Blue Christmas - White Christmas - No Christmas

The season of Christmas has come.  From Christmas Day, December 25, until Epiphany, Jan 6, the season of observing the birth of the Savior runs.  Twelve Days we have appointed to this special season.

Many people know the song that reflects this, few know the connection.  This is because for most people, Christmas has been lost.  For most people, the season of Christmas begins when the merchants determine to start Christmas sales and ends when the wrapping paper is put out for the trash haulers.  Most people, including most Christians who want to “Keep Christ in Christmas”, hold perceptions regarding Christmas that are based entirely upon people’s untrustworthy feelings.

Even on one of the so-called Christian radio stations, one of the pre-Christmas announcements was a call to “Remember the things that are important this Christmas, friends, family, and the birth of Jesus.”  The stated order very strongly demonstrates the order of importance.  Many people would list family before friends.  Christmas and this time of the holiday season, or Happy Holidays, is a time when people express very openly the sentiments that accompany their awareness of their need for love and belonging or familial connectedness.

Thus there are many songs written expressing these sentiments.  These tend to be very popular.

For example ELVIS Blue Christmas



Most surely everyone can relate to the feelings expressed in this song. All people feel the pull on their heartstrings when separated from one who is loved.  This song especially focuses upon boyfriend/girlfriend and husband/wife relations, but it is powerful for those who treasure any relationship.

“I’ll be home for Christmas” is another very popular song expressing these feelings of desire to be joined with others and especially family.  The song eventually says that the singer will be home for Christmas even if only in his mind.

For many people, the holiday season does become very Blue.  Sometimes a person still feels very alone even when surrounded by friends, family, and the birth of Jesus.

Nostalgia also is felt very strongly during this time of the year.  “White Christmas” is a very popular song expressing this.  Some people actually even say things like, “I’ve been praying for snow for Christmas.  It just doesn’t feel like Christmas without snow.”  Even for someone like me, a native Floridian, this music and words of this song evoke nostalgic feelings, even though I never even saw snow until I was at the seminary in St. Louis and I still do not like snow.

White Christmas

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten,
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white
 
 

I don’t even like snow.  To me it is a nuisance.  It is cold, wet, messy, and dangerous.  Yet this song with its sentiment of wishfulness and longing to be with loved ones moves my heart in that direction.  The tune is especially powerful in this way.  Music is a powerful force.  Nostalgia is also very powerful.  Reminiscence of childhood times, when most people’s cares and worries were few, even though times may have been hard, is very powerful emotionally.

These feelings are so powerful that they can rule a person’s heart, mind, and spirit.  When a person is thus ruled, the body also is controlled by these.  Desire to have these feelings satisfied can become so strong that a person can be driven to great loneliness, sometimes even to hopelessness and despair.

An article that addresses this is A Message for Those Not Feeling “Merry” About Christmas

The article begins with these two paragraphs:

I am thinking a lot this Christmas about the fact that for many people, more than would ever be willing to admit openly, there is very little, “merry” about Christmas. Are you feeling this way? If so, this message is for you.

You may be dealing with personal troubles and situations that cause you intense pain and anguish of heart and mind, soul and spirit. You see all the decorations around and you hear the music, and receive the cheerful, bright and wonderful greeting cards from friends and family. These things are yet more pointed reminders to you of a long-felt grief, or hurt, or sorrow, a reminder that while many are merry, you are not.

The author, The Rev. McCain, shows great empathy and compassion and caring in this acknowledgment of the feelings that many people experience.  He attempts to give people direction toward the more solid foundation for their lives.  And as far as he goes, he offers much good thought.

He advances in this article to say:

How important it is then to let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly at this time, a Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us, a Word through Whom all things were made, that have been made. It was this Word, sent from the Father, who came among us, to be your great Savior, from sin, from death, from the power of hell, to pour out his lifeblood as the perfect atoning sacrificial ransom for the sins of the world, for your sins, every one of them, even those you would not want another person to know about.

