Blog Move

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Is this food for men, or spoiled children?

When I first saw that Banner of Truth was publishing “pocket puritans” series, I was quite pleased initially. It seemed a great idea. And in some way, they probably do have a purpose. Take a subject, wrap it all up in about sixty pages of a mini-book, and cover the whole subject in its foundations in that many words as that format allows. I even brought a few of them.

I like Banner of Truth, however I am not so sure this is such a positive thing over-all. I had a copy of Richard Baxter’s “Christian Directory” arrive today. It’s a used copy as they are quite hard to get hold of today. But the book has over a million words in it. In stark contrast to the “Pocket Puritans,” Richard Baxter being one of those puritans published in “pocket book” form. Yet Baxter could never have left such a great gift to the church if he had have decided to be a pocket puritan and write it as such! The pocket “puritans,” although I daresay they have their uses, seems to be again to be a product of our ages, where the spoiled children we are today, want light reading, and everything fast as can be, and that includes learning and giving to God, and likely goes back to another post I made a few months ago about “wishy washy Christians.”

So are these pocket puritan series good or bad? And even supposing they do have a niche and purpose beyond accommodating us spoiled children of today, should this be a trend that grows?

More on avoiding evil-speaking

Continued FROM:

If someone comes to us with an evil-report of another, be cautious before hearing it, let alone believing it, or we could be partaking of their sin!

It encourageth ungodly men to the odious sin of backbiting and slandering the most religious, righteous person. It is ordinary with the devil’s family to make Christ’s faithfullest servants their table talk, and the objects of their reproach and scorn, and the song of drunkards? What abundance of lies go current among such malignant persons, against the most innocent, which would all be ashamed, if they had first admitted them to speak for themselves. And such slanders and lies are the devil’s common means to keep ungodly men from the love of godliness, and so from repentance and salvation. And backbiting professors of religion encourage men to this; for with what measure they mete, it shall be measured to them again. And they that are themselves evil spoken of, will think that they are warranted to requite the backbiters with the like. [Richard Baxter]

If you have been a person who has had reputation or honour ruined or smeared through someone doing the above, then take heart! As Thomas Watson ably says:

If we would keep up the sprightly vigor of grace in evil times, let us harden our hearts against the taunts and reproaches of the wicked. David was the song of the drunkards. (Psalm 69:12). A Christian is never the worse for reproach. The stars are not the less glorious though they have ugly names given them, the Bear, the Dragon, etc. Reproaches are but splinters of the cross. How will he endure the stake, who cannot bear a scoff? Better have men reproach you for being good, than have God damn you for being wicked. Be not laughed out of your religion. If a lame man laugh at you for walking upright, will you then limp? [Thomas Watson]

Evil Reports

This seems to be the most prevailing sin amongst the Church, even amongst good, honest, men and women, no less than it seems to be of the world. I’m sure not one reader nor the author of this blog post can claim to have never fell foul of breaking the ninth commandment this way:

Quest. IV. May I believe the bad report of an honest, credible person?
Answer. You must first consider whether you may hear it, or meddle with it: for if it be a case that you have nothing to do with, you may not set your judgment to it, either to believe it, or to disbelieve it. And if it be a thing that you are called to judge of, yet every honest man’s word is not presently to be believed: you must first know whether it be a thing that he saw, or is certain of himself, or a thing which he only taketh upon report; and what his evidence and proof is; and whether he be not engaged by interest, passion, or any difference of opinion; or be not engaged in some contrary faction, where the interest of a party or cause is his temptation; or whether he be not used to rash reports and uncharitable speeches; and what concurrence of testimonies there is, and what is said on the other side; especially what the person accused saith in his own defense. If it be so heinous a crime in public judgment, to pass sentence before both parties are heard, and to condemn a man before he speak for himself; it cannot be justifiable in private judgment. Would you be willing yourselves that all should be believed of you, which is spoken by any honest man? And how uncertain are we of other men’s honesty, that we should on that account think ill of others. [Richard Baxter] Cases Of Conscience, and Directions Against Backbiting, Slandering, and Evil Speaking

The Christian’s Hope

Even in a prison cell a Christian sees stars, whereas others may only see mud. [William Still]

Mental Illness

For old friends, I do not mean to repeat myself. I DO NOT mean to repeat myself! But this needs saying once again in public, for reasons most readers of this blog will not get. Bear with the crazy calvinist, please!

