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Does God Speak To Us Today?

If you are at all involved in a church, you’ve probably heard someone say something along the lines of, “I just heard God tell me…” or, “God just spoke to me…” So now the question is raised…does God still speak to us today?

The answer…it depends on what you mean by “speak”. If you mean that God speaks through the Bible, then the answer is yes. Absolutely God speaks today. If you mean that you were sitting in your room and you heard an audible voice of God tell you to do something…no.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 sets the bar for us. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” In other words, the Bible is sufficient. It’s all we need. God has already spoken to us. And even if the Bible did allow for God to give us personal revelation today (which it doesn’t), God would never say something to someone that goes against Scripture. God doesn’t contradict Himself.

When we claim God speaks to us today in a personal or private setting, then we open up the doors for anything. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints got a special revelation from God. His revelation that the Bible was corrupt and in error. So comes the Book of Mormon.

The Biblical cannon is closed. There is no new revelation today. The book of Revelation confirms this. Revelation (regardless of how you interpret it) gives us the picture of the return of Christ. How it all ends. With Revelation comes a great warning not to add or remove from the book. “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (22:18)

The argument made here might be that he is referring to just the words in Revelation. That’s fair. But this is actually echoed of a warning given in Deuteronomy. “You shall not add to the word that I commanded you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.” (Deut. 4:2) “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.” (12:32)

It seems God is pretty clear when it comes to his Word and commands. You can’t add to or take from. I know we like to think we’re the center of our lives. I know we like to think God has something unique and special to say to us. But when we desire something that is outside of what the Bible says, we are saying the Bible isn’t enough for us. That’s God’s Word is not sufficient for us.

I know people will disagree with this. The biggest movement in evangelical Christianity is based on these ideas of hearing from God or being “anointed”. But I find it dangerous and it seems to cause more harm than good.

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Creation (Just a quick thought)

I’ve noticed a lot of local churches in my area doing sermon series on the creation account lately. There is so much debate about the creation of the universe and I must admit, I don’t really understand why. Especially within the Christian community. Growing up I never had questions about the creation because I just believed God said it and it was made. There was no need for further thought or debate.

In this post, I just want to quickly put my thoughts down on why I believe what I do about the creations account and how I believe it was six literal twenty-four hour days and not billions of years.

Reasons number 1: We must consider the audience. The Bible (while inspired by God) was written by ancient people to ancient people. I have a hard time believing that the original readers of the creation account would have interpreted it as billions of years. I think they would have taken it exactly as it says...one day at a time.

Reason number 2: The Hebrew word used here for day is the world, yom. Yom can means a number of different things; 24 hour day, the time between dawn and dusk, but almost every time the word yom is given a numerical value it means 24 hours. 

Reason number 3: The phrasing, “there was evening and there was morning”. Again, this doesn’t even seem to fit in the “poetic” category. It seems God is saying, evening went to morning making the next day. I don’t think we need to read deeper in to that.

Reason number 4: Consider the Sabbath. The day of rest. Why would God mean billions of years for the first six segments of creation and then drop down to 24 hours for the seventh as an example for us to rest? The Sabbath is literal so in this way, I think one must take the other days as literal as well. 

Of course there is so much more to say about this, but these are just my surface level thoughts on the matter and maybe one of these days I’ll make another post with a more detailed look at it, but for right now I’m just trying to post more. 

God bless!

-T

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The Never Ending Argument (Part 1: Sexism)

There seems to be a never ending argument when it comes to Christianity and the Bible. The argument, in a sense, comes down to how evil, hateful, homophobic, and sexist God is. That the Bible promotes violence and slavery and the mistreating of woman. How God will just wipe out people because he can.

A friend of mine sent me an article that challenged me on this argument. The argument was ultimately comparing the ways that President Donald Trump reflected “true Biblical Christianity” because of the way he treats woman, immigrants, the LGBTQ community and others. The writer argued that Trump is the most Christian president because of this.

Now, this is not a political post. I am in no way promoting or advocating for President Trump, I am simply explaining what drew me to respond to the claims made against my God.

This post will be broken up in to different parts, as I could not hope to respond to everything in this one post and expect people to read it. Topic number 1: Is God Sexist

One of the first arguments made against God in this area is that God made men to be above woman. Is this true? Let’s walk through it...

