COUNSELING FOR GRIEF, A MANUAL

GRIEF/DEATH PROBLEM

Grief is the depressing sorrow or pain caused by the loss of a loved one.

BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE

It is the lot of man that he should grieve over the loss of loved ones.  For the Christian, the hope we have in Jesus Christ carries us through any times of sorrow or pain (1 Thess. 4:13). Times of mourning can be times when the lost can see the need to be saved and Christians can be reminded of the brevity of life and the hope of eternal life.

COUNSEL

If the counselee is grieving over a departed Christian, refer to the Scriptures above. Comfort and assurance of God’s love and concern are needed. Be sensitive to the counselee’s feelings and remind him that, though grief is natural and appropriate, we can find joy and hope in believing that the loved one is with Christ.

If the counselee is not a Christian, take this opportunity to lead the person to salvation. Speak of the need for those of us who are now alive to prepare to meet God.  Encourage the counselee to worship in a Christ-centered church that clearly teaches the Bible and start growing in understanding, wisdom, and knowledge.

Very deep grief is often experienced because of the death of a child.  Even mature

Christians have difficulty understanding why a loving God would allow an innocent child to die.  The counselor is not obliged to explain God’s action, since we do not fully understand the purpose in such cases. However, it may be appropriate to refer to 1 Kings 14:1-13, the story of Abijah, the son of Jeoboam. God said he was taking the child because he saw some good thing in him. Also, David’s experience of losing a son is helpful to remember. David hoped in God and prayed that the child would not die (2 Sam 12:13-23), but when the child died, David knew he had to go on with the business of living.  This was not callousness but mature coping, accepting circumstances and going on to live a life in fellowship with God.

PRAYER

Pray for God’s comfort for the counselee and his family.  Ask God to allow his peace to fill their hearts during these dark hours.

GRIEF AND BEREAVEMENT Background

Grief is an intense, emotional suffering caused by personal loss. There is acute sorrow, deep sadness, suffering, pain, and anguish. Bereavement is a sad and lonely state due to loss such as the death of a loved one.

It is a difficult time. The bereft will often feel that his experience is unique, that no one has ever endured such a loss or suffered as he is suffering. There are cycles of healing to the pattern of grief, which permit the sorrowing to recover in due time. Some individuals, however, continue grieving for long periods. In some ways, no one is ever completely delivered from the sense of loss.

The cycle of healing, mentioned above, usually proceeds as follows:

1. The initial shock of death: that intense emotional impact which sometimes leaves a person with a seeming paralysis.

2. Emotional release: a period of weeping.

3. Loneliness and depression: The sense of loss is often related to the degree of dependence on the deceased. there are many symptoms of depression.

4 Guilt: “I could have done more,” or “I should have done something differently,” etc.

5. Anger, hostility: “Why did God do this to me?”

6. A stage of inertia: Listlessness, “I can’t get on with it”; “I couldn’t care less.”

7. A gradual return to hope: “Life will go on.” “I will be able to cope.” “God will help me get over his.”

8. The return to reality and normalcy: admitting the loss and adjusting to it.

We must remember, however, that grief is not predictable nor can it be catalogued.  Sometimes the stages of grief will seem to merge and overlap.  The bereft may feel release from a certain “phase” of suffering, only to have it return.

Counseling grieving people calls for genuineness, special sensitivity and tenderness, sympathy, and empathy. We must depend upon the Holy Spirit for guidance. Convenient, glib, or pat answers have the ring of brass. Our words must be sincere and meaningful, “tailor made for the situation” because real comfort for the bereaving person depends upon where he actual is in the grieving process.

Don’t pretend to have an answer for everything. Admit that you do not understand why or how god does what He does.

Don’t be the “cheerleader” type, attempting to pump up the bereaved with cheer and good will.

Don’t offer clichés or trite phrases about death and suffering.

Don’t suggest that if the grieved were more spiritual or closer to God, the pain might be less.

Remember that one short session will not meet all the needs of the inquirer.  We do what we can, however, to share Jesus Christ, and the message of Scripture.  We will trust God to do His work.

 

 

 

Counseling Strategy

 

1. Tell the inquirer you care and want to help. Encourage him to tell you about his loss and how he feels about it.  Be a patient listener.  It helps to ventilate feelings when one is grieving.

