God and a Personality Disorder

May is National Mental Illness Awareness Month; and my friends, I am going to tell you all that I have a mental illness. I have a personality disorder and because I have a personality disorder I am often told that I can't be a Christian; that I must be under some sort of demonic oppression. So my question tonight is, does God use mental illness to help others? 

According to a stranger tonight I was told "Rachel, you are demonically possessed if you have a mental illness or a personality disorder." Let me just tell you this, I have been a Christian since age 9, when I asked Jesus to come live in my heart and to change my life. I told them my testimony about how I believed in Jesus, all the wonderful things that have happened in my life since I accepted Him, and all they could focus on was "I must be in bondage because of a sin I committed and now because of that I am under a curse." 

John 9: 1-3 tells the beginning of a story where Jesus heals a blind man. 

As Jesus was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened that the works of God would be displayed in him. 

Guess what friends? Yes, Jesus is in the healing business, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't allow suffering! Ever think that maybe I am not healed because 1) my time hasn't come and 2) God is going to work out a TESTIMONY like no one has ever seen before? The "minister" that was with the person told me "Let me just lay hands on you and pray that demon leaves you! There is NO WAY that God will use you in this condition!" 

Seriously? How do you think that would make a person feel if they thought that God couldn't use them? I mean we are all flawed, we are all broken, but somehow God molds us exactly into the vessel He will use. My friends do not be discouraged when God allows suffering, do not let others discourage you! Do not allow people to treat you badly...God loves you more than you will ever know.

Proverbs 28:26 "He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe." I don't know about you all, but the truth is such...I'd rather trust in God for any healing I may get; but right now, I know that God is building my story up.

Luke 6:17-19 tells the story of how many people were receiving healing, whether from sickness or demonic spirit. Then in verse 19 it says "and the people ALL tried to touch Him, because power was coming from Him and healing them all." Some of these people didn't want a testimony, they wanted a quick fix; they wanted a healing so they could get back to work or so they could brag about their healing. It wasn't for the right reasons. This is why I wouldn't allow that "minister" to pray for me; I want my healing to be from God and for the right reasons, not because "man says I need to be healed." 

Jesus tells me in Luke to 22Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap; they have no storehouse or barn, yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than the birds! 25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his lifespan?b 26So if you cannot do such a small thing, why do you worry about the rest?

I can't fix my life, and I can't fix my personality disorder. I can, however, encourage people to seek God. And that my friends is what I shall do!

Verses from NIV Bible Translation

Kregel Publications: The Spirituality of Paul by Leslie Hardin

Every Sunday it is easy to be a Christian. We arrive at a building and we join with other Christians and we worship God. However, Leslie Hardin reminds us that our faith isn’t just a Sunday experience. In his book, The Spirituality of Paul, Hardin is showing us that we not only partner with the Holy Spirit on Sunday, but rather we must as effective Christians not only to minister to others, but even to ourselves, we must partner with God daily.

Hardin takes you through the practices of Paul and they include: Imitation of Jesus, being devoted to Scripture, prayer, discipleship, Proclamation of the Gospel, corporate worship, being holy, using our spiritual gifts, building each other up, and the fact that all Christians do suffer.

My favorite chapter was devotion to scripture. I find a lot of people who preach the other topics; but rarely do I hear ministers speak on being devoted to scripture. However, equally, the other chapters are very enlightening.

Finally Hardin wraps the entire book up with a chapter called The Shape of Pauline Spirituality. Today much of what Paul wrote has become the cornerstone of Christianity—and we often forget that Paul was merely a human.

"Paul had a reputation in the first century as someone who had a weighty and forceful media persona, but who was soft and unimpressive in reality…. Yet here was a man who, when he patterned his life after that of Christ Jesus, with the help of the Holy Spirit, turned the world on it head for the glory of Jesus. This gives hope to us who read him, who take him seriously, and who want to be spiritual like Paul was."

I received this book free from the publisher to review. It did not have to be a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255.

YOU ARE...what you think you are!

