Penetrating The Darkness

Spring 1988 Pat, our Associate Pastor's wife, heard that I'd been experiencing debilitating fatigue, plus strange neurological symptoms (numbness in limbs and hand tremors). She also knew that during my study leave from Columbia Bible College (now Columbia...

June 16, 2018   A Day When Faith Made a Difference What invaded my spirit today wasn't the searing emotional pain that opens the floodgates to my tear ducts, until a pool forms on my shirt or the floor.  Not a throbbing heartache that made me doubt whether I'd...

Chronic Joy Ministry posted: "Fifteen years into fatherhood, mental illness burst into my son’s life and took up long-term residence.  So did chaos, friction, tears, lying, arguments, anger, and disrespect.  Then drugs. Then jail. Then death. As is often the case,...

Introductory Note: In two recent posts I focused on an aspect of salvation doctrine to assuage depression and inject a more grateful spirit into our thinking:  "Quick Decision Rendered In Superior Court Case" and  "Phantom Pain."  Different biblical terms such as...

Depression that leads to suicide is no respecter of persons. It isn't just the plight of the financially-strapped, unemployed provider of a household, or the teen who's tormented by bullies at school, or the aging retiree who's weary of declining energy and...

  Biblical Truth That Assuages Depression   My last post described a courtroom scene and clarified the implications of the doctrine of justification. In this post, I tell a story and explain another implication of the cross that assuages despondency.  I’m not...

Dr. Terry Powell, a professor at Columbia International University, stood trial yesterday for three charges.  According to the District Attorney's office, the charges are "inexcusable" for a Christian professor who's been in vocational ministry for almost five...

I am not a Christian because my faith always "works" for me. Yes, it works in the spiritual realm, in terms of my standing with God and eternal destiny. I've been "saved by grace through faith," which is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8). But if by "working for me" one...

I'm taking my son Stephen's advice today:  "Lighten up, dad!" A lot of my posts describe the painful symptoms of depression, then explain how God's resources sustain and enable me.  But today, I'm sharing an upbeat story of God's provision, a resource that has...

The depression in my spirit mimicked the weather that autumn afternoon:  dark, low-lying clouds; wind-whipped brown leaves flying several feet off the ground, and uninterrupted falling rain. A heavy sadness spawned a flow of tears almost as constant as the rain. ...

  By Dr. Michelle Bengtson A Review of a Book Teeming with Helpful Insights from a Doctor’s Personal Journey through Depression  Note:  You will receive a special treat in this review.  I close my very positive review with a section I label, "A Question That...

One thing I appreciate about God's Word is its realism.   Neither narratives nor instructional passages sugarcoat human sin or suffering.  How special to me are those texts that include both lament to and praise of God by someone hurting, even when there seems to...