2. Tell him that it is healthy to mourn and grieve. This is a universal human experience through which we all must pass.  Someone has said that grief is a “gift from God”. It may be

His way of helping us react to the tremendous shock of death and its emotional aftermath.

Jesus said: “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4, KJV). Jesus Himself wept at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35, KJV).

3. Tell him that it is good to express feelings of guilt, anger, confusion, or despair. These feelings should not be repressed by the sorrower or rejected by the counselor.  Encourage him to talk about the way he feels.

4. Tell him that the things he is feeling are often normal to the grieving process and that acceptance and healing will come, though perhaps slowly. God wants to bear our heartaches and loss and bring to us His comfort, hope and encouragement. Life may seem valueless at this point, but remember – Christ is permanent, the Solid Rock, the foundation on which to rebuild a life.

5. Ask him if he ever received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. If indicated, explain “Steps to Peace with God,” page 5.

“Our confidence in the future is based firmly on the fact of what God has done for us in Christ. Because Christ is alive we need never despair, no matter what our situation may be.  ‘Now if we. . .died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him . . . For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord'” (Romans 6:8,23, NASB).

6. Tell him that, for the Christian, death is not the end of life. Through His death and resurrection, Christ has defeated sin and death, so that to believe in Him now means: we “Shall never die” (John 11:25,26); we have eternal life (John 3:16); we have a place assured in heaven (John 14:1-6); we shall take part in the bodily resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:51,52). Also, “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:14, NASB); thus, there will be a glorious reunion some day between us and all those in the Lord whom we hold dear! Encourage the inquirer to begin to read and study the Bible. It is a great source of comfort and strength.

7. Tell him that god sees our earthly life as preparation for the greater joys of heaven (Mark 8:36). Thus, He permits trials, sufferings and the death of loved ones to come into our lives so that we might see our need to trust Him. “Yet we believe now that we had this experience of coming to the end of our tether that we might learn to trust, not in ourselves, but in God who can raise the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9, Phillips).

8. If he expresses guilt over some aspect of the death of his loved one (this is common in the case of suicides), counsel him not to “second guess” himself at this point. He should not carry guilt for something he should have done or not have done. This is past, and he needs to leave all his regrets with the Lord. If he has something to confess to God, do so, but accept the reality of His forgiveness in the light of 1 John 1:9.

9. If he seems overwhelmed with a sense of loss, of loneliness, of what to do in the future, etc., counsel him to confide in family and friends, and to trust them for emotional support and encouragement. The church can do a great deal to fill the areas left void. He should become involved in a local church.  The pastor may be able to offer a great deal of emotional support and encouragement.  The church can do a great deal to fill the areas left void.  He should become involved in a local church.  The pastor may be able to offer a great deal of emotional support.  If he is not already a member, he should seek a Bible-teaching church and identify with it.  Learning to accept God’s will for what has happened, having a thankful heart of the years of love shared during the life of the loved one and for the promise of things to come, and reaching out in Christian love to help others who are hurting will all be great therapy and will serve as factors in learning to live fully again.

10. Pray with the inquirer for understanding, comfort, and blessing in his life.

The Death of Children:

The death of a child is especially difficult for surviving parents and families to handle.  Death after such a short life-span often produces guilt, melancholy, and a lot of questions. In addition to the Counseling Strategy, we offer these points:

1. Though we cannot know why the child died, we do know that children are especially precious to God. Jesus said, “Of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14, KJV). This implies that children who die are taken immediately into His presence.

2. When King David’s child was taken from him in death, he said, “Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23, KJV). Thus, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, trusting in Him as our Lord and Savior, we have the blessed hope of seeing our loved one again.

Scripture

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

                                                                                                        Revelation 21:4, KJV

“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better.”

                                                                                                  Philippians 1:21,23, KJV

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou

this?”   John 11:25,26,  KJV “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am,

there ye may be also.”                                                                           John 14:1-3, KJV

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last

time.”                                                                                                   1 Peter 1:3-5, KJV

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of

God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

                                                                                                      2 Corinthians 5:1, KJV

Psalm 23:4-6, KJV

 Counseling someone in the immediate aftermath of death is very difficult. Emotions are raw, there is shock, anger, denial, guilt. For the counselor you have genuine empathy and want to bring good news, comfort, ease the pain. However, most often your words will have little effect and most of what you say will seem like a cliché to you. But it is not, and you have no idea what you say will have an affect on this person, right now. It might be sometime later that they may say something like “you have no idea how what you said at the moment helped me” and when you ask what it was you said more often than not you won’t remember saying it, or you will wonder why that would bring anyone comfort.

