Bob Burridge of Genevan Institute for Reformed Studies: Wrong Desires

Bob Burridge of Genevan Institute for Reformed Studies has a good message posted called 'Wrong Desires' that is very helpful. Even though I'm not a Calvinist, I enjoy many things that Calvinists write. Bob Burridge lives in Florida, and was my science and Bible teacher in middle school. I didn't agree with him on everything, since my dad had already studied old earth theories and Calvinism and rejected both, but I greatly respected him and learned alot from him.

Update on my dad

My dad is much better after a week of antibiotics. His symptoms are almost gone now, and he seems to be feeling almost normal again. He has one more week of antibiotics to take, which will hopefully eradicate anything that's left in his system. Thank you again to all who prayed for him.

Prayer request for my dad

Please pray for my dad, Arch Nelson. My mom just called and told me she's taking my dad to the emergency room, and my brother and sister, who both live nearby, are going with her. My dad has a 102.7 fever, a rash on his chest and arms, and a sharp pain in his neck that comes and goes. He hasn't been feeling well for a few days, and my mom said he had gotten bit by a tick last week while they were on vacation in Florida. Please pray for my dad and my family, that the doctors would find out quickly what is wrong, and for healing and peace. My dad is a believer, and he's 76 years old. UPDATE: My dad is doing okay though still not feeling well. He's at home, and the doctors have given him an antibiotic for tick related diseases. They believe it is a mild form of Lyme disease which should be cured by the medication. Thanks to all who are praying for him.

Our War with Sin: Pastor Bob Burridge

Pastor Bob Burridge of Genevan Institute for Reformed Studies has a new post up called 'Our War with Sin'. Very helpful for some struggles I'm going through right now.

180 Movie Changes Opinions From Pro-Abortion to Pro-Life

Here's a documentary by Ray Comfort designed to get people to think about the sanctity of human life, what they really believe about it, and especially what God says about it.

Two Psalms

Psalm 13
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God;
Enlighten my eyes,
Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
4 Lest my enemy say,
“I have prevailed against him”;
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

5 But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 146
The Happiness of Those Whose Help Is the LORD
1 Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD, O my soul!
2 While I live I will praise the LORD;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
4 His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day his plans perish.

5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
Whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6 Who made heaven and earth,
The sea, and all that is in them;
Who keeps truth forever,
7 Who executes justice for the oppressed,
Who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD gives freedom to the prisoners.

8 The LORD opens the eyes of the blind;
The LORD raises those who are bowed down;
The LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and widow;
But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.

10 The LORD shall reign forever—
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the LORD!

Psalm 141

A Psalm of David.
1 LORD, I cry out to You;
Make haste to me!
Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You.
2 Let my prayer be set before You as incense,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips.
4 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,
To practice wicked works
With men who work iniquity;
And do not let me eat of their delicacies.

5 Let the righteous strike me;
It shall be a kindness.
And let him rebuke me;
It shall be as excellent oil;
Let my head not refuse it.

For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.
6 Their judges are overthrown by the sides of the cliff,
And they hear my words, for they are sweet.
7 Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave,
As when one plows and breaks up the earth.

8 But my eyes are upon You, O GOD the Lord;
In You I take refuge;
Do not leave my soul destitute.
9 Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,
And from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
While I escape safely.

'Whatever You're Doing' Music Video

Yesterday I was in my van alone, driving home from taking my 2 older girls to our homeschool co-op, and I heard this song for the first time. In my counseling sessions, one of the things I've been working on is a book on dealing with bitterness, by Lou Priolo. It is very helpful, but I've been struggling with it because seeing it in myself is so overwhelming. I was driving and crying and praying about all the things I see wrong and how I can't do it on my own, to let go of the bitterness and forgive. I had come to the point where I knew in my head that if I just stepped out in obedience, God would take it the rest of the way by His grace; but it still seemed so hard, like I would have to constantly have to be asking forgiveness for falling back into the bad patterns again. I don't know if this is making sense, but this song came on and it was exactly what I needed to hear; like God was answering me directly, and telling me He was going to help me each step of the way, as I obey Him in faith. He was saying that He's going to finish what He started in me, and in my family, because He loves us, and we're part of His plan to show His love to the world, too. I'm on my way to where God wants me to be. I'm seeing that following God's scriptural principles can bring healing very quickly. It is painful, but effective.