Genesis 1:26-27; “Then God said, “Let us make man (ha’adam (mankind)), in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

The Hebrew word that is used here is ha’adam, which is translated to man or mankind as a whole. God is giving mankind dominion over everything on earth. Nowhere does it state that man (ish) is to have dominion over the woman (ishah). They are both equal in value. Both are made in the image of God. So from the beginning, the Bible establishes the value of woman, equality of woman with the man, equality in their dignity and are fellow heirs of the kingdom of God through Christ. So where do we get the sexism?

It starts in Genesis 3:16b; “To the woman he said, “Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.””

The first thing to understand is that God is the ultimate authority and Lord. He gets to decide how things go in the universe that he created. The Bible talks about two orders when it comes to marriage; headship and submission. Both of these words seem to come with very negative understandings. I would argue that these negative ways of thinking come from our fallen nature, which I will get to in a moment. 

Ephesians 5:22:23a commands wives to submit to their husbands because he is the head or the leader of the household. This is the order established by God. This does not mean that the man gets to order his wife around and force her to do things she does not want to do. Biblical headship means the man leads his family in the way of the Lord. This is clear in Ephesians 5:23b where the next line in the order is drawn declaring that Christ is the head over the man. What we must understand is that while the Bible commands that the wives submit to their husbands, the husband must submit to Christ. This is not God saying that the woman is less important or valued, it is simply the way God has ordered things to go.

Many may ask, “what about the man who interprets that passage to mean what he wants? To order the wife around and abuse his role as leader?” God has given us two things; his Word and the Church. Continuing on in Ephesians, we see the instructions for husbands and what it means to be a leader. Ephesians 5:25 commands that husbands love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. Christ died for the Church. He sacrificed himself for her. This is the first thing to think of for men. Woman are not commanded to die for their husbands, but husbands are commanded to die for their wives if it came to it. Continuing on, husbands are commanded to love their wife as if she were his own body (5:28). God has commanded men to look at themselves, to check themselves in a way. In leading the family, the husband needs to remember that he needs to lead in love and submission to Christ. God has put more responsibility and weight on the man in this sense. 

Now for sin. After the eating of the fruit, sin entered in to creation. Sin did not just affect humanity, but it affected all of creation (Romans 8:19). However, we often seem to notice the humanity side of things more because we are humans and we are drawn to these imperfections. Because of the fall, we are all imperfect, and when you put more than one imperfect person together there is bound to be conflict in some way, shape or form. Looking back at how God established marriage and then looking at marriage, especially in our culture and society today, we can see the fulfillment of Genesis 3:16. This is not an argument about, “can woman do the same things as men”, this is about complete rebellion against God’s order. This verse is not saying woman can’t do the same things as men. This verse is addressing pride and how we, as fallen human beings with a sin nature, have a constant desire of rebellion against God and his order and authority.

Now, the comment in the article that really challenged me to research all of this...the writer of the article mentioned that God was evil because he required rape victims to marry their attacker. Where did they get this? From a surface level view of Deuteronomy.

“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.” - Deut. 22:28-29

Context matters people. Deuteronomy 22:25-27, the verse directly before this shows us that God is not okay with rape; “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.”

God takes this very seriously, but now to address the marriage verse. This verse is by no way requiring a woman to marry her rapist. In the whole Bible, there is not a single time where a woman who is raped is required to marry her rapist. When a woman is not married, her father is her protector and her authority. Exodus clearly states that a father does not have to give his daughter to a rapist. I can’t image a father who would want to do this!

“If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins.” - Exodus 22:16-17

So why would God put this in the Bible about marrying your rapist? A few different reasons...

1. Security. In that time, virginity was highly valuable. It would have been very difficult for a woman who was not a virgin or who had been raped to find a husband. God put this in as a way of saying to the man, she is your responsibility now. You must provide for her and care for her for all the days of your life. It was security for the woman, not only in physical safety but also financially. We have to remember that it was a different time back then and if God immediately commanded for the rapist to be put to death, then the woman might end up homeless and starving with no one to care for her if her father were to die. Today, this is not necessarily the case. Woman are educated the same way as men today, they were not back in Biblical times. Woman have the ability and skills to care for themselves today where they didn’t necessarily back then. This was not only God showing undeserved grace to the rapist, but it was God caring for and loving the victim as well.

