(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fimages%2Fnem_hdr.jpg&hash=ebbfcce41392d8a81135cbdf6398a873d27a0867)
PLEASE...
SIGN OUR GUEST BOOK (http://guestbooks.christiansunite.com/view.cgi?u=Pat)
(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fgraphics%2Fcross3.gif&hash=86fcd448cb0b0181c501e33266f871959e3011d9)
Morning Devotional...
The Solution To Depression
We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish (Hebrews 12:2, NLT).
Dear friends:
Jim grew up in Kenya, the only son of a missionary family. He came to America for the first time when he entered college at 18 years of age. Although he was fascinated by life in the United States, he was terribly homesick, and longed to return to East Africa's simpler way of life.
A few months before graduation, however, Jim met Carol, a lovely Christian girl who wanted to serve the Lord. The two fell in love and married. Before long they were expecting their first child, and their move to Kenya was postponed. Then little by little, Jim realized that Carol did not really share his dream to return to Africa and carry on his parents' ministry.
She loved him, and dearly loved the Lord Jesus, but living in Africa frightened her.
As years went by, Jim's hopes of returning to Kenya faded. He gradually became distant and depressed. He began to gain weight, and the migraine headaches that had always troubled him grew increasingly severe. For a brief period of time, he became dependent upon a prescription drug.
Fortunately, Jim received good counsel from his pastor, and through prayer and love, was eventually restored to joy and peace in our Lord.
Although Jim's circumstances were unique, his symptoms were not. Christians are not immune to depression. It is not something to feel guilty about. But unless the depression is caused by some chemical imbalance, there is something we can do about it.
Jim's problem came from unfilled personal desires. Depression can be triggered by disappointments in life, or tragic events, such as the loss of a loved one. All these things are understandable.
But if anyone ever had a reason to be depressed, it was our Lord Jesus Christ. "He was despised and rejected -- a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief" (Isaiah 53:3, NLT). He knew that as only a young man at age 33, He was going to be tortured and publicly executed by the most painful method of execution ever devised by man -- the dreaded crucifixion.
If depression ever tries to come upon you, think about our Lord, what He did, and the victory He has given us to overcome the world. Negative attitudes leading to depression can severely handicap us in our witness to others, and God has given us the way to deal with it.
"Every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory. And the ones who win this battle against the world are the ones who believe that Jesus is the Son of God." (1 John 5:4-5, NLT).
Yours for helping to fulfill the Great Commission
each year until our Lord returns,
Bill Bright
Thank you for a good devotional, Janet.
Night, folks. My little grandson is still here. Today he fished with his dad, tomorrow he makes cookies with gramma. :)
Oh, I almost forgot. After the night reading the post from Geri-Jean, and experiencing the profound touch on my heart, I have been getting up in the morning excited to read from my Bible first thing in the morning. It's been awhile since I did that. I've been putting it off till later, playing with the dogs, washing dishes, etc. Now it's the first thing I want to do.
I believe the message of your own condition, Geri Jean, was just for me. :) Something happened as I read it. This I know. Nita
:coffee: Good morning everyone, I hope you all enjoy great fellowship today, and that God finds you being all He's called you to be. Peace, Ritz.
Hi everyone. A beautiful. sunny and crispt Palm Sunday here in Georgia. I am all ready for church and anxiously awaiting time to go as we are singing our Cantata today. It is called "We Were There" and is set around the Christ's dying on the cross and its impact on his mother, Mary, Mary Magdaline, John, and one of the Centurians. It is very powerful and moving.
I don't know whether my daughter is going to be able to attend as she has been sick most of the night.
After fighting with the lack of sound on my laptop computer last night and booting into Safe Mode and then not being able to do what I wanted, I rebooted normally again and the sound was back. It really wasn't anything I did. The sound on that computer is very touchy but I really miss it when it isn't working as can listen to beautiful music with earphones, which I do a lot when there is nothing I want to watch on TV in the evening.
Janet, thanks for the devotional. I am sure those feeling have affected us all in some way, some more forcefully than others.
Good to see everyone posting and hope you all have a wonderful day.
Good Morning, Janet the devotional this morning by Bill bright is so meaningful to me as I used to suffer with depression so much and so deeply, but it all changed when I came to the Lord and cast all my cares on him. Oh it would still come up in small bits now and then but I knew how to get rid of it. That old devil is such a slime ball getting into our thought and depositing those "thought bombs" .
Looking forward to being at church this morning. Not for any particular reason but just to be in the Lords house with Him.
TTYL
Good morning! It looks to be a lovely Palm Sunday here, too, Larry. Nita, glad you are getting to enjoy your grandson. Those grandkids are so special, and grow up SO fast!
We are going to church in Hugoton, as they are singing their cantata today, too. Jeff has a part in it, and both the boys are home, as they DJ'd the HS prom in Liberal last night. So we get to see them again! :) :) Tonight we are going to Dodge City. And after that.......well, I hope we can stay home for a while! :thumbsup:
I need :coffee: and soon we must be leaving for Hugoton. Good morning to you, too, Marilyn!
I am having to "think about what I'm thinking about" even more lately, as the depression tries to get hold of me, concerning Beth's situation. But my getting down and depressed and maybe sick is not the way to help her, so I just keep looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. Praise you, Lord!
April 9
Prayer: Men Who Do Not Pray
Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good
reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint
over this business.
--Acts 6:3
Let us watch that we do not slide imperceptibly to a state where
the women do the praying and the men run the churches. Men who do
not pray have no right to direct church affairs. We believe in the
leadership of men within the spiritual community of the saints,
but that leadership should be won by spiritual worth.
Leadership requires vision, and whence will vision come except
from hours spent in the presence of God in humble and fervent
prayer? All things else being equal, a praying woman will know
the will of God for the church far better than a prayerless man.