This is very good.  How true it is that all of us hurting people need the indwelling of the Word of God, Christ.  We very much need to hear the Gospel that proclaims all that He has done for us and provided for us.  We need to hear His words of comfort to us.  We need to have these as the foundation of our meditation, of our thoughts and contemplations.  McCain goes on to say:

The best advice I can give to you if you are feeling lonely and sad at this time of the year is: reach out to people whom you know, and share your love with them. Dive deeply into the Word of God. Take advantage of every opportunity provided to gather with your fellow saints in Gods’ House for worship and to receive the true and lasting gifts of Christmas: forgiveness, life and salvation. These are the gifts that are truly what make for a Merry Christmas.

This is very, very good, even excellent!

However, this leaves much that is taken for granted.  Very few people truly understand the depth of what is included especially in “the true and lasting gifts of Christmas: forgiveness, life and salvation.”  Very few people truly know how this is made available by the Lord in His house.  Most people, even most who call themselves Christians, do not really know what this means.

McCain proceeds to share some beautiful and powerful words of Christ from the Gospels.  He further shares wonderful words from the Lutheran Confessions.  He reminds people of the great blessing and comfort given in the Lord’s Prayer and the Psalms.  He also shares the words of a magnificent hymn by Paul Gerhardt, which are worthy of sharing again here:

“All My Heart This Night Rejoices”
by Paul Gerhardt, 1607-1676
TLH # 77

1. All my heart this night rejoices
As I hear Far and near
Sweetest angel voices.
"Christ is born," their choirs are singing
Till the air Everywhere
Now with joy is ringing.

2. Forth today the Conqueror goeth,
Who the foe, Sin and woe,
Death and hell, o'erthroweth.
God is man, man to deliver;
His dear Son Now is one
With our blood forever.

3. Shall we still dread God's displeasure,
Who, to save, Freely gave
His most cherished Treasure?
To redeem us, He hath given
His own Son From the throne
Of His might in heaven.

4. Should He who Himself imparted
Aught withhold From the fold,
Leave us broken-hearted?
Should the Son of God not love us,
Who, to cheer Sufferers here,
Left His throne above us?

5. If our blessed Lord and Maker
Hated men, Would He then
Be of flesh partaker?
If He in our woe delighted,
Would He bear All the care
Of our race benighted?

6. He becomes the Lamb that taketh
Sin away And for aye
Full atonement maketh.
For our life His own He tenders
And our race, By His grace,
Meet for glory renders.

7. Hark! a voice from yonder manger,
Soft and sweet, Doth entreat:
"Flee from woe and danger.
Brethren, from all ills that grieve you
You are freed; All you need
I will surely give you."

8. Come, then, banish all your sadness,
One and all, Great and small;
Come with songs of gladness.
Love Him who with love is glowing;
Hail the Star, Near and far
Light and joy bestowing.

9. Ye whose anguish knew no measure,
Weep no more; See the door
To celestial pleasure.
Cling to Him, for He will guide you
Where no cross, Pain, or loss
Can again betide you.

10. Hither come, ye heavy-hearted,
Who for sin, Deep within,
Long and sore have smarted;
For the poisoned wound you're feeling
Help is near, One is here
Mighty for their healing.

11. Hither come, ye poor and wretched;
Know His will Is to fill
Every hand outstretched.
Here are riches without measure;
Here forget All regret,
Fill your hearts with treasure.

12. Let me in my arms receive Thee;
On Thy breast Let me rest,
Savior, ne'er to leave Thee.
Since Thou hast Thyself presented
Now to me, I shall be
Evermore contented.

13. Guilt no longer can distress me;
Son of God, Thou my load
Bearest to release me.
Stain in me Thou findest never;
I am clean, All my sin
Is removed forever.

14. I am pure, in Thee believing,
From Thy store Evermore
Righteous robes receiving.
In my heart I will enfold Thee,
Treasure rare, Let me there,
Loving, ever hold Thee.

15. Dearest Lord, Thee will I cherish.
Though my breath Fail in death,
Yet I shall not perish,
But with Thee abide forever
There on high, In that joy
Which can vanish never.

This is truly a wonderful hymn of great comfort and blessing.  This is especially true for those who have the depth of understanding that Pastor Gerhardt had.  For this hymn is fully understood by those whose lives are full of the regular instruction and communion of the divine service.  For those who rightly understand and rely upon the means of grace, this hymn is very powerful.