Counseling: First lessons and realizations

I've been going to Biblical counseling sessions for a few weeks now, and I'd like to begin to share some about the counseling and my thoughts about it. Here, I want to write first about the first Bible passages and lessons that the counselor shared with me.

The very first thing the counselor, Fran, shared with me is that in order to get started in the right direction I need to make it my aim to please God rather than myself, because we are created for God's glory, to worship and obey Him. The Scripture passage is 2 Corinthians 5:9-10: Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

This lesson, and the others I'll mention, I really already knew, but needed to be reminded and refocused on what is right. I needed to repent, or turn back into the right way, away from the sinful behaviors and thought patterns I had fallen into, including depression and bitterness, which I'd like to talk more about in later posts.

I needed this first reminder because with depression I had been focusing for a long time on my own feelings and trying to comfort myself with escapism of various kinds; one of which is this blog. Blogging isn't a bad thing, but I had been spending way too much time on it and neglecting other things.

The second lesson Fran gave was that I, as a believer, "can do all things through Christ who strengthens me", from Philippians 4:13. This is a hopeful passage for someone who tends to think I'll never be able to change. I've been stuck in some bad patterns of behavior and thought that I needed to realize were sinful or harmful and begin to obey Christ and live by His grace. He will help me if I step out in faith and obedience. I've already seen this happening. He's given me hope and strength to keep trying, and patience to keep working with my children who have suffered from my problems and are showing symptoms of the same problems.

The third lesson was like the second; that there is hope for me. The Scripture passage was 1 Corinthians 10:13: No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. This gives hope because I know that I am not the only one who has gone through hard things and suffered temptations, and that God is with me and will help me to escape temptation if I look to Him for help.

With all these lessons, I quickly began to realize that I had allowed myself to become really slack in many areas of my life, mainly because I was depressed and trying to escape from the hard realities that I didn't want to face. The more you fall into depression, the more you try to escape, and then depression grows as you realize things are not going well. It becomes a vicious cycle, spiraling downward more and more, if you don't break out of it. It can be done with God's help.

A fourth lesson I just remembered is that godliness is something that requires practice. I need to 'put off' or turn from unprofitable thoughts and actions and pursue,'put on' or exercise godly behaviors and thoughts. 1 Timothy 4:7-8 is one passage that teaches this: But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. In other words, godliness requires practice, in obedience to God's instructions and commands. It doesn't just happen by itself. If we drift along in life we won't make progress in godliness.

I'll be sharing more, hopefully, about what I'm learning and my progress. This is only the beginning; but it's a good beginning: a solid foundation on Scripture.

God equates Scripture with Himself

We were studying Galatians 3 on Sunday, and as our pastor read through it, I noticed for the first time that in verse 8 the word Scripture is used basically as a synonym for God. Here is the passage:

Galatians 3:5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

It says the Scripture 'forsees' and the Scripture 'preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand'. The Scripture, as in written scripture, was not written yet, but God Himself spoke to Abraham and gave the promise that through him all the nations would be blessed. In this passage the Holy Spirit teaches that God's word is synonymous with Himself. In Psalm 138:2 it says: I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name. Apparently God considers scripture to be an extension of Himself.

Nicole C. Mullen - Call on Jesus (with Lyrics)

Love this song! Like the words say, sometimes I've been 'hiding away from the madness around me, like a child who's afraid of the dark' and I need to always remember to call on Jesus, because those who wait on Him in trust will renew their strength, and mount up on wings like eagles.

Seeking Counsel

I'm finally getting around to writing about seeking counseling for depression and anger, after talking about it in the com box for a while. Regular commenters know that I have sought Biblical counseling because I realized gradually that I have been giving in to depression and anger for a long time. I'll talk later about the nature of the counseling. For now I just want to give some background.

