Satan Doesn't Attack His Own Forces

"To protect us from Satan's crushing blows, Paul tells us to 'take the helmet of salvation.' ... Paul was addressing believers. Unbelievers don't have to put on spiritual armor. They aren't even in the battle. Satan doesn't attack his own forces." - pg 1089 of MacArthur Drawing Near Devotional Bible (from the Devotional)

I wanted to share this quote from my devotional Bible because it stopped me and made me think. It's referencing Ephesians 6:10-18 which is where the Armor of God is introduced. 

In the quote above, the line "Satan doesn't attack his own forces," is what stopped me. Unbelievers don't need the armor of God because Satan doesn't attack unbelievers. Really? I hadn't thought about it. I assumed Satan enjoyed attacking all people. But it's true that he is against God so it makes sense that he attacks those who believe in God only. So when you become Christian and accept the Lord as your savior, you will need the Armor of God to protect you. 

Here is a FREE Bible Study I found on the Armor of God if you want to learn more. There are 9 lessons so make sure you click to the next lesson after you read the first page and keep going. 

We Must Trust in God

Have you ever wondered why God doesn't just make our lives easier? Why he doesn't help us win the lottery or get a high paying job or give us a great house? 

Remember in the bible when the Israelites are wandering in the desert? God gives them manna or food every day. He provides only enough for them to need and if they try to save some, it goes bad. They must rely on God to get food everyday. Why doesn't he just give them a weeks worth at a time?

Consider this quote from the book Spurgeon on the Power of Prayer compiled by Jason K. Allen:

 "...suppose this child should doubt whether his father would provide him with his daily food. He might then say, "Father, give me enough money to last for the next ten years, for I shall then be a man and able to provide for myself. Give me money to quiet my fears, for I am in great anxiety." The father replies, "My son, what should I do that for?" And he gets for a reply, "I am very sorry to say it, dear father, but I cannot trust you. I have such a weak faith in you and your love that I am afraid one of these days you will leave me to starve, and therefore I should like to have something sure in the bank." Which of you fathers would listen to this child's request?"

When you consider it this way,  it makes perfect sense. Why should God provide us with a week's worth of food or help us win the lottery just so we can forget him until we need him again. This is not the kind of relationship we are meant to have with him. By needing him daily, we are reminded to trust in him and to have faith. 

Do you trust in God?

What Sin Really Is

A while back I read a book I received for review called: Your Future Self Will Thank You: Secrets to Self-Control from the Bible and Brain Science by Drew Dyck. (this post contains affiliate links.)

You can read my review on my book blog but I wanted to share something from page 20.

"From the biblical view, there are only two modes of life available to us, enslavement to sin and life in the Spirit. The former speaks of confinement in the extreme. Today, "sin" is a playful word, associated with decadent desserts and lingerie ads. We see the word sin and imagine someone sampling a menu of forbidden delights. Don't be thrown by that connotation. Instead, think of being pistol-whipped by increasingly destructive patterns of behavior, ones that ultimately lead to your demise."

This passage really made me think. They are right. Non-Christians even use the word sin but they don't mean what it really means. The image of being pistol-whipped by each destructive pattern over and over until it kills us really makes you think of sin as a worse thing than the image of eating a chocolate cake would be.

Wouldn't you be more likely to avoid sin if you thought about it as the deadly choice? I know I would.

You can read more of an excerpt of this section of the book here or buy the book to get the full idea of self-control the biblical way.

65 People to Pray For List

You've been told (or read) a lot about spending more time in prayer and how important prayer is. But when you remember to pray, are you stuck for ideas of who to pray for after your family? Or do you find yourself praying for the same few people over and over and just don't feel like you are covering enough people?

65 People to Pray For

This list starts with the obvious and then goes to others you might not have heard of. Not all of these will be applicable but choose the ones that are and start spreading your praying around.