But unless a person rightly understands that this hymn is directing the heart to the promises of one’s baptism and to the joyous communion of the saints gathered to the Holy Supper, the truly great comfort and hope are lost.  In this hymn the promises of God given in Baptism are especially assumed.

This especially needs to be emphasized.  It is not enough to be directed to the words of Jesus or to the Lord’s Prayer or to the Psalms.  If this is all that a person hears the person is really being directed back to one’s own efforts at bolstering one’s own feelings.  When we are feeling down and depressed and lonely and discouraged, this is the last thing that we need.

This is why the Lord has established for us His Church on earth.  This is why He has defined the means of grace very specifically, clearly, and concretely.  This is why He has commanded that His pastors diligently teach the pure and unadulterated doctrine to the saints.  This is why He has stated beyond all question that His Church is marked by the preaching of the PURE Gospel and the uncompromised administration of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper.

He wants us to know that what we are being fed is truly what we need.  He wants us to be set free from trying to find our way on our own in this dark world.  He wants us to know beyond any doubt that we have a safe place in His one true Church, a place of belonging that not only feels good and safe, but truly is good and safe.  He knows that this can only be for us when He makes it so.  Thus He calls us to receive what He has ordained according to what He has established.

This is what enabled St. Paul to say that he knew how to be content even when in chains in a cold, damp, dreary dungeon.  Then the Psalms and the prayers are more than emotional boosters. Then the hymns are more than sentimental traditions.  Then our hope extends beyond the momentary sensations.

When we truly rely upon what the Lord has done for us in our baptism, we are connected to Him and to all of His saints from all times and places.  Then we are free to trust His omniscience and omnipotence and omnipresence as being For Us.  Then we know Him as our loving Father, who never abandons us and never leaves us without comfort.

Many people imagine that they can find happiness and worth through trying to be better people.  Thus they try and try, failing to accomplish what they strive to do.  Many people look to family and friends, but never reach beyond their disappointment in the weakness and failing of those from whom they expect and need much more.  Some try to elevate themselves through positive thinking, only to find themselves unable to produce enough positive to outweigh the negative surrounding them in the world.  Some seek churches with encouraging and uplifting praise services, but again find that they have to put in more energy than they get out of it.  It works for a while, but eventually their strength fails.

The Lord calls us away from all of these.  He calls us to the seemingly insignificant means of grace.  They seem to be mere water and bread and wine and words spoken by men.  And for those who count them as such, that is all that they are.  For these means are effective only in connection with faith.  When the faith that God gives is the basis for our coming to receive these, suddenly they are life and power and freedom and joy administered through tangible forms.

This is the way that the Lord has provided as our truly loving Father.  He does not leave us to believe by our own attempts.  Rather, He provides us with tangible evidence of what He promises to do.  Through these He accomplishes for us the miracle of Christmas.  Jesus is still available to us through these tangible elements just as He was when He was wrapped in swaddling cloths and when He told Thomas to stick his hand into the wounds still in the risen body of his Lord.  Today He washes us with real water so that we may feel with our bodies what He is doing in our hearts and spirits.  He feeds us through bread and wine His very body and blood so that we receive Him not only with our spirits but also with our flesh.  In this way He not only touches us in our hearts and souls, but in our very bodies.

In this way He takes away our Blue Christmas without Him.  He causes us to know that He is not far away but is actually with us everyday in every way.  In this way He moves us beyond dreaming of a White Christmas so that we rejoice in the white robe of righteousness poured over us in our baptism.

In this age we often hear the lament that some children will not have a Christmas because of a lack of gifts to unwrap.  Our God makes certain that we have such an abundance of gifts that none of us will ever have cause for such lamentation.  Through His means of grace He gives us the gifts of repentance, new life, forgiveness, everlasting life, renewal in His Holy Communion, hope that knows no boundaries, exceeding great joy, and fellowship with the Holy Trinity and the heavenly hosts.

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Connecting the Dots

Today I encountered an article entitled: Connecting.the.Dots.  It is quite well written and makes some powerful points, especially about the connection of the effects of wholesale abortion on the devaluing of human life.

