Have churches become too reliant on recovery programs and psychology/psychiatry?
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I believe in daemons but I do not address them. For me it is to cling to Jesus the Christ. I have seen the daemon excuse used to not love the suffering.
If one loses a family, their job and their church rejects them, their suffering might be so great as to cause suicide. They are to be prayed for and not condemned. Only God can do that.
If one loses a family, their job and their church rejects them, their suffering might be so great as to cause suicide. They are to be prayed for and not condemned. Only God can do that.
addressing them? We are to cast them out. Those today won't even acknowledge them. depression how it is handle in the secular has been to abuse meds that caused many to become addicted to prescriptions. Then mental health was paid to have it. Now we have a great number of people who have been diagnosed with depression and are dependent on the sickness to ensure they have their needs met. it is the most abused thing today. many of the mind-altering drugs are causing many to kill themselves. The Public school system supports and promotes this type of medical treatment which is damaging many young people who are thrown away once they leave school.
I'm frustrated and getting angry, but that does not excuse me from being loving and compassionate.
I experienced some extreme losses that I will not identify to satisfy someone's lurid curiosity. It took me years to recover and at first I was heavily medicated, and hospitalized a half dozen times. These days I am finally off the medications, and not depressed. God has given me the strength to accept some extremely painful things that were not my desire. Part of my suffering was due to the sanctimonious nature of my Christian brothers and sisters. And yes, after the drugs served their purpose, I saw that they were making matters worse so strongly petitioned the Doctor to help me get off them.
Condemnation of others is for God at the final judgement. Until then, we are to be a "type" of Jesus Christ. Some would rather cast the first stone.
All sickness, accidents, lack etc., anything that isn't love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control must be from the adversaries realm. "Chemical imbalance" is not from God, it may be the smokescreen the adversary uses to hide His attack on health, and medicine might help but never sent anyone to the Dr. , He never said "this ones too tough for me", the Gettering (sp?) demoniac included.
Out of His kindness He may allow Drs. to help some, but we must NEVER place them above or give first place over Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals us.
Out of His kindness He may allow Drs. to help some, but we must NEVER place them above or give first place over Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals us.
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Someone may crucify me upside down for this. But I'll say it because it needs to be said. Depression and Anxiety have become the catch words of recent times. Before that it was "ADD and Ritalin".
You really have to look at someones lifestyle as a whole. Are they eating right? Are they exercising? Are they maintaining the proper mindset? So often we fill ourselves with garbage. Remember "Garbage in and garbage out"? It's AMAZING how when we fill our lives and our minds and our bodies with the proper fuel "Faith, Family, Fitness, Finance" and concentrate on fueling ourselves correctly, all those little "depressions" seem to be so much easier to deal with.
In Summary: Stop making excuses for not fueling yourself well. Do it, and see the difference.
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I think it is fine to both use pills/medications/secular therapy and and also rely on God. For example, for someone who has severe depression, we need to get him on pills right away to get immediate effect before he comes suicidal. Meanwhile he can also continue to pray because sometimes it can take awhile to understand God's message and/or get what we feel is a response from God. Depression can take some time to heal. That is my opinion. In secular therapy, the patient does most of the work; the doctor asks a lot of questions to facilitate the patient to think through and find his own answer/heart of the issue. I would not say the pyschologist/psychiatrist, etc. is replacing God. If you have someone else you can talk to who does the same job as a pyschologist/psychiatrist, like a Christian counselor or an understanding family member, he/she is in fact a de facto pyschologist/psychiatrist and so the person does not have to go through the secular route.
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We have been mostly taught against spiritual oppresion by those (in church) who are ignorant, as well by the bad examples of televangelists who see a devil behind every tree.
Oppression is very real. Sure, some may call it the spirit of this or that, but just because a person doesn't know its name doesn't mean its not real.
There was a woman in the NT so oppressed of the devil she couldn't straighten up. Jesus even said she was oppresed by Satan:
Luke 13
A Spirit of Infirmity
10Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way [d]raise herself up. 12But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” 13And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. 14But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.”
15The Lord then answered him and said, [e]“Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? 16So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 17And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.
She was physically impaired by a spirit that oppressed her.
"By His stripes we were healed" for me means physical, mental, spiritual, social, & whatever else there could be, not on the premise of biblical accuracy, but by the fact that God is big enough to do it all!
Eph 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly(super) abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Oppression is very real. Sure, some may call it the spirit of this or that, but just because a person doesn't know its name doesn't mean its not real.
There was a woman in the NT so oppressed of the devil she couldn't straighten up. Jesus even said she was oppresed by Satan:
Luke 13
A Spirit of Infirmity
10Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way [d]raise herself up. 12But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” 13And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. 14But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.”
15The Lord then answered him and said, [e]“Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? 16So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 17And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.
She was physically impaired by a spirit that oppressed her.
"By His stripes we were healed" for me means physical, mental, spiritual, social, & whatever else there could be, not on the premise of biblical accuracy, but by the fact that God is big enough to do it all!
Eph 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly(super) abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
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I understand your view but it is uninformed, in my experience. Many I have helped didn’t even recognize the water they were drowning in. Many life-long believers have been so traumatized by church folk that God seems to be their accuser and not their helper. First, the person often needs the attention of someone skilled in spiritual foundation-buiding and then the structure can be built.
It is impossible to rewrite the words of the men who lived the history when those words are preserved for us. There are letters Constantine wrote, the man who changed the church in he year 313, and the laws that he made. There are the writings of the leaders of the churches of the first 300 years of the church, the actual words they wrote. These things cannot be changed,even by you.
