Your 100 Most Influential People
Time Mag is always coming up with some scheme to sell their rag and this time it is by compiling a list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The list is included below and I would almost bet that you do not know ½ of them.
I certainly do not know that many and, of those I do know few have influenced me at all. Take Tom Cruise; please take Tom Cruise. How is he one of the most influential people in the world? He abandons his wife and children for a very young girl and for that he is famous?
Here is my request. Who has been influential in your life this year? Family members are not allowed to be nominated. God, although very influential, will be assumed to be important. Maybe it is your tax man or the mechanic that saved you $10,000.00 by fixing up your old car.
Time’s Nominees
Artists & Entertainers
· J.J. Abrams
· George Clooney
· Dixie Chicks
· Ellen DeGeneres
· Nicolas Ghesquiere
· Wayne Gould
· Philip Seymour Hoffman
· Arianna Huffington
· Ang Lee
· Renzo Piano
· Rain
· Rachael Ray
· Jeff Skoll
· Matt Drudge
· Stephen Colbert
Scientists & Thinkers
· Mike Brown
· Kelly Brownell
· Nancy Cox
· Richard Davidson
Leaders & Revolutionaries
· Muqtada al-Sadr
· Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
· Hugo Chavez
· George W. Bush
· John McCain
· Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
· Ayman al-Zawahiri
· Hillary Rodham Clinton
· Pope Benedict
· Condoleezza Rice
· Wen Jiabao
Heroes & Pioneers
· Bono
· Michelle Wie
· Wynton Marsalis
· Angelina Jolie
· Bill Clinton & George H.W. Bush
· Steve Nash
· Orhan Pamuk
· Elie Wiesel
· Jan Egeland
Builders & Titans
· Vikram Akula
· Tom Anderson & Chris DeWolfe
· Franz Beckenbauer
· The Flickr Founders
· Sean Combs
· Jamie Dimon
· Brian France
· Tom Freston
· Huang Guangyu
Offer your nominees by May 28, 2006
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Another Flight to Moscow
I am excited about our latest planning for a trip to Moscow to train leaders. It will be my 15th.
Steve Griebling and I leave Memorial Day and fly to New York and then to Rome before touching down in Moscow. We will stay about two weeks. It is a long but the least expensive route.
Galina has hired a new person to make our Russian web site a bit more attractive. And, they have changed the name of the site to make sure the Ruskie officials do not discover that they are connected to a U.S. Mission group.
http://www.liferoute.ru/
I always travel there as a "Tourist" but they often scan US files of non-profits to see who is traveling there and if we are giving money to the Russians.
"Why do they care," you ask? First, they want to know everything about their people and foreign influences. Remember, their current President was head of the KGB.
Second, money. $$$$ Taxes. If they thought we were sending money to their ministries it would be very costly. Maybe even more than we give in taxes would be taken from them.
Third, the government is paranoid.
Keep us in your prayers.
Gary and Steve
I am excited about our latest planning for a trip to Moscow to train leaders. It will be my 15th.
Steve Griebling and I leave Memorial Day and fly to New York and then to Rome before touching down in Moscow. We will stay about two weeks. It is a long but the least expensive route.
Galina has hired a new person to make our Russian web site a bit more attractive. And, they have changed the name of the site to make sure the Ruskie officials do not discover that they are connected to a U.S. Mission group.
http://www.liferoute.ru/
I always travel there as a "Tourist" but they often scan US files of non-profits to see who is traveling there and if we are giving money to the Russians.
"Why do they care," you ask? First, they want to know everything about their people and foreign influences. Remember, their current President was head of the KGB.
Second, money. $$$$ Taxes. If they thought we were sending money to their ministries it would be very costly. Maybe even more than we give in taxes would be taken from them.
Third, the government is paranoid.
Keep us in your prayers.
Gary and Steve
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
The Eve Center
The summer abortion recovery group will begin in the evening
June 6th
Please refer any one interested in the 10 weeks program to telephone:
513 - 985-9959. A group leader will contact her shortly after that.
We maintain the highest level of confidentiality so her information will be treated as such just as our other calls. She need only call for the HEART program and leave contact information.
A formal notice will be released soon: We are very excited that HEART Inc. will be moving under the administration of the Eve Center as one of the Eve Center programs. This merge of resources and talents will continue a path of excellence in providing Helping and Educating in Abortion Related Trauma for women in the greater Cincinnati region.
Thank you for your referrals. God's blessings to you all.
Cinny Roy
Founder & Director
www.evecenter.org
"We've been where you are."
The summer abortion recovery group will begin in the evening
June 6th
Please refer any one interested in the 10 weeks program to telephone:
513 - 985-9959. A group leader will contact her shortly after that.
We maintain the highest level of confidentiality so her information will be treated as such just as our other calls. She need only call for the HEART program and leave contact information.
A formal notice will be released soon: We are very excited that HEART Inc. will be moving under the administration of the Eve Center as one of the Eve Center programs. This merge of resources and talents will continue a path of excellence in providing Helping and Educating in Abortion Related Trauma for women in the greater Cincinnati region.
Thank you for your referrals. God's blessings to you all.
Cinny Roy
Founder & Director
www.evecenter.org
"We've been where you are."
Monday, April 24, 2006
Women and Financial Power
According to Mike Davidson, Head of Marketing for State Farm Insurance, the following statistics about women will shake us from our stupor about females in America.
Women:
Control 60% of the wealth
Influence 89% of all major household expenditures
Have sole or partial ownership of 87% of all homes
Own 10.6 million businesses or 40% of the total number of privately owned businesses
By 2026 13 trillion dollars will be inherited with 90% going to women
Some 37% of women and 22% of men have no plan for retirement or inheritance
Daily Devotional
Each day I receive a devotional that stimulates me to faith and good works. I sometimes share them with you. If you want to receive them, contact Chuck Clark. chuck@stationedhere.com
As a scientist I have been challenged many times by Christian friends and pastors who have a tendency to reject analytical thinking. Some even see medicine and psychology as enemies of God and the Bible.
On the other hand, as a person that believes in god and His works I have been treated with disrespect by some people who consider themselves to be "scientific" and anti-religious. Both extremes have found me to be objectionable. That is why I like this article.
CALL UPON THE LORD AND HE WILL ANSWER
Monday - April 24, 2006
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3
Robert Boyle was founder of the Royal Society in London and is sometimes called the father of modern chemistry. He was born at Lismore Castle, in Ireland on 25 January 1627. In 1643, he became a Christian while studying in Switzerland. Boyle was the first scientist to perform controlled experiments and to publish his work with elaborate details concerning procedure, apparatus and observations. He assembled the first "research group", invented the vacuum pump and litmus paper. In 1662 developed Boyle’s Law that states: “Under conditions of constant temperature and quantity, there is an inverse relationship between the volume and pressure for an ideal gas.”
Boyle had a deep commitment to Christ. In 1677, he provided funding for the translation of the four Gospels and the Book of Acts into the Malayan language.
He believed there were things we could never know, but that God's purposes were not completely inaccessible to us. He began each day with prayer and Bible reading and he believed that during prayer and worship the Lord revealed His greatest secrets. Boyle recommended that scientists do their experiments on Sundays, as part of their Sabbath worship.
In his will, Boyle left an endowment to provide sufficient income for an annual lectureship to combat atheism, they became known as the Boyle Lectures.
Are you faced with a difficult problem? Take it to the Lord, He will give you wisdom on how to deal with it. Today in prayer, look to Christ for the answers to today’s problems and He will answer.
“God denies a Christian nothing, but with a design to give him something better.” Richard Cecil
“‘So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?’ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, ‘Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.’” 1 Kings 3:9-12
Each day I receive a devotional that stimulates me to faith and good works. I sometimes share them with you. If you want to receive them, contact Chuck Clark. chuck@stationedhere.com
As a scientist I have been challenged many times by Christian friends and pastors who have a tendency to reject analytical thinking. Some even see medicine and psychology as enemies of God and the Bible.
On the other hand, as a person that believes in god and His works I have been treated with disrespect by some people who consider themselves to be "scientific" and anti-religious. Both extremes have found me to be objectionable. That is why I like this article.
CALL UPON THE LORD AND HE WILL ANSWER
Monday - April 24, 2006
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3
Robert Boyle was founder of the Royal Society in London and is sometimes called the father of modern chemistry. He was born at Lismore Castle, in Ireland on 25 January 1627. In 1643, he became a Christian while studying in Switzerland. Boyle was the first scientist to perform controlled experiments and to publish his work with elaborate details concerning procedure, apparatus and observations. He assembled the first "research group", invented the vacuum pump and litmus paper. In 1662 developed Boyle’s Law that states: “Under conditions of constant temperature and quantity, there is an inverse relationship between the volume and pressure for an ideal gas.”