     In the earlier days of “legalized” abortion, there were warnings of the long-range effects on our society of wholesale abortion, of the careless destruction of the most defenseless among us, of its devaluation of human life. It was feared that a society that brutally takes the lives of its unborn children will become hardened and, in due time, reflect that brutality toward all human life.

The next paragraph really moved my thinking onward:

     There are, of course, many “dots” that can be connected to random killings–mental illness, violent video games and entertainment, etc. But can we sometime soon also connect the abortion dot? While violent killings are as old as Cain and Abel, random acts of violence against innocent human life continue to increase in number and horror, underscored by what happened on Friday. Brutality toward women and children, once shrugged off as a problem elsewhere in the world, now occurs too often in our own society not to connect this dot.

My first thoughts were regarding how people and leaders of church bodies are not connecting the dots that show the deterioration of their understanding of what it means to be the Church and saints.  My first thoughts were regarding the way that souls are being killed through allowing the pure Gospel and the Sacraments and the worship life of the churches to be corrupted and polluted and contemporized with the worldly views and beliefs and practices.  I continue to stand aghast and befuddled by what is happening and how the dots never seem to be connected.

But I also was moved to think of some additional dots that are not being connected with regard to these increasing acts of violence and even so-called random violence.  Some of these dots are very obvious, except that people are being directed through the media and government schools and programs to shrug these off or even pay them no attention at all.

I recently had a reminder of this with one of my former neighbors.  This man has very limited training, education, and skills.  He works hard to provide for himself and his wife.  He cares about others.  But he is struggling, as are many of us.

He has turned to me many times, both when he lived across the street from me and many times since then.  He has shown up many times at my front door, hoping to receive help from me regarding car problems, or to receive a ride to work or a ride home again at 11:15 pm.  He has borrowed and worn out a lawn mower.  He has asked and received help to move from one dwelling to another, using my time, my back, my truck, my trailer, my fuel.  There are many such instances.

Last month he wanted me to “loan” him money for fuel for his car.  He called and left multiple voice mails on my home phone and cell phone.  When I returned his call to learn what he wanted, his wife answered.  She then called him at work.  He called me from his place of work.  I reminded him that I am not his bank and that I also am struggling and don’t have any more money to give to him.  A short time later his wife calls saying, “You dare to call my husband?  Don’t you ever call my husband at work.  You don’t know who you’re messing with!”

Knowing what I know of her and her friends, this was very disconcerting.  It also was very hurtful.

With this, however, we have a few more dots to connect.

Why are people becoming so desperate and frustrated and angry?

When my wife and I have occasion to visit a doctor’s office or dentist’s office or have other occasion where we are asked medical history information, one of the questions we are asked is:  “What medications are you taking?”  The response from the inquirer is usually, “What do you mean you’re not taking any meds?  You are not on ANY medications?”

This is a very significant DOT.

Today, medications are prescribed and passed out more freely than candy.  More and more people are being prescribed mood altering medications.

More and more people are being “diagnosed” as clinically depressed.  The answer?  More meds!

But why are people depressed?  Why are they feeling desperate?  Why are people becoming more and more easily agitated?

This week I received the paperwork for the renewal of the registration of my work truck, trailer, and chipper.  The registration fees were raised $ 70.00 for this year.  This is over and above the property tax that I am required to pay on each of these.

Gasoline is over $ 3.00 per gallon and some forecasts say that this price will soon skyrocket, perhaps as high as $ 9.00 per gallon.  Electricity and natural gas and water/sewer rates also continue escalate.

Jobs and especially good paying jobs are becoming more and more scarce.  People are facing foreclosures on their homes.

Rising taxes and invention of new taxes, rising costs of living, decreasing availability of sources of income, forced insurance by the Obama administration & laws, loss of freedom and increases in unwarranted harassment by TSA, DHS, the police, and countless others, all these pile upon the already heavily burdened hearts and minds of hurting people.

Add to this the preponderance of electronic gadgetry and the added stress from these sources of continual stimuli.  After all, the human brain, body, and spirit can only handle so much stimulus before an overload occurs.

Then people begin to seek additional artificial sources of relief.  People turn to drugs of various kinds, both legal and illegal.  Overindulgence of alcohol, sexual activity, snacks and other foods, carbonated and beverages and high energy beverages are used to try to boost people’s ability to handle more stimulus.

