Ugly things which are made beautiful by God!

 Today I would like to remind you that the Sovereign God of heaven and earth, who became your Father when you were born again has ordained the events that occur in your life each day.  Some are pleasant and others are not. God never effects evil but He is in complete control of it. Ecclesiastes tells us in 3: 11, He has made everything beautiful in its time. 

 I have had some ugly things happen to me since I was converted. I have experienced a depression, which can  only be understood by those who have gone through it. If you are interested in a personal account of a family dealing with depression, I would encourage you to pick up our book, published by Kregel Publications. The title is Broken Minds, Hope for Feeling WhenYou feel like You're Losing It (Please see below). 

 Another ugly thing that our family all experienced was the death of our only daughter, Lindsay, on September 11, 2001. She was expecting her first baby and our first grandchild. Since it was the infamous day of terror, she was returning home from a specially called prayer meeting for the nation, for all the first responders and for the victims' family members. As we followed her by car on astreet in Grand Rapids,Michigan;we witnessed her being hit head-on by a car full of grossly impaired young men. They were all shooting up heroine as they rode down the street, including the driver. We observed him to be passed out when he hit her. She lost her sweet baby, Emily, who lay in her arms in the casket three days later.





 Another ugly thing I have experienced is that I nearly died from Lithium toxicity and was under-treated for almost a whole month. I was hospitalized over a week and was released, only to have it come back when I left the hospital and was told to keep taking my lithium. I was in and out of the hospital over that month and finally on my last trip to the ER,  I mentioned to one of the doctors that I had read that Lithium can be stored in body fat. He told me that he and a fellow doctor had been discussing it right before he came to see me. I eventually got well, which I thank God for, and have been fine since this other ugly time in my life.
 
But I can say that "God has made everything beautiful  in His time" and He continues to do so.
The hymn writer put it so well and recently I have been blessed to have read the hymn and have sung it in my office with the help of YouTube. I know that some of the words are not used today. But here is the poem:

Day by day, and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.

He, whose heart is kind beyond all measure,
Gives unto each day what He deems best,
Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.

 Every day the Lord Himself is near me,
With a special mercy for each hour;                                                                                                     All my cares He fain would bear and cheer me,
He whose name is Counselor and Power.

The protection of His child and treasure
Is a charge that on Himself He laid;
“As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,“
This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then, in every tribulation,
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation,
Offered me within Thy holy Word.

Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
E’er to take, as from a father’s hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till with Christ the Lord I stand.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNVCcph6cnI The Antrim Mennonite Choir

Please read our book Broken Minds, Hope for Healing When You Feel Like You're Losing It. It is our story of God helping us through dark times of depression and demoralization.

Please click on the link below so that you can read about our book.
.http://heartfeltmin.org/resources.html

Jesus said, "why are you persecuting Me?"

One of the greatest persecutors of Christians in the history  of the church was the apostle Paul.  As an unsaved hater of Jesus Christ he took delight in killing and  persecuting God's saved people.
Acts 9:1-2 states, "Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to The Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." The  term The Way undoubtedly was taken from the words of Jesus, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no man is able to come to the Father but by Me" (John 14:6). 


 Saul, later called Paul, was a Jewish Jihadist. He was well educated man with a perfect Jewish pedigree. Please see Philippians 3:3-6 for his worldly attainments. Christians who are being persecuted need to realize that God is able to save those who persecute  them.  This miracle of salvation was granted to Paul, while He was viciously attacking what he thought was a Rogue Jewish cult.





There is one Scripture that should be considered because it demonstrates the great love that the Risen and Exalted Christ has for his true church. It is found in  Acts 9:3-5; "As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him; 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?' And he said, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.'"  And part of his conversion experience was to realize the awful sin that he had been committing. He had attacked the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord's, the Head of the true church.

 Those who are undergoing persecution whether great or small should know that Jesus Christ is in complete control of their  persecutors. Nothing can separate a believer from the love of their Master.  They should remember Paul,who in  2 Timothy 2:12 states,"If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He is faithful for He cannot deny Himself." The battle is fierce and the fight is strong but the outcome is sure.  As the great hymn writer Issac Watts wrote:

    Am I a soldier of the cross,
    A follower of the Lamb?
    And shall I fear to own His cause,
    Or blush to speak His name?

    Must I be carried to the skies
    On flow’ry beds of ease,
    While others fought to win the prize,
    And sailed through bloody seas? 

http://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Am_I_a_Soldier_of_the_Cross/


Ephesians 3:20,21,(NASB) proclaims. "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Colombia, Jan.  2016
Prayer Requests





A Christian woman, “Milena” and her one surviving son live in an area of Colombia,which is controlled by The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas. Milena’s husband and three of other sons were killed by these guerrillas. They were killed  because of their personal faith in Jesus Christ. She continues to hold on to her faith in God, but asks for prayers for the safety of her youngest son, Luis.   VOM (Voice of Martyrs) is helping Milena and her son to relocate and set up a small business.

