God Can Change Your Brain

Go to my other blog Spiritual Healing and Growth for two new posts on this topic.


You will like it.

Old Fashioned Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas & out on the ranch
The pond was froze over & so was the branch.
The snow was piled up belly-deep to a mule.
The kids were all home on vacation from school,
And happier young folks you never did see-
Just all sprawled around a-watchin' TV.
Then suddenly, some time around 8 o'clock,
There came a surprise that gave them a shock!
The power went off, the TV went dead!
When Grandpa came in from out in the shed
With an armload of wood, the house was all dark.
"Just what I expected," they heard him remark.
"Them power line wires must be down from the snow.
Seems sorter like times on the ranch long ago."
"I'll hunt up some candles," said Mom. "With their light,
And the fireplace, I reckon we'll make out all right."
The teen-agers all seemed enveloped in gloom.
Then Grandpa came back from a trip to his room,
Uncased his old fiddle & started to play
That old Christmas song about bells on a sleigh.
Mom started to sing, & 1st thing they knew
Both Pop & the kids were all singing it, too.
They sang Christmas carols, they sang "Holy Night,"
Their eyes all a-shine in the ruddy firelight.
They played some charades Mom recalled from her youth,
And Pop read a passage from God's Book of Truth.
They stayed up till midnight-and, would you believe,
The youngsters agreed 'twas a fine Christmas Eve.
Grandpa rose early, some time before dawn;
And when the kids wakened, the power was on..
"The power company sure got the line repaired quick,"
Said Grandpa - & no one suspected his trick.
Last night, for the sake of some old-fashioned fun,
He had pulled the main switch - the old Son-of-a-Gun!
-anonymous

More Myths about Mental Illness

An article this morning caught my eye with this glaring headline:

Nearly 1 in 5 Americans had mental Illness in 2009!!!

As soon as I saw it I knew the authors had been fed a lot of myths about mental illness just as I mentioned two posts ago. Here is some of what they had to say.

CHICAGO - More than 45 million Americans, or 20 percent of U.S. adults, had some form of mental illness last year, and 11 million had a serious illness, U.S. government researchers reported on Thursday.

Young adults aged 18 to 25 had the highest level of mental illness at 30 percent, while those aged 50 and older had the lowest, with 13.7 percent, said the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or SAMHSA.

Adults who were unemployed last year were twice as likely to have serious thoughts of suicide as people who were fully employed, with 6.6 percent of the unemployed considering suicide, compared with 3.1 percent of those who were working.

What is wrong with this?

Divorce is Easy-Separation is Impossible

Why do we want to stop divorces? isn't it a good thing that our laws make divorce so easy? Don't you think that "No fault Divorce" is a boon to society, especially women? As one of my favorite teachers said so often:

"In America divorce is easy. The trouble is, separation is impossible."

No matter how long a couple has been divorced, separating from those past memories is almost impossible to leave behind. I recently spoke with a person who became upset because her current husband and her ex had a pleasant conversation together. Why was she upset? Separation of feelings, memories and bitterness is almost impossible.

For some reason, God hates divorce. Do you suppose He has a good reason or is it because he is irrational and a kill joy. God loves people but hates divorce. Maybe he hates divorce because it is harmful to the couple, their children and their family members. Our research on parents who have a disabled child indicates that some 85% of the couples who giver birth to a seriously disabled child get a divorce.

Can you imagine how difficult it is to rear a child alone without a partner? It is difficult. Very difficult. I have met many such persons, usually women, and they all say how difficult it is for them to manage the kids, the money, the responsibilities and the work they must also carry out. It is disastrously difficult.

Now add a serious disability to the mix and see what you get. It is an impossible task. Parents with a disabled kid find the stresses and strains so overwhelmingly difficult that they too often get a divorce. How hard would that be on the child and the mother? Unbelievable!

This is why we at Sweeten Life Systems work so hard to PREVENT divorces by teaching people how to live together in harmony. "I want to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony..." We can reduce the divorce rate. Believe me it is possible if churches would study the research on what causes and what cures toxic conflict. Not all conflict just the toxic kind. It can be done.

Go to the Sweeten Life web for more information.