1. Husband/Wife
2. Children
3. Parents
4. Your Siblings
5. Your Children's Families (if they are grown)
6. Your Children's Friends
7. Your Extended Family (Aunts, Uncles, Cousins)
8. Grandparents
9. Close Friends
10. Acquaintances
11. Coworkers
12. Boss
13. Your Child's Teachers and Other School Staff
14. Your Children's Classmates
15. Pets
16. Stray Animals
17. Pets waiting to find forever homes
18. Specific Neighbours
19. Your Neighbourhood
20. Your Town/City
21. Your Province/State/etc
22. Your Country
23. Your Political Leaders (Municipal, Provincial/State, Federal or your country's equivalent)
24. Members of Your Church
25. Your Church Leaders
26. Your Church Type (e.g. all United Church or all Pentecostal Church or all Catholic Church)
27. The Unsaved
28. Orphans
29. Children in Foster Care
30. Widows and Widowers
31. All Children
32. All Seniors
33. Seniors in Nursing Homes Without Families
34. All New Moms/Dads
35. All Struggling Moms/Dads
36. Those who are anxious
37. Those who suffer from any mental illness
38. Those who are suffering from any illness/disease you are suffering from (eg. I pray for those who suffer from migraine, fibromyalgia and Bipolar)
39. Those who have Cancer
40. Those with dementia
41. The families of those who are sick with any of the above
42. Those who are poor
43. Those who are homeless
44. Those who do not use their money wisely
45. Those who are struggling with pornography
46. Those who are struggling with adultery
47. Those dealing with shame or guilt
48. Those dealing with anger
49. Those who have divorced or are contemplating divorce
50. Those who have false beliefs about the faith
51. Those who poorly represent Christians
52. Those who have hurt me physically or emotionally
53. Those who make poor decisions
54. Those dealing with persecution
55. Those dealing with discrimination
56. Those doing the persecution or discrimination
57. Those in abusive situations
58. Those being abusive
59. Criminals
60. Those contemplating turning to crime
61. Doctors/Nurses/Medical Staff
62. Police
63. Firefighters
64. EMS and other Emergency Crew
65. Those who do the same job as you

Did you think of any I forgot?

The Antidote for Sin

Daily I read the MacArthur Drawing Near Devotional Bible and the devotion I read a while back said that Love is the Antidote for Sin. I wanted to share what I learned here.

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It goes on to state two sections of bible verses. (emphasis mine)

The book of Matthew tells us what the greatest commandment is:

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  - Matthew 22:37-40

Then Paul in Romans tells us that love is the fulfillment of the law:

8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. - Romans 13:8-10

What the devotional is saying is that when you love others, you will not want to sin against them. That is why love is the antidote to sin. If we love as Jesus loved and as God loves us sin will naturally disappear. Don't you agree?

I highly recommend the MacArthur Drawing Near Devotional as each month a new topic is covered. August was the month to talk about love. After reading the devotional for the day you have some parts of the Bible to read. You read from the Old Testament, Psalms/Proverbs and New Testament every day. The Psalms and New Testament are read twice during the year.

Did Sin Cause My Depression?

Sometimes Christians with Depression wonder if they did something to deserve their suffering. They wonder if their sin caused their depression. Some things I read in a recent book, Depression, Anxiety and the Christian Life (my review) made me think and I wanted to share.

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Did Sin Cause My Depression?

It is true that some of the hardships we encounter are a result of sin and so sin can cause or worsen depression and sometimes it's not related at all. It's not usually one sin that causes an illness but many sins over a long period of time. However that's not what you should be worrying about. The cause of your depression for the most part is irrelevant. It's what you do with that depression.

If they were more aware of how sinful is their overvaluing the world, failing to trust God, having bitter thoughts of him and meager, unholy thoughts about his goodness, and devaluing the glory of heaven (which should give them some solace even in the most desperate state), as well as their being frequently impatient, worrying, and discontent, and their denying previously received mercy or grace, this would do them more good than words of comfort.  - from Depression, Anxiety and the Christian Life

What this quote is saying is that by doing those things, you are sinning. Someone telling you that they are sins and that you should work hard to overcome them would be better than just simple words of comfort such as "don't worry, it will be okay." Hope is important but just hoping it will get better is not taking matters into your own hands.

Words of Wisdom

Don't make the world more important than faith. Trust in God, resist bitter thoughts of God and unholy thoughts about his goodness. Watch your impatience, worry, discontent and don't deny already received mercy or grace or deny that you will receive more.

Sin Doesn't Mean...

However just because you might be struggling with sin (as we all are in some way), it doesn't mean that you are not worthy of grace or that God doesn't love you.

On the other hand, if they foolishly imagine that all these sins prove them to be devoid of grace and that God will count the Devil’s temptations as their personal sins, condemn them for the very things they abhor, and reckon their very illness of depression to them as a crime, these notions need to be refuted and discarded. Otherwise, they might mistakenly relish their disordered emotions and sufferings. - from Depression, Anxiety and the Christian Life

God doesn't count the Devil's temptations as yours, as long as you resist them. God doesn't consider your illness a crime either. God loves you and your imperfections but he hopes you will be able to resist sin and try to live as he would.

Repent of your sin, ask for forgiveness and then work on your illness. It's hard, trust me I know. But you have to take an active role in your depression to get rid of it. It won't go away by itself. God Bless!