2. Redemption. No sin can go beyond the grace of God. God has the ability to forgive any sin. Yes, even rape. As horrible as it is, it is not beyond the grace of God. While some people may jump on this and say that rapists don’t deserve a second chance or can’t be redeemed, we need to remember that we are looking at this from a fallen perspective. We are all sinners and all deserve death and eternal hell. All sin, big or small leads to the same destination. If it were not for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, no one would have hope.

Now, please note that I am in no way saying that we should excuse rapists, and God isn’t saying that either. God has given us a moral code and a justice system. Forgiving does not mean there are no consequences to the action. The Bible tells us that we are to obey the laws put before us (Rom. 13:1-7). Laws should be enforced and criminals should be punished. Justice should be served. If you have been abused or raped, take action. Call the police. Seek counsel and help from your local church. Protect yourself. 

Then comes the question, if God hates rape, why does he let it happen and why doesn’t he stop it? In my next post, I am going to be talking about how God is a just God and does not tolerate any kind of sin. The topic will be on why there is so much violence in the Bible, if God is supposed to be loving.

There is more to say on this subject, and if you have any questions about anything posted here, please feel free to ask a question on my blog and I will do my best to try and answer it, or clear up any misunderstanding.

God bless.

- T

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Next Blog

My next blog will be published on Sunday. It is a tough one, but I felt like I needed to write it. A friend of mine sent me an article that one of her friends wrote that was very anti-Christian. It brought up how hateful, sexist, homophobic and ultimately evil God is. While I (obviously) disagree with the points the person was making, I felt challenged to really dive in to these different topics and break them apart. The first blog will try and get to the bottom of the argument of, Is God Sexist? Prayers would be appreciated!

God bless!

-Ty

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New Year...

Hello all,

A promise that I am trying to make to myself in 2019 is to post a new blog every week! Can I do, yes! Will I, probably not...but I’m going to try. I will be tackling some really tough, but sobering issues such as abortion, hell, false Christianity and homosexuality. I was recently interviewed by a student writing an article on where the LGBTQ community falls in to the church so I am very excited to be sharing some thoughts! I will also be trying to focus on uplifting posts as well! 

Please, if you have a question send them in! Nothing is off limits and I will try to answer them the best I can. I currently have about 10 still in my inbox that I will be answering within the next couple of weeks.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year! God bless!

-T

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What makes Christianity the "right" religion?

This does not really have a simple answer. The first thing to look at is what sets Christianity apart from all other world religions. The answer to that is works. All other religions in the world say that you have to “do good things” or, “be a good person” and you might have the chance of getting to heaven or being reincarnated as something worthy or becoming a god...whatever it might be. Christianity says that no one is good, not one (Romans 3:10-12). We are all sinners and evil in the eyes of God and nothing we do can ever earn God’s favor. Our good deeds to God are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). We all deserve God’s wrath and an eternity in hell.

That all sounds pretty harsh, I know, but there is one more major thing that sets Christianity apart from all other religions and that is that God loved us so much that he made a way for us to spend eternity in heaven with him instead of in hell apart from him. The Bible tells us that God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life, one that you and I could never hope to live, and died on a cross in our place for our sins and took the punishment, the wrath of God that we all deserve and suffered it for us instead. Jesus then rose from the dead and now sits at the right hand of the Father. God has extended this invitation to you and me. He says that we were bad, but because of the death of his Son, Jesus, we can be reconciled to him. All we need is to (1) recognize that we are sinners and admit that there is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation. (2) We need to repent. This means we tell God that we are sorry for our sins and turn from them. We go through life a new creation. We no longer desire sinful things. (3) We believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ as our God and savior. That there is no other way to heaven.

No other religion has God himself become human to die for his people so that they can be made right. The God of the Bible did. The Bible also has answers to everything we need to know. Through faith in Christ and reading the Bible, the Holy Spirit will reveal and illuminate truth to us. Our God does not leave us nor will he ever forsake us. He guides us. The Bible is historically accurate and trustworthy. No other religious text is as accurate or trustworthy. 

