I owe you an apology… I am sorry!! I am not used to being exposed to such different view points. The thing is I really do appreciate your views. Your views have given me much to think on. It is not what you said, it is how I interperated them that is at fault. Again, my apolagies.

I am sad to say that I think there can be a shallowness in those who look down on those who suffer and get professional help. You’re marked for life by some, if you did. Maybe even many, and perhaps all of us struggle to look at someone the same way, since we’ve been inflicted with a false triumphalistic Christianity. What if we could really accept each other in those cases? How much it could help in others recovering and accepting themselves in the Lord, and going on to healing and substantial wholeness.

I love Bill Pierce and “Nightsounds” over the years. There was a man (still working, last time I saw) who wonderfully ministered unashamedly to the down and out and broken, and I can’t help but think that he knew what it was like. At least God has given him a deep empathy and understanding of such. And he ministered Christ through the music and spoken word of God and words of counsel and hope.

Getting off your post a bit, Mart, but I agree. I think we can find God’s grace at work in many secular places, while at the same time we critique it all in light of Scripture, God’s word.

Also, please point out the very sentence that gave you the impression that I will hesitate to help a fellow wounded soldier. My job is to teach the medic teams to do the needful and pray what should make you think that I would remain a passive bystander? BTW, everything that you said resounds with what I have expressed except for the counselor part. Did I accuse you of going to one?

Would you like to come see how it is on my side of the battlefield? You would be appalled…Please, do not think that you are all by yourself…we are all in this together. Will surely try and help to the best of my ability if you would ask me to… but for now, be assured of my prayers for the healing of your wounds…

Note aside: My response to the topics posted here is general comments on Mart’s thoughts and may not be taken personally. I do enjoy the interaction with you all and love to answer your questions but please let me know if it is distasteful or inappropriate… I will gladly oblige and refrain from speaking.

To be totally honest, I am a little hurt by your last comments. However, in fairness to you this is a difficult discussion to have over a blog.

I am very well aware that we struggle not against flesh and blood but against satan.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12 kjv

Every morning I wake up, I know that I will be walking onto a spiritual battlefield. My Lord is the only one who can heal my wounded spirit. There is no one else who can.

I do not take advice from Counselors for granted. Everything is passed through the Word of God first.
I do not depend on them for my salvation or for them to solve my problems, nor do I worship them and their solutions. They teach me coping skills and listen me when others are too busy.

If you were on a battlefield and a fellow soldier was wounded, would you say, “Let God take care of him”, or would you stop, take out a cloth and try to stop his bleeding, murmur words of encouragement, while waiting for a medic team to arrive.”

We are all the walking wounded. Whatever our wounds are, our Saviour is the only one who can heal our wounded spirits. Until His return, we need to help each other out as best we can.

By doing this you are constantly seeking His guidance and council.

This plus seek the council of good/mature christians and life’s issues will always work-out.

I do agree that some may need to seek professional counseling first so that they physical needs are met before their spirit can be reached.

This is the first time I have read a Christian Leader endorse the pain that sometimes needs outside help other than the scripture. I had and still have to relearn what I was taught, or brainwashed all those years. I find peace and solace in knowing that God understands but I also have a lot of guilt (caused by my past experiences) because I don’t feel like I am living up to what I think God expects from me.

The sad thing is it comes from the brainwashing and misuse of the scripture. We were minpulated and controlled by what they said the scripture said.

Thank you so much for your blog today and the others who commented.

Merely quoting scriptures will certainly not help meet the needs of the afflicted. We do give food to the hungry, clothes to protect and keep them warm, medicine to heal their bodies and comfort to relieve their aching hearts. “…secular sources of medicine or counseling” may solve problems of the physical body, brain and mind “…but a wounded spirit who can bear?”(Pro18:14).

It will be too naive for us to think that this struggle is just against flesh and blood… Therefore, “…all of life can be used to direct lost and hurting people back to the God of the Scriptures” because it is the God of ‘peace’ who makes us holy in every way, for our whole- ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’ and ‘body’ to be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ returns (1 Thess 5:23).