Boyle had a deep commitment to Christ. In 1677, he provided funding for the translation of the four Gospels and the Book of Acts into the Malayan language.
He believed there were things we could never know, but that God's purposes were not completely inaccessible to us. He began each day with prayer and Bible reading and he believed that during prayer and worship the Lord revealed His greatest secrets. Boyle recommended that scientists do their experiments on Sundays, as part of their Sabbath worship.
In his will, Boyle left an endowment to provide sufficient income for an annual lectureship to combat atheism, they became known as the Boyle Lectures.
Are you faced with a difficult problem? Take it to the Lord, He will give you wisdom on how to deal with it. Today in prayer, look to Christ for the answers to today’s problems and He will answer.
“God denies a Christian nothing, but with a design to give him something better.” Richard Cecil
“‘So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?’ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, ‘Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.’” 1 Kings 3:9-12
Friday, April 21, 2006
Russian Hospitality is Warm and Delicious
Arthur Gasch, (The only male) Galina (In a gold sweater) and Betty Gasch (Blue over red) enjoy a wonderful meal with some of the caring ladies in a Baptist Church. This church hosts a weekly recovery group and some of the ladies help Galin minister around the country.
Arthur Gasch, (The only male) Galina (In a gold sweater) and Betty Gasch (Blue over red) enjoy a wonderful meal with some of the caring ladies in a Baptist Church. This church hosts a weekly recovery group and some of the ladies help Galin minister around the country.
Fruit of the Russian Ministry
These beautiful Russian believers are from Russian Orthodox, Baptist, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. It is a miracle that they can work together to bring peace, healing and wholeness to "The broken hearted" and they are "setting the captives free".
They are learning to show great compassion and love to hundreds of churches throughout the former USSR.
Life Way's ministry is uniquely interdenominational in Russia.
These beautiful Russian believers are from Russian Orthodox, Baptist, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. It is a miracle that they can work together to bring peace, healing and wholeness to "The broken hearted" and they are "setting the captives free".
They are learning to show great compassion and love to hundreds of churches throughout the former USSR.
Life Way's ministry is uniquely interdenominational in Russia.
Arthur Gasch and Galina Chentsova 
Arthur and Betty spent ten days with Galina and her team sharing, ministering and praying for the people. Betty's book has been translated into Russian and is a very powerful estimony to the power of the Great Physician to heal, deliver and restore.
Her book is available from Life Way Ministries with all proceeds going to the work in Russia.
Arthur and Betty spent ten days with Galina and her team sharing, ministering and praying for the people. Betty's book has been translated into Russian and is a very powerful estimony to the power of the Great Physician to heal, deliver and restore.
Her book is available from Life Way Ministries with all proceeds going to the work in Russia.
Marina and Betty Gasch
Marina and her husband Michael are key leaders
among Baptists. He teaches at their local seminary,
pastors a church and heads the men's recovery
ministry in the Moscow Region.
Marina is an attorney, heads women's work among the Baptists and is finishing her Master's in Theology. She regularly leads recovery groups and teaches leaders with Galina.
Marina and her husband Michael are key leaders
among Baptists. He teaches at their local seminary,
pastors a church and heads the men's recovery
ministry in the Moscow Region.
Marina is an attorney, heads women's work among the Baptists and is finishing her Master's in Theology. She regularly leads recovery groups and teaches leaders with Galina.
The Palace of Culture
The Communists knew they needed to replace the symbols of the church's rituals with their own places of "sanctuary". They did it with "Palaces of Culture" that were very nice but a far piece away from palaces and their culture was dancing, music and lectures on socialism.
Now these "palaces" are run down and worn out but very expensive to rent.
The Communists knew they needed to replace the symbols of the church's rituals with their own places of "sanctuary". They did it with "Palaces of Culture" that were very nice but a far piece away from palaces and their culture was dancing, music and lectures on socialism.
Now these "palaces" are run down and worn out but very expensive to rent.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Pastor Paul Bane of Brentwood, TN
Pastor Paul spoke Good Friday evening, about the power of the cross to bring forgiveness. He led all of us through a time of reflection and searching to see what sins might lurk below the surface that we could leave forever on the cross.
Each of us was given a 16 penny nail and the opportunity to drive it into the wooden cross with a hammer. The photo you see is the result.
Although some suggested they needed a bucket full of nails, Christ nail's and shed blood are everything we need for salvation and complete forgiveness.
Pastor Paul spoke Good Friday evening, about the power of the cross to bring forgiveness. He led all of us through a time of reflection and searching to see what sins might lurk below the surface that we could leave forever on the cross.
Each of us was given a 16 penny nail and the opportunity to drive it into the wooden cross with a hammer. The photo you see is the result.
Although some suggested they needed a bucket full of nails, Christ nail's and shed blood are everything we need for salvation and complete forgiveness.
Pastor Tom Smith
Tom and Deb left Cincinnati 12 years ago to return to southern Illinois to minister at First Community Church-now Grace Community Church and farm with his father.
Grace Church has powerful preaching, dynamic worship and a wonderful healing ministry.
Tom also opened Grace Counseling Center and uses his gifts to bless the entire region.
Before returning to Illinois Tom and Deb were creative force for God in Cincinnati. First as campus pastors at U.C. then as founding pastors of Fellowship Christian Church.
Many people have come to know Christ through their ministries.
Tom and Deb left Cincinnati 12 years ago to return to southern Illinois to minister at First Community Church-now Grace Community Church and farm with his father.
Grace Church has powerful preaching, dynamic worship and a wonderful healing ministry.
Tom also opened Grace Counseling Center and uses his gifts to bless the entire region.
Before returning to Illinois Tom and Deb were creative force for God in Cincinnati. First as campus pastors at U.C. then as founding pastors of Fellowship Christian Church.
Many people have come to know Christ through their ministries.
Easter Joy
Karen and I had the joy of being back home in Illinois for an old fashioned revival meeting at Grace Community Church pastored by Tom and Deb Smith. Revivals are rare nowadays let alone around Easter but the Lord drew them to schedule it during Holy Week.
It was very successful in many ways. Believers in the region were revived; members were deeply touched; several non-believers met the Lord and were baptized before and during the time of the revival.
Easter Is a time of great happiness for us who believe. I trust all of you were blessed by the Lord and were reminded of the great privilege we have to be called "The Children of God".
Gary Sweeten
Karen and I had the joy of being back home in Illinois for an old fashioned revival meeting at Grace Community Church pastored by Tom and Deb Smith. Revivals are rare nowadays let alone around Easter but the Lord drew them to schedule it during Holy Week.
It was very successful in many ways. Believers in the region were revived; members were deeply touched; several non-believers met the Lord and were baptized before and during the time of the revival.
Easter Is a time of great happiness for us who believe. I trust all of you were blessed by the Lord and were reminded of the great privilege we have to be called "The Children of God".
Gary Sweeten
Monday, April 10, 2006
A New Jesus Movement?
I hope so
In 1970 Karen and I stumbled into what is now known as the Jesus Movement. We had moved to Cincinnati to take a position at U Cinci from southern Illinois after I received a Masters' Degree in Higher Education. We found a Southern Baptist Church here and got deeply involved in helping build a new sanctuary and educational wing. Later we taught the College and Career Singles group and it was a great experience with great people. For awhile, then things got a bit sticky.
I was working on a doctorate in Counselor Education and began to learn about the power of self directed groups to bring change in the lives of the participants. I also attended Yokefellow Conferences and met D. Elton Trueblood and other pillars of the lay equipping movement. Third, I went to the InterVaristy Christian Fellowship's training on "Inductive Bible Studies".
I had a transformational experience that showed me that helping ordinary people encounter God and the Bible personally rather than through the agency of a clergyman or elder. I knew this was superior to becoming dependent upon someone else to tell us what God said rather than read it for ourselves.
I started using Inductive Methods to teach our Youth Group and we also met in homes rather than the church. That was too much for some of the Deacons who asked me to leave the church. Having been a Baptist all my life it was very painful to get the "Left foot of fellowship" from my brothers. But, as it turned out, God used it to introduce us to the Jesus Movement.
Now a new wave of prayer and revival is hitting the campus.
I am ecstatic that God is on the move among young people again.
Gary Sweeten
I hope so
In 1970 Karen and I stumbled into what is now known as the Jesus Movement. We had moved to Cincinnati to take a position at U Cinci from southern Illinois after I received a Masters' Degree in Higher Education. We found a Southern Baptist Church here and got deeply involved in helping build a new sanctuary and educational wing. Later we taught the College and Career Singles group and it was a great experience with great people. For awhile, then things got a bit sticky.