Choosing Life (Suicide and Faith)

I suffer from Bipolar which means I have struggled with Depression and Mania and have dealt with suicidal thoughts most of my life. My manias are dysphoric which means that instead of feeling excessively happy or having grandiose thoughts (I'm better than others or I can conquer the world) most of the time I feel excessive anger, anxiety and obsessive thoughts when I'm manic. It also means I get suicidal thoughts during depressions and manias.

NOTE: This post may be triggering to some. It talks about suicide. Please read with care.

Choosing Life - Suicide and Faith

If you've struggled with suicidal thoughts and you believe in God you may have wondered what God thinks about suicide. I have been suicidal off and on for many years but I've only been
Christian for just under 5 years.

Before I believed in the Christian God, I thought it didn't matter if I committed suicide because when I died I thought I'd be reincarnated to another life no matter how I died. Once I started being a Christian I struggled with what God would think if I killed myself. Does it matter? Would I be welcomed into his arms no matter how I died? Surely God would understand that I was suffering. Surely God didn't want me to suffer right?

I had searched online for what the Bible says about suicide but wasn't happy with the answers one way or the other. Luckily I chose life. I'm not currently suicidal (thank goodness) and am doing okay. But I recently came across Deuteronomy 30 in my reading and I wanted to share what it says with anyone who might have considered suicide or might consider it in the future.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20

19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

God says "Choose Life."

Okay so God wasn't talking about suicide but I still feel like this is his message to me.

The commentary on this page says this about this passage:

"Every man wishes to obtain life and good, and to escape death and evil; he desires happiness, and dreads misery. So great is the compassion of the Lord, that he has favoured men, by his word, with such a knowledge of good and evil as will make them for ever happy, if it be not their own fault. Let us hear the sum of the whole matter. If they and theirs would love God, and serve him, they should live and be happy. If they or theirs should turn from God, desert his service, and worship other gods, that would certainly be their ruin." 

So the phrase is about choosing God, loving God and serving God so that we may live through him. I feel this is still what God wants me to think of if I consider suicide thoughts. If we seek him and follow him we are doing it so we can live with God when the time comes and so we should be doing so only when HE decides the time comes.

I don't think it's a matter of whether you will go to Heaven if you kill yourself or not. We still go to heaven when we sin as long as we accept Jesus as our saviour and try to life like he would. I think if we DID go through with it, we would still be accepted into Heaven. HOWEVER, God wants us to choose life, now and then with him after we die, as HE wills it.

These are just my thoughts and I am still studying more but I hope it is helpful to someone.

Sinning is Like Cheating on God

When we accept God as our Saviour, we enter into an intimate relationship with him. The Bible compares the love of a man and woman to the love God feels for us. It compares a marriage with how the Church (us) is married to God.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV /Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

Ephesians 5:22-33 ESV / Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word...

So therefore, when we let Satan tempt us and we sin, we are dealing with him instead of God. In essence, we are cheating on our relationship with God.

A small sin might be equivalent to lusting after another while a bigger sin might be equivalent to fully being intimate with another person.

Our relationship with God is important and special and we are to be faithful to God.

Deuteronomy 28: 1-2 / And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.

This does not mean that if we sin, God will "break up with us." He is faithful to us as well and will not abandon us because of a little sin. As long as you repent of your sins and try to live a sinless life he will always be there for us.

1 John 1:9 ESV / If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

The next time you are tempted to sin, remember that you would be cheating on God and stay faithful to him.

James 4:7-8 / Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.

I'm Not So Bad, Everyone Sins.. Right?

I was reading a book today and something I read about sin jumped out at me and made me think. Let me share.

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"No one is above the dilemma. No one is righteous enough to escape God’s judgment. Solomon wrote, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (Eccles. 7:20). The apostle Paul wrote, “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10); and, “There is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (vv. 22–23). Notice carefully that when Scripture mentions our fallenness and the universality of sin, the point is never to excuse (or even to mitigate) the guilt we bear as sinners. No one should ever think, I’m not so bad. After all, everyone sins. But when Scripture speaks of the fact that all have sinned, it is always to stress the truth that without a Savior, the whole human race would be utterly doomed." 

 - from The Gospel According to God by John MacArthur (emphasis mine)

It can be easy to think that since everyone sins, it's not really that bad. Or to compare your sins with the sin of someone else. "Well at least I don't do that!"

When the bible tells us that we all are sinners it's not so we will think any of these:

• "We all sin, it's not that bad"
• "Well we are all sinners anyways so what's the point of trying to be good"
• "No matter what I do I'll always be a sinner so whatever"
• "My sin isn't as bad as my friend's sin"

As the above quote states, it's so we will think this:

"Since we are all sinners, we all need our saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Even though we will never be perfect, sinless beings, it doesn't mean we shouldn't try to do good as often as possible. We are to imitate Christ and TRY to live sinless lives.