I began to realize that I needed to do this because, first, I saw that my anger was getting out of hand in my home, with my husband and children. I didn't understand at first why it was getting worse, though it had been a problem for a while. It pretty much started with reacting to my husband's anger that showed itself in lots of outbursts of rage early in our marriage, verbal rather than physical; yet he had improved much because he had realized after a few years that he had a problem, which was caused by circumstances in his childhood, and which was passed down from earlier generations. With God's help, Eddie gradually and drastically reduced the outbursts.

Yet, I had never dealt with the effects of his anger, so it was coming out in me in the form of constant irritation and impatience and my own increasing outbursts of anger. I didn't really understand why this was happening. Another factor was lifelong depression, which I actually thought was not a problem anymore. I didn't 'feel' depressed most of the time; didn't have the 'black pit' feeling in my middle and the sinking feeling that depression gave me as a teen and young adult.

The low-level depression was probably also a factor in the constant irritability. A few months ago I read that irritability is a symptom of depression in some people, and this added to my understanding that I had issues that needed counseling. Another thing I read told me that women at my age can have pre-menopausal hormone fluctuations that can make us likely to have outbursts of anger that then lead to guilt and depression as well. It's like a vicious cycle where one thing feeds the other and you can spiral into deeper anger and depression.

All this so far I figured out on my own as I went along. The rest of what I need to talk about will deal with the counseling method and with my progress and thoughts, which I will write about soon. If anyone has any insights or personal testimonies to share, please feel free to do that.

The oak forest as a picture of the body of Christ

I read the following in a Reader's Digest article while waiting for Lucy to have her fiddle lesson yesterday. It was in the June/July 2011 issue in an article titled 'The Wisdom of the Oak' by Yelizaveta Renfro. She got the information about oak trees from a book by William Bryant Logan called 'Oak: The Frame of Civilization'. Here is the quote from her article:


"In some forests, Logan writes, oak trees of compatible species graft their roots together and "become one flesh". Through their shared root system, the stronger dominant trees may provide the weaker trees with nutrients. In this way, even the roots of stumps can continue to live and contribute to the forest."

When I read that I can't tell you how thrilled I was, immediately seeing it as a picture of the Body of Christ. If a body of believers is together reaching their roots deep into the soil of Christ's word, their root systems will be grafted together so that each can draw from the soil and from the others so that they are 'one flesh'. That's true communion, being one with Christ and with one another. The weak ones will be just as nourished as the strong ones as they share together.

Called to Communion: Imputation and Infusion

There's an interesting article and discussion over at Called to Communion, about imputed righteousness vs. infused righteousness. I'm not following all the really technical comments, but some aren't too hard to follow.

UPDATE: My husband did a study on righteousness last year, which includes some discussion about believers being given Christ's righteousness. I linked it in one of the comments in the above discussion on CTC.

I Will Lift My Eyes - Bebo Norman

Healing

Jeremiah 17: 14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For You are my praise.

Isaiah 58:
6 “ Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 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.
9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’


“ If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
12 Those from among you
Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

Malachi 4:2 But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings.

My Lesson for the Day

I'm so weak that everything I've ever had to do has seemed too much for me; but I still haven't learned to quickly ask for help from God and others. Lessons are always painful.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16

Encouraged Together: Bob Burridge

Bob Burridge of Genevan Institute for Reformed Studies has a good post up about living in community with one another.

Wes King: New Songs

I love these new songs from Wes King. The Wes King link leads first to a tribute to Wes's mom, who recently passed away. It's beautiful.
My favorite of all the songs is 'The Robe'. It's very lovely.

Doing Good: by Christopher Momany

I'm reading this book on my Kindle right now: Doing Good by Christopher Momany. This is the first line of the description: "Christianity in its purest form involves putting God’s love into action. Wesleyans have traditionally understood this embodiment and expression of God’s love as holiness."
I'm not Wesleyan, I'm Baptist, but the subject is of interest to all persuasions of Christians: the Christian understanding of Love and Holiness is the main theme of the book. I like the author's perspective so far.
The book is free on Kindle right now, which is how I found out about it. I get notices from a Kindle Review website for free book offers.
I'll post any ideas I think are interesting for discussion.