That’s the short answer. Hope it helped. I will be making the “long” answer in to a blog in the near future because of this question. Thank you and God bless!

-T

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Top Ten Best Christmas Songs

Since I did the worse Christmas songs (in my opinion), I thought I would show people that I don’t hate ALL Christmas music and make a list of my top ten favorite Christmas songs...enjoy. (Keep in mind that these are not just any version of the song. This is the classical version unless otherwise stated)

#10 - Joy To The World

#9 - Hark The Herald Angels Sing

#8 - Go Tell It On The Mountain (NEEDTOBREATHE)

#7 - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

#6 - A Strange Way To Save The World

#5 - I Celebrate The Day

#4 - O Come All Ye Faithful

#3 - I’ll Be Home For Christmas

#2 - Joseph’s Lullaby

#1 - How Many Kings

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Top Ten Worst Christmas Songs

Something a little different this time around. I am not a fan of the holidays. Specifically Christmas. Along with Christmas comes Christmas music. So for fun, I have put together my list of the top 10 worst Christmas songs...enjoy.

#10 - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa

#9 - All I Want For Christmas Is You

#8 - Jingle Bells

#7 - White Christmas

#6 - Baby It’s Cold Outside

#5 - Little Drummer Boy

#4 - Santa Baby

#3 - Do You Hear What I Hear?

#2 - Feliz Navidad

#1 - The Twelve Days of Christmas

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Santa Claus (Opinion)

Since Christmas is right around the corner I figured this particular opinion post would focus on the holly jolly man in the red suite...Santa Claus.

So who is this Santa Claus. In our culture here in the United States of America, Santa Claus is a man who lives at the North Pole. He has a workshop where the toys are made for all of the good children of the world. How are the toys made? Well, a bunch of little creatures called elves work all year (with no pay) to make these toys in time for them to be delivered by Christmas morning. 

How does Santa deliver these toys? Why, in a magical sled pulled along by eight (nine if you count the red nosed one) reindeer who can...fly. On the night of Christmas Eve, Santa flies around the entire world, breaks in to every house and leaves toys for the good kids.  

If you haven't figured it out from my maybe obvious sarcasm, I am not a fan of Santa Claus. In fact, I find him to be very harmful and not just from a Christian perspective. We will touch on the Christian perspective of course, because this blog is taken from such perspective, but I will also throw in why even those who stay far away from the church should also caution themselves when it comes to ol’ St. Nick.

Reason #1: Santa Is A Lie

If you are reading this and you still believe in Santa...well, spoiler alert, he’s not real. This shouldn’t be a controversial idea. Santa Claus is not real. He doesn’t live in the North Pole, he does not have a magic sled (because that’s not real either). He does not have several flying reindeer (because those don’t exist either...reindeer do, just not the flying kind). There is no toy factory at the North Pole where a bunch of little enslaved creatures work day after day all year to make toys for no pay. It’s all fantasy. 

Is there anything wrong with fantasy? No. God gave us an imagination. Fantasy has been used by many people to promote the gospel. A good example is the famous and wonderful Chronicles of Narnia saga by C. S. Lewis. When you have an active imagination, you can use that for the glory of God! So now why is Santa different? When you read stories to your children such as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings you make it clear (or at least you should) that what is going on is not real. Hogwarts does not exist. Middle Earth is not a real place. You read these stories because they are entertaining and there are wonderful lessons that can be learned from them. The whole Santa Claus narrative is most commonly told to children as real and true. 

How many of you grew up believing in Santa Claus? I’m sure many of you did! I did. The Bible says this...

- So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors , for we are all part of the same body. (Ephesians 4:25)

I know what some of you are thinking...this is a little intense. That’s the point. I think many of us as Christians see that there are two levels of lying. The lying that is really bad and the lying that is not that bad because it’s not hurting anything. Right? Wrong. All lying is wrong. All lying is sin. The Bible is very clear on this. We as Christians are supposed to be witnesses to truth! That’s all truth. 

We tell our kids they shouldn’t lie to us. We tell our kids that lying is a sin. Then we need to be an example of this and not lie to them! No matter how big or small we think the lie may be, it is still a lie. And in case you’re wondering, I believe this applies to all fictional things such as the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Great Pumpkin, Bigfoot and that creepy baby angel Cupid.

