The title of this article may seem odd, if not objectionable until you read it and understand why I’m writing it. During my lifetime as a Christian leader and pastor, I can’t tell you how many thousands of hours I have invested in trying to help people get freed from their past hurts. To help other pastors counsel well, I would recommend one of my favorite books called “Untwisting Twisted Relationships” by William Backus. He capitalized on helping people recognize the misbeliefs they have acquired over the years that hinder their present lives.

In the last article on living in fear, I talked about the fact that men and women struggle with fear in various forms, but it all goes back to creation when man walked away from a trusted relationship with their Creator and bought into the lies of Satan, thus making fear a cornerstone of his deception. All too often we try to deal with the effects of fear and not the root cause. If you haven’t read the first installment on this subject please read that first.

While attending the recent “Strong Men’s Conferences”, one of the first messages brought forth was about men needing to see themselves differently. I believe women have the same problem, although it may affect them in a different areas. The area we all seem to struggle in from time to time, to different degrees, is FEAR. We all seem to struggle with this area in different ways, but the end result is still the same. We live less than God designed us to live, which leads to less than we hoped for in life.

A recent survey by American Psychiatry says that nearly half of American households have had someone seek mental health treatment this year! This is just one such survey revealing the struggle and confusion of the human soul. Believing in God but not trusting Him practically is like the above picture.

Another study done in 2007 found that 3 out of 100 people struggle with depression. The same study showed that people being treated for depression tripled in the early 1990s. Overall about 8.7 million people were treated for depression in 2007 compared to 6.5 million in 1997. Today it is estimated that 11% of people world-wide suffer from some form of depression and among adolescents under 18 years of age its closer to 70%. Is it any wonder the suicide rate is up so high with teenagers?

Ever wonder why your Christian walk seems to be erratic? Why you just can’t seem to have a stable Christian walk with God and people?

This is a complex question, but one worth investigating. Just because the question is hard doesn’t mean we should avoid it. The soul itself is often a mysterious topic, and most writers in the last 50-75 years don’t refer to the soul much at all if ever. If you go back 100 years or more there was a lot of discussion about the soul and it’s importance. Writers in the past spent their whole life trying to understand the soul and it’s function.

Today, if a writer or commentary refers to the soul they say it’s not important, only a person spirit is what’s important because they say our soul will be lost when we die and only our spirit survives. First, this is totally false as the soul and the spirit are often the same word in Hebrew as well as greek being “breath” or air. Now I am no scholar, but there is a enough passages of scripture to see that the soul and the spirit often are inseparably link to each person. Secondly, they assume the soul fades when a person dies. King David wrote about the soul a lot.

Have you ever considered how trusting we are at times?

Take Flying for instance. If you get on a Airbus 340-500 or bigger plane, you probably never met the pilot, yet you have faith he can operate the plane safely and get you to your destination in one piece. How do you know he has enough experience flying a piece of metal that weighs 805,000 pounds? The plane can carry 372 passengers and fly over 4,000 miles on one tank of fuel. It can fly at 567 miles an hour and is 223 feet long. Wow! We seem to just accept by “Faith” that the pilot can handle it. But why do we have such faith?

Sometimes we bite off more than we can chew, or we start some project and in the middle of it we wish we didn’t. I think God designed life with this in mind.

If we always knew the price we would pay starting something, we might not attempt it. Think of all the times you’ve said to yourself, “Why did I think I could do this”? The fact you didn’t realize the whole picture caused to you try something you might never have done before. Sometime ignorance is helpful to get us “unstuck” from where we are.

As a non-Christian growing up, there were a lot of things I had to change when becoming a Christian. My thinking had to change. My behavior had to change. Almost everything I learned to rely on as a non-Christian had to change. Learning to trust God has been a life long pursuit.

One of the most confusing concept most Christians wrestle with is the idea of whether “Fighting” should be part of a believer’s life. There are two major ideas regarding the idea of fighting, and they are very much opposed to each other.

One side of Christian teaching calls believers to be passivits. The idea that all resistance is contrary to Christianity and the teaching of Christ. The other side of the argument believes that fighting is part of the human experience Christian or not. What matters is why. Is it a good cause? Is it standing against evil, etc?

Listening to different news outlets talk about the same events can be down right disturbing. No matter whether its sports, politics or the accident in your neighborhood, facts matter. But what if the person or persons we listen to who are reporting an event have a bias? Take the NFL & North Korea.

The real truth is that everyone has bias on multiple topics, news people included. Bias is shaped by the information we receive and how that information is communicated. The human soul processes that information and our previous bias helps us come to conclusions. So if my previous experience identified “Red” as dangerous, I am easily moved to see danger every time I see red no matter what someone might say to me afterword.