1 John 3:6-10 New International Version (NIV)

6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

Before I was Christian I believed in The Many Paths to God Theory which states in one way or another that each religion is like a path up a hill but that all the paths lead to the same Supreme Being. We just call them different names. It made sense to me. I know better now.

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The Many Paths to God Theory

The book I’ve been reading, Reunion by Bruxy Cavey has something to say about this theory that put it into perspective for me.

This kind of thinking is fundamentally religious in the worst possible way. The “many paths up the mountain” theory is based on three faulty assumptions. (1) God is still up on the mountain. (2) it is our lot in life to climb up the mountain to get to God, and (3) the paths and the Person are separate. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Maybe it’s because I’m a newer Christian but those revelations really had me intrigued. I’m still learning who God is and these were ideas I hadn’t thought of.

First, the story of the incarnation, God becoming one of us, is the heartbeat of the gospel. God is not “up there” somewhere, but right here, with us and in us. Jesus said, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20)

Oh yeah! I know that of course but I still tend to think of the idea that God is up there somewhere more than I remember the God is with us part since I’m new.

Second, the gospel is the message of grace […]: God has given us everything religion tries but fails to give. We don’t have to climb any path up any mountain to get to God. We don’t have to do anything. God has already done it all.

God brings himself to us, not the other way around. We aren’t journeying this life to GET to God. He is already here and he was here long before we were.

Third, if Jesus really is God come to us, then Jesus is not just one path to get to the person of God. Instead, the Path and the Person are one. This is the context for Christ’s statement in John 14:6 that he is the only way to God because Jesus is God (see John 14:7-9)

Jesus IS the path and he’s the ONLY path. God is clear what we must do to get to Him and it doesn’t involve other religious practices.

I’ve posted a lot about what I’ve learned from Reunion by Bruxy Cavey in the last few weeks and I have more to share. Even with all that, I still won’t have covered ALL the points the book covers.
This book has crammed the MOST faith based information into one book I’ve ever seen and he writes in such a different way from many other Christian books. He writes like a friend talking to you, without using big words or complicated ideas. He brings the teachings down to the level of the everyday person.

Remember: Jesus is the ONLY Path to God.

While reading from Reunion by Bruxy Cavey there is a section titled Jesus. Period.

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In Reunion I read:

Julie loved Jesus, and because of her generous spirit, she was trying to bring every other faith system she appreciated into her love relationship with Jesus. Her spiritual thinking was a mixture of the teachings of Jesus, Buddha, stuff that sounded like Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, a dash of Sufi poetry of Rumi, a drizzle of the environmental consciousness of Wicca, and a sprinkle of Hindu philosophy from her favourite yoga instructor […] Theologians call is syncretism: mashing together different faiths to get the one we like.

This part of the book grabbed my attention because I used to do the same thing. Taking the parts of the religions/belief systems that made sense to me and making my own.
I thought it made sense at the time but what the book continued to say puts it all into perspective.

Jesus is Enough

[…] she was relating to Jesus as though he were one of God’s messengers, one of God’s prophets, one of God’s self-revelations, and one of God’s ways for us to know his heart. But that isn’t what Jesus taught about himself.

The author continues a little later:

Julie was engaged to be married at the time. Ted asked her if she loved her fiancé, and of course she affirmed that she did. He then asked her if she was planning on marrying any other men as well. […] I know Tom is the only man you want to marry, but how about boyfriends? How many men do you hope to date on the side over the years while you’re married to Tom? […] Why do you think it would be a dumb idea to plan on dating men on the side once you’re married to Tom? Ted asked. Because it would be deeply insulting to him and emotionally confusing to me, Julie answered. Tom is enough. Julie had just answered her own question.

When you put it like that, it makes perfect sense. Tom is enough for Julie. Jesus is enough for me. There are parts of religions I’ve been a part of in the past that I still like. But I can’t mix them with Jesus if I truly believe Jesus is the right path to God. Jesus is enough.

If You’ve Been Mixing Religions

If you’ve been doing what Julie was doing and mixing religions or beliefs to make your own path but you fully believe in Jesus and that he is the word of God please consider if Jesus is Enough.
Do you truly love Jesus? Do you believe he is the way to God? God’s only prophet and son? If so then tell yourself God is Enough. You are dishonouring God by incorporating other religions. Jesus is all you need.

I highly recommend Reunion by Bruxy Cavey. I did receive the book for review on another blog but I am blogging here about what I’ve learned because I love the book so much.

We Are People of the Person

Are we People of the Book or People of the Person? I’m reading Reunion by Bruxy Cavey and I am finding so many good takeaways from the book I decided to blog about them to share. I highly recommend purchasing a copy of Reunion for yourself.

