Applying the Bible in Ministries of Care

There are several Christian Counseling Ministries that strongly advertise themselves as being the only true Bible based models in the world. They have a strong marketing arm that tens to criticize other models like mine and other model makers like me because they say I am not "Biblical" enough.

Then, at the other end, there are fellow Christians who have their own preferences for Helping people in pain who criticize models like mine and model makers like me because we are too "Biblical". Oh well, you can't please all the people all the time.

Some people taste the porridge and say it is too hot and others say it is too cold but some say, "It is just right". My approach is just right for me because it conforms to my ideas about what is causing people trouble, disaster, pain, divorce, sickness and sadness and my strong opinions about what the Bible says to do about those troublesome root causes.

I believe that there are four basic causes of human sickness, sorrow, depression, addiction, disasters and pain. These four are at the root of all the sin and sorrow we see in the people we love. They are behind the mental, emotional, willful, relational, physical, behavioral, family and spiritual problems we see every day. These four root problems are:

Bondage of the mind, will, emotions, spirit, relationships, family, body, etc.

Rebellion of the mind,emotions, spirit, etc.

Guilt that affects the mind, will, emotions, body, spirit, behavior, etc

Shame that affects everything above.

• Some models only provide power tools for healing Bondage.
• Some models provide tough love tools to confront and demand repentance from Rebellion
• Some models indicate that all is needed is to remove True Moral Guilt to be changed
• Some models only try to decrease Shame by telling them that God loves them

They each say they are being biblical and I agree up to a point. They each have a part of the Bible but none has the whole counsel of God's word.

Some Christian models leave out healing prayers in power. Some leave out confession. Some leave out spiritual warfare. Some leave out renewing the mind. Some leave out generational family systems. I think all those are biblical and necessary for helping people in pain. 

Get my book, The Healing Release of the Holy Spirit at the Sweeten Life web if you want to discover the whole gospel applied to the whole person and their family.

Building Better Relationships

This book on building better relationships is now available online at Sweetenlife.com

Starting last week and continuing this weekend and the first weekend in March, Pastor Charlie McMahan and I are doing a series of Dialogue Talks at the church he leads in Miamisburg, Ohio. Southbrook Church is a dynamic, loving, warmly caring place that has grown dramatically over the past few years. Nothing succeeds like success. You can see Charlie and me discuss healthy relationships by going to Resources on their web page or going to the Sweeten Life web.

I have been reviewing the current and past research on how to be healthy and happy in marriage and life. It is somewhat boring because not much is new. Death or life are still in the ways we speak to each other and the Bible gets it right when it says to "Put off the old ways of killing the ones we love with anger, criticism and contempt." (Ephesians 4:)

I bought some CD teachings by Martin Seligman on Flourish through Positive Psychology and am listening to his great insights about ways to rear happy, successful kids and be happier in life. I am amazed how much his research correlates with the Bible. I know that some Christians are afraid of Psychology, but I find that good research always confirms a good understanding of the Bible.

Come up and join us this weekend or watch/listen to the podcast. The sweetenlife.com web is expanding to include a lot of great, practical applications of the Bible using the principles of psychological research. The combination of truth from God's word and truth from nature makes a very powerful set of liberating tools.

PS. Church attendance tends to help people think, act and feel more positively.

Where are You Spiritually

Joni-A Real Leader


There are tons of books written today about leadership. Some of them are like long sermons and focus on Inspiring us to "Get ready, Get going and get busy! and do it with verve, excitement and creativity. I have been involved in education, training and mentoring for many years and there are some people who will never, ever be that kind of leader.

Other books lay out complicated theories and ideas about being a leader. After I read two or three chapters I have already forgotten what was in them so I must not be a leader.

Some authors love to write tomes with 100 or so proven leadership principles. They fill the books with stories about how to think like Steve Jobs or how to manage like Bill gates. They don't seem to realize that these men are not the run of the mill guys who read a book on The 100 Laws of Leaders and suddenly invented Apple iPads.

In my coaching Elders and Pastors I am often asked about how to find a real leader or two to be on the Board. Here are some of my thoughts.

1. Ask yourself this question: "What kind of leadership do we need and want from this person? Do I need a good talker who can speak in up front meetings and persuade the members to give more money? Do I want a person who will give us a lot of money? Do I want an Entrepreneur who can help us think outside the box? Do I want a person who is legalistic, hard nosed and quibbles over every detail in the church building and program? Do I want a gracious person who is loving, supportive and generous to those who fail?

2. Look at the human track record of the potential candidates. How do they operate at home and work? do they have a good reputation in the community? Are they hard to get along with or easy to be with? Do they have a sense of humor or are they sour?

