Sweet Holy Spirit, Sweet heavenly Dove, Stay right here with us, Filling us with your love. What’s up when you go numb? Is it an enforced numb or “I don’t care anymore.” “Dazed and confused? — or “I’m outta here!!” Believe it or not, “I don’t care anymore” might be better and “I’m outta here” at least moves us. Numbing is a passive state overcome by the volition, we drag our uncooperative side with us till it indeed cooperates again in activity. Paul notes that confidence comes from a determination to continue speaking truth, even if discouraged — Hebrews 10:35. Elijah got a heavenly visit in his numb state after running from the evil Queen. “And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights…” 1 Kings 19. God sent him on a new assignment. With a new outlook, He got up!…
Category: <span>God’s Psychology</span>
“When we express ourselves, our bodies release a higher level of reward hormones, and we feel great. The more we talk, the better we feel.” “Our bodies start to crave that high, and we become blind to the conversational dynamics. While we’re being rewarded, the people we’re talking to might feel cut off, invisible, unimportant, minimized, or rejected…” psychologytoday blind-spots “The above exemplifies the eyeless example. The writer continues: “Stop assuming that others see what you see, feel what you feel, and think what you think (that is rarely the case). Your blind spots cause you to fail to recognize that emotions, such as fear and distrust, change how you and others interpret and talk about reality.” Pretty clear? The author offers a remedy: Don’t underestimate your propensity to have conversational blind spots. Start paying attention to and minimizing the time you “own” the conversational space. Share that space by asking open-ended discovery questions to…
God’s psychology equals a bloody cross. On that cross died the man, Sin — a brazen serpent, a sick head, faint heart, wounds, bruises and putrefying sores. On that cross died an old man, an old sin nature, a wounded Adamic life. On that cross died a fight to stay alive, a desperately wicked heart, a deceivable bent. On that cross died a self-witness of sinful identity, less than perfect psyche, unbalanced soul. Jeremiah_15:18 tells us, “… my wound is incurable, which refuses to be healed.” Psychology may tell us, “Time heals all wounds.” Some psychologists don’t. Psychology may tell us, born innocent, you were wounded as a child. The devil may tell us, “Something has been taken from me that I cannot live without.” The devil may tell us, “There is no way out of my experience.” The Bible tells us our former existence is blotted from God’s memory.…
I was cussed out by a small truck driver for going too slow. Sorry! I tried to make a purchase on the internet, but could not figure out how. Sorry! I tried to help a grieving person, but they recited the “seven stages of grief” before I could offer any Biblical help. Sorry! I’m sorry for being old, for loving God, for wanting some peace and quiet. I’m falling behind and the world blows by. Has-been, oldster, foggie, I get my senior coffee at MiceeDees, $ 0.85 per. I’m on blood-pressure medication and one of the “Statins.” Can’t lose any weight! My mirror broke last time I looked in, I gotta remember to put my teeth in next time. But, I have something, a treasure. I already did all my running, I already paid my dues. I’ve paid my debt to society (give or take), and have made my peace…
I’m sad, let me count the ways;: Lets forget that I’m a Christian man and let’s talk about the fellowship of mankind. A human being from birth, ha ha, I knew nothing of anything but the fellowship of mankind for 25 years (pre-Christian). I learned people youngly, from my own observations. Gaining a relationship with a person depended totally on the other person; I was not a “people” person. I had no self-image. What did I learn? — Superficial, superficial, superficial stuff. Hopeless, I became one drunk drugger. So what? — Self destructive. Conditions seem worse than ever today. Seems, folks think defaming a person’s character wins friends. Slander has become “in vogue” per today’s world. Newscasters do it all the time, news media has developed a clever deceit. Lack of people-skills abounds on social media, Twitter, and high-powered bitter anger fuels the charge. It seems that this mojo flies without…
Grief stricken, a person isolated their psychological pain. Strong willed? Strong minded? The current generation harnesses many soul powers like “isolation”. Coping mechanisms or defense mechanisms can hold back the flood tides sometimes. Where do these come from? “A well-known categorization of defense mechanisms by George Vaillant in 1994 differentiated between immature defense mechanisms, such as projection (blaming others) and denial, and mature defenses, like humor and sublimation (turning your unconscious motives into productive activity).” Sounds like we have grown more sophisticated? Not just yet. Here are some other “modern” mechanisms: Isolation — keeps yourself clueless about your flaws and missteps. Self-Compensation — your attempt to find an external outlet to feel better. Dissipation — you turn all of your anxieties onto some idealized version of yourself. Interesting, however, “The criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of a defense mechanism, in the Nanjing authors’ model, include whether it (a) distorts the individual’s self-representation (self-image), or (b) causes poorer relations with others.”…
Michael Dorstewitz wrote an interesting editorial at newsmax.com Here is an excerpt: “‘Columnist Elizabeth Bruenig suggested Tuesday in The Washington Post that, “It’s time to give socialism a try. Not to be confused for a totalitarian nostalgist, I would support a kind of socialism that would be democratic and aimed primarily at decommodifying labor, reducing the vast inequality brought about by capitalism, and breaking capital’s stranglehold over politics and culture,’ she wrote.’ Her piece appears to be based on the fundamental misconception that people in a capitalist society struggle to obtain their own individual piece of the economic pie. While there may be but one ‘economic pie’ in a socialist society, in capitalism, each person is given the freedom to create his own pie.” Michael Dorstewitz O my Lord! What a metaphor for the Christian Life! Do you realize that you have been given a “pie” and this pie can be…
“While imprisoned in a tiny prison cell for his attempts to reform the Church, sixteenth-century Spanish mystic John of the Cross composed many of his now classic poems of the soul’s longing for God. This poem is, “Dark Night of the Soul.” On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearnings—oh, happy chance! — I went forth without being observed, My house being now at rest. In darkness and secure, By the secret ladder, disguised—oh, happy chance! — In darkness and in concealment, My house being now at rest. In the happy night, In secret, when none saw me, Nor I beheld aught, Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart. This light guided me More surely than the light of noonday To the place where He (well I knew who!) was awaiting me— A place where none appeared. Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more…
“The world? “The world is not interested in us. Today everything is possible, even the crematoria…” His voice broke. Father, I said, “If that is true I don’t want to wait. I’ll run into the electrified barbed wire. That would be easier than a slow death in the flames.” “…everyone around us was weeping. Someone began to recite Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I don’t know whether, during the history of the Jewish people, men have ever before recited Kaddish for themselves.” “…May His name be celebrated and sanctified…whispered my father.” “For the first time I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible master of the universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?” One who suffered deeply was Elie Wiesel, so written in his book, “Night.” Men facing the harshest of the harsh bend…
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? — shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39 Friends, we all, as sheep have gone astray, all to our own way, but God has laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. As humans we go astray like sheep go astray, we drift, we wander, we fall…