Eddie Fisher What a Life

I just read a brief overview of the life of Edie Fisher. It was filled with addiction, debauchery and lies along with adultery and evil. The first comment made by an adoring fan was, "Rest in peace, Eddie. You lived life to the fullest."

I found the comment incredible. Either this person was high on drugs himself or emitting amazing amounts of cynicism. What does it means to "Live life to the fullest" if the life Fisher lived was its model? He left his wife and small daughter of two years for a fling with his dead friend's wife, Elizabeth Taylor. Is that life to the fullest?

He was on illegal and legal drugs most of his life. Is that life to the fullest? His daughter followed in his drug addled footsteps. Was that life to the fullest? Not to me and not to Jesus who promised a life to the full abundance for those who followed Him. My life has gradually improved in almost every way since I came to know Jesus some 62 years ago. I have stayed married to the same woman for 49 years and reared my kids and grand kids with love and peace.

Is that boredom or abundance? It is abundance. Praise the Lord.

Happy Birthday America

William Bradford
Great Puritan Leader in America

July 4 is the 234Th birthday of the founding of America. There is little argument with the notion that the USA is the greatest country ever established in the history of the world. Not only is it the strongest financially and militarily but it has usually been the most ethical, moral and free.

This is not always the case, of course. Our history of slavery parallels that of most nations so we did not rise above all of the evil habits and practices that were common at the time of our establishment in 1776. Failure to live up to the ideals set out in our Declaration of Independence has cost us dearly in the pain, suffering and losses forced on so many through slavery and Jim Crow Laws. Add that to the loss of some 620,000 Americans in the Civil War and the failure to make right choices about freedom of everyone was a huge mistake.

It is very difficult for people in power to easily give that power up. Despite the fact that many of the men who led the fight against Great Britain with such clarity could not live up to their professed beliefs for slaves and women. I have been a Christian for many years and see that same flaw in myself and many others. We claim to love God and others but too often find it difficult to carry out our good intentions.

How does the Bible lead individuals, governments and churches to rise above the cultural mandates in which we live? Everyone two to three thousand years ago with almost no exceptions believed that slavery was normal, reasonable and advisable. But the Bible admonished Believers to love God with a whole heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Such a command makes slavery very difficult for Christians and churches to support. One would be schizophrenic to do so. St. Paul added to that a command for slave owners to treat slaves as brothers not chattel. This lays the axe to slave owning period.

The Apostles did not usually get involved in politics but they wrote things in the the Bible under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that would crush hatred, slavery, domestic and sexual abuse. Our nation celebrates over 230 years of doing good while we were doing well because so much of the history, habits and founding documents came from Christian people and from the Bible.

The Revolutionary War came on the heels of the First Great Awakening and its preaching the word of God to masses of people in the Colonies. When they read the Bible about being created in the image of God, it became immediately apparent that all citizens were created to rule. Thus, King George did not reign because of "The Divine Rights of Kings" but because of selfishness and power. The Revolution was a normal result.

Can we return to those days?

History and Effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous

I just finished a good, but not real great, article in Wired Magazine about AA. It was so good that I decided to add a comment to it suggesting a couple of corrections. I suggest that you who are interested in healing and growth take a look at it.

Write me after you look it over and tell me what you think.

America is Pro-Life

The Gallup Poll does it again. Gallup, one of the most respected polling organizations in the world, regularly asks people what they think about key issues. Since the Supreme Court found in 1973 that it was OK to violate the promise of "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..." found in the Constitution, if unborn babies were the citizens, abortion has been a very hotly debated topic.

Gallup has included questions about abortion in its surveys for a long time. Now, despite the fact that almost every "news" outlet promotes abortion, most Americans do not think it is moral to abort a baby. In today's issue of the Wall Street Journal, the latest Gallup Poll tells what people are thinking today.

Asked to rate various behaviors and social policies (e.g., embryonic stem-cell research, adultery, the death penalty) as either "morally wrong" or "morally acceptable," 50% called abortion wrong, as against only 38% who said it was acceptable. Even more contentious was the finding, for the second year in a row, that slightly more Americans consider themselves "pro-life" than "pro-choice" (47% to 45%).


In other words, God's truth is marching onward and upward to bring people to a sensible position. Thank God for His love and truth.