Feb 3 2012

Antidepressants for Believers?

What do you think of Christians taking antidepressants?

By John Piper, given on March 30, 2010

The following is an edited transcript of the audio.

What do you think of Christians taking antidepressants? I have been on them and have been accused of not relying on God.

That relates to an earlier question about how any physical or personal means that you use can signify that you’re not relying on God. So eating might be a failure to rely on God, because he might just fill your stomach by miracle, and you don’t have to eat. Or not sleeping would be a way of relying more on God, since you don’t have to have your psyche made stable by sleep at night. And so on.

God has ordained physical means. Aside from the ones that seem more natural, like food, there’s medicine: aspirin, Nyquil, etc. This water is helping my throat right now. [Sips it.] Was that sip a failure to rely on God?

Could be. “Just throw this away and rely on God! He will keep your throat moist. You don’t need to be drinking. You’re an idolater, Piper. You’re idolizing this because you’re depending on it.”

Well, the reason that’s not the case is because God has ordained for me to thank him for that. He created it and he made this body to need a lot of fluid. And it’s not a dishonor to him if I honor him through his gift.

Now the question is, “What medicines are like that or not like that?” Taking an aspirin?

My ophthalmologist told me about 4 years ago, “Take one baby aspirin a day and you will postpone cataracts or glaucoma or something.” He said, “I can see just the slightest little discoloration, and the way it works is that circulation helps.” So he told me to pop one of these little pills in my little vitamin thing. And I take it every day. And I just said, “Lord, whether I have eyes or not is totally dependent on you. But if you would like me to use this means, I would.”

My answer is that when you start working with peoples’ minds, you are in a very very tricky and difficult situation. But I think I want to say that, while nobody should hasten towards medication to alter their mental states—even as I say it I think of caffeine, right?—nevertheless, I know from reading history, like on William Cooper, and by dealing with many people over the years, that there are profoundly physical dimensions to our mental conditions.

Since that’s the case, physical means can be appropriate. For me it’s jogging. I produce stuff in my brain by jogging. But that might not work for somebody else, and they might be constantly unable to get on top of it emotionally. I just don’t want to rule out the possibility that there is a physical medication that just might, hopefully temporarily, enable them to get their equilibrium, process the truth, live out of the strength of the truth, honor God, and go off it.

When I preached on this one Easter Sunday a woman wrote me, thanking me that I took this approach. She said, “You just need to know that I live on these things, and I know what it was like 20 years ago and the horrors and the blackness of my life. And now I love Christ, I trust Christ, I love my husband, our marriage is preserved, and I’ll probably be on these till I’m dead.”

So I’m not in principle opposed. I just want to be very cautious in the way we use antidepressants.

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Feb 1 2012

A Chariot Ride Into Teachability

We live out our lives making decisions. Many are like ‘forks’ in the road. They are made and they shunt us in another direction. Some are dramatic, we see very quickly that the road is going to take us in a radically different path.

Sometimes, if we’re honest, we will admit to backtracking, retracing our route back to the point we turned. A lot of time it is too late, and the moment has past.

I think I have been learning to receive correction and rebuke from others. I’m thinking of that Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:30-31,

“So when Philip ran toward the chariot, he heard the man reading from Isaiah the prophet. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹ He answered, “How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?” Then he invited Philip to climb in and sit with him.”

There is a humbleness, a teachableness that this eunuch possesses. He is confident enough to acknowledge that he just doesn’t know. He is so eager to be set on the right course that he invites Philip to a Bible study in the chariot.

We are responsible for our receptivity to truth. It is our personal decision to either seek or not seek. No one else can make this decision for us. We come to a decision point and we go the way things seem to direct us. And we learn; God and how we learn!

The book of Proverbs is saturated with ideas on being guided by our humility when it comes in contact with truth. Furthermore, there are many warnings about receiving correction and reproof gracefully. If we believe what we are reading, at that point all of a sudden our stubbornness and rejection become a very bad thing.

I have learned that scriptural truth is almost always negative when it is first encountered. It will not sit well, and I will try to shake it off. But truth can be remarkably persistent. ‘Forgive your brother’, the Holy Spirit says. And you say right away, ‘Not a chance!’ But give it time, and the Word will soften rock. If you respond properly, humbly, you be able to make the right decision.

One more thing, Jesus told us in Matthew 18:3,

” I promise you this. If you don’t change and become like a child, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.”

There will need to be a complete alteration in our hearts if we are to accommodate this command. Becoming a child is more difficult as adults as becoming an adult is for a child. It takes a great amount of brokenness to make the transition.