On top of all of these, then add the processed foods to which people turn to try to reduce the stress of preparing their own meals.  These processed foods are loaded with excitotoxins and other chemicals.

There are even more dots, but even if all of these dots are connected, a horrendously messy web can be seen as the fabric of most people’s lives.  Eventually this becomes too much for people to bear.  Eventually, they can no longer find their way through the web to where they believe that they need to be.  Their frustration grows.  They become more and more anger.  As they try to suppress and control their anger they become more and more desperate and depressed.

The Lord has given answers to this dilemma.  He has connected the dots for us, the dots that lead to relief, comfort, redemption, hope, salvation, and peace.

     Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.  (Matthew 11:28-30)

     No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
     Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
     Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith
     Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
     But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.  (Matthew 6:24-34)

     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
     There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
     Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.  (Psalm 46:1-11)

     The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.  (Psalm 23:1-6)

     And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.  (Luke 2:8-14)

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Why God?

When things do not go the way that we think that they should or that we want them to go, we cry out, “Why, God?

When something horrendous like the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut breaks out, those who suffer the direct effects are hit by such a shock that they are left with little other than to ask and cry out, “Why, God?”

Since we all have suffered shocking things in our lives and we all have suffered some form of loss and grief and anguish and heartache, we all relate to the circumstances of such an event so that we all are inclined to cry out, “Why, God?”

But deep down we know that this is pretense.  We are only pretending not to know why these things happen.  We pretend not to know because to admit that we know the reason is to face reality honestly, which leaves us with accountability, very painful accountability.  We do not want to face this.  We would actually rather allow things to become worse than to face the truth openly and honestly so as to confront the real problem and to deal with it.

Moreover, we know the futility of asking, “Why, God?”

After all, God has plainly told us why.  Even if He had not told us, the answer is plain for us to see.  There is no real mystery here.

No one can escape the truth.  The truth is unavoidable.  We attempt to find ways to bury it or to hide from it, but eventually the truth comes to the fore.  Eventually the light of the truth drives away the shadows in which we lurk so that we stand exposed by the light.

This is true both individually and societally.

Why does shit happen?  It happens because of the sin that is in the world, sin that inheres to each one of us and to society as a whole.  We are sinful people.  We are a sinful society.

We ignore the truth.  We bury the truth.  We lie.  We accept what is wrong and try to excuse it.  We allow what is right to be ignored and denied and even to be persecuted.

We have allowed God to be replaced with free will.  We have allowed creation to be supplanted by evolution.  We have allowed absolute truth to be diminished to relativism.  Theology is rejected for psychology.  Divinely revealed knowledge is cast aside for subjectively deduced reason that is given the pseudonym of science.  Grace is renamed as decision or commitment.  Love for neighbor and brother is replaced by tolerance.

We excuse the sacrifice of children by calling it “choice” and even a “right.”

Is it even possible to find a movie that does not have revenge as part of the plot?  Revenge, murder, selfish gain, selfish disregard for the safety of self and of others through extreme sports and fast driving.  Even running red lights is presented as cool.  Stealing of vehicles and breaking traffic laws is promoted as exciting and even acceptable.  Irresponsible and promiscuous sexual behavior is displayed as the norm.

The answer for people’s problems is taught to be some form of pharmaceutical wonder drug.  Depression is no longer counted as a reaction to grief and suppressed anger so that it now is a disorder caused by chemical imbalance that must be controlled medically.

And then we see the results of our defiance and cry out, “Why, God?”

Thankfully, God is not satisfied with merely answering our belligerent demand.  He does not stop with simply answering the question of why these things continue to happen and to become even more prevalent as society moves farther and farther from Him.  He presses onward to give the answer to the problem.  He actually puts the answer into action.

In slightly over a week we will again celebrate His answer, His solution, His salvation.

For those who are genuinely weary of the pretense and the perpetual denial of truth that always leads to the same disappointing end, He has provided His Gospel.  For those who are truly tired of seeking answers for themselves, He has given His Church on earth and the means of grace.  For those who honestly admit their own helplessness and cry out for real help, He says, “Come to Me and I will give you rest.”