I was working on a doctorate in Counselor Education and began to learn about the power of self directed groups to bring change in the lives of the participants. I also attended Yokefellow Conferences and met D. Elton Trueblood and other pillars of the lay equipping movement. Third, I went to the InterVaristy Christian Fellowship's training on "Inductive Bible Studies".
I had a transformational experience that showed me that helping ordinary people encounter God and the Bible personally rather than through the agency of a clergyman or elder. I knew this was superior to becoming dependent upon someone else to tell us what God said rather than read it for ourselves.
I started using Inductive Methods to teach our Youth Group and we also met in homes rather than the church. That was too much for some of the Deacons who asked me to leave the church. Having been a Baptist all my life it was very painful to get the "Left foot of fellowship" from my brothers. But, as it turned out, God used it to introduce us to the Jesus Movement.
Now a new wave of prayer and revival is hitting the campus.
For more information go to http://www.theburningheartcontract.com/
I am ecstatic that God is on the move among young people again.
Gary Sweeten
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Needed: Christian Leaders with Vision, Vitality, Values and Veritas
No one seems to doubt the notion that we are deep in the middle of a time of social regression. Life in families, corporations, schools and religious groups are staggering from the weight of unethical, immoral and risky behavior. Nations have faced such times before and have been brought to sanity and equilibrium again by key leaders.
Some people think we can be educated out of the dilemma. That the explosion of knowledge will suffice in leading our nation and the entire western world back to health and vitality. I disagree. Hitler's Nazi's were highly educated. Stalin's scientists were very knowledgeable but something was mission. Respect for the soul of humanity.
We need high quality, well educated, Christians who will give themselves to leading the charge for a better world. Who have a great Vision to bring godly change to a hurting society and use their skills to bring about those changes.
Christians who are Vital, energetic, interested, open to others and excited about the future. They will be risk takers and fearless because of their faith when interacting with people of every religion and political persuasion.
Christians who have great Values and ethics who want to make their companies better places to work and their communities better places to live.
Veritas, the search for truth is also desperately needed.
I've learned something about the history of Veritas this year. Originally it was paired on the (Harvard) University's coat of arms with the University's real motto Christiansti Gloriam. Veritas meant divine truth, truth reached ultimately not through reason but through faith. PRESIDENT LAWRENCE H. SUMMERS' COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS, HARVARD COLLEGE 2002
To find such men and women we need centers of growth and leadership development. Places where we can nurture mature, successful people from business, industry, education and the church and discover together how to be positive change agents todaythe futureuture.
Pray with me about finding the people and funding the centers.
Gary Sweeten
No one seems to doubt the notion that we are deep in the middle of a time of social regression. Life in families, corporations, schools and religious groups are staggering from the weight of unethical, immoral and risky behavior. Nations have faced such times before and have been brought to sanity and equilibrium again by key leaders.
Some people think we can be educated out of the dilemma. That the explosion of knowledge will suffice in leading our nation and the entire western world back to health and vitality. I disagree. Hitler's Nazi's were highly educated. Stalin's scientists were very knowledgeable but something was mission. Respect for the soul of humanity.
We need high quality, well educated, Christians who will give themselves to leading the charge for a better world. Who have a great Vision to bring godly change to a hurting society and use their skills to bring about those changes.
Christians who are Vital, energetic, interested, open to others and excited about the future. They will be risk takers and fearless because of their faith when interacting with people of every religion and political persuasion.
Christians who have great Values and ethics who want to make their companies better places to work and their communities better places to live.
Veritas, the search for truth is also desperately needed.
I've learned something about the history of Veritas this year. Originally it was paired on the (Harvard) University's coat of arms with the University's real motto Christiansti Gloriam. Veritas meant divine truth, truth reached ultimately not through reason but through faith. PRESIDENT LAWRENCE H. SUMMERS' COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS, HARVARD COLLEGE 2002
To find such men and women we need centers of growth and leadership development. Places where we can nurture mature, successful people from business, industry, education and the church and discover together how to be positive change agents todaythe futureuture.
Pray with me about finding the people and funding the centers.
Gary Sweeten
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Response to Christianity Today Magazine
In the latest CT online blog there was a good article about ways to prevent pastors and leaders from getting involved in sexual sin. Doing so is badly needed for many well-known preachers have fallen over the past few years.
However, I think the CT article was fairly shallow and failed to deal with the real issues that arise from the heart. Mark 7:15 ff
He summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile."
When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them, "Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
"But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles.
From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile."
For over 30 years I have ministered to Christians of all maturity levels and now focus almost exclusively on pastoral and counseling with leaders. The suggestions, as good as they are, are not nearly enough nor do they get to the root of the problem. James 1 says
When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
Evil desire is from Epithumia: A Wounded heart/hole in the soul/ sickness of the soul
Dragged away-A force of great power pulls at us
Enticed to do destructive things
Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
After the wounded heart conceives an evil/destructive idea, sin, missing the mark is born. As the sinful behavior grows and develops it gets stronger and more controlling of life. This considered to be a compulsion.
When it is full grown it bring us death of soul and body.
Overwhelming sexual temptation leading to destruction arises from a deeply wounded soul. It does not arise from good clean lust, healthy sexual desire, but from a sickness of the soul. It is not caused by the Internet, magazines, beautiful women or a lack of male accountability.
I have ministered to several hundred men and women involved in compulsive sex. I have never ministered to one involved in pornography, masturbation or adultery that had an ongoing vital heart experience with the Holy Spirit. Nor with his wife. They are always hiding their anger, bitterness and a deeply wounded soul. The porn/masterbation compulsion is more related to angry punishment of a woman and the release that it provides momentarily than to sex.
The formula I use in ministry is AB = C + D
Addictive Behavior = Compulsions plus Dependency
Compulsions are any behavior pattern that arises from inner discomfort and gives momentary relief to that pain. The inner pain can be guilt, shame, rejection, anger, unforgiveness, etc. For Christians, of course, pornography makes the innr guilt and thus the pain increase. Many people have compulsive behavior but are not Addicts for they are not also Dependent.
Dependencies are habitual behavior designed to get a high. Sex, cocaine, food, etc can all give us a high. Many people are sexually Dependent but are not addicts.
When one is both reducing inner pain and getting high we consider them to be addicted. Healing demands that we remove the inner pain by biblical means of reconciliation, marital counseling, forgiveness, healing, etc and show people how to get "high" biblically. After this, accountability groups will work.
New legalisms will not work to treat Christians caught in the web of sexual lust. Only by working on the inner life will we succeed. It is the heart that matters not the internet or Playboy Magazine. I see miracles happen all the time.
Shalom,
Gary R. Sweeten, Ed. D.
In the latest CT online blog there was a good article about ways to prevent pastors and leaders from getting involved in sexual sin. Doing so is badly needed for many well-known preachers have fallen over the past few years.
However, I think the CT article was fairly shallow and failed to deal with the real issues that arise from the heart. Mark 7:15 ff
He summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile."
When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them, "Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
"But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles.
From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile."
For over 30 years I have ministered to Christians of all maturity levels and now focus almost exclusively on pastoral and counseling with leaders. The suggestions, as good as they are, are not nearly enough nor do they get to the root of the problem. James 1 says
When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
Evil desire is from Epithumia: A Wounded heart/hole in the soul/ sickness of the soul
Dragged away-A force of great power pulls at us
Enticed to do destructive things
Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
After the wounded heart conceives an evil/destructive idea, sin, missing the mark is born. As the sinful behavior grows and develops it gets stronger and more controlling of life. This considered to be a compulsion.
When it is full grown it bring us death of soul and body.
Overwhelming sexual temptation leading to destruction arises from a deeply wounded soul. It does not arise from good clean lust, healthy sexual desire, but from a sickness of the soul. It is not caused by the Internet, magazines, beautiful women or a lack of male accountability.
I have ministered to several hundred men and women involved in compulsive sex. I have never ministered to one involved in pornography, masturbation or adultery that had an ongoing vital heart experience with the Holy Spirit. Nor with his wife. They are always hiding their anger, bitterness and a deeply wounded soul. The porn/masterbation compulsion is more related to angry punishment of a woman and the release that it provides momentarily than to sex.
The formula I use in ministry is AB = C + D
Addictive Behavior = Compulsions plus Dependency
Compulsions are any behavior pattern that arises from inner discomfort and gives momentary relief to that pain. The inner pain can be guilt, shame, rejection, anger, unforgiveness, etc. For Christians, of course, pornography makes the innr guilt and thus the pain increase. Many people have compulsive behavior but are not Addicts for they are not also Dependent.
