighted the name but it needs explanation.

CAMI Purpose Statement-- - CAMI exists to strengthen those who are spiritually, psychologically and physically impacted by mental illness. We will create a sense of cohesion and community among born again Christians who are affected by depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia, panic and other disorders of mind and mood.

What is CAMI?

God led Robyn and me to start Heartfelt Counseling Ministries in 2003. Since then our book, Broken Minds was published (Kregel, 2005) and through that medium, we have met and spoken to many Christians who are sensing the need for a Christian community to aid and support them as they deal with their own broken minds. We conduct seminars, provide counseling, advocate and educate for the evangelical, biblical and clinical treatment of persons suffering from mental illness. We offer a safe environment, a listening ear and practical help for treatment all the while offering the hope of Christ. There should be no shame or embarrassment; these illnesses are the result of faulty brain chemistry and those who suffer from them are not weak people! We have extended a new helping hand to the global community to aid in our passion for the mentally afflicted Christian. It is a concept and movement called CAMI.

Why Does CAMI Exist?

1. Because Secular alliances of mentally ill people, though they do some good, cannot meet the spiritual needs of Christians who have mental illness, nor minister to their caregivers.

2. CAMI provides a visible, tangible fellowship in local settings; and also makes
possible real interaction in real time in this global village, our world.

3. CAMI provides substantial help and support in training others to start
and conduct CAMI mental illness support groups and evangelistic outreach groups.

4. CAMI will help mentally ill Christians who are often misunderstood to stand tall for Christ and work together in stomping out the stigma that surrounds this type of illness.

What will CAMI look like?

 CAMI will be embraced by local evangelical churches in both national and international settings.

 CAMI will have regional speaking engagements and have an annual conference including speakers and workshop leaders. This includes fund raisers. CAMI will train pastors and lay leaders to start and carry on mercy ministries which will include ministering effectively to the mentally ill population in their churches.

 CAMI will have a substantial ministry of prayer for those who are having problems, needs and concerns with their own symptoms of mental ilness. We will also pray for others who consent to have their prayer requests made known. There will be means of stimulating and faciliting these very important prayer requests. These will include prayer chains by phone, email,facebook, skype, twitter or by postal mail. The level of saturation by prayer will be determined by the parties involved.These prayer requests will be prayed for in an international setting.

 CAMI has eight guiding principles which are found in the CAMI Starter/Leader and Study Guides. They can be emailed to you or sent by postal mail.
Are you interested in starting a local chapter of a CAMI support group?
E-mail us at camimovement@yahoo.com. You can also call us at 616-447-9064

What Should You Do Now?
You should become a member of CAMI. You do not have to be mentally ill to do so.
Pastors, lay leaders and caregivers are also encouraged to become members.
http://heartfeltcounselingministries.com/whispersinfoyer.aspx

Christ our Advocate, Intercessor and High Priest.

I have been reading one of my favorite authors, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones again. He, by his expositions of the Scriptures, has been a mentor of mine for over thirty years. This particular portion has some great insight that I think is worthy of your reading.
Christ our Advocate, Intercessor and High Priest.

I John 2: 1,2 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world, NKJV.

"The early fathers were very fond of putting it like this, and I think it is very good: they used to say that the Holy Spirit intercedes within us and Christ is interceding for us. The Holy Spirit is within us, building us up in Christ, teaching us and guiding us and showing us what to do and what not to do. And there the Lord Himself is making intercession for us and on our behalf, representing us always to the Father. It is a glorious and sublime conception. Is there anything that can be more comforting and more consoling than to know at this very moment, and always, the Lord of Glory is concerned about you, is watching over you and is concerned about your interests and is there representing you?

We are frail and we are weak and we fall and fail, but we have an advocate with the Father. Therefore, when you begin to feel, at the suggestion of Satan, that you cannot turn back to God and face Him, remember, beloved friend, you are not alone. I agree with you; I know the sensation but too well, the feeling that I have no right to approach God, but remember that you have an Advocate and He is there to represent you."
(David Martyn Lloyd Jones, Life in Christ, Studies in I John, Volume 2 (1993) by Elisabeth Catherwood and Anne Desmond, Cambridge: Crossway Books, p.38, 39).

"We have an advocate, says John with the Father. Now that word "with" is a most important little word; it means face to face with. It does not mean that He now and again enters in and is allowed to represent us, but rather that He is always there. And it means that He is always, as it were, looking into the face of the Father. We have a suggestion here of the great doctrine of the Trinity, the three persons yet one substance. He is face to face with God, not having, as it were, to make an application to God to plead for us to the Father; He is always looking into the eyes of the Father. What a wonderful idea, that the One who represents us is always there in that absolute intimacy with God." (Ibid 39).















Please note that Steve & Robyn will be hosting the seminar, Whispers in the Foyer...An Honest Look at the Christian and Mental Illness on Saturday, October 15,2011. Registration is at 9:00 am.with an hour for lunch and concluding at 4:30 p.m. It will be held at Rockford Baptist Church, 221 Courtland Street, Rockford, Michigan 49341.

If you are comng from out of town, there are a number of hotels with a varitey of choices as to cost, type, location, etc. Please visit the link below http://heartfeltcounselingministries.com/whispersinfoyer.aspx

Pakistani Christians killed in cold blood.

This post is unedited.