Reason #2: Santa Teaches a Gospel of Works

If we want to raise our kids in a Christ centered home with a Bible based way of seeing things then we need to apply it to our whole lives and not pick and choose. The Bible teaches that it is by grace through faith alone that we are saved and not by works so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). So if this is the case, then why do we tach that Santa will only reward you if you are good?

He knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake. I think most know this song. And I think we can all agree that being kind to others and acting with other people’s best interest instead of our own. That’s sacrificial. But it does not count towards our salvation. At all. Our works are as filthy rags to God. If we try to earn or even contribute to our salvation through good works then we are fighting a losing fight. God loved us so he made a way for us to have access to him through the death of Christ. This is a gift freely given to us. We did not earn it. It’s not based on if we’ve been bad or good.

Parents will use this idea of Santa to get their kids to behave. I remember my mom or dad would say things like, “You better be good because Santa is watching!” And this would sometimes cause me to get my act together because I wanted to make sure I got that one special gift for Christmas. I am not faulting my parents. Like most parents, I do not believe there is any intent to lead their children astray. They see it as a fun little way of getting in the Christmas spirit. My parents were very good about making sure me and my brother knew that Jesus was the reason for the season. However, there were times when it crossed over in to “do this or Santa will know and you won’t get anything for Christmas!” 

To repeat. God gives us the free gift of salvation for all who repent and turn from sin and surrender to Christ. It has nothing to with us. What we do. It has everything to do with what Jesus has done. 

Reason #3: Santa Discriminates

What do I mean by this? This is probably the simplest point I can make. When we do the Santa thing with our kids we are not taking other people in to consideration. Let me paint a picture for you...

Family A is an upper-middle class family. They have a  lovely young son who really wants an Xbox for Christmas. He has not been very good all year but he is sure Santa is going to bring one for him.

Family B is a lower income family with an equally lovely young son who also really wants and Xbox for Christmas. He has been good all year. Respects his parents, gets good grades, says please and thank you. Great kid.

Well, Christmas comes and Family A has put a brand new Xbox under the tree for their child while Family B does not because they can’ afford one. They give their son what they can. Both kids happen to go to the same school and are in the same class. Kid from Family A is talking about his new Xbox that Santa gave him and kid from Family B overhears him.

Why didn’t Santa bring him one if he brought the kid from Family A one? Did he do something wrong? Was he not good enough? Or does Santa not like lower class people?

You see the issue here? 

We put so much value on our possessions. And we like people to know what we have. We like people to see the car we drive or the clothes we wear or we want them to know that we have the latest and greatest gadget. I have an iPhone, and I think the most common question I get asked is, “what iPhone do you have.” When I answer they usually respond with, “Oh, I have the newest one. It’s great.” Why do I care? Why should I care?

You shouldn’t care. Because the worth of someone is not found in what someone has. It is found in their character. I am reminded of a story from the Bible where Jesus and his disciples are at the temple. Jesus points out the rich people like to make a show of their giving. They do it for the attention and not because they want to be generous but because they have the extra money and what they’re giving isn’t a sacrifice to them. And then comes this woman who puts in two little coins. Jesus points her out and says that she gave more because she gave everything shad had. Her heart was in the right place. 

The idea of Santa falls in this category of the rich. We give these gifts because we want to be recognized. Be good and get gifts and tell everyone that Santa brought it to you. Santa is all for show and it’s all about me. If we teach our kids to give instead of receive, to abandon this idea of a Santa who discriminates against the less fortunate then we are able to teach them about a God who gave everything to us. To make a sacrifice on our behalf, not because we’ve been good or bad but because he loves us. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, doesn’t matter what part of the world you’re from. Jesus extends this invitation to all who repent and turn to him. This is something Santa cannot offer.

I am not saying receiving gifts is bad. I’m not saying to have a desire for something is bad. What is bad is when we tell our children that there is this man who seems to know everything (sees us when we’re sleeping. Knows when we’re awake. Knows if we’ve been bad or good) and yet seems to forget about or doesn’t care about the kids in the families who can’t afford the luxuries other people can.