Dependencies are habitual behavior designed to get a high. Sex, cocaine, food, etc can all give us a high. Many people are sexually Dependent but are not addicts.
When one is both reducing inner pain and getting high we consider them to be addicted. Healing demands that we remove the inner pain by biblical means of reconciliation, marital counseling, forgiveness, healing, etc and show people how to get "high" biblically. After this, accountability groups will work.
New legalisms will not work to treat Christians caught in the web of sexual lust. Only by working on the inner life will we succeed. It is the heart that matters not the internet or Playboy Magazine. I see miracles happen all the time.
Shalom,
Gary R. Sweeten, Ed. D.
Putting Lives in Peril
Aiming to Be 'Very, Very Sick'
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
April 7, 2006; Page A1 Wall Street Journal
DURBAN, South Africa
Zolile, a 25-year-old single mother, is one of the lucky few here who receive advanced anti-AIDS drugs free from the government. The pills work just the way they're supposed to, boosting her immune system, relieving her symptoms and restoring her health as long as she takes them twice a day.
That's why she stopped taking them a month ago.
Her decision represents an unexpected twist in South Africa's AIDS crisis. The South African government gives Zolile antiretroviral "cocktails" to make her healthier. It will also give her a $130-a-month disability grant -- but only if she gets sicker than she is now. And if she takes the drugs, she probably won't get sick enough to qualify for the cash.
For Zolile, the right choice was painful but clear. "I want to get sick so the doctor will give me a grant, and my children will have healthy food," she says, speaking on condition that her family name not be used. "Even if I die, my children will be better taken care of."
Medical workers, activists and academics in South Africa have been startled to discover that a number of impoverished AIDS patients are making the same decision, risking death in order to secure welfare assistance.
"Poverty and hunger are capable of driving people to do the unthinkable," says Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala, head of the anthropology department at Durban's University of KwaZulu-Natal, who has studied the issue.
Why are people shocked? We have known for centuries that the way we treat human behavior will cause rewarded acts to get stronger and punished acts to get weaker. South Africa is rewarding sickness and punishing health yet they are "shocked" when people follow the rewards.
Common sense tells us that this will usually happen so we need to devise ways to offer quick rewards for those who act responsibility. The personal motivation to get better is more important than any miracle drug or heroic doctor. This, along with the positive support of family and friends is essential to good health.
Aiming to Be 'Very, Very Sick'
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
April 7, 2006; Page A1 Wall Street Journal
DURBAN, South Africa
Zolile, a 25-year-old single mother, is one of the lucky few here who receive advanced anti-AIDS drugs free from the government. The pills work just the way they're supposed to, boosting her immune system, relieving her symptoms and restoring her health as long as she takes them twice a day.
That's why she stopped taking them a month ago.
Her decision represents an unexpected twist in South Africa's AIDS crisis. The South African government gives Zolile antiretroviral "cocktails" to make her healthier. It will also give her a $130-a-month disability grant -- but only if she gets sicker than she is now. And if she takes the drugs, she probably won't get sick enough to qualify for the cash.
For Zolile, the right choice was painful but clear. "I want to get sick so the doctor will give me a grant, and my children will have healthy food," she says, speaking on condition that her family name not be used. "Even if I die, my children will be better taken care of."
Medical workers, activists and academics in South Africa have been startled to discover that a number of impoverished AIDS patients are making the same decision, risking death in order to secure welfare assistance.
"Poverty and hunger are capable of driving people to do the unthinkable," says Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala, head of the anthropology department at Durban's University of KwaZulu-Natal, who has studied the issue.
Why are people shocked? We have known for centuries that the way we treat human behavior will cause rewarded acts to get stronger and punished acts to get weaker. South Africa is rewarding sickness and punishing health yet they are "shocked" when people follow the rewards.
Common sense tells us that this will usually happen so we need to devise ways to offer quick rewards for those who act responsibility. The personal motivation to get better is more important than any miracle drug or heroic doctor. This, along with the positive support of family and friends is essential to good health.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Thanks for Homeland Security
From The Opinion Journal
Arms are for hugging? Not at Greenmeadow Elementary School in Maynard, Mass., where a family "is outraged after their 5-year-old daughter was forced to write a letter denouncing hugging after a classmate embraced her," according to Boston's WCVB-TV:
Brenda Brier and Michael Marino pulled their daughter, Savannah, out of school early Wednesday. The couple was angry after a meeting with officials at the Greenmeadow Elementary School in Maynard, where Savannah is in kindergarten.
At issue is a hug Savannah said she got on the playground from a friend named Sophie. Savannah hugged Sophie back. The hugs resulted in Savannah having to write a letter, complete with teacher corrections, that read, "I touch Sophie because she touch me and I didn't like it because she was hugging me. I didn't like when she hugged me."
"She said, 'I'm really sad that I got in trouble for hugging,'" Brier said.
"I can understand if boys are playing rough or kids are pulling each other around--that's one thing. But when kids are being affectionate, I mean hugging, hey, they shouldn't be disciplined over it and they shouldn't be lying in letters making the kid say the opposite that they don't like to hug," Marino said.
The school superintendent says there was a "dispute of the facts between a hug and a lifting of a child off the floor. . . . One girl bear hugged another girl and lifted her off the ground. The aide who was monitoring told the teacher. The teacher asked several students to write a note to their parents and describe what happened."
Zero Tolerance for Crime
From The Opinion Journal
Arms are for hugging? Not at Greenmeadow Elementary School in Maynard, Mass., where a family "is outraged after their 5-year-old daughter was forced to write a letter denouncing hugging after a classmate embraced her," according to Boston's WCVB-TV:
Brenda Brier and Michael Marino pulled their daughter, Savannah, out of school early Wednesday. The couple was angry after a meeting with officials at the Greenmeadow Elementary School in Maynard, where Savannah is in kindergarten.
At issue is a hug Savannah said she got on the playground from a friend named Sophie. Savannah hugged Sophie back. The hugs resulted in Savannah having to write a letter, complete with teacher corrections, that read, "I touch Sophie because she touch me and I didn't like it because she was hugging me. I didn't like when she hugged me."
"She said, 'I'm really sad that I got in trouble for hugging,'" Brier said.
"I can understand if boys are playing rough or kids are pulling each other around--that's one thing. But when kids are being affectionate, I mean hugging, hey, they shouldn't be disciplined over it and they shouldn't be lying in letters making the kid say the opposite that they don't like to hug," Marino said.
The school superintendent says there was a "dispute of the facts between a hug and a lifting of a child off the floor. . . . One girl bear hugged another girl and lifted her off the ground. The aide who was monitoring told the teacher. The teacher asked several students to write a note to their parents and describe what happened."
Zero Tolerance for Crime
Russian Ministry is Difficult and Long-Term
My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good. Jeremiah 4:22
In 1932 and 1933, a famine engulfed the Ukraine. The unfortunate fact is it did not have to happen. Stalin himself proclaimed that "nobody can deny that the total yield of grain in 1932 was larger than in 1931." Food was available. However, the state systematically confiscated most of it for its own use. His decision and the brutal actions of his henchmen condemned millions of people to their grave.
The roots of the man-made famine began in August 1932, when the Communist Party received the legal right to confiscate grain from peasant households. In August, a law was enacted that carried a death penalty for the theft of "socialist property" so anyone caught taking a handful of grain from a government silo or a collective farm field could be executed.
To prevent peasants from abandoning collective farms in search of food, a system of internal passports was put into effect. In November 1932, it became law that the government's quota was collected first and then remaining grain was distributed to the peasants.
The result was millions died of starvation on the collective farms.
In 1933, Mendel Khataevich, a Stalin supporter in Ukraine and the leader of the grain-procurement program, proudly stated: "A ruthless struggle is going on between the peasantry and our regime. It's a struggle to the death. This year was a test of our strength and their endurance. It took a famine to show them who is master here. It has cost millions of lives, but the collective farm system is here to stay. We have won the war!"
Steve Griebling and I am returning to minister once again in Moscow, Russia the first two weeks of June. The work there is slow going but progress is happening. We are helping the Christians all around the former USSR heal the wounds caused by 70 years of state organized terror.
But that is not all. We are helping them establish a vision of a better, more humane Christ centered future. The pagan socialist philosophy of the Communists had no respect for human life so they did not care if people died by the millions. We are teaching them that every person has been created in God's image and is worth somethinof fr now and for an eternity.