This comes from the persecuted church in Pakistan.
It is commanded in the book of Hebrews 13:3 that we are to:
Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.

The prisoners mentioned in the above text are not criminals; they are those who have put in prison because of their faith. This is happening all over the world in real time. Hundreds are maimed and killed, raped and pillaged every day. Please pray for them, if you are a true born again believer. The Bible says those who are saved by Christ are believer priests, who by the Lord Jesus Christ can come immediately into the presence of God." It is our duty to plead the cause of our brothers and sisters before the LORD. The above Scripture presents an extreme command of empathy, sb.

"In the month of March these destitute Christians were coming out of worship and a dozen Muslim men were waiting outside to trouble Christian women as they always do.
When some Christian men told them politely/requested before them to please don’t do that but they did’t listen in spite they got angry and in order to satisfy their hatred as usual they started firing with the automatic weapons at the Christians randomly.
One of the Christian men who in his mid 40’s is survived by his wife and four children while another one who was young in his 20’s and married only a month ago also died. Some others were injured.
The Christians are destitute and do menial work to survive. This incident happened in the city of Hyderabad of Pakistan. The families of the victims/martyred Christians deserve help, if anyone would extend help for the suffering families that would be really great. The family of the martyred Christians needs protection in order to pursue to the matter since two of the culprits are still at large. Remember we cannot afford to abandon the already abandoned ones.
Keep them in your prayer please.
Name witheld, serving the most oppressed, neglected and abandoned brothers and sisters."

Insanity The Invisible Plague

“The most remarkable thing about insanity in contemporary America is that its existence as an epidemic is unknown. Despite the evidence of its startling increase over two centuries, despite its enormous fiscal and human costs, and despite the fact that it still may be increasing, there is virtually no interest in this issue. Insanity has become accepted, like an unwelcome guest who slowly settles into the household and eventually is thought of as a member of the family. AIDS, tuberculosis, and cancer continue to evoke adversarial feelings---they do not belong. Insanity, by contrast, is widely thought of as part of the human condition and assumed to have always been with us in its present form. Such acceptance betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of its essence.” Torrey, E. Fuller, M.D. and Miller, Judy, The Invisible Plague, The Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present(2001), New Brunswick, New Jersey and London: Rutgers University Press, page 299

“Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.”
Angela Monet

Steve and Robyn Bloem of Heartfelt Ministries will be giving a seminar called, "Whispers in the Foyer, An Honest Look at the Christian and Mental Illness."
It will be on a Saturday at a date yet determined during the month of October 2011. It will be hosted by Rockford Baptist Church in Rockford, MI.
Ask us about early registration fees and CAMI Membership Discounts.

D.L. Moody, "This is the land of the dying"

"We say this is the land of the living! It is not. It is the land of the dying. What is our life here but a vapor? A hearse is the most common sight. Families are broken into. Over there is one who has lost a father, there a mother, there a place vacant, there a sister's name is no more heard, there a brother's love is missed. Death stalks triumphant through our midst, in this world...
Death in front of us, death behind us, and death to the right of us, death to the left of us. See the hospitals in our land, and the asylums for the insane, the blind and the aged.

But look at the other world. No death, no pain, no sorrow, no old age, no sickness, no bending forms, no dimmed eyes, no tears. But joy, peace, love and happiness. No gray hair... River of life for the healing of the nations, and everlasting life. Think of it! Life! Life! Life without end! And yet so many men choose this life on earth, instead of the life in Heaven. Don't close your heart against eternal life. Only take the gift, only take it." Will you do it?

D.L. Moody, from a sermon preached in Kansas City when his life was approaching its end. "The Life of D.L. Moody" by Will Moody (1900) Sword of the Lord Publishers: Murfreesboro, TN, p.547

Are You serving God's purpose for your life?

I remember that not to long after Lindsay died (on September 11, 2001), I was wailing and crying in our bedroom. I thought that Robyn had gone to a friend’s house. Tyler, who was eleven years old came to me and asked me if I were alright. (It is not bad to cry in front of your kids, they realize how much you love your children). I thanked Tyler for checking and I told him that I was sad.

Shortly after this something remarkable happened. Robyn came to me and asked me about a verse in the Bible that I was fond of quoting. She wanted to place it on a calendar about Lindsay that she was making for "the boys." I found the verse for her and she left the room. Providentially, God was directing me to Acts 13:36. The verse reads,"For David, after he had served the purpose of God, in his own generation fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay." On that day, this verse began to take hold of me. I was to teach the college and career class at our church in the morning, and I decided this would be the text I would use. As I studied the passage,I realized that the only way to make something out of your life was to serve God's purpose in the generation that He put you. No one can know the time of their death. Nevertheless, God will take you home
to heaven (if you are a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ) when you have served your purpose that He has planned for you.

I realized that Lindsay had done this. She had repented of her sin and come to the Lord Jesus. I mourned the life that I would have without her. In fact, I still mourn. Nevertheless, I was strengthened by God in the truth that He is the Sovereign God who gives life and also takes it away. She and her daughter were together in life, together in death, and together in Heaven.

Now we see that our time remaining is to find God's purpose for our lives and to serve God with our hearts, souls, and minds. After having served this Divine purpose, God will take us home to be reunited with all the saints who have who have gone on before us. http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Minds-Healing-Youre-Losing/dp/0825421187