Evangelist Alan Harris at Rivers of Joy Baptist Church

Alan and Angie and Charles and Charity

The Brain or the Heart?

    

Chemical imbalance

Neuronal Connections - Chemical Imbalances

What I have done here is to copy the quotes that I had on Facebook this morning: 

How many times do we hear now, that bad behavior is due to their sick, mixed up brain chemistry. When I was young, behavior was not blamed on the make up of the brain, but my upbringing, Dad would say, "Get you heart right with God, " Dad never said, "Get your brain in balance," Don't blame the brain for behavior blame the heart (mind).

As a result of been up since 4:45 a.m. and have been reading: "Blame It On The Brain" trigger thoughts about: does the brain have anything to do with how I behave? Then this " Chemical imbalance" theory has really captured my thinking. Which of course has pushed me to research this "depression" theory that its caused by the break down of serotonin in the brain. I am depressed already. And here it is 9:55 a.m. and I am still reading.

Its a heart matter, (spirit, soul, mind) thus it is spiritual. Our entire being, the "I" is spirit. Our actions, our behavior is spirit. We can not say, "I didn't do it, my brain did it, my brain cells are messed up." But today we blame a messed up brain for all our troubles and try to fix the brain rather than trying to fix the heart, soul and mind.

Our heart, (spirit and mind) our mind is where we are, it is us, its our "wellspring of life" Proverbs 4:23. Its what we really believe . Its spiritual. Its the inner person, We are not control by the brain in an of itself. We really can not say "I didn't do it, my brain was messed up. It was my brain that did it. My disease did it."

Why do we not want to believe what is Truth. So many people just don't want to know the real truth about life, about their problem, about their suffering, about their life situations? Truth will set you free. Give you hope. Heal your spirit, soul and mind and heart.

So how can we learn how we can avoid what has happen to those who lose the desire to live their lives?

Whisnant go back to 1242 in Switzerland

: Whisnant, Whisenant, Whisenand, Whisonant, Whisante, Whisenhunt, Visinand,

 The origin of our family name is Switzerland. The oldest known document bearing the family name is in the national archives at Lausanne, Switzerland. It is dated 1242 A.D., and was a written agreement between two people. In the agreement, "P son of Wion Visinant" is listed as a witness to the agreement.

  was told by the archivist in Lausanne that the name means "neighbor".

The name is still used today in Switzerland, but is currently spelled there as "Visinand". When the Visinand family arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1731, aboard the ship Snow Lowther, they signed the ship log as "Vissnant". Shortly thereafter the name was changed to Whisenhunt. Thus began the first of many family name changes by various family groups. We have found over 80 variations in the spelling of the name since 1731. Today, you'll find that most of the family members spell the name either as Whisnant, Whisenant, Whisenhunt, Whisnand, Whisonant, Whisenand, Whisante, or Visinand.

Our Whisnant ancestors have lived in the United States for over 250 years now. In that time, there have been many variations on the spelling of family name. I have listed the most common variations below. If you fail to find your ancestors under the surname you think they should be listed under, look under the other spellings. The name most commonly used is listed first, followed by the next most common, etc.

Popular variations

• Whisenant
• Whisnant
• Whisenhunt
• Whisenand
• Whisonant
• Whisnand
• Whisennand
• Whisante
• Visinand

WHY IN THE WORLD DO SO MANY PEOPLE LIKE THESE FAKE REALITY SHOWS WE SEE ON TV TODAY

#2374

"At the heart of every good theology lies not simply a plausible intellectual vision but more importantly a compelling account of a way of life"    Miroslav Volf  put it.

Captive to the Word of God: Engaging the Scriptures for Contemporary Theological Reflection

What Is Theological Interpretation of Scripture?  R.W.L. Moberly  Journal of Theological Interpretation

The Church as Israel and Israel as the Church: An Examination of Karl Barth's Exegesis of Romans 9:1–5 in The Epistle to the Romans and Church Dogmatics 2/2

139

Wesley A. Hill

Severity and minor depression

 Let me make an opening statement.  First what you are about to read is taken from several website which I have provided the site.  I like to see what the world view of depression is and what they say is the problem and sure.  So this is what I have done in this post.