Russia Jan. 2016

Pray for Worship Team Members Attacked During Rehearsal
Men, believed to be Russian nationalist, attacked members of a worship team on Jan. 8 2016 as they rehearsed at Emmanuel Church in Alexandrov, a small town northeast of Moscow, Russia. One of the attackers pressed a knife to the throat of a worship team member and made demands for the pastor’s whereabouts, as well as a list of all church members' names. The attackers told the worship team that they planned to eradicate all evangelical churches. Remember to pray for these sisters and brothers in Christ.

Mental Illness: our book, Broken Minds, (Kregel 2005) chronicles our own story of mental illness, teaches what the bible says and gives the physical aspects of a disease that is crippling Christians who are being erroneously taught that their illnesses are a result of sin. If you want to be validated in your depression or other mental health disorder and spiritually encouraged, I would strongly suggest you order a copy of Broken Minds on our website. We don't blame you for being sick!
http://www.heartfeltmin.org/resources.html
 

I prefer death to an episode of depression,

 I can honestly say that I would prefer death to an episode of severe depression. The anxiety, the deep sadness, the whole body fatigue and the inability to sleep are truly horrible. Depression makes a person feel detached from the happy world around him. The affective disorders, especially, bipolar and major depression, are episodic. An individual may be minding his own business and he  has either cycled into severe depression or mania.



This begs the question: is the awareness and delivery of services equal to the pain and suffering it warrants? Many people who have suffered cancer and depression or heart disease and depression, say depression is far worse. It seems to me if those who are involved treating the mentally ill could experience the awfulness of it for a little while; they would reach out with great compassion and a sense of urgency to give timely, skilled treatment to them.




I have seen a psychiatrist have her severely depressed patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital for electro/convulsive therapy and then go on vacation, without designating another psychiatrist to take her place. I have had outpatient psychiatric office personnel stop a process which was initiated by me for a depressed client and deny approval for free medications from a drug company, simply by saying to the provider something to the effect of, “we don’t really handle that aspect of his care,” and not saying anything about it until I inquired about it.


Why do you think that peer support in the management of mental illness has been so popular and effective in our times? I would sum it up with one word, empathy. I think every person who applies for any job which involves being a part of the therapeutic milieu of the mentally ill should during the interview, be grilled on their empathy toward the mentally ill. This includes pharmaceutical, office staff and the like. To be sure, it must be a skilled, guided empathy but the treatment should be done with great compassion.












 In regards to pastors, I have seen them laugh at the mentally ill who were suffering from severe depressive, manic symptoms. I have heard so much of their unfeeling advice to those with depression, that I could have  scarcely believed it.  Many pastors have a censorious attitude toward the mentally ill and it is fueled by their ignorance of biblical theology and science. Let us pray for compassion and for those with diseases of mind and mood.

 


 If you would like a signed copy of our book, please go to our web site and see how you can order it from us. If you order from us rather than a store it helps our ministry.
http://www.heartfeltmin.org/resources.html

Is depression a neurodegenerative disease?

Why don't you help people with depression?



Since treatment by medication is the most effective treatment for depression and mental illness (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc) and since not taking  these medications, (antidepressants, anti-psychotics, mood stabilizers)  or stopping them often results in altering the chemistry of the brain, then the question is: Why would you object to a person taking medication?  And another question is:  Why would you not encourage people to get help by taking these medications since they are  not addicting or harmful to the brain but rather beneficial?
Please see below.




Depression is a neuron-degenerative disease . A leading expert in biological psychiatry research says, "So it's not as benign an illness as we used to suppose. It tends to be recurrent, it tends to run down hill; and so one should, in the face of several episodes, consider long-term preventative treatment to avoid all horrible consequences." This suggests that depression, even if it is occasioned by external tragedy, ultimately changes the structure, as well as the biochemistry of the brain. The Noonday Demon, An Atlas of Depression, pp 56,57. See also note 56, 57 end notes p.448.




Don't keep going on and off your medications!
Frequently patients who are on medication and responding to medication  cease to be responsive if they keep cycling on and off the medications. There is an increased 10 percent risk that the depression will become chronic and inescapable.  "It is sort of like  a primary cancer that's very drug-responsive, but once it metastasizes, it doesn't respond at all."
Post explains, "If you have too many episodes, it changes your biochemistry for the bad, possibly permanently.  At that point many therapists are still looking in the wrong directions.  If the episode now occurs on automatic, what good is it to worry about the stressor that kicked off the original process?  It's just too late for that.  That which is mended can never be whole again." Solomon, Andrew. The Noonday Demon, An Atlas of Depression,  See where the author Solomon has carried on detailed conversations with Robert Post, M.D, long time researcher with NIMH and John Greden, Faculty of University of Michigan. notes  56,57, end notes, pp 448, 449.



