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

Wife of Linfen Church Leader Released on Medical Parole

China Aid Association

(Linfen, Shanxi province – May 25, 2011) One of the 10 house church Christians sentenced in late 2009 to jail and labor camp terms related to the government suppression of a vast house church network based in Shanxi province has been released on medical parole due to her seriously deteriorating health, church sources told ChinaAid.

Yang Caizhen, whose husband was one of the senior leaders of the Linfen Church, was transferred in February from a prison hospital to a local hospital where test results showed her to be in seriously declining health. Due to the high cost of long-term hospitalization at the prison’s expense, the prison director decided to release her into her family’s care at their own expense. Ms. Yang is now at home, being cared for by her mother, brother and sister-in-law.

Yang, formerly a medical doctor, was given an extra-judicial two-year re-education-through-labor term which she was serving at the Shanxi Women’s Prison in the capital city of Taiyuan. She is the wife of Yang Xuan, who has served as a pastor for the churches in Linfen since 1994, shortly after the churches split from the government’s Three-Self Patriotic Movement. (More details about the couple and their ministry is available here: http://www.helplinfen.com/2011/04/daughter-of-linfen-prisoners-appeal.html.)

Yang Caizhen’s health problems no doubt were related to the heavy work demands imposed on her by the labor camp. She was forced to work every day from 6 a.m. until 10 or 11 p.m., for which she received the equivalent of $20 per month, with 77 cents for medical care and $1.38 for pocket money.

In February, Yang began to feel ill, started to run a high fever and complained of pain throughout her body. The prison clinic gave her a course of antibiotics, and two days later, the fever was gone. But she had no appetite and then experienced recurring fever that did not respond to three days of antibiotic drip in the prison hospital. She was transferred to an outside hospital, where a chest x-ray and test results from routine blood work showed her to be in poor health, including a high fever and liver inflammation. Treatment would require long-term hospitalization.

When she was released into her brother’s care three days later, Yang was barely able to speak. After paying her hospital bill, which the prison did not pay, her brother transferred Yang to a hospital in Xi’an, nine hours’ drive away. When they arrived, doctors there said her condition was so serious that any further delay in treatment might have resulted in her death.

Yang remained hospitalized for more than two weeks before going home.

http://heartfeltcounselingministries.com/persecution.aspx

A young mans letter to His parents about his panic disorder

I gasped for air as I felt the life go out of me. I was repeatedly being plunged into darkness and brought up just long enough to know that air was available to the world around me, but not at my disposal. My throat was being fused together by an unseen force and I had the incredible urge to vomit, but my body did not have the strength to eject my stomach’s contents. Besides, I didn’t have the urge to vomit partially digested food anyway. The only thing that I thought would come out was gallons of blood. I fully expected to see sticky clots of blood and pieces of my internal organs hanging out of my mouth as my body was ravaged by the unseen enemy within. My chest tightened and my body contorted with pain as my mind raced. The pressure building in my head from the house of horrors made every noise I heard sound like the high-pitched whir of a band saw that was surely coming to slowly dismember me piece by piece. The thought of being cut to pieces was slowly fading as more important things took control of me. I could not breathe any longer, and the only thing left to do was to take my last frantic breath and die. That is when the real horror began, however. I was dying a horrible death, but death would not consummate its horrific union with me. I cried out to God to kill me, and feverishly looked around for some way out. I had to escape! Where could I go? How would I get out of this hellish torture chamber? Then the sinking realization dawned on me that there was no escape, and I would not have the good fortune of perishing. The prisoner, the prison, and the blood thirsty murderer seeking to destroy me all dwelt in the same place- my own mind.
I looked around the room and couldn’t help but notice all the smiling faces. Men chuckling, women beaming from ear to ear, and little children giggling was a common site that day. Cameras flashed and people murmured at how beautiful everything turned out. I wanted to stand up and scream for everyone to run for their life! Didn’t they know what was going on? We were all surely going to die. Were we being gassed? Was there an extremist group loitering in the wings that was using some highly sophisticated weapon to cripple our minds and take over our land? No one seemed to be concerned about the impending tragedy, however. They were living in blissful ignorance, I suppose, and attempting to enjoy the wedding.
That day, as I quietly sat in my shirt and tie, cleanly shaven with my pants pressed nicely, I was experiencing the most horrific things anyone could ever imagine. Two of my close friends were sharing their special day and showing the world how much they loved one another, but I was in a torture chamber. I was being beaten repeatedly, my family was being raped and mutilated in front of me, and I could do nothing to stop any of it. Actually, my brain (the small organ encased inside your skull so often taken for granted) was malfunctioning, and electrical impulses that are normally reserved for harrowing situations went rogue. The same chemical response one’s brain initiates during a time of the most intense crisis was happening to me that day inside a quiet Midwest church hall. I felt like a prisoner of war in my own mind. To the outside observer, I made have looked tired, or maybe even bored. Inside, however, was a different story.
Fortunately, there is help. Panic Disorder affects millions of people each year, and there are multiple pharmaceutical solutions to treat this disease of the brain. Much like penicillin will combat Strep throat, many different medications will help restore brain chemistry to its original setting. If you suffer from Panic Disorder, treat your brain like you would a broken bone. Don’t you think it deserves the care?
If you would like to more about Panic Disorder, please consider Steve and Robyn's book, Broken Minds Hope for Healing When You Feel Like You're Losing It, Kregel Publications. http://heartfeltcounselingministries.com/bookpurchase.aspx If you are ot of the country please visit http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Minds-Healing-Youre-Losing/dp/0825421187