Depression is a major issue in America. It’s the physical embodiment of an emotional situation. It is a symptom of an unresolved crisis in a person’s life leading to an increasing sense of hopelessness. As you emotionally lockup you physically seize on life. Depression is not to be shoved to the side in a bus ride conversation over ambient noise and assumed dealt with. You can’t hang up on depression and close down the conversation.

Depression is serious. If you treat depression with a casual attitude it will close in surely with a death grip and lock your life down. But there is more than help available, there is a solution ready and waiting to change your life. But you have to take three steps…

1. Seek Yourself (take off the mask and be honest about your depression)

2. Seek Help (Reach out to those around you that can assist, counseling, friends, medication)

3. Seek God (He is called Jehovah Rapha for a reason, He heals. Medication only treats the symptoms, but God heals the source and redeems the life.)

Often that is where we stop short is step number 2. When the friend or the medication provide some level of relief we think the problem is solved. That is until life throws another curve our way and we spiral down and back to the doctor’s office for another mix of meds. Any honest doctor will tell you that they don’t heal. At best they aid the body in it’s own healing process. Again, only God heals!

So if you know of someone who is locked up in this battle or you are that person take my advise seriously and setup into these three simple steps. It is your path to freedom. How do I know, I suffered from depression.

“LORD my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me.” (Psalm 30:2)

Reality TV Shows!

Time after time, God has used normal ordinary people to accomplish extra ordinary feats for His Kingdom. If you are average in life an eternal spotlight is shining on you.

As I think about the latest cash cow shows for the major networks, the one that comes to the top of all our lists is the reality TV show. At it’s core it plucks people from normal everyday society and puts them in the limelight. On Friday they clocked out of their 9 to 5 job, but on Monday they where recording their first TV show that would air to millions of people.

It reminds me of God, it’s almost as if He created the first reality TV show and then wrote the script down in the form of the Bible. Ordinary people that follow Jesus and become world changers. But God’s world changers are different in many aspects from people that impact the world for their own personal means.

An ordinary world changer has three distinct qualities that only come from God.
1. Their heart is broken for a situation. They are personally concerned by a burden that impacts them emotionally and spiritually.
2. They realize that the problem is bigger than they can accomplish so they surrender that passion in prayer. They ask God to move on behalf of that burden or situation.
3. Finally, they know that being emotional and prayerful about something is not enough. They must act! Doing gets going and in going is when doing is done.

Nehemiah is a great example of that ordinary person that follows this process. Read Nehemiah 1:1-11 and 2:1-10 and see how he Nehemiah decides to act on his burden by committing to rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Then take some time and answer these questions for your own life.

• What challenges are you facing that you need to take to God in prayer in the way Nehemiah did with his burden?

• How is God stirring you to take action on your burden? What’s your next step?

• Who are some people you’ll need with you to change the world?

• What impact on others do you think you could make if you decided to address your burden and take action?

(Psalm 127:1) "Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless theLORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain."

Emotional Baggage

This past week we talked about the emotional moments that we carry each day.  Those negative emotional bags that redefine who we are and take us away from who God made us to be.  So the question is “Who am I?  That is often the silent question that is asked in your honest moments.  “Who have I become”, “Why do I do this?”

The world defines a person often in what they do or perform and it often deeply affects a person’s beliefs about themselves.  Take some time to explore this in depth…

• On what do we usually base our identity? What does God base our identity

on? (See John 1:12-13; 3:6; Romans 8:9,-10, 16-17a)

• Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, 21. What is true of every person in Christ? According

to Ezekiel 36:25-27, what has changed? Is this change something

we do, or something God did? Explain your answer.

• When you don’t know who you are, you won’t know what to do. How do our

beliefs about ourselves affect our behavior? Give an example.

• Not believing that we are fully forgiven leads to shame and guilt. Read Colossians

2:13-14. How many of your sins were nailed to the cross? What did

God do with our sinful nature (old self)? See Romans 6:6. How would believing

that we are totally and completely forgiven make a difference in how

we see ourselves?

• Read Romans 7:20-21, 24-8:2. What reason does Paul give for there being

no condemnation for the believer who is still struggling with sin?