The most important thing is being there, letting them express their emotions, their words, and at the same time realize there is nothing you can do except be there.

I always carry a box of little Gideon N. T. and show them the topical section and the passages they should read. I’ve heard more often people saying, “pastor they little bible saved my life.”

So always keep in mind your comfort level and feeling useful may feel like a big fat zero, but they will always remember your presence. If you are counseling a woman have your wife do the hugging. Trust me it will save you a lot of trouble on down the road.

God bless from scumlikeuschurch@gmail.com

WALK WORTHY

Photo by Tom Swinnen on Pexels.com

Proverbs chapter 3

1. How to Know the Guidance of God (vv. 5, 6)

2. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart”

3. “Lean not to own understanding”

4. “In all thy ways acknowledge Him”

5. “He shall direct thy paths”

III.       How to Avoid Spiritual Sickness (vv. 7, 8)

1. “Be not wise in thine own eyes”

2. “Fear the Lord”

3. “Depart from evil”

4. How to Get What You Need (vv. 9, 10)

5. The command

6. “Honor the Lord with thy substance”

7. “With the firstfruits” (stress promissory nature)

8. The reward

9. “Barns filled with plenty”

10. “Presses bursting with new wine”

What it boils down to is that the satisfying life is the one that is lived in the center of God’s will.

You can do it your way and really screw stuff up, or do it the right way and honor the Word of God and be blessed; and God is kind and loving enough to let choose.

It all comes down to knowing if you really trust God. It amazes me that people will easily believe God for salvation, you can name the day and date and time. But for some that’s the last serious unselfish conversation they’ve had with God in a long time

Every area of our lives must be turned over to His control. We must have no will of our own, only a single pure desire to know His will and to do it.

Easily said, difficult to actually do, it’s like being in AA, every day is a new day and has to be done one day at a time.

God bless from scumlikeuschurch@gmail.com

Pray for J.C. Hickman, going through chemo and needs support as well as our prayers.

Prayers for Anthony B who needs a job…trying to feed and clothe 6 kids

Praying for Steve H, strength, encouragement, bless his studies, keep his wife Pam in prayer, chronic knee pain, we are believing the Lord for complete healing.

Keep Caliste Burt in prayer, pray she beats discouragement, she has been dealing with numerous brain tumors for several years and the upcoming surgery is long, radical (never been done before).

Caliste has been told she needs to have radical brain surgery with only a 40 percent chance of it fixing the problem. She is refusing the surgery because of the 60 percent side of it not working and the almost 100 percent chance of negative results (loss of speech, motor function etc.) a very solid Christian wife and mother.

Keep Lauren in prayer for salvation

SOLDIER OF GOD

A Soldier’s Prayer (from WWI)

Stay with me, God. The night is dark, the night is cold. My little spark of courage dies. The night is long. Be with me, God, and make me strong.

The first step in conquering fear is to admit what you are afraid of.

The next step is to realize we have divine protection.

Psalm 91:1-16

English Standard Version (ESV)

My Refuge and My Fortress

91 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say^[a] to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked.

⁹ Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge^[b]—
¹⁰ no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.

¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
¹² On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

¹⁴ “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
¹⁵ When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

God bless from scumlikeuschurch@gmail.com

Pray for those who feel they have no friends, and are facing the fears of this world all alone

Pray for J.C. Hickman, going through chemo and needs support as well as our prayers.

Also praying for Jeff S whose Mom passed away pray for the family

Prayers for Anthony B who needs a job…trying to feed and clothe 6 kids

Praying for Steve H, strength, encouragement, also keep his wife Pam in prayer, chronic knee pain.

Keep Caliste Burt in prayer, pray she beats discouragement, she has been dealing with numerous brain tumors for several years and the upcoming surgery is long, radical (never been done before).

