Helping those with Depression

A must read!

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/how-help-friend-fight-depression#lzRgSGEdy55pQfUJ.01

A little personal

Last week my depression went into overdrive.  It's tough.  I'm not seeing much "fruit" here.  It's tough to come to this church and face the feeling that I'm on my own.  You'd think after feeling like that my entire life, I'd be used to it, but I never really escape it.

This week, we had a family visit with small kids.  They seemed to like it here, which is good.  But I was told "You won't get people to staff the nursery."  In other words, the church wants young families to come, but not provide anything for these young families.  They just want to pad their numbers without the cost.

Moreover, I'm very lonely, especially when I'm around people.  The guy who arranged for this job and was supposed to help me never showed when he was supposed to this weekend, which is really great when I'm feeling discouraged and ready to quit.

I had a very angry, very confrontational prayer time before getting in my car and leaving.  Most of the time, I want to get in my car and just drive off and find a place to live in the woods somewhere, off grid and away from pressure.  I'm tired of feeling like my entire life is lived out of obligation.  I'm sick of being obligated to other people.  I feel like there are several things that I am supposed to do, but can't because nothing that I do works.  Doors get slammed in my face.  Windows never really open.  I just get trapped, with others staring at me like a performing monkey.  I never get to be myself, because I only get to me who I have to be.

As I talked through with some friends of mine, I'm not even sure who I am anymore aside from what other people force me to be.  So I'm cutting back on some obligations.  I'm trying to decide if ministry needs to be one of them.

Human Trafficking Crisis

If you have been watching the news at all, surely you've heard about this crisis in Nigeria.  One man and his small army has kidnapped nearly 300 girls as they were going to school, and has made a public video saying he is going to sell them as slaves, which probably means in the sex trade.

My question is this: why is this a bag deal?

Don't get me wrong.  This is a big freaking deal.  But why did it take nearly 300 girls kidnapped before it mattered?  Shouldn't ONE girl be unacceptable?  Should this be a big freaking deal everyday? 

And believe me, this is an every single day issue.  It happens all over the world.  It happens right here in the United States.  According to Unicef, it has been reported in all 50 states.  Many of them are foster children.

Human trafficking can be forced labor (like migrant workers).  Most often it is the sex trade.  It happens like this: a fifteen year old girl goes to a typical high school party.  After being roofied and raped, she is photographed and blackmailed.  One girl's story, she told that she refused to go back, then her little dog disappeared.  She got a call where she could hear the dog barking in the background, until she heard a gunshot.  Then the caller said, "Your little brother's next."  She went to a hotel room where twenty men took turns, and left her bleeding and broken in the hotel shower.  When the maid came to clean, she called 911.  They took her home, where her parents chastised her for running away from home. 

This girl was picked up again the next night, and taken from Virginia to California, where she lived as a prostitute, locked in a fleabag motel, where she was raped daily until a police raid, when she was finally returned home.

I wept as I listened to her tell this story.  What if this was your mom?  You sister?  Your daughter?  Your niece?  Your friend?

The question isn't why the case in Nigeria is a big deal.  The question is why aren't the rest of them?

If you would like to help, I have recommended and will continue to recommend International Justice Mission.  www.twitter.com/IJM, or www.ijm.org. 

I told you so

Yesterday, I wrote about how Dems have a racist streak in them as a general party principle.

Today, I write because they decided to back me up.

Sec. of State John Kerry, (who according to IQ test is the dumbest presidential candidate of my lifetime) went out and made anti-Semitic comments.  He compared being at war against Muslim extremists to apartheid.  South Africa was a completely different situation.  In South Africa, white oppressed blacks.  In Israel, it is the terrorists doing the oppression of both Palestinian and Israeli.  They are seeking to exterminate everyone from the face of the earth, like Americans, white people, Israelis, even other Muslims.  Israel can and should defend themselves from terrorists.  We should support our allies, not our enemies.  But that would be a novel concept in this White House. 

A federal judge struck down Wisconsin's voter ID laws, again believe minorities incapable of getting a photo ID.  Again, leftists believe minorities are too stupid to get a drivers license or other form of ID.  Told you so!

Then Representative Bennie Thomas of Mississippi went further.  He went with the pat "Republicans are racist" calling conservative Clarence Thomas an "Uncle Tom."  Thomas, and many of his party, believe that Justice Thomas, Col. Allen West, and others are "traitors to their race" (similar language used by Hitler to motivate white supremacist) for stepping out of party lines.  Free thought is outlawed in favor of the willing enslavement to those who historically fought against their rights. 