Severity and minor depression

 
The severity issue deserves further consideration. It is elevated to an important consideration in ICD-10. As an episode qualifier it is useful, since severity does carry implications for treatment, and severe depressions also tend to have worse outcome than do mild. It is not well recognized that, in practice, ICD-10 mild depressive episode is by no means minor, at least in the Research Criteria. The definitions for individual symptoms and the absence of some symptoms from the list means that subjects who fit these criteria usually have sufficient depression also to qualify as DSM-IV major depressives.

This raises another issue, the lower boundary to distinguish pathological depression from normal mood change. Although defined by the number of symptoms present, it is not in fact well-defined, since the thresholds for individual symptoms are not clear or easy to be sure about: when does lowering of mood, even if present every day, cross the threshold in severity to count as being present? The issue is not crucial in the clinic, but it has become important as psychiatric research has extended to the community, and to community epidemiology. Comparatively high rates of depression arc found in community prevalence studies.33 It is not clear whether all these depressions share fully the qualities of depression presenting for medical or psychiatric treatment. Similar issues arise in the use of “symptomatic volunteers” for research.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM IVPsychiatric Diagnoses are categorized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th. Edition.  Better known as the DSM-IV, the manual is published by the American Psychiatric Association and covers all mental health disorders for both children and adults. It also lists known causes of these disorders, statistics in terms of gender, age at onset, and prognosis as well as some research concerning the optimal treatment approaches.

 http://allpsych.com/disorders/dsm.html

The DSM uses a multiaxial or multidimensional approach to diagnosing because rarely do other factors in a person's life not impact their mental health.  It assesses five dimensions as described below: 

DSM-IV Codes are the classification found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision, also known as DSM-IV-TR, a manual published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) that includes all currently recognized mental health disorders. The DSM-IV codes are thus used by mental health professionals to describe the features of a given mental disorder and indicate how the disorder can be distinguished from other, similar problems.[1]  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-IV_codes     it is recommended that users of these manuals consult the appropriate reference when accessing diagnostic codes

Axis I: Clinical Syndromes
    This is what we typically think of as the diagnosis (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, social phobia)
Axis II: Developmental Disorders and Personality Disorders
    Developmental disorders include autism and mental retardation, disorders which are typically first evident in childhood
    Personality disorders are clinical syndromes which have a more long lasting symptoms and encompass the individual's way of interacting with the world.  They include Paranoid, Antisocial, and Borderline Personality Disorders.
Axis III: Physical Conditions which play a role in the development, continuance, or exacerbation of Axis I and II Disorders
    Physical conditions such as brain injury or HIV/AIDS that can result in symptoms of mental illness are included here.
Axis IV: Severity of Psychosocial Stressors
    Events in a persons life, such as death of a loved one, starting a new job, college, unemployment, and even marriage can impact the disorders listed in Axis I and II.  These events are both listed and rated for this axis.
Axis V: Highest Level of Functioning

    On the final axis, the clinician rates the person's level of functioning both at the present time and the highest level within the previous year.  This helps the clinician understand how the above four axes are affecting the person and what type of changes could be expected.

Mood disorders
293.83 Mood Disorder Due to...[Indicate the General Medical Condition]
96.90 Mood Disorder NOS
Depressive disorders
    300.4 Dysthymic disorder
    Major depressive disorder
Bipolar disorders
Anxiety disorders
        Panic disorder
            300.23 Social phobia
    300.3 Obsessive-compulsive disorder
    309.81 Posttraumatic stress disorder
    308.3 Acute stress disorder
        293.84 Anxiety disorder due to a general medical condition
        293.89 Anxiety disorder due to... [indicate the general medical condition]
        300.00 Anxiety disorder NOS
Sexual and gender identity disorders
Gender identity disorders
Eating disorders
    307.1 Anorexia nervosa
    307.51 Bulimia nervosa
Sleep disorders
Impulse-Control Disorders Not Elsewhere Classified
Adjustment disorders
        309.9 Unspecified
        309.24 With anxiety
        309.0 With depressed mood
        309.3 With disturbance of conduct
        309.28 With mixed anxiety and depressed mood
        309.4 With mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct

