Blog
You Can Help: Lady Desperately Needs Treatment
We have desperate need for a lady to receive treatment: She is a 37 year old female friend who has been coming to support groups at my house for about a year. I have met with her off and on to discuss her emotional wounds and difficulties in living. She was working as a CNA the past year, and due to an injury is currently unemployed. She is a bright lady who has been severely abused. The following comprises her story: Her stepfather is a Caucasian man who brought her and her mother from another country, and married her mother when she was about 4. The couple had a son together. When she was about 9 her stepfather proceeded to force her to have sex with him and function much as his wife. He threatened to have her family deported to Mexico, if she would not comply with his sexual wishes. She “chose” to comply at age nine. The relationship continued until she was in her late teens. On an occasion, her stepfather acknowledged to her, as she queried him, that he was still having sex with...[more]
The riches of Christ and the poverty of our condition
I greatly prize affirmations of God's grace and witness in my life. I think I have a lot in common with the rich young ruler who sought Jesus' approval. Notwithstanding, God is very tender and patient with me. I have been overwhelmed by God's grace. The other day, as is my practice, I formally prayed for a greater understanding of God's love and desires for our lives as I started to counsel with a troubled Christian. As I was applying principles from the scriptures to the problems presented, I openly acknowledged that I had not ever before as clearly understood the principles I was teaching. I was not simply sharing from the storehouse of things I had learned. I was dynamically receiving and sharing as I received. God was and is present with us. This is what happens when sharing Christ with others. Our understanding is enlightened, even as we allow ourselves to be vessels of grace to those who present themselves to us. I have as much need as my hearers to accept and receive the...[more]
Sucking It Up! Or, letting go and letting God...
I am a convert to Christianity. My mother was an atheist until someone explained you have to know everything there is in order to know what there isn't. In other words, you have to be God to say there is no God. So she converted to my father's brand of agnosticism, with the notion of leaving the things of God to God and the things of people to people. Nonetheless, atheist Freud's observation that humans tend seek only pleasure without pain, which he noted was against the course of the universe, seems true. Freud (cf. Civilization and It's Discontents) further noted that love is a major thing that does not conform to this pleasure principle: when you love someone you expose yourself to great pain, along with great pleasure. Where I am going with this is that we are all sick. And, as we all know, love is the answer. However, religious practice often tends to help solidify our sickness, not mend it. I thought about Ananias and Sapphira this last week (see Acts 4:32 to 5:11). Barnabus,...[more]
Forgiveness & Boundaries
From the time I was 7 years old, I was taking sides with my father against my mother. I purposed to take care of my father and protect him, especially from my mother, when I was 7. My father was abusive. My mother complained about his abuse towards her and me. I didn't like my mother for doing this. I argued against what she said. My mother was right. I was also right. A major problem I have had for much of my life is trying to see who is right, and then I will know who is wrong. The truth is that almost always both parties to an argument have some right and some wrong. Satan himself used true sayings to tempt Jesus to engage in selfishness and do things for Himself that we could never do for ourselves. This right and wrong issue also becomes confused in regards to forgiveness. Most people think that someone has to be right and the other person wrong, so an apology can be made, in order to establish forgiveness. This is not true. Most of the people I counsel think they have to feel...[more]
A Desperate Need for Confession
I have been growing in my recognition of how important it is to confess to God, to our family and to others the nature of our wrongs. We don't need to give details that might wound others. We don't need to describe stories that make our sins attractive, or make our journey from darkness to light a matter of euphoria; such that others might like to emulate our path of sin. We do need to confess our faults. Scripture admonishes us to do this. What happens when we don't is becoming clearer and clearer to me. I met with a Christian family recently. The adult daughter is a health-care professional, as are her parents. She grew up consistently feeling inadequate and not good enough. This grew to a continual state of anxiety. At our meeting, both her parents confessed to feeling inadequate throughout their lives as they compared themselves to others. They never before told their daughter they felt such feelings or how they came by them. The daughter's lifetime pattern of anxiety was not...[more]
A Community of Confession within the Fellowship of the Forgiven
Psychologists and pastors have inadvertently carved out social territory that primarily belongs to the family and the church. Both church and family have a socialized emotional response that keeps them from openly talking about their emotional feelings. Pastors and counselors are a poor substitute for family and church, but thank God for pastors and counselors with whom we can discuss (confess and repent regarding) our conflicts. Unfortunately, most people just keep things to themselves and don't even discuss them with God. After all, God's children should be seen and not heard. After all, He knows everything and nothing seems to be quite right, so perhaps silence is golden? It is time for the church to be reclaimed as a community of confession within a fellowship of forgiveness. Jesus stands at the door of our hearts and begs entrance. There is no lack of forgiveness on God's part. There is no restraint He has put on the water of Life. There is no limit to what faith can...[more]
Faith versus Feelings
While speaking at the local prison, the brethren in attendance, along with the inmates, were on the edge of their seats. I shared that 'the belief that our feelings have to change in order for our behavior to change' is at the core of how the horn (nation/kingdom) motivated by Satanic agencies moved to take away the perpetual or daily sacrifice (tamiyd) and to overthrow the foundation of the sanctuary (Daniel 8:11-13). It has been culturally transmitted through a viral misconstruction of faith (a culture virus), that has become ubiquitous in all societies. The daily or perpetual sacrifice is called in Hebrew 'tamiyd.' It was offered on an ever-burning fire, representing God's continual presence. It was a reminder of our continual sin nature (hereditary and learned or environmentally conditioned) and the goal to live by faith without living according to our nature, to thus reflect only God's loving presence. Whatever serves to take away our constant awareness and confession of our...[more]