This post contains affiliate links. I will get a small commission if you make a purchase through these links. I also received an copy of the book Reunion for review purposes on my nonfiction book blog.

We Are People of the Person

I realize that sounds weird. First let me quote Reunion:

We read the Bible because it is the best God-given window through which we get a clear view of Jesus – who is God’s ultimate self-disclosure. The Bible is not a painting to be looked at, but a window to be looked through, and through that window we see Jesus. […] In other words, Christ-followers are not actually “People of the Book”, as the Qur’an calls Christians. WE are People of the Person. We don’t follow the Bible – we read the Bible so we can follow Jesus. – ch 4 of Reunion

The author goes on to explain the difference.

…if I follow the Bible, I can use its stories to justify all kinds of violence, from beating children to waging all-out holy war. But if I follow the Jesus whom I read about in the Bible, he won’t let me get away with anything short of active, other-centered, nonviolent, enemy-embracing love.

Misunderstanding the Bible

I never realized it before reading this chapter but that is so true. I used to not believe in the Bible because I couldn’t see how bad things could happen in the bible when God was supposed to be good. I’d think, “if we don’t stone people when they cheat why do we have to follow the other laws?” I thought the Bible was just a set of laws to follow. I hadn’t actually read the Bible let alone studied it so I didn’t understand.

The stories of the Bible took place over many, many years and the laws changed and Jesus came and so the Bible isn’t saying we should live the way every person in every story lived. It’s not a bunch of stories of perfect people it’s the stories of sinners.
This all might make perfect sense to some or make you think, “duh!” But let me tell you it wasn’t obvious to me so if someone you are reaching out to has trouble with the negative things that happen in the Bible please keep this in mind. We are not following the Bible, we are following Jesus.

The Bible isn’t the Center of Christianity, Jesus Is

Bruxy Cavey continues…

[…]”You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40)
Herein lies the beautiful irony: we learn in the Bible that Jesus wants us to move beyond just learning the Bible. Sure from the outside in, we look like a People of the Book, reading and studying our Holy Scriptures like people of any other religion. But looks can be deceiving. From the inside out, we are a movement of people who follow Jesus, and that shapes how we read our own Bibles.

So Jesus himself told us to not just grip the Bible tightly but to come to know Jesus through the book. The Bible is a tool to get to Jesus. Jesus is the center of Christianity. Thank you to Bruxy Cavey for your book Reunion which helped me to understand that.

How to Connect With God

Aren’t we all trying to connect with God? Every Christian wants a connection with God, to feel his love and grace and to feel like we matter to Him (which we do!)
Sometimes though we can be stuck on how best to connect with God.

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The following comes from Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality by Rob Bell

“You can’t be connected with God until you’re at peace with who you are. If you’re still upset that God gave you this body or this life or this family or these circumstances, you will never be able to connect with God in a healthy, thriving, sustainable sort of way. You’ll be at odds with your maker.” – pg 46

How to Connect With God

Thinking Negatively About My Life

When I read the above quote I really stopped and thought about all the times I’ve said any of the following:

• I’m no good
• I’m a failure
• I’m overweight
• I wish my life was like _________
• Why does my child have to be like that?
• and many others

Thinking Negatively About God

However I never once thought that by thinking those things, by dwelling on them, I was essentially saying to God:

• You made me wrong
• You failed when you created me
• You don’t know what’s best for me
• I’m not happy with you

Can you imagine saying those things to God? I can’t imagine facing him and saying those things yet that’s basically what I tell him when I complain about my life.

Connecting with God

How can I be connected with God if I’m not at peace about me and my life?
Read that quote again.

“You can’t be connected with God until you’re at peace with who you are. If you’re still upset that God gave you this body or this life or this family or these circumstances, you will never be able to connect with God in a healthy, thriving, sustainable sort of way. You’ll be at odds with your maker.” – pg 46

What the Bible Says

The bible talks about our connection with God too:

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

God made us right. He made no mistake when he made us, not one. For he made us in his image.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

He has a plan for us so while we have free will, a lot of what happens in our life was planned that way, even the bad things. God didn’t make a mistake with your life.

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:8 NIV

If you connect with God he will connect with you too. Connecting with God doesn’t mean just sitting there and hoping it happens. You do what you can to get near to God and you should start with loving yourself and your life.

So, does that quote make you think?

