Tag Archives: downward spiral

Night Light - James & Shirley Dobson

Night Light For Couples -The Trouble Paradox

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“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2

When troubles line up in what seems like an endless parade, feelings of despair or helplessness can be overwhelming. One way out of this downward spiral toward depression is to reach out to someone else. Our own difficulties seem less threatening and all‐consuming when we are busy helping someone else handle theirs. The possibilities for helping others are limitless. Visit the sick. Bake something for your neighbors. Do household chores for an elderly shut‐in. Use your car for those without transportation. And, perhaps most important, be a good listener. Sometimes what a person needs most of all is simply a friend who will share his or her life for a few moments.

This is one of the powerful paradoxes of the Christian life: When we share someone else’s pain, we often shed some of our own. When we help others, we end up helping ourselves. When we lift another’s burdens, ours lighten.

Just between us…

  • What do you do when you’re discouraged or depressed?
  • Am I helpful to you when you’re feeling down?
  • In what ways did Jesus minister to the downhearted? Is there someone in a difficult situation who could use our help?

Dear God, thank You for Your goodness during trouble. Increasingly, make us Your instruments to help others in need. Help us to share Your comfort and testify to Your great faithfulness. Thank You that we’ll be blessed in doing so. Amen.

  • From Night Light For Couples, by Dr. James & Shirley Dobson
Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – One More Revival

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“Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen.” —Ezekiel 16:49–50

Billy Graham recalls a time when his wife Ruth, commenting on the downward spiral of morality in our nation, exclaimed, “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Sodom was once a great power in her day—a city-state, a dominant force. But God judged her. He identifies her sins in Jeremiah 23:14: “But now I see that the prophets of Jerusalem are even worse! They commit adultery and love dishonesty. They encourage those who are doing evil so that no one turns away from their sins. These prophets are as wicked as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah once were.”

They commit adultery and love dishonesty. They encourage those who are doing evil. . . . We live in a time in our nation when right is wrong and wrong is right. Everything is upside down.

God gives another assessment of the sins of Sodom in the book of Ezekiel: “Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door” (16:49).

Pride . . . gluttony . . . laziness. . . . Think of our nation and the sense of entitlement. Everyone expects to be entertained. I am reminded of the famous statement by the Roman satirist Juvenal as he spoke of Rome and her decline: “The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things—bread and circuses!”

It seems to me that is what America is like today: “Entertain us. It’s all about us.”

I believe that our nation has two choices before us: One is judgment. The other is revival. Judgment is coming, that is clear. But my prayer is there will be at least one more revival before this happens.