• Read Romans 8:31-39. How secure is the person who has put his trust in

Christ? What if we struggle with doubts (see 2 Timothy 2:13)?

Who are you?  Better yet who are you in Jesus?  Yep, Jesus changes the game of identity.  It changes it because you are forgiven, complete and secure.  There is often a contradiction between our new identity in Christ and how we think and feel about ourselves, which affects the way we live and what we do. The truth of who we are in Christ becomes our experience as we renew our minds (Romans12:2) and agree with God. Check any statements below that describe how you often think or feel about yourself. Then look up the corresponding verses and write out what God says is true about you. Each time you recognize that you are thinking an old belief, reject it and agree with what God says. Ask God to show you how to act on this truth,  and trust the Holy Spirit to empower you.

__I feel weak and powerless. (Philippians 4:13; 2 Timothy 1:7)

__I am unloved and un-loveable. (Ephesians 2:4-5; John 15:9)

__I feel guilty. (Colossians 1:14,20; 2:13-14)

__I am not good enough. (Hebrews 10:10, 14)

__I feel inadequate. (2 Corinthians 3:5-6)

__I am a fearful and anxious person. (2 Timothy 1:7)

__I am a disappointment to God. (Zephaniah 3:17)

__I am not very smart. (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:16)

__I am worthless and don’t deserve anything. (Isaiah 43:3-4; 1 Peter 1:18-19)

__I am not special or important. (Zephaniah 3:17; Ephesians 2:10)

__I am a sinner. (Colossians 1:22; 2 Cor. 5:21)

__I feel responsible for my life. (Phil. 1:6; 2:13; 2 Thess. 3:3)

__I feel like I never measure up. (Romans 15:7)

__I don’t have enough ________________. (Philippians 4:19; Ephesians 1:3)

__I am unwanted and don’t belong. (Ephesians 1:4-5; 1 John 3:1-2)

__I feel condemned. (John 3:18; Romans 8:1)

__I am alone with no one to take care of me. (Heb.13:5b; 1 Peter 5:7; Psalm 91)

__I have no plan or purpose for my life. (Jer. 29:11; Eph. 2:10; Ps. 38:23)

Your Master!

What is it that has mastered you?  It’s a powerful question and one that should be carefully considered due to its implications.  As Americans we claim freedom, but often walk in the worst bondage because of our “free choices”.  Many of us carry a past that is heavy, embarrassing and difficult to get rid of.

I love this recent product that came on the market, its called "Wash Away Your Sins - Soul Saver Pack"... "For liars, cheaters, and wrong-doers." 

"It says its Bishop tested" and "Cardinal approved". Its contents are two bottles and an instruction book: 

One bottle: "Holy Water" are for those little sins: "1) Remove cap - 2) Pour into palm - 3) Admit wrong doing - 4) Think pure thoughts - 5) Anoint forehead and - 6) Go fourth purged from sin, ready to do it again."

The second bottle: "Bubble bath" are for those more major sins: "1) Kneel before thy tub - 2) Reflect upon wrong doing - 3) Run warm bath water - 4) Pour in enough bubble bath to equal your sins "(I would need a 55 gal. drum)" - 5) Soak in blessed bubble - 6) Arise cleansed from sin, and ready to do it again." The instruction book adds "that you should soak 3 minutes for each deadly sin committed." Though you are to soak "15 minutes per each large deadly sin committed". Now if you commit an "extra large mortal sin", "which includes lying to your mother" then you must "add two capsules of holy water", "soak for twenty minutes" and when exiting the bath "anoint your forehead with the blessed holy water". 

Ha, I hope you got a good laugh out of that, I sure did!  Sometimes finding the humor in our immense pain brings about a release of that which has severely weighted us down.

But you can’t stop there; you need to change that emotion into a resolve to be done with your sin.  I love what one of the disciples of Jesus said about this attitude.

“Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. ² As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. ³ For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. ⁴ They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. ⁵ But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶ …, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.” (1 Peter 4:1-6)

Are you done with the cost of sin?  Are you fed up with the baggage and the things that weigh you down?  If so then live according to God’s principles and ways and don’t start tomorrow, start today!