Caliste has been told she needs to have radical brain surgery with only a 40 percent chance of it fixing the problem. She is refusing the surgery because of the 60 percent side of not working and the almost 100 percent chance of negative results (loss of speech, motor function etc.) .

Keep Lauren in prayer for salvation, you will never meet a meaner, more selfish, cruel person than her. And yet God will not let me ignore praying for her salvation. I need to look up and see if there ever was a hurricane Lauren, because she would be a category 5 storm.

Pray for Revival in America

ONE THING MOST PEOPLE SUCK AT

WAITING INVOLVES
TAKING THE RIGHT ACTION AND SOMETIMES IT MEANS TAKING NO ACTION AT ALL AND WAITING ON GOD. I TELL PEOPLE ALL THE TIME IF YOU HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION IN A HURRY IT IS PROBABLY THE WRONG TIME TO MAKE THAT DECISION.

No one waits any more. You are setting at a red light and it turns green and immediately the bonehead behind you lays on the horn.

As we rest in God’s timing, goodness, and eternal purposes, taking the right actions includes avoiding the negatives like:

(1) Refusing to retaliate or take revenge (Pro. 20:22).

(2) Refusing to pass judgment, i.e., to judge the motives of others, or to evaluate by human standards (1 Cor. 4:5).

(3) Refusing to get a divorce rather than committing oneself to working on reconciliation and biblical solutions which is God’s way.

(4) Refusing to marry on the rebound.

(5) Refusing to change jobs or run from some other circumstance because of difficulties without first seeking the Lord.

(6) Refusing to resort to the manipulation of others (like one’s husband or wife or child) because we don’t want to wait on the Lord to work. We want change now!

(7) Refusing to fret over the prosperity of others, or be jealous, envious, resentful, frustrated, and angry when our situation is not so good. As seen above, such attitudes can cause us to turn to the typical human strategies like gossip, pouting, revenge tactics, or seeking our happiness by climbing the ladder of success in work, in a position, in popularity, etc., at the expense of family, health, or our walk with the Lord.

But waiting on the Lord also means doing the things we can and should without panic or running ahead of Him.

We need to remember that waiting can take a very long time. Look how long Moses wandered in the wilderness. 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

God bless from scumlikeuschurch@gmail.com

THE FIRST SACRIFICE

God, having foreseen Adam’s failure, provided a plan for his redemption. God is not the author of sin. He did not cause Adam to fall, for Adam had every reason to obey. However, God purposed to bring out of human failure a glorious redemption; a redemption wrought through the incarnation and vicarious death of His own Son; a redemption that would include the final defeat of Satan who was, after all, the first sinner.

Within the very curse pronounced upon the serpent, God gave a promise of a Redeemer, “her Seed,” and of Satan’s defeat, “He shall bruise your head” (Gen. 3:15). The animals slain to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness and Abel’s offering of an acceptable lamb to God are both representative of the redemption that would be provided through the blood of Jesus (Gen. 3:21; Gen. 4:4). The apostle Peter declared that Christ, as a lamb, was purposed “before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:18–20). Therefore, God in His foreknowledge saw that Adam and Eve would fail and determined to bring out of their failure a people gloriously redeemed by the blood of Christ. It appears that Adam and Eve’s testing was necessary and reasonable because all potential results of Adam and Eve’s response would have ultimately led to a final state superior to their original Edenic state.

God has provided each one of us a gift, the gift of salvation. When you die and stand before God, He does not ask you about your gender, nor does He ask you what you did right or wrong. One question and only one question; “what did you do with MY SON?”

God bless from scumlikeuschurch@gmail.com

Praying for the salvation of Lauren, Tara, Cheyanne, Chelsea, Nicole, Anne, Drew, Hunter, Garrett, Phil, Lubbock, Tavon, Oscar, Cristina, Norma Perales, her husband Rick and Adult son Rick Jr. Paul M and his family.

THE MORALITY CLAUSE

At the heart of the Christian gospel is the famed statement, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God sent His Son to rescue us from our perishing condition. If God loved humans so much, how did humans fall into a state of perishing? The Declaration of Faith of The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (ICFG) provides this brief explanation:

    We believe that man was created in the image of God, before Whom he walked in holiness and purity, but that by voluntary disobedience and transgression, he fell from the Eden of purity and innocence to the depths of sin and iniquity, and that in consequence of this, all mankind are sinners sold unto Satan, sinners not by constraint but by choice, shapen in iniquity and utterly void by nature of that holiness required by the law of God, positively inclined to evil, guilty and without excuse, justly deserving the condemnation of a just and holy God.

