Blogs

When Depression Makes Church So Hard
“Having struggled with severe depressive illness for over twelve years, I can tell you that I never (never!) want to go to church on a Sunday morning. It is an exhausting battle every single time, and I don’t always make it.”

Why CEOs Devote So Much Time to Their Hobbies
“In public and in private, CEOs state that their leisure interests help them cope with the ever-increasing demands of the top job. They typically invest considerable time in their leisure, and even block off time far in advance to protect it from “life taking over,” as one interviewee said. A few common themes stood out about how their passion helps them:”

The Most Powerful Lesson My Cancer Taught Me About Life and Work
“Cancer changed my life by encouraging me to reexamine the stories I’d been telling myself, and to re-craft them with higher levels of construal. My advice is don’t wait until you get cancer to improve your story of why you’re doing what you’re doing.”

How perfectionism became a hidden epidemic among young people
“Broadly speaking, perfectionism is an irrational desire for flawlessness, combined with harsh self-criticism. But on a deeper level, what sets a perfectionist apart from someone who is simply diligent or hard-working is a single-minded need to correct their own imperfections.”

Obey God with Your Creativity
“The other reason I say that imagination is a Christian duty is that when a person speaks or writes or sings or paints about breathtaking truth in a boring way, it is probably a sin. The supremacy of God in the life of the mind is not honored when God and his amazing world are observed truly, analyzed duly, organized clearly, and communicated boringly.”

Encouragement for Bible Reading from Puritan Women
“These women found themselves in different situations but each one made the Bible central to their lives because, despite the hard passages and personal doubts they had, they knew its basic message could be understood and that by reading it, they communed with God himself”

Counseling Together: Ten Benefits to Co-Counseling with Your Spouse
“I love team counseling. Whenever I counsel a woman, I involve a female co-counselor or trainee. She might be my wife Lauren, or she might be another godly sister in Christ. Perhaps I want to give that woman added training and experience. Or she might bring valuable experience or expertise. Or maybe she has a positive relationship with the counselee, or better fits her demographic, etc.”

Tips on Preaching Narratives
“Since we move by and large towards the Reformed spectrum of the Christian church our tendency inherently is to be most comfortable when we are preaching Paul–and as a consequence, to be least comfortable when we are preaching from things that are very different from the Pauline style–with the result that we tend to preach the whole of the Bible as if Paul had written it. We take historical narrative or poetic narrative and there is really no difference in the style of our exposition whether we are preaching from one part of Scripture or from another.”

Kindle Books

Reset: Living a Grace-Paced Life in a Burnout Culture by David Murray $2.99.

Refresh: Embracing a Grace-Paced Life in a World of Endless Demands by Shona and David Murray $2.99.

Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age by Bob Cutillo MD $3.99.

Video

Stories of God’s Grace

Summary of Chapter Five in The End of Worry: Why We Worry and How to Stop by Will Van der Hart and Rob Waller. Will is a  pastor working in London and Rob is a Christian psychiatrist. Both are recovering worriers.

1. “Do not worry” is the single hardest instruction in the Bible. Although anxiety and depression are the most common emotional health problems among Christians, the church rarely addresses them and is ill-equipped to deal with them.

2. Churches often communicate that being worried is proof of a shallow or weak faith. This compounds the problem because then the worrier has the additional worry that they are offending God by their lack of faith.

3. Matthew 6:25-34 is an example of divine cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Jesus is challenging us to transform our response to perceived threats and find better ways to face the challenges of life. Lessons from that passage include:

• Jesus challenges us not to remain independent of God by incessantly worrying about our own needs but to be God-reliant for all our needs
• Jesus does not command us to give up all concern for what we need but to give up insightless, faithless obsession with security.
• Jesus teaches us not to “run” (v. 32) after the certainty of provision. This word “run” indicates a desperate obsession.
• Striving for certain security is not just irrational and fruitless; it undermines God’s good character.