Reason #4: Santa Takes the Place of Jesus

I do think we need to be cautious though. There are much bigger issues in the Bible that need to be addressed when it comes to what we teach our children, but, the Bible does paint a pretty harsh picture of what should happen to someone who leads children away from Jesus (Matthew 18:6). Again, do I think that if you are a parent who does the Santa thing is guilty of this? Not necessarily, but could that be the case? Yes. When the child chooses Santa over Jesus. When Jesus is put aside and Santa takes that spot, then I believe you are walking on dangerous ground. 

Jesus needs to be the focus and the center of our entire lives. Everything we do should be Jesus centered. The moment something takes the place of Jesus in our lives we have crossed over in to sin. Don’t get me wrong, we all do this from time to time. We are human beings. We are not perfect. Yes we will stumble, but we repent. However, when we knowingly and willingly put Santa in our children’ t head as this all knowing judge of good and bad, we cross a line. We lie to them. We push Jesus to the side. And that is not good. Not good at all.

Bonus Reason: Santa Is Just Kind Of Creepy

Let’s just take a moment and remember a quote from a lovely little fellow named Olaf; “Breaking and entering: Okay on Christmas.” And I might add that it’s okay as long as it’s someone who is bringing you a gift that you really, really, really, really wanted. Can I just remind everyone that this person called Santa apparently breaks in to your house by means of chimney. And according to a semi-entertaining movie from years back, if you don’t have a fireplace one would just appear. I like how they fill that plot hole but not the one about kids in 3rd world countries. The point I’m making is Santa is just plain creepy.

Conclusion: I know many of you who read this probably think I am being way too picky about this and that it’s not as big of a deal as I am making it out to be. And that’s okay. That’s why this is marked as an opinion blog. Unlike most of my other blogs, this is all based on my own opinion of what I see in scripture. If you do the Santa thing with your kids, I do not see you as a bad person nor would I avoid you if I saw you in a Walmart picking out one of those giant inflatable yard Santas. I love you and you have your own convictions. I just argue that maybe some re-evaluation takes place with the whole Santa Claus thing.

God bless.

-Ty

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This Time of Year

I have decided to start blogging because it seems to be what everyone is doing these days. These blogs will be filled with all kinds of things. Different thoughts I have about certain subjects and topics relating to the Bible and the world. Celebrations and joys that I or people I know may experience. Prayer requests and hardships. Basically anything that God is putting on my heart.

Starting this blog with a post about depression might seem odd to some, but for me it’s needed. It’s a way of being vulnerable. Something I have a hard time with.

This time of year is always the hardest for me. I fall in to a deep depression and every year it seems to get worse. This depression lasts usually from the end of September until the beginning of June. The grey and gloom that covers Western Washington for nine months is the main triggering for this. 

If you have ever even come close to dealing with depression, one thing you may have experienced is the lack of motivation to really get out and do anything. Sure you go to work or school, but anything that you don’t have to do in order to live is just put on the backburner of life and left for another time. For me, just getting out of bed is something to be proud of. I feel stuck. I feel trapped. 

I find that these nine months or so are the times when I seem to find myself believing lies, falling in to sin and alienating myself from the community and my friend group. The smallest failures on my part are enough to tempt me in to giving up, but I know I shouldn't.

I have never hidden my depression from anyone, but I have never truly opened up to anyone about it either. Every time I have tried to open up about depression I am met with the response of everyone trying to fix it. “Just think happy thoughts.” or “you need to just tell your brain to not be depressed.” And those who have ever experienced depression know that it doesn’t work like that. Depression is not something that you can just hop out of or get over. 

For me, depression is a feeling of hopelessness, helplessness, exhaustion, loneliness and emptiness. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. This year is not much different so far except for the fact that I am now writing down these thoughts and feelings and putting them out in to the world. I am letting the truth of scripture direct me. Instead of my words and ideas I fall in to God’s Word and his promises for my life and the lives of others and I believe there are some truths the Bible has for these feelings.

