In Psalm 32 David displays an array of issues that many of us would recognize. He reports feeling physically weak and just barely making it through the day (v.3.) He reports feeling heavy, weighed down and oppressed to the point of not being able to sleep. Where he once felt lively he now feels like his life is in a drought (v.4) In other words David is experiencing anxiety, depression, insomnia and fibromyalgia.

Now imagine for a second that David somehow wobbled into the year of 2023 and told someone all his problems. What would the suggested solution be? In a day and age such as ours where people refer to “my therapist” as if it were the same as saying “my doctor” or “my accountant” he would certainly be told that he needs to go see a therapist. Among other things he would be told that he needs to understand his own childhood trauma. And David certainly did have a lot of trauma. His dad seemed to not like him, his mentor tried to kill him, his wife left him & his best friend was murdered. Maybe he would even leave with a prescription for antidepressants.

Now sometimes medical intervention is necessary but the solution that David lays out for us in Psalm 32 isn’t therapy or a new hobby or a new haircut, it is this, listen: “I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” He says that his problem was actually that he was keeping silent about his sins and harboring guilt. See the solution to most of your mental health problems is confessing your sin and being reconciled to your Creator and His body— the church. Oftentimes, when the spirit is laden with guilt, the body manifests this through anxiety, depression & insomnia. But when we let Christ take away our guilt, ordinarily the body eventually follows.

Letting secret sin and guilt ruminate in the back of your mind is like living in a house with black mold, it makes you sick. So be honest with the Lord about the sins you would rather not acknowledge; maybe you treated yourself to a lustful fantasy, gossipped about a friend, or snapped at your kids. Don’t stay silent. Bring it to the Lord and let Him rid you of guilt.

This exhortation was given to Christ Church, Moscow ID on Nov 12 2023 AD

There have been quite a bit of reactions recently after the Canadian government seized the church building of Gracelife church. The most common one floating around has to be the argument that the Canadian government has no right to take property that is not theirs. There are some who, holding the theological belief that Christians should not have church buildings, don't really care, or may even see this as a victory. Some have taken the mark and completely sided with the beast.

So this got me thinking, what will I do when this happens in the U.S. of A? What follows is what I plan to do, and not necessarily in this order:

“Let’s get to work, son.” the words turned white as they hit the air. He used what looked like gloves, but were just his calloused hands, to wipe the snow off his thickened van Dyke, “Gonna be a cold one!” It was a cold one alright. That 6AM, Colorado blizzard, bouncing spit, kind of cold. So we got to work. Working through frozen hands and missing finger nails we finished framing that house before spring break was over. I finished that annoying spring break homework on the hour long journey it took to get from the bad side of town to the good high-school I was attending. While others boasted of their vacations, I grinned at my calluses. My father may not have given me a lavish vacation like my classmates with soft hands, but he did provide me with valuable lessons. The most valuable, in my opinion- my father may disagree, being the lesson of ‘blanket-victory’. 

The Bible teaches that reality works in certain ways, one of those ways being “sacrifice (present pain) = blessing (future pleasure)” This is a blueprint of the cosmos, a beautiful result of the covenantal smoke that comes from the flame of the Godhead. Therefore to expect blessing without sacrifice is to attempt to subvert reality, and an attempt to get around God. And an attempt to gain blessing by offering a second rate sacrifice is an attempt to manipulate reality, and an attempt to deceive God. As the scripture says- “Offer me your first fruits“ (Ex 22:29).

So when you get angry that your neighbor has a bigger house than you- when you weren’t willing to spend 12yrs of your life in medical school. Or when you get angry that you didn’t pass the test- when you only studied 30min beforehand. You are no different than Cain rising up against Abel for no other reason than an arrogant & resentful heart towards God because of a sloppy, or non-existent, sacrifice.

Instead of taking up Cain's name, become like Jesus. Our Elder Brother made the perfect sacrifice. Do you desire to be like Him? Are you being conformed to His image? Are you baptized? Then pick up your cross, deny yourself, and sacrifice every part of your day and every part of your life. Dare to suffer. Because in doing so you "know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death," (Phil 3:10).