Pray for us and for Lifeways Russia, Galina's ministry name. If you are led, also consider sending Life Way Ministries, Inc a tax deductible donation to help us accomplish that vision.
My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good. Jeremiah 4:22
In 1932 and 1933, a famine engulfed the Ukraine. The unfortunate fact is it did not have to happen. Stalin himself proclaimed that "nobody can deny that the total yield of grain in 1932 was larger than in 1931." Food was available. However, the state systematically confiscated most of it for its own use. His decision and the brutal actions of his henchmen condemned millions of people to their grave.
The roots of the man-made famine began in August 1932, when the Communist Party received the legal right to confiscate grain from peasant households. In August, a law was enacted that carried a death penalty for the theft of "socialist property" so anyone caught taking a handful of grain from a government silo or a collective farm field could be executed.
To prevent peasants from abandoning collective farms in search of food, a system of internal passports was put into effect. In November 1932, it became law that the government's quota was collected first and then remaining grain was distributed to the peasants.
The result was millions died of starvation on the collective farms.
In 1933, Mendel Khataevich, a Stalin supporter in Ukraine and the leader of the grain-procurement program, proudly stated: "A ruthless struggle is going on between the peasantry and our regime. It's a struggle to the death. This year was a test of our strength and their endurance. It took a famine to show them who is master here. It has cost millions of lives, but the collective farm system is here to stay. We have won the war!"
Steve Griebling and I am returning to minister once again in Moscow, Russia the first two weeks of June. The work there is slow going but progress is happening. We are helping the Christians all around the former USSR heal the wounds caused by 70 years of state organized terror.
But that is not all. We are helping them establish a vision of a better, more humane Christ centered future. The pagan socialist philosophy of the Communists had no respect for human life so they did not care if people died by the millions. We are teaching them that every person has been created in God's image and is worth somethinof fr now and for an eternity.
Pray for us and for Lifeways Russia, Galina's ministry name. If you are led, also consider sending Life Way Ministries, Inc a tax deductible donation to help us accomplish that vision.
The Brain and Romance and Sex and the Bible
Why would God tell us humans not to engage in promiscuous sexual relationships? Is God, the Creator of sex and procreation a killjoy that enjoys seeing His creatures crave something He forbids them to have? Well, the more we learn about the brain the more sense God and His word make
The deep limbic system of the brain is the core of memories, feelings, motivation, bonding and so forth. Dr. Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist out west, writes about the importance of the limbic system on his we site. www.amenclinics.com (I have added some of my comments.)
Whenever two persons are sexually, neurochemical changes occur in both their brains. These chemicals cause limbic, emotional bonding. Limbic bonding is the reason casual sex doesn't really work on a whole mind and body level.
Two people may decide to have sex "just for the fun of it," yet something occurs on another level that they did not want at all. Sex placed an emotional bond or connection that is hard to break. One person will form an attachment and will get hurt when the affair ends. It is usually the woman because the size of a female's limbic system, in comparison to the rest of her brain, is larger than a mans. Thus, she is more likely to get limbically connected.
For thousands of years God's laws and social conventions protected women from this kind of suffering by strict rules against promiscuity. Since the Seventies and Women's Liberation females have insisted on having promiscuous sex as much as men and the results have been emotionally devastating for females.
Losing a spouse is traumatic in a different way than losing any other type of loved one. Once you have made love with a person, having the connection broken through death can be extraordinarily painful because there is a "deep limbic connection." The spouse has become part of the chemical bond of that part of the brain and it takes time for that bond to dissolve. Your deep limbic system misses the person's touch, voice and smell. As scripture says:
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."
But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. I CO 6:15-20
Now that passage makes more sense and the pagans in Hollywood and politics have been put to shame because of the damage they are doing to people. No wonder there is so much depression and confusion among otherwise well off women. They have voluntarily given away portions of their hearts to anonymous men hoping to be "free" and independent but it has brought about destruction and self slavery.
Why would God tell us humans not to engage in promiscuous sexual relationships? Is God, the Creator of sex and procreation a killjoy that enjoys seeing His creatures crave something He forbids them to have? Well, the more we learn about the brain the more sense God and His word make
The deep limbic system of the brain is the core of memories, feelings, motivation, bonding and so forth. Dr. Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist out west, writes about the importance of the limbic system on his we site. www.amenclinics.com (I have added some of my comments.)
Whenever two persons are sexually, neurochemical changes occur in both their brains. These chemicals cause limbic, emotional bonding. Limbic bonding is the reason casual sex doesn't really work on a whole mind and body level.
Two people may decide to have sex "just for the fun of it," yet something occurs on another level that they did not want at all. Sex placed an emotional bond or connection that is hard to break. One person will form an attachment and will get hurt when the affair ends. It is usually the woman because the size of a female's limbic system, in comparison to the rest of her brain, is larger than a mans. Thus, she is more likely to get limbically connected.
For thousands of years God's laws and social conventions protected women from this kind of suffering by strict rules against promiscuity. Since the Seventies and Women's Liberation females have insisted on having promiscuous sex as much as men and the results have been emotionally devastating for females.
Losing a spouse is traumatic in a different way than losing any other type of loved one. Once you have made love with a person, having the connection broken through death can be extraordinarily painful because there is a "deep limbic connection." The spouse has become part of the chemical bond of that part of the brain and it takes time for that bond to dissolve. Your deep limbic system misses the person's touch, voice and smell. As scripture says:
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."
But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. I CO 6:15-20
Now that passage makes more sense and the pagans in Hollywood and politics have been put to shame because of the damage they are doing to people. No wonder there is so much depression and confusion among otherwise well off women. They have voluntarily given away portions of their hearts to anonymous men hoping to be "free" and independent but it has brought about destruction and self slavery.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Sex and the Married Christian
Back in the Dark Ages when I was wandering around the UC Campus trying to corral the leftists I was confronted by a member of the Weather Underground who accused believers of hating sex. I stopped right in front of him and replied that of every religious group Christians were the most romantic. He scoffed loudly and said we were a bunch of prudes who gave us sex for church.
Even back then I knew he was wrong but I had no real data to back me up. Then in 1988 Redbook Magazine did a research study on sex and marriage and discovered, to their shock and chagrin, that the more religious people were more romantic by far. The re-d-d the study ten years later and left off the questions about religious preferences. When the data do not support your thesis dump the data and keep your thesis.
Now Opinion Journal follows up on some dumb statements by a leftist film director.
Christianity and sex have never been good friends," Dutch director Paul Verhoeven said in a story we cited yesterday. We didn't dwell on that quote, but it seems worth doing so now. It seems an odd point, given that in the Bible, God enjoins his creations to "be fruitful." Until we perfect cloning, there's only one way to do that.
A reader calls our attention to this 1999 Slate article:
When University of Chicago researchers set out to discover which religious denominations have the best sex, they learned that the faithful don't do all their shouting in church. Conservative Protestant women, their 1994 survey found, report by far the most orgasms: Thirty-two percent say they achieve orgasm every time they make love. Mainline Protestants and Catholics lagged five points behind. Those with no religious affiliation were at 22 percent. (Unitarians may not wish to read any further.)
The main topic of the Slate piece is the burgeoning market for Christian sex advice books: "Evangelicals may not want their children to study sex ed in school, but they are not afraid of studying a little sex ed in their bedrooms," writes Mark Oppenheimer:
Perhaps the most notable quality of the Christian sex business is that it is evangelical, not puritanical. It is very pro-sex--as long as sex takes place in the context of marriage.
And that's the point. When Verhoeven says "Christianity and sex have never been good friends," what he means by "sex" is not sex but uncommitted sex--the weird anti-ideal of the sexual revolution.
The idea of sex without strings attached has, to be sure, a certain allure. But as a practical matter it is simply unworkable for most people. It's emotionally messy and requires more effort than it's worth. It seems obvious that you'll have more and better sex if you go to bed every night with someone you love. To do that, you don't have to be Christian, but it doesn't hurt.
The Opinion Journal is a free online commentary with some of the best writing and the most interesting articles I know. They consistently punch holes in the pretentious and arrogantly ignorant statements of the loony left.
I hope you see the irony in these guys attacking us for hating sex when it is they that put themselves in bondage for a mess of pottage.
Back in the Dark Ages when I was wandering around the UC Campus trying to corral the leftists I was confronted by a member of the Weather Underground who accused believers of hating sex. I stopped right in front of him and replied that of every religious group Christians were the most romantic. He scoffed loudly and said we were a bunch of prudes who gave us sex for church.