3. Look at their religious/spiritual track record. Are they FAITHFUL

Faith in God's love and grace
Actively living in the Spirit
Involved with important things
Teachable and trained in leadership/ministry skills
Humble and easy to debate on important matters
Free from debilitating habits and emotional issues
Unencumbered by past hurts and bitterness
Loving toward the family of God and family at home and spends time with each

What think ye about these ideas? Will they work?

Write your comments and let me know.

Gary Sweeten

Finding Your Call for Life

All of God's great men have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them; they counted on his faithfulness. J. Hudson Taylor

Alexander Mackay was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in October 13, 1849. He was a bright student who had the mind of an engineer and the heart of a missionary. While reading an Edinburgh newspaper in December 1875, he came across a letter from King M'tesa of Uganda welcoming "the practical Christian who can cure diseases, build dwellings and turn his hand to anything".

Three years later, Mackay found himself preaching before King M'tesa the message of John the Baptist preparing the way for Christ. He wrote in his diary: "The spirit of God seemed to be working. I never had such a blessed service."

Mackay found that his true service to the Lord would be constructing a 230-mile road from the African coast, through the dense jungles to Uganda's capital. With the king's blessing, Mackay worked for the next twelve years preparing a way for future missionaries to travel while translating Matthew into the Luganda language.

Near the end of his life, he wrote: Still I plod on, teaching, translating, printing, doctoring and carpentering. Praise God! St. Matthew's Gospel is now published complete in Luganda and rapidly being distributed.

Henry M. Stanley called Mackay the greatest missionary since Livingstone; he used his talents, passion and gifts for God in a full and satisfying manner. Stanley allowed the mighty River of God to flow in and through him to touch thousands of lives and left a legacy for future generations.

What is your “True service for God?” Is it engineering, sales, evangelism, preaching, writing, healing, translating materials into Russian, counseling, construction, medicine, hauling coal, giving Cokes away, nursing beggars in India or cleaning toilets? What will you write in your journal at the end of your life?

Back Home in Southern Illinois

Hazel's 94th Birthday Party July 2, 2010

Our family has gathered in our ancestral home land of Southern Illinois. Karen was reared in Pinckneyville and we will have Hazel's funeral service there tomorrow at Pyatt's Funeral Home.

For those of you that have forgotten your American history or never learned it in the first place, Colonel Pinckney was a hero that was in the Revolutionary War. In Southern Illinois, being heroic along with General Washington is enough to name your city for.

I come from Ina, a village of some 300 souls when I was a child. I attended Mt. Vernon High School located in the county seat a few miles from Pinckneyville.

Down here in the coal country, the culture has a particular bent to it that makes us unique in all the world. That is one of the things that gives us so much pleasure as we gather at weddings and funerals because we can regale each other with stories about our past that seem hilarious now but were dead serious then.

Hazel pretty much outlived everyone else she knew and loved back here, including four or five of her pastors that she had asked to do her funeral service. When she asked Chaplain Dick Sedgwick to officiate at her funerals we warned him that he was six or seven Ministers who died before Hazel. He asked for our prayers.

A funeral is a combination of a party, family reunion and a nostalgically sad time of remembering the dearly departed. Hazel was a fascinating interaction of faith, fun and flippancy. In fact, she was the queen bee of about every community in which she ever lived.

The service tomorrow will be a great time of telling Hazel stories, God stories and family stories. It will be a blast.

A Wonderful Mother in Law

At approximately 7:30 PM July 21 my Mother in Law reached a lifelong goal. She met Jesus face to face. Hazel Guriel was born on July 2, 1916, in Perry County, Illinois. She was the mother of Karen Mayer Sweeten and Toni Smith. Gary and Karen have two children Julie Sweeten Knispel and Timothy Sweeten, four great grand children, Jacob and Lily Knispel and Jack and Emma Sweeten for whom she created the name for them to call her: Greatie. It is an appropriate name.

Hazel spent her last days on earth in the Mason Christian Village where the entire staff showed her such love and grace that her life was extended by months and maybe years. From the Doctors and Medical Team to Nurses, Aides, Food Staff, Housekeeping Staff, Activities Department, Chaplain and Administration along with Hospice Hazel was enveloped in the soft comfort of human nurture and spiritual power of a Spirit filled community. She fought against heart disease and had victory, combated cancer and finally stopped fighting against death to meet Jesus.