God fully intends to work with you on this. He doesn’t seem to ever give up. He is wonderfully persistent, and for some reason, He loves you. LOL

The Ethiopian Eunuch and the Body of Christ (smoodock45.wordpress.com)
Be Teachable, Even When Illness Threatens to Make You Feel Ignorant (chronicillnesspaindevotionals.wordpress.com)
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (smoodock45.wordpress.com)
What the Bible Says About Our Being Teachable (verticalviewer.wordpress.com)
The Apostle Philip baptized this black man… (thehandmaid.wordpress.com)

Jan 6 2012

Out of the Blue: The Remarkable Role of the Caregiver

~Dedicated to my lovely wife Lynn, who cares for me so well~

How can I help a friend or relative who has bipolar disorder?

If you know someone who has bipolar disorder, it affects you too. The first and most important thing you can do is help him or her get the right diagnosis and treatment. You may need to make the appointment and go with him or her to see the doctor. Encourage your loved one to stay in treatment.

Your touch can make a big difference

To help a friend or relative, you can:

Offer emotional support, understanding, patience, and encouragement
Learn about bipolar disorder so you can understand what your friend or relative is experiencing
Talk to your friend or relative and listen carefully
Listen to feelings your friend or relative expresses-be understanding about situations that may trigger bipolar symptoms
Invite your friend or relative out for positive distractions, such as walks, outings, and other activities
Remind your friend or relative that, with time and treatment, he or she can get better.

Never ignore comments about your friend or relative harming himself or herself. Always report such comments to his or her therapist or doctor.

Support for caregivers

Like other serious illnesses, bipolar disorder can be difficult for spouses, family members, friends, and other caregivers. Relatives and friends often have to cope with the person’s serious behavioral problems, such as wild spending sprees during mania, extreme withdrawal during depression, poor work or school performance. These behaviors can have lasting consequences.

Caregivers usually take care of the medical needs of their loved ones. The caregivers have to deal with how this affects their own health. The stress that caregivers are under may lead to missed work or lost free time, strained relationships with people who may not understand the situation, and physical and mental exhaustion.

Stress from caregiving can make it hard to cope with a loved one’s bipolar symptoms. One study shows that if a caregiver is under a lot of stress, his or her loved one has more trouble following the treatment plan, which increases the chance for a major bipolar episode. It is important that people caring for those with bipolar disorder also take care of themselves.

Nov 28 2011

Browsers for My Friends

Often we have issues with the mechanics of how we surf the internet. There are really good browsers that are just out there waiting to be downloaded. I have eight myself, and I really haven’t had issues of glitches.

Click for a List of Available Browsers

All a browser is just a way to load web pages. There seems to be myopic view that what we are currently using is the perfect way. But there are hundreds of great browsers out there, some of which will run circles around MS Explorer or Firefox.

I would encourage you to download a few of these. Check them out. I personally can vouch for Chrome, Opera, Maxthon or Flock. All of these do what you want them to do. And each have features the others don’t have.

What is important for me is how fast do pages load? How customized can I go, and how much space will this browser will take up on my hard drive? Does it have a solid connection with Facebook, built-in news links, or multiple search engines?

Click for a Closer Look at Google

I’m using Google quite a bit. It just seems cleaner and more intuitive for me. I was a hardcore MS Explorer user for a long time. Used both Netscape and Opera for a while. If I was stranded on a desert island and could only take one browser with me, I would without hesitation choose Google Chrome.

(But if I was stuck out there I probably wouldn’t have a wi-fi signal, lol)

OK, so I’m shamelessly plugging Chrome. IMHO it is the easiest and the best. But check out the rest. If you want to download the Chrome browser here is where you could start.

Download Free Google Chrome Browser

Nov 27 2011

21 Things That Are Worth Doing

1.Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.

2.Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.

3.Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

4.Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.

5.Be forgiving of yourself and others.

6.Be generous.

7.Have a grateful heart.

8.Persistence, persistence, persistence.

9.Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.

10.Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.

11.Commit yourself to constant improvement.

12.Commit yourself to quality.

13.Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.

14.Be loyal.

15.Be honest.

16.Be a self-starter.

17.Be decisive even if it means you’ll sometimes be wrong.

18.Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.

19.Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.

20.Take good care of those you love.

21.Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud.

I scraped this up from some corner of the internet, I don’t remember where though. I suppose a Christian believer might consider these scented with a self-help philosophy from the world. But as I read (and re-read) I can see many definite connections to definite Bible principles. But perhaps you should read aware and alert. Blessings to you! –B.