 Depression damaging the brain
John Greden-- If you have too much stress and too high a level of cortisol for too long, you start destroying the very neurons that should regulate the feed back loop and turn down the cortisol level after stress is resolved.  Ultimately, this results in lesions to the hippo campus and the amygdla, a loss of neuronal networking tissue.  The longer you remain in a depressed state, the more likely you are to have significant lesions, which can lead to peripheral neuropathy; your vision starts to fade and all kinds of other things can go wrong." ( Ibid, p. 60 and end note 60, pp.448,449). See Sapolsky, Robert, Hippocampal damage associated with prolonged glucocorticoid exposure in primates," Journal of Neuroscience, 10,  (1990)

 Dr. John Greden is Executive Director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Depression Center, the Rachel Upjohn Profesor of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences in the Department of Psychiatry, and Research Professor in the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute. He joined the faculty at the Medical School in 1974 and served as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry from 1985 to 2007.

 "This reflects the obvious fact that we need not only to treat depression when it appears, but also to prevent it from recurring.  Our public health approach at the moment is just wrong.  People with recurrent depression must stay on medication permanently, not cycle on and off it, because beyond the unpleasantness of having to survive multiple painful depressive episodes, such people are actually ravaging their own neuronal tissue."John Greden Professor, University of Michigan.

This research is the reason we oppose our Christian brothers who counsel their clients to stop taking their medications. It is looked upon as a weakness to remain on psychotropic drugs and the result is painful mental illness, permanent brain damage and guilt for having to take medications in the first place. At Heartfelt Counseling Ministries we do biblical counseling, link clients to good psychiatric care, support them through their episodes and teach them about their illnesses.



Our book, Broken Minds, (Kregel 2005) chronicles our own story of mental illness, teaches what the bible says and gives the physical aspects of a disease that is crippling Christians who are being erroneously taught that their illnesses are a result of sin. If you want to be validated in your depression or other mental health disorder and spiritually encouraged, I would strongly suggest you order a copy of Broken Minds on our website. We don't blame you for being sick!
http://www.heartfeltmin.org/resources.html
 

If your hated by unbelievers, you are blessed..

From:

 John 15:18

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

(18) If the world hate you.—He has spoken of their close union with Himself, and of their love to each other. He proceeds in the remainder of the chapter to speak of their relation to the world. There is a striking contrast between the “love” in the last verse, and the “hatred” in this. There was the more need for them to be close bound to each other, and to their Lord, on account of the hatred which awaited them in the world.Ye know that it hated me before it hated you.—It is better to take the first word as an imperative, “Know that it hated . . .” The very hatred, then, is a bond of union with their Master, and this thought should supply strength to meet it, and joy even when suffering from it (John 15:11), (Comp. 1Peter 4:12-13), (Ellicott's Commentary).

Jan. 08, 2016 | India

Pray for Christians Targeted by Radical Hindus

An evangelist was killed and another Christian couple hospitalized with life-threatening injuries recently in two separate attacks by radical Hindus. The evangelist, who suffered extensive injuries, died one day after being released from the hospital. He leaves behind a wife and 6-month-old child.  The Christian couple was attacked a few days after his death.





Jan. 15, 2016 | Bangladesh
Pray for Lohit, Attacked for His Faith

Pastor “Lohit” and a group of Christian leaders were attacked and robbed while managing a VOM project that involved building homes for persecuted believers. Attackers entered the home where the men were staying, beat them and stole money, food and household items. Police took the Christians to the hospital for treatment but were unable to make any arrests in the attack. The stolen money had been intended for local persecuted believers. After recovering from the attack, the men returned to the area to continue their work.

Jan. 08, 2016 | Senegal Pray for Christians Threatened by Islamic Militants Christians in Senegal face increasing threats from Islamic militant groups. In the past year, Islamist activities have led to the arrests of three imams and two female Boko Haram members, who were discovered transporting explosives under their veils. As a security measure, the Senegalese government now prohibits Muslim women from wearing veils in public. Muslim leaders have since incited violence against believers, claiming Christians are to blame for the new restrictions. In some villages, Muslims have destroyed Christians’ homes and fields, stolen their property and beaten them. Christians remain strong in their faith despite the threat from militants, and many people have come to Christ in recent months. If you would like to learn more about our book-  http://heartfeltmin.org/resources.html