Although they were created in God’s image, placed in an ideal environment, and given everything they needed, Adam and Eve rebelled against God and disobeyed His commandment. The result of their sin was shame, guilt, alienation and death, not only for themselves, but also for the entire human race. In light of the devastating consequences of sin, why would God subject Adam and Eve to temptation? (See Ps. 14:1–3; Rom. 3:10–23; Rom. 5:12–21).

1. The probation of humankind

1. Its purpose: Created in God’s image and endowed with intelligence, emotion, and will, men and women are free, moral agents capable of making choices. Since humans are created for God’s glory (Isa. 43:7) and can best glorify God by freely choosing to worship and serve Him, it was necessary humans be given an opportunity to choose. For Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden was not only a home in paradise; it was also a place of probation, a place to test their obedience and loyalty to Yahweh. The probation of Adam and Eve was based on a clear, direct commandment, a simple law of works. The law had two parts: a positive part, consisting of a glorious provision; and a negative part, consisting of a clear prohibition: “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’ ” (Gen. 2:16–17).

It is important to explain how beings created with holy natures could sin. Adam and Eve were each created with a holy nature, but they were not born with holy character. A holy nature is the result of creation, while holy character is the result of choosing good when the choice for evil is possible. Evil choices produce evil character. God desired humans to worship and serve Him with holy, moral character. Consequently, free choice was necessary for the development of mature holiness and blessedness. With free choice there is, of necessity, the possibility of wrong choice. Adam and Eve made the wrong choice with disastrous consequences for themselves and the human race.

2. Its character: The probationary commandment given to Adam and Eve was personal, not moral. There was no obvious wrong in eating from the forbidden tree; the fall of Adam and Eve was the result of disobedience, not the result of a clearly immoral act. This test was similar to the later test of Abraham and the offering of his only son, Isaac. The test of Abraham was purely personal, not moral. There would have been no intrinsic wrongdoing by Abraham in sparing his son. He moved toward the sacrifice of Isaac as an act of pure obedience to God (Gen. 22:1–13).

People obey a moral law because it is inherently right to do so. For example, the Ten Commandments are right not simply because they came from God, but because they also represent inherently right conduct. Conversely, some ceremonial law simply required obedience because that law came from God; its rightness was not self-evident. The prohibition of eating from the tree of good and evil was a testing law because the evil was not self-evident; the evil was in the disobedience of the commandment. The fall of Adam and Eve resulted from a pure act of willful disobedience.

God bless from scumlikeuschurch@gmail.com

Pray for J.C. Hickman, going through chemo and needs support as well as our prayers.

Also praying for Jeff S whose Mom passed away pray for the family

Prayers for Anthony B who needs a job…trying to feed and clothe 6 kids

Praying for Steve H, strength, encouragement, also keep his wife Pam in prayer, chronic knee pain.

Keep Caliste Burt in prayer, pray she beats discouragement, she has been dealing with numerous brain tumors for several years and the upcoming surgery is long, radical (never been done before).

Caliste has been told she needs to have radical brain surgery with only a 40 percent chance of it fixing the problem. She is refusing the surgery because of the 60 percent side of not working and the almost 100 percent chance of negative results (loss of speech, motor function etc.) .

Keep Lauren in prayer for salvation, you will never meet a meaner, more selfish, cruel person than her. And yet God will not let me ignore praying for her salvation. I need to look up and see if there ever was a hurricane Lauren, because she would be a category 5 storm.

THANK GOD HE PROTECTS FOOLS LIKE ME

Before I retired from speaking around the country and most of North America. I was usually asked to do one of two seminars. One was on Spiritual warfare and ran from Sunday to Sunday. The other was on moral purity and usually started on a Wednesday and ran to Sunday. Depending on responses and other bookings either one may last longer.

Looking back at over 45 years of ministry I am amazed at how God protected me from so many attacks, some physical and some spiritual. I also realize how naïve I was at times and God protected me from being just downright stupid and careless.