Even back then I knew he was wrong but I had no real data to back me up. Then in 1988 Redbook Magazine did a research study on sex and marriage and discovered, to their shock and chagrin, that the more religious people were more romantic by far. The re-d-d the study ten years later and left off the questions about religious preferences. When the data do not support your thesis dump the data and keep your thesis.
Now Opinion Journal follows up on some dumb statements by a leftist film director.
Christianity and sex have never been good friends," Dutch director Paul Verhoeven said in a story we cited yesterday. We didn't dwell on that quote, but it seems worth doing so now. It seems an odd point, given that in the Bible, God enjoins his creations to "be fruitful." Until we perfect cloning, there's only one way to do that.
A reader calls our attention to this 1999 Slate article:
When University of Chicago researchers set out to discover which religious denominations have the best sex, they learned that the faithful don't do all their shouting in church. Conservative Protestant women, their 1994 survey found, report by far the most orgasms: Thirty-two percent say they achieve orgasm every time they make love. Mainline Protestants and Catholics lagged five points behind. Those with no religious affiliation were at 22 percent. (Unitarians may not wish to read any further.)
The main topic of the Slate piece is the burgeoning market for Christian sex advice books: "Evangelicals may not want their children to study sex ed in school, but they are not afraid of studying a little sex ed in their bedrooms," writes Mark Oppenheimer:
Perhaps the most notable quality of the Christian sex business is that it is evangelical, not puritanical. It is very pro-sex--as long as sex takes place in the context of marriage.
And that's the point. When Verhoeven says "Christianity and sex have never been good friends," what he means by "sex" is not sex but uncommitted sex--the weird anti-ideal of the sexual revolution.
The idea of sex without strings attached has, to be sure, a certain allure. But as a practical matter it is simply unworkable for most people. It's emotionally messy and requires more effort than it's worth. It seems obvious that you'll have more and better sex if you go to bed every night with someone you love. To do that, you don't have to be Christian, but it doesn't hurt.
The Opinion Journal is a free online commentary with some of the best writing and the most interesting articles I know. They consistently punch holes in the pretentious and arrogantly ignorant statements of the loony left.
I hope you see the irony in these guys attacking us for hating sex when it is they that put themselves in bondage for a mess of pottage.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Back to Basics
Almost anything in Christianity can be abused and misused. As a Christian that is also a therapist who opened a Christ-centered psychiatric hospital I can testify that I have heard every story about weirdos in religion that you can imagine. The pagan docs at the hospital
where I set up my program treated me like a leper. Nevertheless, all these ideas are biblical and true. Additionally, the ideas worked to heal and deliver people in need.
I find that my ministry of late has taken a turn back to the beginning of the Jesus Revolution and waiting on God to move to guide, direct, heal and speak to us. Now, however, I am not working with college students but burned out elders, pastors and leaders. They began in the Spirit but went off into theoretical theology and got rutted in lively orthopraxy, dead orthodoxy or mixed up spirituality. In any event they have done so much in their own minds and striving to perform instead of flowing in and with God. YUCK!
As I listen and help them re-connect to the Spirit of God, they are coming alive with dreams, visions, words, discernment, directives, nudges and insights of great creativity. I think every mature Christian over 40 needs to reconnect with that first love and awe of God's Spirit and be
rejuvenated. As that happens the gifts of the Spirit as well as the fruit are stirred up and the community comes together in unity around His words and works.
It seems to me that the "Prophetic" in Charismatic life became another "Performance" by a special breed of people who carried their "words" around in a little black satchel like a doctor doing house calls. This was also the way all the Spiritual Gifts' ministry ended up: as a work not a flow of the Spirit. Intercessors became "work" of a few mystics along with the "Prophets". Preaching, teaching, healing, pastoral care, evangelism all became works that people "Pulled out of their black satchels" and used in a public service.
I disagree with this kind of ministry. I think we need to recover the dynamic of the community seeking God and receiving His direction according to His good will by using anyone He wants in the group. But, it is key to recognize that any one of the group can hear and share His leading.
I teach individuals and small groups how to wait on God and listen for His still small voice. It is exciting and the members experience personal faith at a very deep level.
I am seeing people with whom I work as a coach/counselor dream real dreams and have real visions. They are being led by God's Holy Spirit to take loving actions toward their in-laws and husbands. I am seeing reconciliations and healings. God is at work in the people not because of my brilliant insights but as a result of waiting upon and hearing Him.
Do you know any mature leaders who are worn out, burned out or defeated and deflated? Tell them to call me.
Gary Sweeten
Almost anything in Christianity can be abused and misused. As a Christian that is also a therapist who opened a Christ-centered psychiatric hospital I can testify that I have heard every story about weirdos in religion that you can imagine. The pagan docs at the hospital
where I set up my program treated me like a leper. Nevertheless, all these ideas are biblical and true. Additionally, the ideas worked to heal and deliver people in need.
I find that my ministry of late has taken a turn back to the beginning of the Jesus Revolution and waiting on God to move to guide, direct, heal and speak to us. Now, however, I am not working with college students but burned out elders, pastors and leaders. They began in the Spirit but went off into theoretical theology and got rutted in lively orthopraxy, dead orthodoxy or mixed up spirituality. In any event they have done so much in their own minds and striving to perform instead of flowing in and with God. YUCK!
As I listen and help them re-connect to the Spirit of God, they are coming alive with dreams, visions, words, discernment, directives, nudges and insights of great creativity. I think every mature Christian over 40 needs to reconnect with that first love and awe of God's Spirit and be
rejuvenated. As that happens the gifts of the Spirit as well as the fruit are stirred up and the community comes together in unity around His words and works.
It seems to me that the "Prophetic" in Charismatic life became another "Performance" by a special breed of people who carried their "words" around in a little black satchel like a doctor doing house calls. This was also the way all the Spiritual Gifts' ministry ended up: as a work not a flow of the Spirit. Intercessors became "work" of a few mystics along with the "Prophets". Preaching, teaching, healing, pastoral care, evangelism all became works that people "Pulled out of their black satchels" and used in a public service.
I disagree with this kind of ministry. I think we need to recover the dynamic of the community seeking God and receiving His direction according to His good will by using anyone He wants in the group. But, it is key to recognize that any one of the group can hear and share His leading.
I teach individuals and small groups how to wait on God and listen for His still small voice. It is exciting and the members experience personal faith at a very deep level.
I am seeing people with whom I work as a coach/counselor dream real dreams and have real visions. They are being led by God's Holy Spirit to take loving actions toward their in-laws and husbands. I am seeing reconciliations and healings. God is at work in the people not because of my brilliant insights but as a result of waiting upon and hearing Him.
Do you know any mature leaders who are worn out, burned out or defeated and deflated? Tell them to call me.
Gary Sweeten
The keys to happiness are simple — grow up, get married, have children, go to church and try to forget about the wilder days of youth.
Only 52 percent of Americans say they are "very happy" with their lives, according to a Scripps Howard/Ohio University survey of 1,007 adult residents of the United States. Forty-three percent said they are "fairly happy," 3 percent said they are "not too happy" and 2 percent are undecided.
That might not seem sufficiently ebullient for a nation that embraces the pursuit of happiness as an unalienable right. But the survey found Americans with particular lifestyles more likely to say they have found contentment. While wealth has a modest impact on well-being, other social factors appear to have greater influence.
"It's a lot of fun to see what the correlations are for happiness," said Glenn Van Ekeren, an elder-care executive in Omaha, Neb., who has published three books on the secrets to happiness.
One of the most important things Americans can do to improve the odds of being happy, the survey found, is to get married. Sixty percent of married people are very happy, compared with 41 percent of singles, the poll found.
Most people who have children said they are very happy in life, while most people who had never been parents said they are only "fairly happy" or "not too happy." Even among single people, having children in their lives increased the odds they will be happy.
An even stronger factor is the power of organized religion — any religion — on a sense of well-being.
Protestants, especially self-identified "born again" evangelicals, reported a high rate of contentment. Sixty percent of people who had recently attended worship services said they are very happy, compared with 46 percent who had not done so.
The survey found that people of different races, regions and urban settings are about equally likely to be happy.
There was a link between wealth and joy, with the happiest group in the middle brackets of $60,000 to $80,000 annual household income. People in disadvantaged homes were less likely to report contentment.
Scripps Howard Newspapers
Only 52 percent of Americans say they are "very happy" with their lives, according to a Scripps Howard/Ohio University survey of 1,007 adult residents of the United States. Forty-three percent said they are "fairly happy," 3 percent said they are "not too happy" and 2 percent are undecided.
That might not seem sufficiently ebullient for a nation that embraces the pursuit of happiness as an unalienable right. But the survey found Americans with particular lifestyles more likely to say they have found contentment. While wealth has a modest impact on well-being, other social factors appear to have greater influence.
