The Heidelberg Catechism - The Foundations Of Our Faith

"The Minister's Fainting Fits," from Lectures To My Students   WHEN A PREACHER IS DOWNCAST "As it is recorded that David, in the heat of battle, waxed faint, so may it be written of all the servants of the Lord. Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy. There may be here and there men of iron, to whom wear and tear work no perceptible detriment, but surely the rust frets even these; and as for ordinary men, the Lord knows, and makes them to know, that they are but dust. Knowing by most painful experience what deep depression of spirit means, being visited therewith at seasons by no means few or far between, I thought it might be consolatory to some of my brethren if I gave my thoughts thereon, that younger men might not fancy that some strange thing had happened to them wh...

The Helmet of Salvation Do you notice the ridge to protect the ears and neck from blows of a sword.  You want the helmet to deflect the blow, but not deflect it your neck or shoulders.  Now, this series has brought us to some realisations about our spiritual warfare.  Satan's darts are aimed at us!  How do we best take the armour  up to deflect his darts. What do these darts look like anyway? One of those darts is depression.  Now I am not a psychologist.  I am not a medical doctor or a counsellor. I am a preacher of God's Word.  So what I want to do is bring God's Word to you that will help you with this dart of depression.  The DSM 5 Some symptom domains, such as depression and anxiety, involve multiple diagnostic categories and may reflect common underlying vulnerabilities for a larger group of disorders. Loss of pleasure in all, or almost all, activities.   Lack of reactivity to usually pleasurable stimuli (does not feel much better, even temporarily, when something goo...

  Ephesians 6:16  Ready For Battle #6 Shield of faith 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;   Chip Ingram writes "At the time Paul wrote to the Ephesians, there were two kinds of shields. One was a small, round, handheld shield like the kind you always see in movies about ancient gladiators. That's not what Paul was referring to. The shield in this passage was about four feet high and two and a half feet wide. It had hooks on the sides to link it to other shields in a line so that an entire row of soldiers could advance without exposing themselves to incoming arrows. It was common for enemies to dip their arrows in pitch, light them, and then pelt the opposing soldiers with thousands of destructive, flaming missiles. So the Romans made their shields with iron and two layers of wood, wrapped them in linen, and covered it all with leather. But they would leave a gap between layers so flaming arro...