Nov 3 2011

Guidance When Life Hurts You Terribly

Quotes to Guide

"Without me you can do nothing", John 15:5

A.W. Tozer

“It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He’s hurt him deeply.” (Roots of Righteousness, Chapter 39)

Calvin Miller

“Hurt is the essential ingredient of ultimate Christ-likeness.” (Quoted in Christianity Today, July 2007, p41)

Larry Crabb

“Brokenness isn’t so much about how bad you’ve been hurt but how you’ve sinned in handling it.” (Christianity Today, A Shrink Gets Stretched, May 1, 2003)

“Shattered dreams are never random. They are always a piece of a piece in a larger story. The Holy Spirit uses the pain of shattered dreams to help us discover our desire for God, to help us begin dreaming the highest dream. They are ordained opportunities for the Spirit to first awaken, then to satisfy our highest dream.” (Shattered Dreams, 2001)

Adolph Monod

“And if among the trials that you are called to bear, there is one that seems, I do not say heavier than the others, but more compromising to your ministry, and likely to ruin forever the hopes of your holy mission, if outward temptations be added to these coming from within, if all seems assailed, body, mind, spirit, if all seems lost without remedy, well, accept this trial, shall I say, or this assemblage of trials, in a peculiar feeling of submission, hope and gratitude, as a trial in which the Lord will cause you to find a new mission. Hail it as the beginning of a ministry of weakness and bitterness… which He will cause to abound in more living fruit than your ministry of strength and joy in days gone by ever yielded.” (Adolph Monod, Farewell, quoted by Amy Carmichael in, Learning Of God, (London: SPCK, 1983), 52.)

Alan Redpath

“When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him.” (Quoted by Gary Preston, Character Forged from Conflict: Staying Connected to God During Controversy. The pastor’s soul series, (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 1999)

Bruce Wilkinson

“Are you praying for God’s superabundant blessings and pleading that He will make you more like His Son? If so, then you are asking for the shears.” (Secrets of the Vine, 60.)

Charles Swindoll

“Someone put it this way, ‘Whoever desires to walk with God, walks right into the crucible.’ All who choose godliness live in a crucible. The tests will come.” (Moses, Great Lives from God’s Word, 285.)

“Being stripped of all substitutes is the most painful experience on earth.” (David, p70)

Elisabeth Elliot

“The surrender of our heart’s deepest longing is perhaps as close as we come to an understanding of the cross… our own experience of crucifixion, though immeasurably less than our Saviour’s nonetheless furnishes us with a chance to begin to know Him in the fellowship of His suffering. In every form of our own suffering, He calls us into that fellowship.” (Elisabeth Elliot, Quest For Love, (Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell, 1996), 182.)

George MacDonald

“No words can express how much our world ‘owes’ to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were conceived in a wilderness. Most of the New Testament was written in a prison. The greatest words of God’s Scriptures have all passed through great trials. The greatest prophets have “learned in suffering what they wrote in their books.” So take comfort afflicted Christian! When our God is about to make use of a person, He allows them to go through a crucible of fire.”

Helen Keller

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through the experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” (Quoted in Leadership, Vol. 17, no. 4.)

Oswald Chambers

“God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers He uses to crush us with. If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way! But when He uses someone whom we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, and makes those the crushers, we object. We must never choose the scene of our own martyrdom. If ever we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.” (Chambers, O. (1993, c1935). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (September 30). Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers.)

“No-one enters into the experience of entire sanctification without going through a ‘white funeral’ — the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crisis of death, sanctification is nothing more than a vision… Have you come to your last days really? You have come to them often in sentiment, but have you come to them really?… We skirt around the cemetery and all the time refuse to go to death… Have you had your ‘white funeral’, or are you sacredly playing the fool with your soul? Is there a place in your life marked as the last day, a place to which the memory goes back with a chastened and extraordinary grateful remembrance–’yes, it was then, at that ‘white funeral’ that I made an agreement with God.” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, January 15, (Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour and Company, Inc., 1963).)

“Jesus Christ had no tenderness whatsoever toward anything that was ultimately going to ruin a person in his service to God…. If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you can be sure that there is something in you that He wants to hurt to the point of its death.” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, September 27, (Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour and Company, Inc., 1963.)

Charles Stanley

Does God purposefully allow suffering? “The comfortable, but theologically incorrect, answer is no. You will find many people preaching and teaching that God never sends an ill wind into a person’s life, but that position can’t be justified by Scripture. The Bible teaches that God does send adversity – but within certain parameters and always for a reason that relates to our growth, perfection, and eternal good.” (*Stanley, C. F. 1997, c1996. Advancing through adversity (electronic ed.). Thomas Nelson: Nashville, TN.)