Purity 272
Good morning!
Today’s photo was taken earlier this month by a friend who captured this
stunning sunset scene on the shores of Lake Okeechobee in Florida.
I share it because it’s Monday again, there is rain in our local forecast,
and we may be longing for some sunlight on what could be a less than pleasant
day. I also share it because of its surreal beauty that challenges the mind, is
it a painting or is this real? Either way, it can make us all appreciate the wonder
of God’s creation even on a Monday.
As we move into Thanksgiving
week, I pray that all of my friends remain healthy and safe.
My plans for
Thanksgiving changed this weekend as my perspective host announced they were
sick but still wanted to host dinner.
Not surprisingly, the other guests canceled, and I followed suit. In this day and age, its one thing to
unwittingly pass on disease to others but its quite another to take a risk when
symptoms are present. As someone in
ministry, no matter how humble it may be, I have an obligation to those I serve
to remain healthy and avoid unnecessary risks.
Nobody’s cooking is worth interfering with my small role in serving the
kingdom of God.
So, I will be cooking
dinner for my children (I was going to make a turkey anyway. You have to have
leftovers, right?) for our inaugural Thanksgiving in my new home “down by The
River.”
(There is More at
the restricted blog). Follow me on Twitter, MeWe, or Parler for easy
access. Blog M T 4 Christ dot org – This
is where the Facebook post ends.)
This morning’s
meditation verse was:
Psalm 105:1 (NLT): Give
thanks to the Lord and proclaim His greatness. Let the whole world know what He
has done.
You know, when a bible
verse about giving thanks to the Lord comes up on the Monday before Thanksgiving
it tells me two things:
- We are definitely “tracking with the Spirit”, a phenomenon
that I describe as receiving indications from the Lord that He is with you
and is communicating.
- We need to give credit where credit is due.
Yesterday in the men’s
bible study that I attend, the leader presented Psalm 136, which is a psalm
absolutely filled with the sentiment of giving thanks to God and recognizing
that “His mercy endures forever”. The
teacher presented PS 136 to drive the point home that when we give thanks there
has to be “an object” to whom we give thanks to.
Generally, we make
the object of our thanks people who perform some task for us. While it is awesome to have someone do
something for us or to be a continual support, we should recognize how
subjective or fleeting this scenario could be.
You are thankful for “Sue” because of making such a fine dinner, for
being so kind, or for her quirky personality that makes you laugh. But what if Sue decides not to make dinner,
be so kind, or becomes dull as life extends into the latter years? The point is that our thanks are conditional
on Sue pleasing us and if she doesn’t please us, we might not be so thankful.
Situations like this can easy turn into co-dependency as two people place
expectations on one another to make each other happy when only a life with the
Lord at the center can truly satisfy.
And then there are
those who just give thanks for giving thanks sake… “I’m just thankful... for
everything!” or, please forgive them, “Thank you, universe!” In essence people like this have recognized that
there is something about creation that is transcendent, but they refuse to
recognize the person or work of Christ as meaningful. They have rejected Him and not only Jesus,
but they refuse to even recognize God in general.
With our localized
thanks or our general ethereal thanks, we remain short sighted. The people we
are thankful for were made by God. The goodness of the people that He made is a
reflection of who He is as all men are made in His image. The universe,
heavens, or nature were also created by God.
They reflect His beautiful mind as a creative genius.
So, when you sit
down to give thanks this week, make sure to thank God. If you know Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior, be sure to thank Him and the Holy Spirit as well.
Today we continue to share from Anderson & Baumchen’s Finding Hope
Again, where the authors discuss how our bodies react to stress.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and
encourage all to purchase Anderson’s books for your own private study and to
support his work:
The Whole
Picture
Now let's see how the rest of the outer self correlates
with the inner self. The brain and the spinal cord make up the central nervous
system, which splits off into a peripheral nervous system, as shown in the
following diagram.
The peripheral nervous system has two channels—the autonomic
and the somatic nervous system. The somatic nervous system regulates
our muscular and skeletal movements such as speech, gestures, etc.—functions
over which we have volitional control. This channel obviously correlates to our
will. Except for functions of our autonomic nervous systems, as discussed in
the following material, we normally do nothing without first thinking
it. The thought-response sequence is so rapid that we are hardly aware of the
sequence, but it is always there. Of course, involuntary muscular movements can
occur when the system breaks down, as is the case with Parkinson's disease
(shaking palsy), a progressive degeneration of nerve cells in one part of the
brain that controls muscle movements.
The autonomic nervous system regulates our internal organs.