This post is linked up at Messy Marriage

eMoods Bipolar Mood Tracker is the best tool to keep track of your Bipolar condition so that when you talk to your doctor he or she can tell if you are doing better or worse and if anything needs to be changed in your treatment plan
.
I’ve tried multiple ways to track my symptoms but most of them didn’t work for one reason or another.
I’ve tried paper but that requires remembering to print or photocopy it each month and keeping it somewhere where someone doesn’t find it.
I’ve tried just writing it down on paper but it inevitably gets lost and its hard to be clear on what means bad and what means good.
I’ve tried lots of phone apps too but most of them were made for depression, not Bipolar and so I couldn’t track my mania or they weren’t easy to use or weren’t free.
Until now…

eMoods Bipolar Mood Tracker Review

I recently found an app called eMoods Bipolar Mood Tracker. It must be new because I’ve been looking for a Bipolar tracker for years.

I’ve been using it for over a month now. It tracks your depression, mania, irritability and anxiety. You rank each from None to Severe and you are ranking the worst it was that day. This works best for me since my moods change throughout the day so it’s hard for me to rank my depression at a certain number for the day if it’s been all over the place. But this way I’m ranking the worst it was.

eMoods Log Your Moods

You can also mark if you had psychotic symptoms or had talk therapy that day. Also you can track the hours of sleep you got so you can see any patterns. Those with Bipolar know (or should know) that lack of sleep can be a sign of an Mania. If you are sleeping less and less and your mania is going up, it’s time to talk to your doctor.

In setting you can add a spot to track weight or menstrual cycle. My doctor used to have me track this and I found my depressions were worse during that time of the month. You can also allow it to automatically check that you took your everyday medications.
You can view your results in calendar or graph mode to see how you are doing over time. You can also set a reminder to use the app.

eMoods Sleep Results

eMoods Tracking Points

As you can see below (graph mode) you can see how depressed, elevated (manic), irritable or anxious I was from May 10th when I started using the app until the end of May. The darker, longer lines are worse. The small light blue dot means none. So you can see the 14th and 15th were bad for me with depression and irritability.

eMoods Calendar Mode

I don’t personally like this mode as much but you can see how you did in calendar mode. So here again you can see more dark circles on the 14th and 15th. In this mode you would have to remember that the first circle is depression, second is manic etc.

eMoods 3 Month Overview

The app just recently added this feature. This is another way to see how you’ve been doing. You see one month at a time but you can scroll down to see the last 3 months.
This one is showing June. It drops off on the 20th because that is today, when I wrote the post. You can see two irritability peaks, one of which happened when I was manic (elevated) but not the other. I mostly had mania this month, you can barely see the depression because it mostly was less than the mania was.

The Premium Version

All the above is free but if you upgrade to the paid version (which I have not) you can add custom tracking points so you can say mark down when you exercised.
The premium version also allows you to add time stamped notes, generate printable reports older than 6 months and 10% of the profits goes to mental health charities.
All your app data is saved and you can email yourself as a backup as well.

Get the eMoods Bipolar Mood Tracker App

You can find the app on Google Play for Android.
You can find the app on the App Store for Apple.

The Silver Linings Playbook

The Silver Linings Playbook is a 2012 romantic comedy-drama starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence with Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Anupam Kher and Julia Stiles.

Summary: After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.

Rated R
2hr 2min

Silver Linings Playbook Review

When I found out this movie was about someone with Bipolar I knew I wanted to watch it. Since I have Bipolar, I like to see how the media portrays us.
I realized as I watched it that there is always a problem with portraying people with mental illness in movies or TV.

Those with mental illness are all different, even if they have the same diagnosis. So because of this, a movie can only portray one version of that illness. So anyone with that illness that experiences it differently will think they didn’t portray the illness correctly. Anyone without that mental illness will think the illness ONLY looks that one way.

That being said, overall I think the movie was pretty good. I identify with Pat’s anger although I deal with it in a different way. He lets it out, I hold it in or unleash it on myself. I may have enjoyed it more if I was a football person as a lot of the show revolved around watching football on TV and betting on games.

It’s one of those movies you can watch while you do something else, it doesn’t require intense concentration. Which honestly is a good thing for me right now as I can’t concentrate well.
The ending was the best part of the movie (as it should be as far as I’m concerned.) The movie is listed as a Romantic Comedy-Drama but honestly there wasn’t really any comedy in it. But that was okay. A Romantic Drama was refreshing.

Silver Linings Playbook Trailer

NLP: Neuro Linguistic Programming

Neuro Linguistic Programming or NLP is something I just recently stumbled upon. It can be a bit confusing at first but it sounds like something I’d like to try and I wanted to share a bit about it.

What is NLP: Neuro Linguistic Programming?

