Stop Listening and Start Talking To Yourself

Here is a quote that I read at the Cleansing Stream class last night. The author is commenting on Psalm 42.

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.’…

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’– what business have you to be disquieted?

You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.

Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.’”

–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965/2002), 20-1.

(found at Tolle Lege)

I posted part of this quote once before.

The other book I read from was A Gospel Primer: Learning to See the Glories of God’s Love.

Sabotage Made Simple

Check out this World War 2 era field manual on how to engage in simple sabotage.

The suggestions for General Interference with Organizations and Production (starting on page 32) and General Devices for Lowering Morale and Creating Confusion (pages 35-36) are classic. There seems to be many simple saboteurs in our government and businesses.

A few examples:

• Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.
• To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.
• Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.
• Pretend that instructions are hard to understand, and ask to have them repeated more than once. Or pretend that you are particularly anxious to do your work, and pester the foreman with unnecessary questions.
• Give lengthy and incomprehensible explanations when questioned.
• Act stupid.
• Be as irritable and quarrelsome as possible without getting yourself into trouble.

Rejoicing in God’s Glory

God glorifies Himself toward the creatures also in two ways: 1) By appearing to . . . their understanding. 2) In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in and enjoying the manifestations which He makes of Himself . . . . God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart.

Jonathan Edwards – The “Miscellanies” (quoted by John Piper in his message, How My Pastoral Ministry Shapes My Pulpit Ministry)

The Trip Home

We stopped at the Danish Windmill in Elk Horn, Iowa on the way home.

Here’s what our backyard garden looked like when we got home. We’ve got pumpkins and cantelope.

More pictures have been posted on my Facebook page.

Father’s Day in Moline

Here’s a picture after an evening of backyard fun on Father’s Day.

A Visit to John Deere

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the world headquarters of John Deere, where Kari’s mom works.

Some Casteels on Nightline

As I mentioned before, my family attended a screening of The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry while we were at the Foursquare Convention in Anaheim. Nightline was also there filming for a segment about Christian films that they aired last night.

You can see my family sitting in the front left corner of the auditorium (house left/stage right). My mom is shown wiping her tears after a moving scene and my dad offers to help promote the film in Phoenix.

Watch the segment Box Office Busters from ‘Godlywood’ by clicking this link

The Kids Meet the Captain

Grace, Joel, and me with Gavin MacLeod at the 2009 Foursquare Connection in Anaheim.

My family got to see a special screening of Mr. MacLeod’s new movie, The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Gospel

From the Confessional Statement of The Gospel Coalition.

6. The Gospel
We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ—God’s very wisdom. Utter folly to the world, even though it is the power of God to those who are being saved, this good news is christological, centering on the cross and resurrection: the gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if his death and resurrection are not central (the message is “Christ died for our sins . . . [and] was raised”). This good news is biblical (his death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures), theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins, to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all others), apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witnesses of these saving events), and intensely personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved).

Free ESV Bible Audio

Go here to learn how to download mp3 audio of the English Standard Version Bible for free.

I don’t think it works with the Max McLean audio, though. Also, you can’t add too many verses together in one file or the end verses will be left out. Three to four chapters usually works for me.

Crossway, the publisher of the ESV, seems to be cool with this.