Perhaps it is time that we stop crying out defiantly with, “Why, God?” and come together to cry out with relief, “Thanks be to God!”  This is the great gift of the Christmas season.  His name is Jesus.

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The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)

See also: Harming Artists: Psychiatry Ruins Creativity

Harming Youth: Screening and Drugs Ruin Young Minds

The Real Crisis in Mental Health Today

Creating Racism: Psychiatry’s Betrayal

Are You Bipolar?

Psychiatric Disorders: The Facts Behind the Billion Dollar Marketing Campaign

What is the Citizens Commission on Human Rights?

At this last link this group discloses:

CCHR was co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus Dr. Thomas Szasz at a time when patients were being warehoused in institutions and stripped of all constitutional, civil and human rights.

What current influence Scientology has within the group I did not discover. However, all of the information that I viewed appeared to be sound information regarding things of which the public should be aware. Most notable is the amount of information disclosed by people from within the medical industry.


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If you’d like to see a great ADHD joke, view this video:

ADHD and the Brain: An Inside Look.

If you view this video, pay attention to the number of times “may be” is used, after making the claim “ADHD is a real mental health issue. This has been confirmed by decades of scientific research.” Watch the “EXPERT’s” face as he says, “No one knows exactly what causes ADHD.” It is truly insanely comical that this drug pusher imagines that wearing a t-shirt that says “EXPERT” will convince the viewers to trust his propaganda. What is not at all funny is the realization that his presumption is actually true for many viewers.

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This one seemed too good to pass up:



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Depression - Food - Life - Faith

In a brief report Dr. Blaylock, a medical doctor with a long established neurosurgical and nutritional practice, shares how Fats Affect Depression. The article is worthy of reading.

What we eat undoubtedly affects our health. The old saying: “You are what you eat,” continues to be proven to be true. Most people are clueless regarding what they are eating. People go to the grocery store and the restaurant and imagine that because the government has approved a processed product that it is therefore safe. People also are unaware that the government is deliberately preventing many healthy foods from being marketed commercially.

But what we eat is only part of the problem. It is a BIG part of the problem, but still only a portion. Ultimately depression is a spiritual issue. What we eat does have an impact upon our spiritual condition. This is especially true regarding what we eat that is spiritual, but also what we eat that is physical. I suppose that my awareness of this is why I appreciate a mealtime prayer passed down by my father, a prayer that he always called “Uncle John’s Prayer.”

Lord bless these gifts for their intended use, that they nourish and strengthen us both physically and spiritually. Amen.

Those things of which we partake we bind to ourselves. This includes our many daily activities. Our thoughts, words, and deeds shape us. Our choices in lifestyle shape us. This is why God has given us the Decalog or the Ten Commandments. These Ten Words or Sayings of God teach us who He says that we are according to whom He created us to be and recreates us to be. These Ten Sayings teach us what we are not according to our own sinful lusts and nature, and what we should be and will be by His gracious intervention.

These Ten Sayings of God teach us why we experience the troubles that we have in our lives. Depression is most certainly caused by our unwillingness to be bound by God to His ways. If we start at the end of the Ten Sayings and work our way back to the First, we easily identify the many ills that we bring upon ourselves. At the end of the Sayings or Commandments, we encounter our covetousness. Lusting after what we do not have robs us of contentment and true satisfaction of heart and soul and mind and finally even of body. Working our way back to the First Declaration, we find that all of the things that trouble us arise from our stubborn refusal to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

Our choices in foods stem from this. Oh how busy we are trying to provide for ourselves and to fulfill our needs for income and whatever else that we believe that we must acquire. Then we don’t have time to prepare our own meals. We don’t have time to sit and talk quietly and to pray and to commune with God as a family. We even grasp after the worship services of the Church and recreate them after the lusts of our wayward hearts and minds.

Then, rather than hearing God’s call to be turned from these things back to Him, when our ways fail us, we imagine even more anthropopathic and anthropomorphic answers, remedies, and cures. But these all ultimately produce even more problems, often called “side effects.” It is not uncommon for these side effects to be even more of a problem than the original ill that is being treated.