I don’t know how many of my readers may have ever had any connection with the world of counselors, therapists or psychiatrists? Many godly people, most in fact I know, would say poppycock at hearing most counselors psyche renditions of anything. There is no basis for mental illness as we know it today in Scripture. We see Nebuchadnezzar eating grass, which is the nearest thing to madness in Scripture we come upon, the other one would be King Saul when tormented by spirits, which today many people would label him as schizophrenic, when the above labels, both for Nebuchadnezzar and king Saul, the correct ones, were punishments for gross sin. There is no foundation whatsoever for mental illness in Scripture. None! And if you think otherwise, then please prove it from the book itself!

However, (this is where I get to repeat myself) I have spent most of my life in the psychiatric systems. Counselors, therapists and the like, Biblical or not in some cases, like to find little scenarios to fit their little theories which have NO BASIS IN SCRIPTURE. If you are buying into this, you are denying and ousting the Word of God for theories invented by god-hating men. But counselors, therapists and the like even if Biblical ones like to. They get paid for doing so.

It is also a fact, a statistic, that most counsellors, or psychiatrists actually went into that field of work, because they were personally troubled in the way s of feeling what the world calls mental illness and what God calls sin, in their own lives. They wanted to work out their own problems, through treating their patients. This gives you real confidence in counsellors, and therapists and the like don’t it when they are peddling mental health theories contrary to the Word of God. It is even more concerning when those counsellors or therapists are Christians!

The first psyche person I saw at nine years old, was a Christian. She was a former missionary to India, and was supposedly an expert in her field at the time. Yet if not her her starting the ball rolling I may not even be sick like this now. All the drugs I was given from that time onwards are known to be porphyria antagnonists.

But for more decades than I care to remember, I was labeled as having Schizophrenia. Though they were very careful to put it as: “atypical schizophrenia” can you really have atypical any “illness” you either have it or you don’t! And this was not just one psychiatrists opinion, I saw dozens over the decades. I lived inside the psychiatric system for close to fifteen years on and off. I never spent less than six months of the year inside them, from the age of nine onwards. And through the decades, what amounted to must hve been dozens and dozens of counselors, psychiatrists, therapists, which ever Freudian name you like to put on them, and they all said the same thing. “Atypical schizophrenia” Yet time and God and justice has proved that those dozens of psychiatrists I saw, who all reached the same IGNORANT UNGODLY opinions, were ALL WRONG. I have porphyria, not a mental illness. I am not and never have been mentally ill. And but for not being misdiagnosed I may not even now be dying, because I would not have been force fed drugs that are known to antagonize the porphyria gene. If I refused to take the meds, I would be put in hospital. I have been legally made sick unto death by the world of psychiatrists. But this blog post is not about that. Its to warn people of the dangers of giving them the least credence, in anything they say.

Psychiatry is also the single branch of medicine, where they do not perform tests to reach their diagnoses. You break your leg, you get it x-rayed. The break is clearly seen. You have a heart attack, they do an ECG and can see the heart abnormality. But psychiatry they do not do these things. If they do tests, it will be psychological ones. What if someone is having a bad day. What if its a woman and she in her monthly cycle and so her thinking is different to what it would be at any other time of the month but she is severely affected that day by hormonal imbalances so the tests give out a different result to what they would any other time? Hormonal imbalances as many women know, are physical things only. Not mental illness in any way, shape or form. So on the basis of it being the wrong day she was tested as far as being severely affected by hormonal imbalances, should we now write her off as mentally ill. The tests don’t stand up. And they cannot do the simple x-ray or the hundred of other tests they do routinely for physical illness to confirm their diagnoses. It all comes out and from the psychiatrist or counselors head.

The Profession of psychiatry also have one of the if not THE highest rates of suicide in its profession. If they have all the answers, why are they top of the list, (or nearly) for committing suicide? It doesn’t make sense if all they say has any basis.

They have absolutely no CREDIBILITY, my own history says that much. That one diagnoses by one psychiatrist, is meaningless since I had dozens over the decades all say the same thing and ALL were WRONG.