"It's a lot of fun to see what the correlations are for happiness," said Glenn Van Ekeren, an elder-care executive in Omaha, Neb., who has published three books on the secrets to happiness.
One of the most important things Americans can do to improve the odds of being happy, the survey found, is to get married. Sixty percent of married people are very happy, compared with 41 percent of singles, the poll found.
Most people who have children said they are very happy in life, while most people who had never been parents said they are only "fairly happy" or "not too happy." Even among single people, having children in their lives increased the odds they will be happy.
An even stronger factor is the power of organized religion — any religion — on a sense of well-being.
Protestants, especially self-identified "born again" evangelicals, reported a high rate of contentment. Sixty percent of people who had recently attended worship services said they are very happy, compared with 46 percent who had not done so.
The survey found that people of different races, regions and urban settings are about equally likely to be happy.
There was a link between wealth and joy, with the happiest group in the middle brackets of $60,000 to $80,000 annual household income. People in disadvantaged homes were less likely to report contentment.
Scripps Howard Newspapers
The Power We Christians Have to Control People Is Awesome
The Loony Left gives us who believe in Christ and morality a lot of power. Just think, we are the hidden power behind everything they hate and despise; especially refraining from promiscuous sex. According to the Opinion Journal Report,
"Basic Instinct 2" is bombing at the box office, and the man who gave us its big-BO precursor is having delusions of censorship, Reuters reports:
Paul Verhoeven, director of the first "Basic Instinct" (which scored $353 million worldwide) attributes the genre's demise to the current American political climate.
"Anything that is erotic has been banned in the United States," said the Dutch native. "Look at the people at the top (of the government). We are living under a government that is constantly hammering out Christian values. And Christianity and sex have never been good friends."
Scribe Nicholas Meyer, who was an uncredited writer on 1987's seminal sex-fueled cautionary tale "Fatal Attraction," agrees, noting that the genre's downfall coincides with the ascent of the conservative political movement.
"We're in a big puritanical mode," he said. "Now, it's like the McCarthy era, except it's not 'Are you a communist?' but 'Have you ever put sex in a movie?' "
According to Reuters, " 'Basic Instinct 2' limped into 10th place upon its arrival this weekend, grossing just $3.2 million," which is not bad for a movie that isn't allowed to be shown.
Can you imagine anyone in his right mind complaining that there is no sex in America? That movies, TV, books and magazines are regularly censored if sex is mentioned? Wow! Don't you feel much better now that you discovered from this guy that all sex has been taken out of society? (Take your anti-paranoid meds Mr. Movie Man.)
The Loony Left gives us who believe in Christ and morality a lot of power. Just think, we are the hidden power behind everything they hate and despise; especially refraining from promiscuous sex. According to the Opinion Journal Report,
"Basic Instinct 2" is bombing at the box office, and the man who gave us its big-BO precursor is having delusions of censorship, Reuters reports:
Paul Verhoeven, director of the first "Basic Instinct" (which scored $353 million worldwide) attributes the genre's demise to the current American political climate.
"Anything that is erotic has been banned in the United States," said the Dutch native. "Look at the people at the top (of the government). We are living under a government that is constantly hammering out Christian values. And Christianity and sex have never been good friends."
Scribe Nicholas Meyer, who was an uncredited writer on 1987's seminal sex-fueled cautionary tale "Fatal Attraction," agrees, noting that the genre's downfall coincides with the ascent of the conservative political movement.
"We're in a big puritanical mode," he said. "Now, it's like the McCarthy era, except it's not 'Are you a communist?' but 'Have you ever put sex in a movie?' "
According to Reuters, " 'Basic Instinct 2' limped into 10th place upon its arrival this weekend, grossing just $3.2 million," which is not bad for a movie that isn't allowed to be shown.
Can you imagine anyone in his right mind complaining that there is no sex in America? That movies, TV, books and magazines are regularly censored if sex is mentioned? Wow! Don't you feel much better now that you discovered from this guy that all sex has been taken out of society? (Take your anti-paranoid meds Mr. Movie Man.)
Zero Tolerance for Truth in School
At one time in my life I was a teacher. I loved the children and I enjoyed teaching them. It was very hard work but teaching kids how to be good citizens was well worth the effort. Now schooled have a different mission. They are trying extremely hard to teach kids how to lie, deceive and hide the truth.
Read this article.
Honesty doesn't pay: This seems to be the lesson officials at Indianapolis Stonybrook Middle School wish to send their charges. The Indianapolis Star reports:
Elliot [vogue], 14, said he was walking to the school entrance in the brisk weather March 3 and had placed his hands in his coat pocket when he felt the Swiss army pocketknife in the pocket.
"I went straight to the office right inside (the front door)," he said.
He said he handed the knife to Teri Donahue, the school's treasurer, and told her he had brought it to school by mistake.
As a result of Elliot's actions, the school's principal, Jimmy Meadows, suspended Elliot for the maximum 10 school days as allowed by law and recommended Elliot be expelled. A confidential expulsion hearing is scheduled for April 10.
As the family's lawyer says, "Their message is to be dishonest, take more chances."
The common sense that at one time ruled the school day has seemed to disappear from the scene. I cannot imagine why a school principal would take such a radical and stupid action. These kinds of things are happening on a regular basis and no one seems to be learning any better.
Once, while flying back to the USA from Russia I discovered a Swiss knife in my carry on luggage. I do not know how it got there but I quietly slipped it into a safe and hidden place unit I could put it in my checked luggage. I intuitively knew the crew would go nuts and put me in chains if I actually turned it in to them.
I was reared in a fundamentalist Baptist home but I never, ever ran into the kind of legalistic, narrow minded thinking there that I am seeing every day in American schools and airports. When will people raise up and demand changes from the people we elect, select and pay to serve us?
I hope Elliot's family sues the school district and wins 10 million dollars to teach the board and administration a lesson they should have learned in kindergarten.
At one time in my life I was a teacher. I loved the children and I enjoyed teaching them. It was very hard work but teaching kids how to be good citizens was well worth the effort. Now schooled have a different mission. They are trying extremely hard to teach kids how to lie, deceive and hide the truth.
Read this article.
Honesty doesn't pay: This seems to be the lesson officials at Indianapolis Stonybrook Middle School wish to send their charges. The Indianapolis Star reports:
Elliot [vogue], 14, said he was walking to the school entrance in the brisk weather March 3 and had placed his hands in his coat pocket when he felt the Swiss army pocketknife in the pocket.
"I went straight to the office right inside (the front door)," he said.
He said he handed the knife to Teri Donahue, the school's treasurer, and told her he had brought it to school by mistake.
As a result of Elliot's actions, the school's principal, Jimmy Meadows, suspended Elliot for the maximum 10 school days as allowed by law and recommended Elliot be expelled. A confidential expulsion hearing is scheduled for April 10.
As the family's lawyer says, "Their message is to be dishonest, take more chances."
The common sense that at one time ruled the school day has seemed to disappear from the scene. I cannot imagine why a school principal would take such a radical and stupid action. These kinds of things are happening on a regular basis and no one seems to be learning any better.
Once, while flying back to the USA from Russia I discovered a Swiss knife in my carry on luggage. I do not know how it got there but I quietly slipped it into a safe and hidden place unit I could put it in my checked luggage. I intuitively knew the crew would go nuts and put me in chains if I actually turned it in to them.
I was reared in a fundamentalist Baptist home but I never, ever ran into the kind of legalistic, narrow minded thinking there that I am seeing every day in American schools and airports. When will people raise up and demand changes from the people we elect, select and pay to serve us?
I hope Elliot's family sues the school district and wins 10 million dollars to teach the board and administration a lesson they should have learned in kindergarten.
Islam and Imperialism
A great article in today's online Opinion Journal from the Wall Street Journal. otep@djoj.opinionjournal.com
I have long argued that Islamic current aggressive attacks on the USA have little or nothing to do with America's current or foreign policies. In fact, it has little to do with America other than we are seen by Islam as Christians who defeated them in the Crusades. However, the rage, hatred and shame associated with the USA predates our founding by many years.
Take a look at this paragraph from the Journal article.
Like their Arab predecessors, the Ottomans were energetic empire-builders in the name of jihad. By the early 16th century, they had conquered Syria and Egypt from the Mamluks, the formidable slave soldiers who had contained the Mongols and destroyed the Crusader kingdoms.
Under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, they soon turned northward. By the middle of the 17th century they seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe, only to be turned back in fierce fighting at the gates of Vienna in 1683--on September 11, of all dates.