We do not here advocate the turning of the churches over to the
women, but we do advocate a recognition of proper spiritual
qualifications for leadership among the men if they are to
continue to decide the direction the churches shall take. The
accident of being a man is not enough. Spiritual manhood alone
qualifies. We Travel an Appointed Way, 16.
"Lord, don't ever let me have leadership that I don't deserve.
Don't ever let me become careless in prayer. Don't ever let me
rely on the women to pray while I lead. Amen."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this recurring mailing because you subscribed to
the daily Tozer devotionals from Literature Ministries International
Beautiful day today with plenty of warm sunshine. I noticed some of the buds swelling on trees so maybe we will get spring after all! :D
Wonderful Palm Sunday service this morning, with the Sunday School children starting everything off with a couple of great songs. Praise and Worship led off after the kids, then the congregation sang "The Palms", which I love. Then later on, the sermon... every so often it seems aimed directly at me and the pastor seems to keep looking right at me as he speaks. :o Guess I really need it, huh?
(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmy.core.com%2F%7Eettasue%2Fanimations%2FRedRose.gif&hash=d686bb1f9e835af3d2f55dc0d96168d31c176c99)
I got the sump pump in the basement and the drain to the outside down an incline. Also the old drain is no more....all cemented over. The plumber is coming back Tuesday evening to extend my drain spouts away from the house but I will be going to Beef and Boards to see Singing in the Rain. I just know that will be a fabulous musical!! Anyway, I already see dry spots in the basement after the floor has been covered since middle February!!
Church was awesome this morning. Both sermons were on Pilate and his decision to allow Christ to be crucified. (^)^(^)(^)^(^)(^)^(^)(^)^(^)(^)^(^)(^)^(^)(^)^(^)(^)^(
(https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmy.core.com%2F%7Eettasue%2Fanimations%2FMgeyt.gif&hash=7660e8d5d682e0273631d055c332e62308d9aabe)
:coffee: Thanks Janet, for the good Word today. We have so many in Japan, and in my own church, who suffer from this terrible thing called depression. Your words were very encouraging.
It is the start of my day off, Monday. There will be NO outdoor picture taking today...90% chance of rain through tonight.
I'll just carry my SONshine around with me... 8)
In His Grip,
kevin
The sun is out again here after coming out of church to a dark sky and rain. I am having a nice hot cuppa tea to warm up. I feel kinda cold this afternoon.
We had a real good message this morning on Ephesians 6:10-17 on standing in the face of all adversity. Pastor Danny was really on fire this morning. Then we had communion a little different in that we all went forward to receive it. This was not the first time for me as that is the only way we did at the church in Lucerne Valley.
My friend Conny gave me 3 bags of clothes and 1 bag of shoes and told me to go through them to see what I wanted and then to pass them on to someone else. 2 pr. of shoes fit and I kept a bunch of long sleeved t-shirts and 1 pr of pants. The rest didn't fit. I think the jeans might fit my DIL. If not I will donate them to the ladies at the Rescue Mission.
TTYL
Well Melaura is home. One report I heard there were over 50,000 people at Ford Field. What a spiritual awakening the kids had. They came home tired but they have jooined the "Battle Cry"!
There has been unfortunate publicity about this gathering. The media said that "Battle Cry" was supposed to be a "religious" event, but in reality it was a "political" event. WHY???? Because the leaders were promoting: no sex before marriage, as Biblical beliefs on abortion and homosexuality. Aparently there were those who picketed the event. The youth had little sleep and lots of screamo music, talks from Miss California, and others. DC Talk was there, along with the band Delirious. Well I sure dm not getting bored listening to the chatter!
We also had the Palm Sunday Message. Pastor Al could you give me the Hebrew translation for the word Hosanah? We were told today that it means Save us or Help. It was a good message.
Janet that is a good devotional. If our eyes are on the Lord it is hard to become depressed.
I am praying for you all tomight.
Love JudyB
Judy - hosanna = "save now!" literally. It could be seen as a plea that God would send Messiah or that He would save the people from some particular event, or it could be seen as a New Testament joyful shout, a request of God to bless Messiah's mission.
Interesting post, Janet. I think most people experience depression at some point in life....seems to come and go like a black cloud. Like most black clouds, it disappears when the storms get better. Right now, my personal storms are still not over.
Today is SIL's birthday. They invited me to go out for dinner, but I am trying to get over something or other that is making me ill. Spent most of yest. in bed, so will wait for his next birthday.....You know what they say about a virus:
"Virus is a Latin word
That doctors won't define
Because they know the meaning is
"Your guess is as good as mine."
We surely are living in interesting times. Now yet another 'new' gospel that is creating more problems in Christian circles. One theory is that it (Gospel of Judas) was written by gnostics. Personally, I don't care who wrote it....we do quite nicely without! Then we have some scientists saying that Jesus didn't walk on water...it was actually ice...the water was frozen. Ah, the wonders of our great intellectual minds.... :(
Nice that you have all those clothes to choose from, Marilyn. I love getting something different to wear. Not everyone is this lucky tho'......
POORLY DRESSED
I have a friend who is not well dressed.
He wears no hat. He wears no vest.
Upon his back, he wears no shirt,
So you can see there's lots of dirt.
He wears no shoes upon his feet,
He wears no pants upon his seat.
In fact, he doesn't wear a stitch,
So he can scratch if there's an itch.
I hope that you don't find him rude-
My dog is happy in the nude.
:) :) :) ;)
My small smile for the day.
God Bless.
Liz
Good one Liz I copied it and sent it to some friends.
It's that time again. But you can go right on here: HERE (http://www.christianphotographers.com/community/index.php?topic=5302.0)