Yesterday I got a text from a former student who I have been trying to help get a career started. The job is to join the team at Lowe's and to have some money for college and also eventually move out of her parent's home. 
The text read..."Ms. Rachel, you said the job is mostly computers, well I am not good at technology." Okay, so how do you expect to get a job? 99.9% of jobs today require a level of computer technology; and even if the "Machine does the work for you..." you still have to know how to run the computers that run the machine. 
This morning, I explained to the student..."The Buddha teaches "The mind is everything...what you think about yourself you are!" This teaching is also taught to us by King Solomon in the Proverbs of the Bible Proverbs 23:7a "For as he thinketh in his soul, so is he." Every culture around the world has had this teaching...so let me encourage you! You are more than what you think you are. You are a child of the Living God, who loves you more than you will ever know. You are not stupid, you are not a loser, you are not a mistake...you are greater than you think about yourself, you don't know your own potential, you are God's creation, you are perfect the way He made you! 

KREGEL BOOK REVIEW: INTERPRETING APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE

With Apocalyptic Literature of the Bible being fulfilled daily in front of us; it is no surprise that prophecy has moved from the back of the Bible and Biblical Teaching to the forefront of our churches and research. Richard A. Taylor’s book “Interpreting Apocalyptic Literature” is a great jumping off point for both trained ministers and lay speakers alike. As a theologian, I have spent many hours poring over the prophets of the Old Testament as well as Daniel. When I was offered the chance to review this book, I knew I had to do so!

There are several pros to this book; I will review them here:
1) Ease of reading: While this is a text book, it is an easy read. One that both undergraduate and graduate students can easily use in their classes. It is also user friendly, maybe you didn’t go to Bible college, that doesn’t matter, this book is not so over the top that the lay speaker whose primary interest is Biblical Prophecy can’t read or understand it.

2) Worldview: The book contains a Biblical World view. While it covers extra biblical texts (which I think is needed for full Biblical study of the Apocalyptic Scriptures) it maintains a balanced Christian world view into prophecy.

3) It covers major apocalyptic themes. This is not just the themes of the book of Revelation. Rather it is all themes of apocalyptic theology.

4) Hebrew and Lexicon Resources. Want to know what various words mean? Look no further than the text in the book, Taylor gives you information that you can use.

Finally what I love about this book is that it helps bridge modern interpretation to ancient texts.

I don’t have a list of cons to this book, maybe because I did enjoy it a lot as I was using this book also during a study I was doing on apocalyptic scripture; but I certainly do recommend this book to both seasoned ministers, and lay speakers.

**The book was provided by the publisher for an unbiased review. The reviewer received no monetary compensation from the publisher for this review.**

Separation between Church and State or is it man and God?

One week ago tomorrow, Donald Trump became our president. On Saturday women took to the streets to protest the President. Granted they had the audacity to state they were protesting for reproductive rights as well as LGBT rights and I know some sincere women were. However, they were truly protesting the president and the new legislation they would have to live with should he decide to sign them. The "worst" among the new legislation is "Abortion." 

On Sunday, one of my friends posted this picture; a man with a sign stating we should build a wall between the state and church. My friends, I have to tell you, if you know anything about the religious history of the US; that wall has already been drawn. Unfortunately "Separation between Church and State" has different meaning to people than those who have actually studied it in it's original meaning with the founding of the nation. 

To those from the secular humanist persuasion, it means that the state can make no public acknowledgment of religion, have no religious displays, recognize no tax exemptions for churches, and goes so far as to regulate even religious expressions of private individuals in the public arena out of line.there are those who believe the matter is simply that the government should not establish an official state church, or that a church should not be anointing officials in the government. (1)

I tend to believe that the "official state church" is the meaning behind the Separation comments. As did founders of our nation. Did they declare independence because they wanted to setup a secular church? Or was it because they were more concerned when tyranny? We'd be foolish to believe that our founding father's were concerned with theology than they were with matters of tyranny. 

The Boston Tea Party was about taxes (and thus enshrined in American tradition the fine art of complaining about taxes), not about Baptists throwing Presbyterians' Bibles into the Atlantic. The Declaration itself made liberal use of religion in general, as did the founders in their public statements. Even in Jefferson's "Wall" letter, he expresses religious sentiment and asks for prayers. It's obviously clear; it isn't religious expression they are worried about. The choice of phrase is important, "separation of church and state." Jefferson doesn't say separation of religion and state. He is talking about institutional separation. Ireland's official church is the Roman Catholic Church, as is Poland's. In England, it's the Church of England. These aren't religions in general but specific religious institutions. No nation has "Christianity" as the official state religion for a very good reason.(1)

So let's look at it this way; man is governed by his beliefs. Truly we are; however, In the 1700's laws were set up to keep men from serving in their state governments or even in the government of the nation. Yet we moved away from that over the years, now anyone can serve in their state government or even in the government at the Federal level. We see this every day. We don't need to build a wall between the church and state--that line, that wall has been built and it's seen in the fabric of the country. 