According to Wikipedia:

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in California, United States in the 1970s. […] NLP’s creators claim there is a connection between neurological processes (neuro-), language (linguistic) and behavioral patterns learned through experience (programming), and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life

If that seems very confusing, don’t worry. I find the more I read about NLP the more I understand it.
Basically there are a set of practices you can do to acheive results whether it be freedom from depression and anxiety or just the negative thoughts every person has from time to time.
You should know that not all of these ideas can be proven through science and probably because of that, certain people and groups discredit NLP. However there is nothing harmful about using NLP and besides, sometimes if you believe something helps, it helps.

Anchors

Anchors are used to change the feelings/thoughts surrounding a particular situation. You know how sometimes if a person is wearing something specific and they win a competition they start to think of that item as lucky? Whether or not it has any actual luck in it doesn’t matter. The person associates said item with luck and so when they wear it in the future, they feel more lucky.
Anchors are like that but you can make them intentionally too. So if you create a few anchors like a calming stone you can hold or a joyful necklace, you can train your brain to change how you’re feeling when you have those anchors with you.

Change The Memory

There is another one that involves remembering something negative that happened (and that you think about often) and looking at it again from a third person’s perspective, as if you are a movie director. You can zoom in and out, change the view, focus on certain things and unfocus on others.
Manipulate the memory, take the focus off the main part and focus on smaller, average things such as the flowers in the vase behind you or the dog barking at your feet. Doing this enough makes the memory seem distant and non important, stopping your brain from going back to it again and again.

And More

There is way more to it than that. I am still learning but I think it’s an interesting way to try to change your thinking. I wish I had heard of it sooner! There are some resources below if you wish to know more. The free ebook is pretty good and if after that you want to learn more, you might want the other books. Just remember that it can seem confusing at first but keep reading.

Resources:

NLP Canada FREE ebook on NLP
NLP Depression & Anxiety Kindle Books (affiliate link)
Neuro Linguistic Programming for Dummies (affiliate link)

The Difference Between Angry and Mad

How many times have you heard people use the word angry and mad interchangeably (me included) when there really is a difference between angry and mad.

Difference Between Angry and Mad

While there is technically a difference between being angry and mad, it’s not that big of a deal if you say you are mad when you mean angry, especially if you live in North America.
Although I will be explaining a bit behind the meaning of the words, this post is about dealing with your anger as much as it is about the correct grammar.

Angry and Mad Defined

Angry
1. Having a strong feeling of or showing annoyance, displeasure or hostility; full of anger.
Some synonyms: irate, cross, vexed, incense, infuriated, etc.
He makes me so angry.
I get angry when she does that.
Mad
1. mentally ill, insane
Some synonyms: crazed, psychotic,
She felt as if she was going mad.
He could feel the madness welling up inside of him.
If you live in England you will hear the word mad used to mean mentally ill more than you will in North America but the meaning is still the same.

How Angry and Mad Got Mixed Up

So how did people start using the word mad when they mean angry?
Unfortunately a lot of people have trouble with their anger and instead of expressing it well, as soon as it bothers them, they do a number of different things to not express it from bottling it all up quietly inside of them, to acting passive aggressive (e.g. the person who says nothing is wrong but gives you the cold shoulder) to the person who takes the anger out on the wrong person.
When they do this, anger tends to build inside of them and act like a poison to their body. They are not expressing their anger in a healthy way and so it can feel like they are going mad (insane) because their anger is building inside of them and affecting their mental health.
This seems to be the way that the word became known to be about anger.
“To feel and to express anger healthily is actually the antithesis of madness.” – The Angry Book by Theodore I Rubin, M.D.

Not Letting Anger Turn to Madness

I have no idea what the actual stats are but I do know that many people struggle with anger problems.
The Angry Book by Theodore I Rubin, M.D., although old, is a good resource for recognizing how you deal with anger. It shows the MANY and varied ways that people don’t deal with their anger in the best ways. Some are obvious but many you would not at first think have anything to do with anger.
You might be surprised to see how your behaviours might be betraying a long standing “slush fund” of past anger. Slush fund is the term used in the book to indicate the built up anger inside of you.
Definitely if your anger often seems stronger or more potent than would make sense for that situation, is very frequent, hurts your relationships or makes you act violently than you definitely are having troubles with your anger.
Seek help with your psychiatrist, doctor, counsellor or a trusted family member or friend if you are worried.
NOTE: I have reviewed the book I mentioned above at one of my other blogs if you are interested you can read my review of The Angry Book.

Are you the egg, the carrot or the coffee bean?

Are you the egg, the carrot or the coffee bean?

In life, some people are like the egg, soft in the beginning, malleable, delicate. But when pressure (like boiling water or life's pressures) surrounds the egg, it gets harder and is tough, not malleable. These are the people who have a hardened heart thanks to the pressures of life.

In life, some people are the carrot. They start of hard and strong, but when pressure (or water) surrounds the carrot it gets softer and softer until it turns to mush. It can't hold it self together, it gets crushed under any weight.