Personality disorders (Axis II)
Cluster A (odd or eccentric)
    301.0 Paranoid personality disorder
    301.20 Schizoid personality disorder
    301.22 Schizotypal personality disorder
Cluster B (dramatic, emotional, or erratic)
    301.7 Antisocial personality disorder
    301.83 Borderline personality disorder
    301.50 Histrionic personality disorder
    301.81 Narcissistic personality disorder
Cluster C (anxious or fearful)
    301.82 Avoidant personality disorder
    301.6 Dependent personality disorder
    301.4 Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
NOS
   301.9 Personality disorder

The severity issue deserves further consideration. It is elevated to an important consideration in ICD-10. As an episode qualifier it is useful, since severity does carry implications for treatment, and severe depressions also tend to have worse outcome than do mild. It is not well recognized that, in practice, ICD-10 mild depressive episode is by no means minor, at least in the Research Criteria. The definitions for individual symptoms and the absence of some symptoms from the list means that subjects who fit these criteria usually have sufficient depression also to qualify as DSM-IV major depressives.
This raises another issue, the lower boundary to distinguish pathological depression from normal mood change. Although defined by the number of symptoms present, it is not in fact well-defined, since the thresholds for individual symptoms are not clear or easy to be sure about: when does lowering of mood, even if present every day, cross the threshold in severity to count as being present? The issue is not crucial in the clinic, but it has become important as psychiatric research has extended to the community, and to community epidemiology. Comparatively high rates of depression arc found in community prevalence studies.33 It is not clear whether all these depressions share fully the qualities of depression presenting for medical or psychiatric treatment. Similar issues arise in the use of “symptomatic volunteers” for research.

Mental Illness, and Depression Study

The core symptoms 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181879/
The core symptoms of depression, of which at least one is required in DSM-IV, are depressed mood, and loss of interest or pleasure. The further eligible symptom in ICD-10 is decreased energy or fatigability, but, since two core symptoms must be present, in effect depressed mood or loss of interest/pleasure are required in this schema also. The reason for the addition of decreased energy to the core is not clear.

Generally few want to look at their mental illness from a biblical point of view.  They want a secular diagnosis of their problem or mental illness.  Most do not see their problems, illness, depression from a biblical point of view. 

While I have studied Biblical Counseling that covers this issue, from Liberty University of Life Long Learning and Faith Baptist College, with Jay Adams, and Master's College on Counseling, and a few other places.  I have studied and still study this issue at hand. 

I was looking at this website for some information from the world view of depression.

NOW HOW DO THE DOCTORS COME TO UNDERSTAND YOUR ILLNESS OR DEPRESSION:?

Psychiatric resident conceptualizations of mood and affect within the mental status examination.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12900321/

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

1. To explore the ways in which psychiatry residents conceptualize the terms "mood" and "affect," a 14-item questionnaire was sent to residency programs in New York.

METHOD:

1. The questions consisted of possible definitions of mood and affect; all questions required a "true" or "false" response. Residents (N=99) were asked how they viewed mood and affect from a temporal perspective (i.e., sustained versus momentary) and in terms of an objective-subjective (or external-internal) dichotomy.

RESULTS:

1. There were inconsistencies in the temporal view of mood (said to be sustained by 60.6% and momentary by 50.5%) and affect ("pervasive" by 26.3% and "momentary" by 66.3%). Residents overwhelmingly defined mood as being subjective and internal and affect as being objective and external.

CONCLUSIONS:

If mood and affect are to be viewed from both perspectives, psychiatrists must infer the enduring internal emotional tone (mood) of a patient over an entire interview.