The 3 years I traveled with Oral Roberts I saw many great healings and some wonderful acts of salvation as well as some tremendous deliverances from demonic activity. Also the divine protection God gave me during these times, that sometimes I would not find out till much later how God intervened.

There was a famous Christian couple, world renowned, and they were having marital problems and because I was a Christian psychologist of some renown, they said they felt safe talking to me. They asked if I would come to their home to do the counseling as they were embarrassed if anyone saw us at the church and might guess what was going on.

Anybody that knows me, knows I love ice cold, really good lemonade. And my favorite dessert is apple pie, served hot with a big thick slice of sharp cheddar cheese and vanilla bean ice cream.

I arrived at their house an the husband was not home, his wife said his flight was running late and he would join us in a few minutes. We sat in the kitchen as it had lots of windows and faced out on the main street. And we had lemonade and apple pie. After a while she asked me If I would like to see her Jesus Room, (which she is famous for) over a thousand pictures of Jesus, some of them quite valuable and rare. We go in one door and come out another and we are in the master bedroom. There on a table are several wigs of various shades and styles and on the nightstand next to the bed is a mirror with several lines of coke on them.

I turn to leave and she pushes me into a large deep chair and I cannot seem to get out of it. She’s laughing and wanders into the bathroom to ‘freshen up’ and I’m in this chair praying to God, Lord, please get me out of here. I then hear a man’s voice in the bathroom saying “is he ready and she replies I should be pliable as putty.” Right then I realize I have been drugged and again I ask the Lord to deliver me.

Right then they come out of the bedroom dressed like freaks from a leather world catalog and at the same moment God lifted me out of that chair and put a super charge of righteous fury in me. I tore that bedroom apart, smashing all the furniture and when this so called world famous preacher came over tried to knock me down to the ground I hit him so hard I thought I might have killed him. And then I let out a great shout, it seemed as though the house might come down around us all. The woman covered herself with a sheet and curled up in the corner just crying “oh Lord have mercy.”

Well I stormed out of there and drove to the hospital for a blood test and called the sheriff who was a very godly man and told him what happened. We drove back to their house and it looked like a tornado went through it. They were both arrested and their denominational honchos flew in to do damage control and offered me a very large sum of money to just let things go.

Two months later we are in court and a very honorable judge ruled fairly and the two were out of the ministry for a couple of years, only to appear in the same town much later and start over and now they had a deliverance ministry and how I was instrumental in changing their lives. Blah blah. Blah.

They even had the nerve to invite me back to town to do a 2 week revival for them. Needless to say, I never went.

Please do not read this and group all ministers and evangelists as pervs and charlatans. Yes, there are a lot of bad ones out there, but struggling in small towns and in small churches are very real men of God doing their best to show folks the kingdom.

And thank God he protects fools.

God bless from scumlikeuschurch@gmail.com

YE, THOUGH I WALK

In Job 2, Satan declares that Job’s righteousness would fall apart if he were put to the test. But God, confident in his servant’s faithfulness, allows Satan to put Job through just such a trial. Immediately, Satan afflicts Job with “painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head” (v. 7) and leads Job’s wife to tempt him to sin (v. 9).

The basic meaning of temptation in Scripture is simply to “test” or “prove,” and has no negative connotation. Temptation is not of itself sinful as Jesus was tempted but did not sin (Mk 1:3). The Puritan theologian John Owen helpfully defined the term:

A temptation, then, in general is anything that, for any reason, exerts a force or influence to seduce and draw the mind and heart of man from the obedience which God requires of him to any kind of sin.

In particular, it is a temptation if it causes a man to sin, gives him opportunity to do so, or causes him to neglect his duty. Temptation may suggest evil to the heart, or draw out the evil that is already there. It is also a temptation to a man if something is by any means able to distract him from his communion with God, or the consistent universal obedience that is required of him.

As in the case of Job, God can allow us to undergo trials in which we are tempted to sin (Lk 11:4). But while the trial might be from God, the temptation to sin is not. God would never tempt someone to disobey him (see Jas 1:13–14). In fact, as Paul says, “[God] will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (1Co 10:13). Job 2

Being tempted is not a sin. To many believers fall into this trap, thinking salvation has also brought perfection. This is especially true of the more legalistic, Pentecostal or charismatic churches. Yes, as we mature and grow in Christ there should be less sin in our lives. But as long as we live on earth in this fallen body, we will sin.