The last days of Hazel Guriel were spent with Toni, Karen, David and Julia Knispel, Tim and Shelley Sweeten and a loving family of grand kids and great grand kids. They were joined by many from the Mason Christian Village staff and friends in the community such as Oscar and Doris Perkins and their son Jeff and grandson Aaron. Her last day on this earth was a wonderful day of singing, praising the Lord, telling Hazel stories mixed with hugs, kisses and statements of affection. She was a fighter that overcame extreme poverty, loss of three husbands and managed to be a single mother while running a small business. The combination of faith, hope and love with music and remembrances gave her permission to stop fighting and open her arms to the everlasting God and Father.

What we experienced personally was much like what we might see in a movie or read in a novel as a perfect way to meet our Maker. It was a scene that matched perfectly the research on how a family best faces the end of our journey on earth and begins a new journey in heaven. There were tears of laughter and tears of grief. Praise to God for 94 years of perseverance on this earth and shouts of anticipation for what is to come.

I have seen research on the power of touch, affirmation, nurture and worship to heal, release and strengthen. But never before had I experienced it so greatly in person. I was absent from my parents when they met Christ and was never privileged to be in such a warm group of worshiping people when the end came to a fellow traveler. It was a touch of heaven on earth.

Hazel was healed but not cured. We often mistake healing and being cured. There is no cure for dying. All of us will die sooner or later. However, God often heals us of emotional, physical, spiritual and relational troubles. The last four years Hazel spent at Mason Christian Village was an almost constant series of healing even when she was fighting cancer, pain and fear.

Thank God for the community of love and power at Mason Christian Village. It lives up to its name.

Ancient Idols found in Israel

If you want to grow spiritually, you need to be involved with God. If you want to regress spiritually, get involved with false gods: IDOLS.

It is possible to make almost anything a false god. Money, sex, drugs, cars, church, etc. But that is not what I am focusing on here. I mean the idols that are built by human hands and are erected to entice people to worship them.

God gave us The Ten Commandments. One of the most important is the Command, "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or i the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the guilt of the fathers on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me but showing loving kindness on those who love me to thousands of generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." DT 5:7-89-10.

If you want to live a long and healthy life, choose to love and serve and worship the one true God of the universe. Choose life!

If you want you and your ancestors to live in sickness, pain and destruction then you can accomplish it by king and worshiping idols.

Dealing With Issues, Problems, Illnesses

I receive an occasional newsletter from this Pastor Matutis who lives in Germany. His messages sometimes touch me as helpful so I am passing this one on to you.


What to say to ones problems?
======================
Recently, someone came to me and asked - due to a desperate situation she was in - to give her a useful but effective prayer formula.

I prayed with this person when suddenly the Holy Spirit spoke to me to tell that person, speak to your problems:
"I am a friend of God."
================

She stared at me and said in a loud voice:
"I am a friend of God."
===============
Wow, I am a friend of God. That's effective!
She repeated and repeated these words, got up and left to go home, however, relieved and inspired.

Even I had received a message that grabbed me and didn't let go of me.

A message that I would like to share with you, too.
=====================================
Tell your problems, all of them, that you met Jesus and that you are a friend of God.

I could not let go of that thought. The greatest thing that can happen to a man in his life is that he becomes a friend of God.

SInce that day, I keep repeating: I am a friend of God.
Both of us stick together, God does not abandon me.
He is my good friend.

Whatever happens to me, I'll simply say: God is my friend.

I tell the difficulties that want to strike me: God is my friend.

As soon as they hear that God is my friend, they get terrified and disappear and hide as fast as they can.

I am flabbergasted, how this works.
I only have to confess courageously, in speaking aloud, that God is my personal friend and life immediately treats me differently.

I meditated about this today and God spoke to me:
"Just profess that you belong to Me and I will profess that I belong to you.
Tell all your adversaries, that you are My friend and all of them will flee from you and will abandon their evil plans against you.
My child, as long as I am your friend they will have nothing at all to harm you. "When I AM for you - nothing can be against you", said to me the Lord.

All I have to say, that I am God's friend...that's all. Right away it continues. Right away God's angels, surround me and I am amazingly surrounded "by the powers of good", and right away all is well again.

Isn't that also something for you to treasure?
=================================
Why don't you just say...."I am a friend of God!"
* Say to your problems - I am a friend of God
* Say to your illness - I am a friend of God
* Say to your worries - I am a friend of God
* Say to your temptations - I am a friend of God
* Say to your fears - I am a friend of God
* Say to your doubts - I am a friend of God
* Say to your adversaries - I am a friend of God
* Say to your weaknesses - I am a friend of God
* Say to your needs - I am a friend of God

It is great to be a friend of God.
======================

Alienate yourself as God's friend, and comfort yourself, in turn, with God's friendship.

Your world around you should see, that not you are their friend, but God is.

That will shock them and will instill respect before them.
Become aware that wherever you are "I am a friend of God."
less You

Pastor Joh.W.Matutis