The farther that we move from what God has designed and declared, the farther we move toward disorder, confusion, and trouble. The more that we rely upon ourselves and other people and worldly answers, the more disappointment that we encounter. What we eat, how we live, how we treat others, even how others respond to us, these all are dependent upon how we hear God. Do we even hear Him at all?

Enough of Lent

For me, there is never enough of Lent. Lent is the season of the Church year that gets me through the tough times. For me it is more uplifting than even Easter. As much as I love Easter and the glorious hymns of the Resurrection, their joy and glory come only in connection with the austere season of Lent.

I remember as a child and a teenager often being disappointed on Easter because we did not sing enough hymns. And my family attended at least three services on Easter Sunday. But especially as a teenager, I wanted to sing every hymn of the Resurrection in the book. Why? The season of Lent made me hungry. The season of Lent taught me why the Resurrection is both absolutely necessary as well as why it is possible.

It is the Lenten theme that carries me through every day. Yes, the awareness of the resurrection is my hope, but the theme of Lent is what makes the hope of the resurrection real.

Lent is God’s cure for depression. When I am feeling down and depressed, it is the hymns of lenten focus that lift me up. I also sing “The Lord’s My Shepherd, I’ll Not Want” (TLH 436) regularly, but the hymn that I can always count on to lift me out of the depths is TLH 146: “Lamb of God, Pure and Holy.” Nothing in this world has been able to drag me down beneath the reach of this hymn. Other Lenten hymns will come into my heart throughout the year as well, but this one is very easy to memorize and carry in my heart and mind. Moreover, this hymn does not mess around with anything other than the raw power of God. When I am hurting and despairing and depressed, this hymn unleashes the raw power of God to drive out all but the glorious power of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Death itself is rendered powerless by this simple hymn and what it preaches.

Nutrition and Mental Health

The following video can also be viewed in full screen at The Truth about MSG Monosodium Glutamate Clinical Nutrition.



Here Dr. Vincent Bellonzi speaks to the issue of excitotoxins that are added to processed foods and the effects that they produce in the human body, especially in neurotransmitter function. Some of the neurological symptoms/diseases that he addresses include autism, depression, obstruction of clear thinking, emotion instability, irrational behavior, migraines, and attention deficit disorder. Diabetes and obesity are also included in this presentation.

Dr. Bellonzi’s web site, for further information, is www.bewellrx.com.

For information regarding the many ways that the chemical additives are listed (disguised) as ingredients on labels, check out the information provided at truthinlabeling.org. This site also has information regarding MedImmune’s H1N1 vaccine.

Mail Fraud Hoax

This is a picture of a piece of mail fraudulently sent to my address (address has been removed).

The fraud is repeated in the letter as is illustrated in the picture below.



This letter sets forth a deliberate lie that is intended to prey upon people who are hurting emotionally. This is fraud of a most frightful kind. It seeks to prey upon people who are hurting and confused.

I never contacted this company expressing any interest in learning more about depression. I have, however, spoken outrightly and have written about the fraudulent promotion of this and other emotional and mental conditions.

This promotion packet demonstrates some very important factors in this fraud.

Notice especially the warning about Suicidality and Antidepressant Drugs. The language in this warning is very clever, but nevertheless, it still is very revealing of the nature of this promotion.

First, they invented a non-word. Rather than using the proper language of “suicidal tendencies” or “suicidal instabilities”, they invented a non-word that gives the false impression of concreteness and legitimacy to the notion that this should be of concern to the reader. Fabricating a noun from the adjective changes the perception of the reader. In other words, these drug use promoters are playing mind games with their audience.

Read the warning carefully. Although it is very carefully crafted to leave the opposite impression, it says that use of their drug is likely to cause you to develop suicidal thoughts and tendencies. The likelihood of this drug causing a person to feel suicidal is so severe that it has not been approved for children under 18.

This is devilishly crafty. This is crafted in such a way as to leave a person who has wondered about depression and very likely also has at some time or other experienced some fear of suicidal instability, to feel afraid so as to be more anxious and to begin imagining even more emotional fracturing.

Their booklet continues the fostering of doubt and anxiety. See the cover picture below.



This is devilish indeed.