But thank God we have an advocate in Christ Jesus, our High Priest, forever making intercession for us.

God Bless from scumlikeuschurch@gmail.com

Pray for pastors that are being tempted as never before to give up their calling or fall into grievous sins.

Pray for pastors to believe that God intends them to believe He is giving them a message to be brought to the pulpit to feed and challenge the congregation.

Pray for Revival in America.

Pray for Steve H and his wife Pam. Healing, encouragement, blessing, divine protection, a rest.

Pray for a generation of Christians that do not think the bible is relevant to their daily lives.

Remember Caliste Burt. Her upcoming brain surgery has been put off so many times because of covid and the doctor not being physically up to a 14 hour surgery.

MOMMY, WHERE DID I COME FROM?

Mommy, where did I come from.

There are 3 basic theories as to where our soul comes from. One is ridiculous. The 2^nd may hold some water, but the bucket leaks. The 3^rd theory, called Traducianism is generally held by all evangelical groups. It is important to have a basic concept of where our soul comes from because many cults and false religions including Catholicism hold a wrong view of where the soul comes from and it affects their belief of the condition of the soul also upon death.

Also having a correct theory on where the soul comes from also gives us a correct theology of where sin comes from as well.

Traducianism is a preferred theory among many non-Reformed conservative scholars. According to traducianism, God created the human race in Adam, and from Adam both body and soul were procreated by natural generation (see Job 14:4; Job 15:14; Ps. 51:5; Ps. 58:3; John 3:6; Eph. 2:3). Strong stated, “Traducianism holds that man, as a species, was created in Adam. In Adam, the substance of humanity was yet undisturbed. We derive our immaterial as well as our material being, by natural laws of propagation, from Adam; each individual human after Adam possessing a part of the substance that was originated in him.”

  The arguments for the traducian theory include the following:

  (1) The Bible does not record that God directly created any person but Adam and Eve. After creating Adam and Eve, God rested from His work (Gen. 2:2).

  (2) It best explains the inherited sinful nature of the human as expressed by David: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51:5).

  (3) It is supported by a vital statistic about the family of Jacob: “All the persons [souls] who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from his body, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, were sixty-six persons [souls] in all” (Gen. 46:26).

  (4) It is consistent with the Bible record of procreation: “And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth” (Gen. 5:3).

  (5) It helps explain personality likenesses between children and parents.

  (6) The soul does not have purely natural origins. God has indirectly created all souls since Adam and is, therefore, the sustainer of the process of procreation (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3).

God bless from scumlikeuschurch@gmail.com

Prayer requests, comments, questions send us an email.

Thank you to all that pray so vigorously for those on our prayer list.

SOMETIMES ALL WE CAN IS PRAY

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Pray for Nikkie, she is having a hard time financially and really needs our prayers and a financial miracle. (update to the story, Nikkie is a con artist, a very good one, one of the best I’ve ever seen.) she is not a Christian, her mother is not dying, has not died, nobody has cancer. She is angry that she got caught and exposed to the whole church. Pray for her salvation.  

Samantha (Sam), she is doing only chemo, no radiation, the cancer has pretty much spread to most of her body. She appreciates the prayers and says thank you. (Samantha has passed on to be in glory).

Pray for J.C. Hickman, going through chemo and needs support as well as our prayers.

Also praying for Jeff S whose Mom passed away pray for the family

Prayers for Anthony B who needs a job…trying to feed and clothe 6 kids

Praying for Steve H, strength, encouragement, also keep his wife Pam in prayer, chronic knee pain. Also keep them in prayer for encouragement, strength, healing, a new church home, to be blessed and a blessing.

Keep Caliste Burt in prayer, pray she beats discouragement, she has been dealing with numerous brain tumors for several years and the upcoming surgery is long, radical (never been done before).

Pray for Carlie, now that God has removed some people from her life that were a terrible influence she is doing great.

Pray for Baiden, she is a young woman looking for a good christian husband and a good chruch

Pray for America, a reformation first (the truth be taught) and then revival.