He also said that no president has ever been treated as badly as Obama.  Really?  W. Bush was regularly burned in effigy.  Clinton was impeached.  Regan, Kennedy, and Lincoln were shot!  Recent polling says that 8% of Americans "believe that ObamaCare is working."  EIGHT PERCENT!  Opposing ObamaCare doesn't make you racist.  It makes you right!

LA Racist

So, I'm sure you've heard on the news by now about the owner of the LA Clippers telling his former mistress that she's not allowed to bring black people to his games.  He doesn't want "them" at his games.

In the illegally recorded conversation, the ex-mistress asked Mr. Sterling about his black players.  He said, "I provide food and clothes and jobs and games for them.

Does that sound familiar?  It should.  He basically looked at his players and said, "You didn't build that."

That's right!  Sterling is a DEMOCRAT!  Despite the fact that the Dems always point to conservatives and cry "Racist!  Racist!" they have people over and over again with racist issues in their own party.  Like when they claimed that voter ID laws discriminate against African Americans because "they're too stupid to pass the driver's test."  That was an interview with CNN.

Sterling also has received not one, but TWO NAACP lifetime achievement awards.  He donated to them and to the Obama campaign.  Why would a racist do this?

It's the secret democratic belief that non-whites are inferior, therefore they need a boost up from the white guys.  That's the reason behind the things that they do.  They cry out "racist" to anyone who doesn't do that, because they can't conceive of a white person not being like them.  They use cash and legislation to mask what they actually believe.  They can't even imagine the words of the constitution saying "All men are created equal."

Sterling, Reid, Biden, and many others in the democrat party believe this.  So do Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.  They quote Dr. King and spit on his memory.  This isn't an isolated incident, but par for the course for the Democrat party.  Again, remember it was Democrats who opposed Abolition and it was Democrats who beat Dr. King and others.

I can't stand racism.  And I hate the fact that they are getting away with it.

Double downs and blaspheming

I hope everyone had a nice Easter.  Easter, in case you didn't know, is the holiday where Christians celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the dead after dying for our sins.  He proved he was the son of God, and provided forgiveness for sins and hope of eternal life.

Unless you're Al Sharpton.  Al (I'm particularly using his first name as a sign of disrespect) has been up to no good.  After admitting to being an informant (which could be considered a violation of the "confessional" privacy, much like doctor-patient or lawyer-client confidentiality).  He was forced to be an informant because he tried to purchase crack, like an idiot.

But now he decided to add another charge to his file: blasphemy.  He said that President Obama "has been crucified and resurrected."  I know that some claim Obama is the new Messiah, but this is going a little too far, don't you think?  Especially on Easter?  Especially from a "reverend"?

I don't think Al Sharpton is worthy of reverence.



In the meantime, Harry Reid didn't want Al to have all of the attention.  He decided to call the ranchers and anyone that agreed with them "Domestic terrorists."  He repeated it a few time just make sure no one thought that he had spoken out of turn.

Nidal Hassan, who yelled "Allah Ackbar" before killing 13 people and injuring more than 30 more, was called "workplace violence," despite using the same cry suicide bombers use moments before their attacks. 

Mass murder?  That's sad.  Wanting your cows back?  Threat to our nation!  We should stomp out anyone who likes beef immediately! 

Let Bloomberg be the Judge!

Former New York Major Michael Bloomberg said recently "When I get to heaven, I'm not waiting to be interviewed.  I earned my way in.  It's not even close."

Funny, I didn't know Bloomberg was God.

I thought God made the decisions as to who got into heaven? 

Even funnier, it isn't close.  You didn't earn it.

That's not a judgment about him.  The Bible says "There is no one righteous, not even one."  It also says, "Anyone who has broken any part of the law is a lawbreaker."  In other words, if you have ever done ANY sin, EVER, then you can't earn it.  You're either pure or tainted.  There is no in between.

Tomorrow is Good Friday.  Sunday is Easter.  The whole reason for this weekend (and incidentally all of creation) is that none of us has or can earn our way in.  So God sent Jesus, His only Son, to die as punishment for our sins, and rose from the dead so we would too.

Jesus said elsewhere that if we rely on how good we are, we won't make it.  But He will give us His righteousness.  Think of it like Him paying our cover charge to get into the most exclusive club ever. 

So Bloomberg, you can rely on your goodness.  I'm taking His.