Hopeless: Being hopeless is when we look at a circumstance or situation and feel completely overwhelmed by it to the point where we can’t see any way the end result can be good. This idea should sound so familiar because it is the idea that drives our entertainment. Every action, adventure or fantasy movie or story that comes out has this picture of hopelessness. This darkness that seemed to cover everything. And then when the darkness seems like it’s too much and it’s won a hero comes out and saves the day and restores hope to the world. This is the gospel. A world in darkness and in need of a savior.

When things seem hopeless we must remember that our hope does not come from things or outcomes of this world but from God. In Christ we place our hope. The things of this world will fail us, but Jesus never will. We must remember that God is in control of ever single circumstance and situation and there is a purpose to everything, yes even for depression.

 - And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans  8:28)

Right now we may not be able to see the goodness that is to come out of this darkness we feel in depression. We may not be able to understand it. And that’s okay. The point is not to understand why, but to trust that God is good and has a plan for our lives. Can we surrender to him and say, “God, I don't understand what is going on, but I am going to trust you through this.” When we surrender to God completely we place our hope in him. This is a freeing feeling.

Without Jesus the feeling of hopelessness is justified. There is no hope without Jesus. He is the light in the darkness. He is the hero who has come to save the day.

Helpless: Helplessness usually comes along side of hopelessness. Helplessness is about action or lack of action. It’s when you want to be able to do something about a situation and you know that there is nothing you can do. 

Maybe you’ve heard the phrase, “God helps those who help themselves.” I don’t know about you, but when I read the Bible I don’t see this phrase reflected. There are things God requires of us, yes, but this idea that God only helps those who help themselves is something that seems wrong. In fact the Bible actually seems to say things against this idea of thinking. When Jesus was arrested, his disciples scattered. They ran away. Probably in fear that they might get arrested too. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. There was an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. The disciples could do nothing even if they wanted to. Jesus was meant to go to the cross. 

I think sometimes God’s plan can make us feel helpless because we may not be able to understand it. And I think there are times when God wants us to seek his help. I think there are times God wants us to acknowledge that we really can not do this on our own and that we need him. This should be encouraging. The fact that we have a God who is for us and on our side. In fact, what did Jesus call the Holy Spirit in John 14:26?

- But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (ESV)

When we feel helpless we need to remember that God has given us a helper. And it’s not just any helper, it’s the Spirit of God Himself. And he is with you in the dark times. He walks with you in your struggles. Find peace in that.

Exhausted: The feeling of exhaustion. A feeling that can stretch in to every aspect of our lives and being depressed can trigger exhaustion in all aspects of our lives. I know for me when I am at my worst when it comes to my depression I have the hardest time sleeping. I have never had much success with sleep, but it gets ten times worse when the depression sneaks it’s way in to my life.

I get out of bed and my body is heavy and doing the simplest physical tasks can take everything I have. Maybe you’re someone who don’t struggle with falling asleep. Imagine a time in your life where you couldn’t sleep for one reason or another and you went to work the next day and maybe you had some other things going on and by the end of the day you were so tired you could barely stand. Imagine feeling that but all of the time. Every day. That is how so many people feel.

Then there is emotional exhaustion, spiritual exhaustion and mental exhaustion. Not always all at the same time. There are times where I can be emotionally spent but spiritually I am at full battery. Or Physically I can run a marathon but mentally I am drained. So what do we do in these situations?

In all of these I think it is important to say that every one of us has work to do. School, a job, family, church...whatever it might be for you, we all have work and responsibility and while all of these aspects of depression can impact our responsibilities, exhaustion is the one that takes the biggest toll for me. It may not be easy to go to work or do school or take care of my family when I feel hopeless, helpless, lonely and empty but they are easier to put aside for me. (This is not true of everyone, this is just an example from me) but exhaustion is hard to hide. It takes a toll on your body and people take notice. If I am too physically exhausted I may see the excuse to call out sick to work. If I am mentally exhausted it is more tempting to just take a failing grade on an assignment for school. Emotional exhaustion may cause me to shut down and put aside my relationship with my wife for a while. Spiritual exhaustion might cause keep me out of a Church or small group.

We all have a job to do. And just like we need to Lord’s help when we feel helpless, we need the Lord’s strength when we are weak and exhausted. I am going to let the Bible suggest something to do when you feel like you are too weak to carry on...