In life, some people are the coffee bean. When pressure (water) hits the coffee bean, the coffee bean changes the water/pressure, not the other way around. The beautiful scent of the coffee bean is magnified by the mixture with the water and the scent affects life and sets the atmosphere. If you're the coffee bean, you are the scent that clears the air. You affect the pressures of life and spread your scent to everyone else.

So which one are you?

*I was taught about this at the Christian Women's Conference I attended. I wanted to share the short form of it with you.

Christian Women's Conference Day 2

Day two of the Christian women's conference brought me even more knowledge and hope.

Imagine you have a cup of water with impurities in it. You want to drink from it but it's not clean. How do you make it more clean and less impure? Saturate it with more water. The water will filter the impurities to the top where you can take them out. By the same token, God doesn't want to change us, he just wants to put more of himself in us to saturate us with himself so that our impurities may be filtered out.

About Revelation

Revelation - unknown fact that is made known in a dynamic or dramatic way.

You need a revelation about who you are. A revelation of your true destiny. 

 About Drama

Drama reveals reality. Women are deep and so we have more drama. Men are simple. Drama you have been through becomes your reality unless you let it go.

About Your Past

Satan tries to stop you from advancing. He makes you focus on the past and present instead of the future.

Women replay the past over and over. You must let it go.

Don't own where you've been or who you've been.

Use your past as a stepping stone, as a platform.

AA says that once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic but that is NOT true. You are NOT what you used to be.

About Your Destiny

 Satan tries to assassinate your destiny

"You Must Now Know Who I Am!" - I am important, I am unique, I am me

When I know myself - I walk, talk and act different.

"You're about to have a coming out party" - you are going to come out as you really are

If God put me in the world, the world must need me.

About Others

See your accusers, the haters. They look up at you because they are beneath you.

"Take the stench of your past and make it perfume of your present!"

"If you're gonna go with me, you gotta grow with me" - only surround yourself with people who will help you advance.

"You gotta love everybody but you gotta love some from a distance" - regarding people who bring negativity to the world.

About Your Issues

Circle Your Problems, Don't Let Them Circle You

Your dysfunction has become your normal. If you lead a dysfunctional life for long enough, it becomes your normal and you have to constantly work at keeping it where you want it. You have to keep adjusting yourself. You might feel like it gets worse before it gets better.

Get off Facebook and put your face IN the book.

God doesn't want to bless your mess. He can't bless you until you deal with your issues (just like in John 4 when he is talking to the Samaritan woman.

Your issues are coming between YOU and your DESTINY.

C.O.P.I. Identity Christian Women's Conference

Today was day 1 of the Christian women's conference held by a local church. As a new Christian, I figured this was my change to learn something new, to be surrounded by other Christians and hear some great words from a different Pastor than I normally hear from each Sunday.

Here are just some of the great nuggets of wisdom I gleaned from Day 1

About Community

We must all be planted not just in God's word but in a church, one church, a community in order to be surrounded and to defeat Satan. No hopping from church to church, find the one that fits you best and get rooted in it.

About Your Past

"When you run into your past, tell them, let me show you my future"

"We all have a history but we also all have a destiny."

"You are not what happened to you."  - Satan wants you to think that's true, but it's not.

About Our Mind

There is a difference between Truth and Fact. It can be a fact that you feel a certain way about a situation but that doesn't mean that those feelings are grounded in truth.

"As a woman thinks in her heart so is she" - Proverbs 23:7

About Our Purpose

Purpose= motive, justification, advantage, worth, value, profit etc..

Live ON Purpose but also live IN Purpose, live in the purpose that God has for your life.

"It's time for me to be free to be me"

About Satan

Satan is an identity thief. Satan doesn't want you to know who you are.

Pull Satan out of the front seat and stop letting him drive your life!

Let the Lord bless you and the devil pay for it!

If Satan keeps trying to hurt you or make you sin, it's because you are a commodity he doesn't own. You are gifted and he wants you for himself.

About Decisions

You can't make decisions because Satan gives you too many options. If you didn't have options, you wouldn't be able to pick a bad choice like drinking, drugs, adultery, etc

If you say "I'm not going to decide right now" you've already made a decision. You decided NOT to decide.

Decision= settle the matter or cut off all other options.

When you make a decision, you cut off all the other options Satan wants you to have.

About Misc.

Reactions speak louder than actions. Reactions are your first response, your facial expressions, first words. You can't fake your reaction.

When you magnify - you manifest. The more you think about a negative thing, the bigger it becomes. The more you think of good things, the bigger they become. Which do you want more of?

"My setback is a setup for my comeback."