Islam has always been aggressive imperialists since the days of Muhammad. They always will be for it is in their DNA by his statements and calls to expand Islam around the world. The largest Islamic nation is not Arabic but is Indonesia and it has the most radical imperialists.
A great article in today's online Opinion Journal from the Wall Street Journal. otep@djoj.opinionjournal.com
I have long argued that Islamic current aggressive attacks on the USA have little or nothing to do with America's current or foreign policies. In fact, it has little to do with America other than we are seen by Islam as Christians who defeated them in the Crusades. However, the rage, hatred and shame associated with the USA predates our founding by many years.
Take a look at this paragraph from the Journal article.
Like their Arab predecessors, the Ottomans were energetic empire-builders in the name of jihad. By the early 16th century, they had conquered Syria and Egypt from the Mamluks, the formidable slave soldiers who had contained the Mongols and destroyed the Crusader kingdoms.
Under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, they soon turned northward. By the middle of the 17th century they seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe, only to be turned back in fierce fighting at the gates of Vienna in 1683--on September 11, of all dates.
Islam has always been aggressive imperialists since the days of Muhammad. They always will be for it is in their DNA by his statements and calls to expand Islam around the world. The largest Islamic nation is not Arabic but is Indonesia and it has the most radical imperialists.
Churchgoers Live Longer
By Robert Roy BrittLiveScience Managing Editorposted: 03 April 200611:29 am ETThere are many things you can do to increase your life expectancy: exercise, eat well, take your medication and ... go to church.A new study finds people who attend religious services weekly live longer. Specifically, the research looked at how many years are added to life expectancy based on:
Regular physical exercise: 3.0-to-5.1 years
Proven therapeutic regimens: 2.1-to-3.7 years
Regular religious attendance: 1.8-to-3.1 years
The role of religion The study, which is actually a review of existing research from the three categories, does not reveal what the link between faith and health might be."Religious attendance is not a mode of medical therapy," said study leader Daniel Hall, a resident in general surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
"While this study was not intended for use in clinical decision making, these findings tell us that there is something to examine further."Hall is also an Episcopal priest."The significance of this finding may prove to be controversial," he said. "But at the very least, it shows that further research into the associations between religion and health might have implications for medical practice."
In a telephone interview, Hall speculated that the social aspect of religion could play a role in the results: "There is something about being knit into the type of community that religious communities embody that has a way of mediating a positive health effect," he told LiveScience. Perhaps, he said, being involved in a religion "can then decrease your level of stress in life or increase your ability to cope with stress." Another possibility: "Being in a religious community helps you make meaning out of your life," Hall suggested.
The findings are detailed in the March-April issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.Cost-effectiveHall also looked at the cost of these three approaches, examining typical gym membership fees, therapy costs from health insurance companies and census data on average household contributions to religious institutions. The estimated cost of each year of additional life apparently gained by each method:
Regular physical exercise: $4,000
Proven therapeutic regimens: $10,000
Regular religious attendance: $7,000
By Robert Roy BrittLiveScience Managing Editorposted: 03 April 200611:29 am ETThere are many things you can do to increase your life expectancy: exercise, eat well, take your medication and ... go to church.A new study finds people who attend religious services weekly live longer. Specifically, the research looked at how many years are added to life expectancy based on:
Regular physical exercise: 3.0-to-5.1 years
Proven therapeutic regimens: 2.1-to-3.7 years
Regular religious attendance: 1.8-to-3.1 years
The role of religion The study, which is actually a review of existing research from the three categories, does not reveal what the link between faith and health might be."Religious attendance is not a mode of medical therapy," said study leader Daniel Hall, a resident in general surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
"While this study was not intended for use in clinical decision making, these findings tell us that there is something to examine further."Hall is also an Episcopal priest."The significance of this finding may prove to be controversial," he said. "But at the very least, it shows that further research into the associations between religion and health might have implications for medical practice."
In a telephone interview, Hall speculated that the social aspect of religion could play a role in the results: "There is something about being knit into the type of community that religious communities embody that has a way of mediating a positive health effect," he told LiveScience. Perhaps, he said, being involved in a religion "can then decrease your level of stress in life or increase your ability to cope with stress." Another possibility: "Being in a religious community helps you make meaning out of your life," Hall suggested.
The findings are detailed in the March-April issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.Cost-effectiveHall also looked at the cost of these three approaches, examining typical gym membership fees, therapy costs from health insurance companies and census data on average household contributions to religious institutions. The estimated cost of each year of additional life apparently gained by each method:
Regular physical exercise: $4,000
Proven therapeutic regimens: $10,000
Regular religious attendance: $7,000
Monday, April 03, 2006
Lose it to Gain it
One of the many paradoxes in life is the one taught below by Jesus. The Master Teacher had spent day and night for over three years with a group of men He chose to carry on His ministry. He took them aside and began to teach them about His destiny. After hearing Jesus clearly tell what was going to happen to Him, Peter goes into one of his patented "Foot in mouth" drills.
Mark 8:31
Jesus, then began to teach the Disciples that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this,
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his soul will lose it, but whoever loses his soul for me and for the gospel will save it.
As a pastor to pastors I can relate numerous stories about leaders who have lost their souls by working so hard to save them. These folks all started strong with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Their passion for God and His word led them to pursue "Full Time Ministry". Things went well for awhile but then they hit the wall.
The western models for a successful ministry are all distorted by capitalism and the Protestant work ethic. The only worthwhile way to prove one's Personhood in the Professional Ministry is to build a bigger barn, get more people in the barn and have them sacrifice their livelihood paying for the barn.
The pastor of a large church told me several years ago that his board was unhappy that they were no longer growing at the same rate as they had when they added two thousand people in a few years. He was scared and anxious. Fear of man filled his heart. He did not know who he was if he was not a success in their eyes.
When Performance equals Personhood burnout cannot be far behind.
I suggested that he needed to slow down and worry less about noses, numbers and nickels and concentrate on recovering his deep relationship with the Holy Spirit.
"But, I will be fired," he said.
He was to fearful of human disapproval and had no fear of God. It was not long before he came to me and asked for an anti-depressive medication. I suggested that he take a sabbatical and learn how to pray again. "Too risky," he said.
He may have thought it was risky but failure to connect with God after 40 is by far a greater risk. In fact, I think it is fear to face God that drives us to try to please men. But it does not work. When we try to save our soul through hard work, worry and weariness we are destroying our souls. Not eternal destruction but spiritual and emotional destruction today.
36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
What good is it to gain the pulpit of the largest church in town and lose your inner life of the kingdom? Who do you trust more? Your works or the Works of the Holy Spirit?
One of the many paradoxes in life is the one taught below by Jesus. The Master Teacher had spent day and night for over three years with a group of men He chose to carry on His ministry. He took them aside and began to teach them about His destiny. After hearing Jesus clearly tell what was going to happen to Him, Peter goes into one of his patented "Foot in mouth" drills.
Mark 8:31
Jesus, then began to teach the Disciples that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this,
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his soul will lose it, but whoever loses his soul for me and for the gospel will save it.
As a pastor to pastors I can relate numerous stories about leaders who have lost their souls by working so hard to save them. These folks all started strong with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Their passion for God and His word led them to pursue "Full Time Ministry". Things went well for awhile but then they hit the wall.
The western models for a successful ministry are all distorted by capitalism and the Protestant work ethic. The only worthwhile way to prove one's Personhood in the Professional Ministry is to build a bigger barn, get more people in the barn and have them sacrifice their livelihood paying for the barn.
The pastor of a large church told me several years ago that his board was unhappy that they were no longer growing at the same rate as they had when they added two thousand people in a few years. He was scared and anxious. Fear of man filled his heart. He did not know who he was if he was not a success in their eyes.
When Performance equals Personhood burnout cannot be far behind.
I suggested that he needed to slow down and worry less about noses, numbers and nickels and concentrate on recovering his deep relationship with the Holy Spirit.
"But, I will be fired," he said.
He was to fearful of human disapproval and had no fear of God. It was not long before he came to me and asked for an anti-depressive medication. I suggested that he take a sabbatical and learn how to pray again. "Too risky," he said.
He may have thought it was risky but failure to connect with God after 40 is by far a greater risk. In fact, I think it is fear to face God that drives us to try to please men. But it does not work. When we try to save our soul through hard work, worry and weariness we are destroying our souls. Not eternal destruction but spiritual and emotional destruction today.
36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
What good is it to gain the pulpit of the largest church in town and lose your inner life of the kingdom? Who do you trust more? Your works or the Works of the Holy Spirit?
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