Don’t buy into this UNGODLY, stuff that is over and AGAINST the Word of God, it is a very dangerous thing to do, and peoples lives are affected normally for the worse, (in my case it has cost me all my health and will at some point kill me).

Look at the founder of these theories of mental illness and personality disorders. Freud and Jung and all the other God-haters, and look how things they said, go directly AGAINST the Word of God. And rather than supporting and keeping the damage they did to society alive by buying into these theories, rather than further damaging the world, by keeping these theories alive, show the World what they are. UNTRUE, UNGODLY, POPPY-COCK! WHICH HAS NOT ONE IOTA OF FOUNDATION, IN THE WORD OF GOD!

And plese see a former blog post of Proazc Pilgrim for more on this subject!

Peace after a storm

I was studying Psalm 29 this Lord’s Day just gone, which was about peace after the storm, and how peace is a blessing of God. This poem by William Cowper, seems quite appropriate after reading that:

When darkness long has veil’d my mind,
And smiling day once more appears;
Then, my Redeemer, then I find
The folly of my doubts and fears.

2 Straight I upbraid my wand’ring heart,
And blush that I should ever be
Thus prone to act so base a part,
Or harbour one hard thought of thee!

3 Oh ! let me then at length be taught
What I am still so slow to learn;
That God is love, and changes not,
Nor knows the shadow of a turn.

4 Sweet truth, and easy to repeat!
But when my faith is sharply try’d,
I find myself a learner yet,
Unskilful, weak, and apt to slide.

5 But, O my Lord, one look from thee
Subdues the disobedient will;
Drives doubt and discontent away,
And thy rebellious worm is still.

6 Thou art as ready to forgive,
As I am ready to repine;
Thou, therefore, all the praise receive;
Be shame and self-abhorrence mine. [William Cowper]

Deep Calls unto Deep

Out of the depths of affliction and sorrow the Lord will hear your cry, and from them will raise yeu. The promise will stand good to the end — that promise upon which many a soul, sinking in deep waters, has clung with faith’s undying grasp; ‘When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.’ Welcome, O welcome, the sanctified discipline of trial and sorrow that proves your conversion real, your title to heaven valid, and your hope in Jesus such as will not expire when the cold damps of death are gathering around it; but will become stronger and more luminous as the lamps of the earth recede and fade, and those of heaven approach nearer and grow more bright.  Lord, if your furnace thus refines and your knife thus prunes — rendering your ‘gold’ more pure and your ‘branch’ more fruitful

Let me never choose or to live or die
bind or bruise, in your hands I lie.

Out of the depths I cry,
Opressed with grief and sIn
oh gracious Lord, draw nigh,
Complete Thy work within.
O listened to Thy suppliants voice,
and  let my broken bones rejoice.

Out of the depths I cried,
overwhelmed with wrath divine,
said Christ, when crucified
for guilty souls like mine:
his cries were heard — he died, and rose
triumphant over all his foes. [Octavius Winslow on Psalm 130]

The Depths

Sometimes when this illness increases in intensity, when my body feels slain with a  pain and a dozen different other ways besides pain  I feel in the depths.  Today is one of those days.

Psalm 130

1Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.

2Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

3If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

4But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

5I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

6My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

7Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.

8And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Sabbath Keeping

Sadly, its all too often practiced that sanctifying the Lord’s Day, is a mere matter of attending public worship, morning, evening or both, and the rest of the day is left to do as we please with. May it never be!

Matthew Henry points this out well, in this excerpt from an article,  which I thought was an excellent treatment upon  the subject of Sabbath-Keeping.

Yet, not they only are guilty of the breach of the Sabbath rest, who spend that part of the day, which we call “church time,” in worldly employments and recreations; but they also who spend the time before, between, and after public worship, so as either to intrench upon that full scope of time that they ought to take on that day, for their secret and family worship, and to abridge themselves of that, or so as to unfit themselves and put themselves out of frame for holy duties, or obstruct their profiting by them, do violate the Sabbath rest. Works of necessity, which yet ought not to be a self-created necessity, we are allowed time for, the body must be fed, and clothed, and rested, that it may be fit to serve the soul in the service of God on this day. But no more of the time than is convenient for these must be alienated from the business of the day; if it be, we break in upon the appointed rest. (Matthew Henry)  [Full Article]