4. There are two types of worry—today worry and tomorrow worry (v. 34).

• Today worry (v. 34b): The solvable worries you can deal with today.
• Tomorrow worry (v. 34a): The unsolvable floating worries, or hypothetical “what ifs” about tomorrow.

5. Jesus leads us out of bondage by leading us into the now. He teaches us to focus on the present of the Kingdom of God. Once we get better at focusing on the present Kingdom of God rather than our security, trust and peace will increase.

6. The Christian life can be undermined by seeking and demanding absolute certainty. Most Christian problem worriers find themselves drawn toward desperate attempts to attain certainty regarding their faith, which ultimately undermine confidence in their relationship with God. They will worry less if that learn to accept a degree of uncertainty rather than demanding it. In the next chapter, we will look at tolerating uncertainty.

The End of Worry: Why We Worry and How to Stop by Will Van der Hart and Rob Waller.

Here’s the video for Expedition 32 in Exploring the Bible. If you want to bookmark a page where all the videos are posted, you can find them on my blog, on YouTube, or the Facebook page for Exploring the Bible.

If you haven’t started your kids on the book yet, you can begin anytime and use it with any Bible version. Here are some sample pages.

You can get it at RHB, Westminster Books, Crossway, or Amazon. If you’re in Canada use Reformed Book Services. Some of these retailers have good discounts for bulk purchases by churches and schools.

Summary of Chapter Four in The End of Worry: Why We Worry and How to Stop by Will Van der Hart and Rob Waller. Will is a  pastor working in London and Rob is a Christian psychiatrist. Both are recovering worriers.

1. Worry is like a weed. If we just prune the top branches, it will soon grow back.

2. Worry damages low self-esteem. It undermines our confidence in the things we know are true and makes us doubt all our decisions. 

3. 70% of people with GAD experience depression at some point. This is because they tend to focus on negative events and make negative forecasts.

4. Most problematic worry has some core worry rules. These rules act like fertilizer that surrounds our worry plant. “Worry rules are the opposite of God’s grace to us: they are always absolutes; they are harsh and judgmental in tone and completely inflexible.”

5. “Worry rules” and “worry beliefs” often appear to be helpful attitudes or outlooks. That’s why people are often reluctant to change them.

6. Three characteristics to help spot “worry rules” are:

• Shoulds, musts, and oughts. (e.g. “I should be able to do this more easily”)
• Always and never. (e.g. “Things never work out for me.”)
• Consequences or if-then rules. (e.g. “If I am nice to people, then I will have lots of friends)

Until we change or re-evaluate our worry rules, we will not pull worry out by the roots.

7. “Worry beliefs” actually champion worry as a good thing. These beliefs are the greatest obstacles to healing and recovery, mainly because we think they are actually helping us. They include:

• Worry aids problem-solving
• Worry helps to motivate
• Worry prevents things going wrong
• Worry protects from difficult emotions if things do go wrong
• Worry makes for nicer people.

8. Learning to break worry rules and doubt worry beliefs is the way to healing. There are three simple ways  to do so:

• Challenge the weakest first. Undermining one worry rule will weaken all the others.
• Challenge the logic. See the inevitable hole and flaws in your rules and beliefs.
• Challenge the benefits. Ask how do you benefit from adhering to this worry rule and how would you benefit from breaking it.

9. Changing your behavior will change some of your worry feelings. Despite the feelings, do what you fear doing and more positive feelings will generally follow. “Overcoming worry rules in a challenge where you must lead, but you undertake it with Jesus, reliant on his comfort and encouragement.”

The End of Worry: Why We Worry and How to Stop by Will Van der Hart and Rob Waller.

Blogs

Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, October 2018
The October issue of Tabletalk addresses the issue of perfectionism, control, and the sovereignty of God.

10 Things You Should Know about Discipling People with Special Needs
God has called us to make disciples of all people no matter their intellectual capabilities.