What about this scene contains anything that would suggest depression.

Answer: Absolutely nothing!

Observing these two ladies no one would even begin to think of depression. Normalcy is what this picture presents. Friendship and caring and happiness are what this scene should illustrate.

And that is the devilish nature of the use of this scene, when it has the title:

Depression
can affect
many areas
of your life.

Like a gloomy cloud the purple box looms over the ladies in an otherwise bright and enjoyable setting. Purple, a color associated with gloom and depression is set above the otherwise normal setting, pervading the life of these ladies without their awareness.

This truly is fiendishly clever use of color and life settings.

Open the booklet and this is what is displayed on the first pages:



Again, a fiendishly deceptive presentation of a lady going about her normal routine, in a bright and happy setting, accomplishing good things for herself and her family, selecting good and healthy produce for her family, but looming in the background is the need for medication to make this possible. The lady is smiling and appearing content. The implication? This is made possible only by using this prescription medication.

Throughout the booklet, women are especially featured. Can you guess why? Women normally have a very broad range of emotions. Did you catch the key word? Normally.

Yes, it is NORMAL to experience a broad range of emotions and emotional fluctuation. This is especially true for women. But men, too, normally experience a broad range of emotional experiences.

And if you have not yet jumped this far, yes, this includes normal experiences of Depression!

Depression is a coping mechanism. It is normal for people to experience depression.

But the promoters of drug use understand that their readers need help in realizing that such normal things should not be counted as normal. See page 7 below.



This is clever. This devilish manipulation of words is common today. Read carefully the first two sentences.

Use the phrase “Science has shown” and credibility is immediately assumed.

Nevertheless, this is an outright lie. And these marketers know that this is a lie.

The proper term is clinical depression, but even this is a slippery term. By saying that depression is serious medical illness these frauds place every single human being in the state of needing treatment for depression, for every single human being experiences depression, even deep depression at some point.

Just read carefully and observe the rest of the slippery language that is used: “many patients may benefit,” “While no one knows for sure what causes depression, many experts believe it may occur when chemicals become out of balance.”

Lies on top of lies mixed with elements of truth.

The Holy Scriptures teach what causes depression. St. Paul directly declares the cure. Yet “science” declares that no one knows for sure. Yet many experts BELIEVE that chemical imbalances in the brain cause it.

True science declares the exact opposite. Depression and other emotional fluctuations, especially dramatic fluctuations and ongoing strong emotions cause chemical imbalances, not only in the brain but throughout the body. Hormonal fluctuations also cause imbalances not only of chemicals but also of emotions. This is normal.

It also is normal for stress (more properly called anxiety or worry) to cause chemical changes and imbalances. This includes changes in blood pressure and cholesterol levels (after all cholesterol is the base from which hormones are made in the body). Anger, which when internalized and allowed to smolder, often accompanied by fears and anxieties, is the root of depression. When this is permitted to go on for too long, in is natural for the body to attempt to compensate and to attempt to correct the chemicals. This is why artificially tampering with the levels always requires continual monitoring and adjustments to the prescriptions.

But the marketers of drug use don’t want people to realize this. Rather, they provide this sample voucher.



Notice the order of information presented on this voucher card.

First, take this voucher and the information provided to your health care professional and ask about treatment options, including this drug.

This already presumes the necessity of treatment. Any person responding to this will already be thinking that treatment will likely be needed. No diagnosis has even been given, except by these marketers! Yet the patient will be already conditioned to think that some form of treatment is necessary.

Plus, it is presented as being free. This makes it easy. This makes it enticing.

These marketers know that health care providers are terrified of law suites. Telling a person that this drug is not necessary is legally dangerous when the person is already talking about being in need of help. Moreover, the patient has been contemplating all of the various “signs” of depression. This helpful little booklet outlines them on page 13.



What adult could not fit into this list, especially after thinking about it long enough?

Then, since family and friends may help one to get a grip on reality, it may be better to talk to professionals who earn their living convincing people that they need psychiatric and psychological help. So included is a list of people who make a lot of money in promoting use of drugs.

Oh, and the fact that you don’t remember expressing interest in this should not discourage you. After all, difficulty concentrating is one of the symptoms.