Category: Serving Mentally Ill Christians

Serving Jesus by serving you.

Depression Quiz

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Here is a link to a diagnostic test for chronic depression. It is not a replacement for a doctor’s own interview, but it can point you in that general direction. It is a quiz that demands honesty and a willingness to know if there is a real issue.

Use this brief 18-question online automated quiz to help you determine
if you may need to see a mental health professional for diagnosis
and treatment of depression, or for tracking your depression on a regular basis.

by Ivan Goldberg, M.D.

Link to quiz–

http://psychcentral.com/depquiz.htm

Thank you to Psych Central for providing this quiz. I hope it will guide you to an understanding this issue. I encourage you to be honest and aware as you answer each question.

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Spirit at Work

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“And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”

Romans 8:2, NLT

The old farm was falling apart. It was as if a twister had passed this way, and blew everything to smithereens. The house was diapilated; windows broken, and most of the paint peeling off the siding. An old shed was looked like it was about to collapse. Weeds grew tall and wild. It was a sad, and neglected place.

As I came through the undergrowth, I saw a man some distance away. I stopped, not sure if I was welcome on his property. I quietly watched him for a few minutes, but he never looked up. I walked a bit closer, but he just kept working– he really seemed absorbed in whatever he was doing.

“Excuse me sir, I hate to interrupt,” I called out. But the man continued his work. There seems something rhythmical about what he was doing. There was a definite cadence, that only he seemed to hear. He worked without ceasing.

I drew closer and saw the pump he seemed to be using. Water gushed out, and into an animal trough. Then I looked up and saw his face. Why, he wasn’t a person after all, but a mechanical man! Someone had painted a likeness of a farmer, and bolted it to the windmill. The figure was simply attached to the pumping apparatus. I had to laugh. It sure had me fooled.

As I saw this, I slowly realized that the man was not pumping the water. But the water was pumping the man! The man was just responding to the wind in order to pump out the clear, cold water. And so I began to think…

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In many ways, this is how we work spiritually. Something other than us ourselves powers us. It only appears that we are laboring, but a man in the Spirit functions quite differently than what we expect. We dare not think we can control the Spirit, rather it is we who need to be controlled. When we are truly filled with the Holy Spirit, He will flow through us quite easily.

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Roman 15:13, NLT

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It Was Love, Not Nails

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When Jesus walked the Via Dolorosa to His execution, it was an intensely intentional act. There was no fear in being crucified. He carried His cross like a well earned trophy. Jesus understood perfectly what was going to happen. He was going to die for His friends.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.”

John 10:11, NLT

It was love, and not nails that held Him on that cruel cross. He didn’t need to be fastened on it, His love for you and I would have held Him there. But nailed and splayed up before all, naked and alone, Jesus would “endure the shame.” And He would do this because we are His sheep. We belong to Him.

There is an immense amount of theology in all of this:

  • He was our substitution
  • He was our atonement
  • He was our redeemer.

I have hundreds of books full of information that tell me this. (They often just give me a headache.)

 “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”

John 12:32, NLT

The fear of death has nipped our heels. It is a formidable and persistent enemy. But as our Lord was dying Himself, He destroyed death, dismantling its entire apparatus. It has been said, “For the believing Christian, the grave is just a doorway into eternity.”

The deep confidence of Jesus, approaching a hideous death, can now be ours. In a sense we can “piggyback” our faith on His. We can die with an assurance that our life is now eternal. In a sense, it’s like getting on an elevator, the doors close and we move up (or down). The doors open and we’re in an entirely different place. The elevator has only done what it is supposed to do, nothing more.

Dear one, I implore you to understand what has been done for you. It is a mighty act of God to assemble all of this for us. “Be glad” (Ps. 32.)

Related articles

Our (Eternal) Compulsion

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Strangely compelling. This morning I found waiting for me a series of verses that link with each other. Together they are both irresistible and indispensable. Combined, they form and establish the eternal perspective for the believing Christian. And it is all very real.

Look for what links them. (All verses are from the New Living Translation.).

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“Because I am righteous, I will see you.
When I awake, I will see you face to face and be satisfied.”

Psalm 17:15

“Your eyes will see the king in all his splendor,
and you will see a land that stretches into the distance.”

Isaiah 33:17

 “Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!”

John 17:24

“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

1 Corinthians 13:12

“Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.”

1 John 3:2

“And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.”

Revelation 22:4

Living forever, and being changed irrevocably is the sole privilege of the believer. It’s what we long for– sort of a (good) divine madness that continues to drive us; a splinter in our hearts that we can’t expel. But even if we could, would we?

Eternal life has already started for us; I believe far more awaits.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

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