Take Every Thought Captive to Christ

I am again teaching the classic course, Rational Christian Thinking, that I first developed and wrote back in the eighties. Pastor Brad Rosenberg asked me to train his staff and lay leaders how to live in the freedom of Christ and I agreed.

Because his wife Angie had gotten so much out of the training before she asked Brad to let everyone attend so young mothers like her could benefit from the training and rear their children free of fear and anxiety. So, we are teaching over 100 adults each Wednesday evening at Tri County Assembly of God in Fairfield, Ohio north of Cincinnati.

It is a thrill to be able to "Equip the saints to DO the work of ministry" and I love training them in ways to "Renew their minds" according to the Bible. The students are eagerly lapping up the information and responding with great interactions in the class.

Over the next few posts I will write some of the basic principles of biblically renewing the mind so the readers can start getting free from cultural, social and devilish ideas. I am amazed at how many Spirit filled Christians are ensnared in old fleshly ways to thinking, feeling and acting yet believe they "Have the mind of Christ."

A mind of Christ is a peaceful mind. It is Free from worry, free from anxiety and free from letting others put them down. They could care less what others think because they know what Jesus thinks.

So, read and reflect on how Gos can set us free from the "Stinking Thinking" that keeps us in bondage.

Rearing Special Needs Kids

For several months we have been interviewing parents with special needs children about the stresses,strains and pressures of life. They are legion.

That is not surprising. As a father and grand father I know first hand how stressful it is to mom and dad to have the emotional, educational and spiritual responsibility to rear, clothe and feed any kid regardless of their special needs. When a child is born with a serious disability the stresses are multiplied many times over.

That is not surprising but this fact may be. Many of these parents are innovative, creative and resilient to the place where our research team calls them "Heroes!" They are heroic not because it is good thing to do but because they are the best experts their kids have.

Yes, there are fine Doctors, Psychologists, Educators and Physical Therapists but they are usually isolated from the children. Mom, Dad and Siblings as well as family members and friends must come up with practical solutions.

Want to know another secret??? The professionals do not know about the solutions or the problems families face. "Why?" you ask. They ask the parents and do not See the parents as important to the tasks performed by the pros.

We call our project, "It takes a whole village" because rearing a special needs child or caring for a special needs adult requires everybody to pitch in. When I taught school I had special needs kids in my classes. I ignorantly did not even think about the difficulty faced by Mom and Dad. Now I think about it a lot.


Jim Donovan, of Donovan Research, and the Director for our project says, "These families have arrived at solutions to many of the problems they face. However, they are often alone and the solutions have not been well distributed." Sweeten Life Systems is trying to not only discover problems and solutions but discover ways to broadcast those solutions to other families.

One more point. When parents face the fact that their child has special needs they often become increasingly interested in church, religion and spirituality. However, few churches are ready for such a challenge. This leaves the parents isolated and longing for a church that can minister to them.

Pray with us about our next steps in the project "It takes a whole village"(R).

See the web for more information. www.sweetenlife.com

Go Into all the World

The Vicar of Vincennes, or Vicksburg or Vernon, made a great comment on my last post. I agree with it whole heartedly.

Today, Jens-Petter, Peder Paulsen and I did a short seminar of this topic, "The Church as an Equipping, Healing Community. We gathered with fifty or so saints at Karlslunde Lutheran Church just outside Copenhagen where I have been many times before. It is the "Mother Church" for the Holy Spirit Renewal" in Denmark and many great things have been birthed there that have touched thousands around the world.

Teleios Denmark is centered at Karlslunde Church and hundreds of leaderds have taken my training in Listening, Renewed Thinking, Breaking Free from the Past, etc. Jens-Petter and I stayed wikth Gina, a lady whose spiritual journey and growth has touched so many, including her son and daughter who are key leaders in taking God's love, truth and power to others.

Kirsten Callensen, Gina's daughter, has taken Listening and RCT into her professional work as a Psychologist that works with families touched by Autism and Aspergers. Kirsten is doing some extremely creative and significant work by bringing a combination of Psychological, Medical, Theological and Spiritual wisdom and knowledge together.

Kirsten's work is in the Government's clinics and private clinics. It is not openely "Christian" but she is using her time, talents and gifts to bring healing to these stressed out families. Read Luke 10 and see if you can find room for Kirsten's "Secular" ministry in the charge of Jesus to the disciples.

A Rush to Diagnose?

For many years there has been a strong debate over the medicalization of a wide range of behaviors in children. For example, ADD or ADHD has become a very popular diagnosis over the past couple of decades. Diagnosis usually leads to medical treatment because the kid is perceived to have a sickness, a disease and must be treated with drugs and receive special help. This is a mixed blessing for the kids and the parents to say nothing of the schools.

Along comes Michael Phelps, the Olympic Superstar who has been diagnosed and treated for ADHD and the perception changes but the discussion only increases along with the disagreements. Some suggest that ADHD is a gift not a curse. Maybe it helped Michael Phelps achieve his amazing feat in China.

We shall not solve this dilemma here but I will say that ADHD can be both a blessing and a curse. I am sure that had I been born in 1998 instead of 1938 I would have been on drugs to control my behavior. Would that have served me or harmed me? I do not know but I know that the hyper energy has been a positive experience for me and I have normally achieved much more than many others because of it.

Many successful innovators and entrepreneurs are hyper energetic and might fit the ADHD diagnosis. Would drugs have slowed us all down so we would fit into the nice, neat button down society and never innovated or created anything new? I fear that the desire for order will lead to the over diagnosis of kids and thus their over medication. Be careful; be very careful. Make sure the diagnosis is done by a person who really knows his or her business.

Take a look at this article in The New York Times for more on the controversy.

Gary Sweeten

http://www.sweetenlife.com/