We do not have direct volitional control over our glands. We don't consciously
say to our hearts, "beat, beat, beat," or to our adrenal glands,
"adren, adren, adren," or to our thyroid, "thy, thy, thy."
All these organs function automatically.
The autonomic nervous system correlates
to our emotions. In a general sense, we don't have direct volitional control
over feelings. We cannot will ourselves to feel good or like somebody we hate.
We can, however, exert indirect control of our emotions by what we think
and believe.
Just as our glands are regulated by our
central nervous system, so our emotions are primarily a product of our
thoughts. The circumstances of life do not determine how we feel. Negative
external events do not cause depression. Between the external stimulus and the
emotional response is the brain (receiver) and the mind (interpreter). So how
we feel is primarily determined by how we interpret life events (i.e.,
what we choose to think and believe), and secondarily by how we choose to
behave. We can become depressed by interpreting circumstances with
something less than a biblical worldview, or failing to believe what God has
said.
When
Stress Becomes Distress
Let's apply this to the problem of stress. When external
pressures put demands on our physical system, our adrenal glands respond by
secreting cortisone like hormones into our physical bodies. This means that our
bodies automatically respond to external pressures—as in the natural
"fight" or "flight" responses. If the pressures persist too
long, our adrenal glands can't keep up, and stress becomes distress.
The result can be physical illness, or we may become irritated about things
that, in less stressful times, wouldn't bother us physically or emotionally.
Why, then, do two people respond
differently to the same stressful situation? Some actually seize the
opportunity and thrive under the pressure, while others fall apart. What makes
the difference? Does one have superior adrenal glands? We don't think so.
Although we may differ considerably in our physical conditions, the major
difference lies in the "software." It isn't just the superior glands
or external factors such as deadlines, schedules, trauma and temptations that
determine the degree of stress. The major difference is how we mentally
interpret the external world and process the data our brain is receiving.
The mind can choose to respond by trusting
God with the assurance of victory, or to see ourselves as the helpless victims
of circumstances. The Israelites saw Goliath in reference to themselves, and
stressed out. David saw the same giant in reference to God, and triumphed in
the same situation that left the others in defeat. Faith in God (i.e., what we
believe) greatly affects how we interpret and respond to the pressures of this
world.
The Spirit
Can Affect the Flesh
It is critically important to understand that the adrenal
glands do not initiate the release of adrenaline. They are the responders, not
the initiators. The hormone is released into the bloodstream after the brain
has recorded the external inputs and the mind has interpreted them. The brain
itself can only function according to how it has been programmed.
God obviously created us with some
natural programming for survival, such as the sucking instinct in a newborn
baby and other necessary bodily functions that sustain life. This would be
similar to how the animal kingdom operates through divine instincts. Applying
the same logic, a natural or normal production of neurotransmitters also allows
the brain to function, or else no physical life could be sustained in infancy.
In other words, we are preprogrammed from birth to physically exist. There is a
natural will to live, to seek food, clothing, shelter and safety.
Could the programming of our minds, or
how we choose to think, affect how the brain operates? If the secretion of
adrenaline from our adrenal glands is triggered by how we think or perceive
reality, could serotonin or other neurotransmitters be affected by how we think
and what we choose to believe?
Does the presence of the
"Wonderful Counselor" transform the outer self or the inner self? In
other words, what physically changed in our lives at the moment we were born
again? Nothing changed that was observable to the naked eye. In a similar
fashion, we might ask what physical changes you observed in your computer when
you slipped in a new program. Even though the same number of hardware
components existed in the computer, the screen began to show a different
output. The electronic flow through the computer changed.
Would we begin to live differently if a
new program were loaded into the "computer" that is our brain? We
should have the potential to do so because our eyes have been opened to the
truth, and the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to live by faith. The flow
of neurotransmitters would certainly change, even though the number of brain
cells would remain the same.
The presence of God in our lives will
slowly affect even our physical being. According to the words of Paul, "He
who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through His Spirit who indwells you" (Romans 8:11). This
is evident when we walk by the Spirit because "the fruit of the Spirit is
love [the character of God], joy [the antithesis of depression], peace [the
antithesis of anxiety], patience [the antithesis of anger], kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22, 23).
The connection between the initiating cause, which is the Spirit of truth
working in our lives, and the end result, which is self-control, is the mind.
The mind directs the brain, which in turn regulates all our glands and muscular
movements.
Finding Hope Again: Overcoming Depression.
------------------------------more tomorrow------------------------
God bless
you all!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.