What we really should be worried about is the wall that man has built between his heart and God. When a man (or woman) can kill a life that they most likely chose to start with a man then they have truly turned their hearts against God. To me that is far worse than trying to separate the church from the government. Less than 1% of abortions in this country are performed to save the life of the mother. Abortion on demand, has become the "out" for people who don't want to face the consequences of their actions. Even a leading group opposing abortion, the National Right to Life Committee, issued a statement saying that its position is "to allow abortion if necessary to prevent the death of the mother."(2) 

Friends; I don't expect anyone to agree with this; however, I can't stand by and continue to listen to women flip out over Roe v Wade being repealed. I personally think abortion should be abolished--but equally I think we should find ways to help keep Cancer patients alive and feeling as best we can; we should lower drug costs so that the elderly (and anyone really) can afford their medication. Being Pro-Life means that I am willing to help new mothers and give them the resources to raise a child--and I am not talking about welfare; help young women get jobs, bring them to doctors appointments , crochet a baby blanket--actually take care of the orphans. 
Break down the walls that have been built between God and man! Stop building walls, start having compassion, stop marching over senseless issues and start marching back to the church--stop falling in love with idols and fall in love with the one God that is madly and wildly in love with you! 






1-  http://www.libertymagazine.org/article/what-does-separation-of-church-and-state-really-mean

2- http://www.usatoday.com/story/newswith God. /nation/2012/10/19/abortion-mother-life-walsh/1644839/

Life in the Family of God: Living the One Another Scriptures Part 1

We as Christians often times treat others better than we treat our fellow Christians; and sometimes we treat Christians better than we treat unbelievers. However, the one thing that I think we do is apply the “one another” scriptures to the outside world and we often times forget that they are also directed, if not more so towards life within the family of God.

Tonight as I was reading over my scriptures, I got to thinking about what it meant to be a part of God’s family. Certainly the body states that there are many parts to the body and we have different jobs; recently I had a young woman tell me, I don’t like Messianic Jewish people because they separate themselves from Christians. The truth is they do not separate themselves from Christians, if anything Gentile Christians separate themselves from the Messianic Jews or Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah.

This brings me to my first point, Mark 9:50 states “Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” But what does this mean to the family of God?

I don’t know about you, but I love salt! Salt makes food taste wonderful, however, how does food taste with there isn’t salt? Pretty bland correct? And too often it’s hard to re-salt something once it’s cooked. Then there are times when things are too salty. You can’t eat it no matter how much water you have on the table. When we say a person is salty it means they are disagreeable. Then Mark goes on to tell us to “be at peace with one another.” What do you think that really means? I believe that perhaps it means that we as Christians should be happy with one another; we don’t have to disagree all the time and start mini wars with each other. Instead, maybe, we can just agree to disagree about things. Either way, we are called to be at peace with one another.

Next, I looked at John 6:43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.”

Basically here Jesus is telling us, there are many places you could be in my family. However, be content with where you are. In the Bible “Grumble” is akin to the word complain. Jesus doesn’t want us to complain about our lot in life. Yes, the grass is greener in someone else’s pasture; but the manure is the same. Don’t complain because your time is coming when you will be used mightily. It may not be tomorrow, but what if when you die, someone walks over to you and says “remember the time…” you will know it will be well worth it.

Finally, Romans 12:6 “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith.” I love this because as I have said previously, in the family of God there are different gifts and different talents and God expects us to use them. If you are a hand, maybe God is asking you to take the hand of the stranger beside you. Or if you are a foot, maybe you are supposed to be walking. We are Christ’s body, so why aren’t we doing some walking and talking to our fellow Christians? Romans 15:5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus. Just as our fleshly bodies work together, the body of Christ is to work in Harmony with one another. We can’t do Christ’s work if we aren’t living fully in the family of God.

Today I want to encourage you to read over these scriptures, think about what God has called you to do and where He would send you?

Next week, we’ll look at:

Romans 15:7

1 Corinthians 11:33

Galatians 5:15

Urgent Prayer Need

This is  a link from my other blog, and I hope that you will all keep it in mind that praying for Israel is a directive from God Himself.

http://israelprayerupdate.blogspot.com/2017/01/urgent-pray-for-70-nations-conference.html