How can pastors face battles with depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide?
“Do we have evidence in Scripture that men of God suffered through seasons of depression, and even anxiety? Do grief and sorrow have a valid, spiritual place in the life of pastors? What happens when pastors try to suppress pain and depressive impulses in their lives? Is it wrong for pastors to grieve before their people? What spiritual and physical practices might help during times of depression and anxiety? Listen as Brian and Jim discuss these and other questions in this episode.”

Counselor, Comforter, Keeper?
Nick explores the meaning of an important New Testament word.

Kindle Books

Hope Heals: A True Story of Overwhelming Loss and an Overcoming Love by Katherine and Jay Wolf $1.99.

The Call: Finding and Fulfilling God’s Purpose For Your Life by Os Guinnesa $1.99.

Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will by Kevin DeYoung $1.99.

Blogs

Don’t Just Redecorate Your Life–Redesign It!
“The healthier, more mature, and more values-driven your “inner room” grows, the more you will provide a welcoming and inspiring space for others.”

Paul Tripp’s Story of Hope in the Midst of Suffering
Watch the moving video that accompanies this article.

Burnout Is Coming. Here’s How to Prevent It.
“Compassion burnout is a reality of ministry life as finite and fallen creatures. But by slowing down, stocking the pond, and leading from within, we can find ongoing renewal for a compassion-filled life.”

Be the Teen God’s Calling You to Be
“The teen years have been hijacked. They’ve been hijacked by pleasure–fashion, sex, music, movies. They’ve been hijacked by pressure–from school, peers, and society. And they’ve been hijacked by distraction–games, smartphones, and social media. None of these things give teens the purpose or identity they were made for. None of these things give teens ultimate happiness and satisfaction. None of these things answer the big and serious questions teens have: Who am I? Why am I here? How can I make a difference in this world?”

Six Ordinary Lessons for Mental-Health Issues
“The church we attended was relatively small (maybe one hundred attenders), on the youngish side (a number of recently married people), and with no mental-health professionals that I knew of. It seemed ordinary. And yet the help this church gave its psychiatric patients had stood out to the staff. As I have reflected on that church and others like it, I’ve identified six principles that guided their care for those with complicated troubles — troubles that would be identified as psychiatric. These include depression, bipolar disorder, dissociative identity disorder, anorexia, and other disorders that are commonly treated with medication. I am assuming that the person is already under the care of a psychiatrist.”

Be Tender-Hearted and Thick-Skinned: How Humility Protects Pastors from Pastoral Burnout
“heep have been known to bite their shepherd. How should pastors respond in the face of unjust criticism? In a nutshell: don’t be thin-skinned, do bSe thick-skinned, and be sure to be tender-hearted.”

Sleep 101: Harvard Freshmen Required To Take Sleep Course Before School Begins
“For the first time, Harvard is requiring that all incoming first-year students complete an online course about sleep health before coming to campus. Research finds that college students tend to sleep too little and too erratically — habits that can affect everything from mental health to athletic and academic performance.”

Keeping Technology in Its Proper Place: An Interview with Andy Crouch
“With new research linking smartphone use to teen loneliness, depression, and even suicide, more experts raising concerns over laptops in the classroom, and the ever-present threat of exposure to harder core pornographic material online, there are legitimate reasons for all of us to be concerned about the effects of technology on children’s well-being and the health of family life.”

A 10-Point Social Media Strategy
“Ligon Duncan—Chancellor and CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary, as well as the John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at RTS—recently shared his social media strategy. ”

The Sins Forbidden by the Ninth Commandment in a Social Media World
“I will share in bullet points each phrase of the explanation provided in the Westminster Larger Catechism, then, beneath each one, suggest questions that may foster meditation and application”

New Book

6 Ways the Old Testament Speaks Today: An Interactive Guide by Alec Motyer

Kindle Books

Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church by Michael Horton $2.99.

Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem by Kevin DeYoung $3.99.

Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering by Kelly M. Kapic $4.99.