Take time to be alone. Take a short nap. Let your body and mind rest. Seek God’s truth to get you back on track spiritually. Pray constantly. Read your Bible daily. Jesus says that you can come to him for rest.

- Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28-29 NLT)

Lonely: Loneliness is a hard one to describe. It can take different forms in different people. For some, it is truly being alone. And there are some times this is unavoidable. Situations and circumstances can sometimes, for a season limit our time we spend with other people. It is also possible to feel alone even when you are around people all the time. For me, loneliness is when I believe that people don’t care. The reason for this is because I tell myself that because of my depression I am a burden on the people around me and they don’t want to deal with me or my problems. And honestly, that may be true. Depression is a hard thing to deal with both when you, yourself struggle with it and when you know someone who struggles with it. 

When I feel like a burden on someone, much of the time I make the choice of that I am going to take a step back from our friendship and give the person or people some space from me. Doing this adds up and I do it with more and more people until finally there really doesn’t seem to be anyone left. I isolate myself from people and situations which then tends to trigger loneliness. 

This is not always the case. Sometimes the people around you do step away on their own terms and there really is nothing you can do about it. With that comes the sting of rejection which leads to the feeling of being a burden on others which leads to loneliness. I know a lot of people who have been through this. When the people we want to and should trust the most push us away we can begin to develop trust issues. We can build walls. We can close ourselves off from others keeping us from being vulnerable, eventually extending beyond human beings and including God. 

These lies being to manifest themselves in our heads that if other people don’t want to deal with us then God most definitely doesn’t want to deal with me. The problem with this is we bring God down to the level of people. We make God in to something He is not...unreliable and unfaithful. 

People will let us down and make us feel lonely and worthless. God will not. God promises never to leave us or forsake us. God is the only being who has a perfect track record of keeping promises. But how can we believe this? We believe this by looking at what Christ did on the cross. God loves us so much he wants to spend eternity with us. He doesn’t want us to be alone. He wants to draw us close to him. Sin is the wall that we build up between us and God, Christ died to break down this wall. That we might have access to him by repenting and following him. When everyone else says to go, Jesus invites us to him. When loneliness strikes remember that God is with you always.

- From eternity to eternity I am God! No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. (Isaiah 43:13)

Empty: Emptiness. A feeling of being hollow. The feeling like there’s nothing else there. You become a shell of yourself. Recognizable on the outside but a stranger on the inside. Anything you were doesn’t feel real or that it even matters anymore. 

This is one of the more dangerous parts of depression because we are not made to be empty. We are not meant to feel this way. When we feel empty it means that there feels like something is missing from us. Not just that something feels like it’s missing from our life, but it feels like something is missing inside of us. 

We are all empty before we meet Jesus. Even if you feel like you have the best life possible. A nice house, a nice car, big family, great job...whatever it may be, the truth is that all of that is worthless. When you try to fill the emptiness with things of the world you will never be filled. The Bible says that the world and the desires of the world will pass away (1 John 2:17, Matthew 24:35) and if you put your worth and hope in the things of this world then you will also pass away. 

The Word of God will never pass away (Matthew 24:35). God is eternal. We are made complete through the work of Christ. There is nothing missing. The feeling of emptiness is a lie. It’s a lie that says there is something missing and we believe this lie because we let hopelessness, helplessness, exhaustion and loneliness stack up against us. 

- So you are also complete through your union with Christ (Colossians 2:10)

When you’re in Christ, there is nothing missing. 

Conclusion: I would like to put out a challenge. Something to think about. If you are a Christian and you struggle with depression (as I do), surround yourself with the Word of God. Pray without ceasing. Trust God completely. Depression is a thing of this world and it will one day pass away. 

When the depression seems to get the worse for me I begin to evaluate my life. And more times than not there is unconfessed sin that I need to bring before God. Depression takes its worst strike when there is something that is keeping me from God. The main sin for me is falling in to the trap of believing the lie that God cannot get me through my depression. I fall in to the mindset that God can do anything except lift me up above depression. Don’t believe this lie. Find truth in His Word and let that lead you and bring you comfort. Chances are you will still have to face depression and without God you face it alone, but with God you are given armor. Ephesians says this; 

Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil! Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. (Eph. 6:13-17)