. Residents overwhelmingly defined mood as being subjective and internal and affect as being objective and external.

John MacArthur talks about Duck Dynasty. Episode 1343

John MacArthur "What has happened after the 'Strange Fire' Conference"

Landscaping and Lumber jacking Project 08 2014

This view is how it looked before

The style of preaching and teaching that I have tried to do for a number of years. Charles e Whisnant

The style of preaching and teaching that I have tried to do for a number of years.
Charles e Whisnant

From October 1982 after going to a Shepherd Conference I learned something about preaching. From that time I wanted to teach the the Word of God, the New Testament one book at a time, and with some depth as I went along in each book. I didn't want to take every rabbit trail as I went along, I wanted to say only what the text contained.

1. I have from the beginning always believed that I held in my hand the actual Word of God. And that every messaged I preached was is the Word of God and that I wanted to do  the best that I could to  interpret it and understand it.
   
2. While I have taught “The Bible Which You Hold In Your Hand Is The Word of God” series I have not really tried to prove that what we are reading and what we are hearing is God's Word. I haven't needed to do that because scripture is its own defense. I have believed that the scripture examined and scripture understood will make its own case for its authority and inherency. I am a presuppostionalist in that sense. God does not try to prove the bible true, God simply declares the Bible true.
   
3. The Bible is its own fearless advocate , its accuracy and its truthfulness, its clarity, its power are obvious as its content accumulates. And the weight of it increases and increases. And thus when this is done doubt will dismiss and disappears. To those who are not exposed regularly to the truth and power and depth of scripture some rationale defenses might help them.
   
4. When those who are constantly regularly systematically brought into the depths of Holy Scripture it builds its own case. And eventually what you have is concrete reinforced with rebar that you can stand on foundation that does not move and that is why I have tried over the years in the churches I have pastored to start an exposition study of the New Testament.
   
5. I have only one objective and it was not homiletically, I don't know that I have had a class on the subject, I don't really spend a lot of time on outlines, what I do is put down what is in my sermons.  The art of preaching or writing sermons
   
6. I don't try to take time to think up practical ways to apply the text since every one is different.
   
7. I don't think I spent 10 minutes on a sermon trying to figure out how I could make it say what I thought people might like to think it says because it fits their cultural perspectives.
   
8. I never thought about relevance, I never thought about how can I move their emotions, never thought about how I can motivate them. All I thought about was how can I explain what the texts means.
   
9. So if you were to characterize my desire preaching it would be explanatory. I just care about what God thinks. Just what the scripture mean by what it says. We explain the meaning of scripture in its original meaning, the original meaning intend by the author is what God was meaning and there is one meaning.     MacArthur Sr, said to Jr. "Don't be the hero of your own story and watch out for those who do."
   
10. I want to preach the truth of God and only one way for me to do that is to be diligent on the explaining of the Scripture as truthful as I can.
    
11. And I believe that the Holy Spirit then moves with power where He will and send it to whom He wills based upon a true understanding of Holy Scripture.
    

So in the 27 years that I have taught as a pastor/teacher, I have strive d to preach the text each week and try to clearly understand what the text is saying in its context to the whole Bible.  So I try to say what the text means and then broadening the meaning from that text to other scriptures in the bible that reinforces this great truth and out of the truth of the scripture which is alive and powerful and out of the truth comes strong compelling divine life-changing implications and far more interested in implications then application, The Holy Spirit can do the application. I want people to feel the burden of the implications.  Its a matter of obedience and judgment.

I want people to have the confidence that I have rightly divided the Word of God as God's Word and not my words but God's truth.

ICE CREAM PA PA?

Grand kids at The Scoito County Fair 2014

 

Charles and Charity Whisnant August 2012

Landscaping a little on the Property 08 12 14

a

August  12 2014

II

JJ








LOOKING FROM THE BACK OF THE DECK 

Shepherds' Conference 2012 | General Session 1 - John MacArthur Mark 16

Shepherds' Conference 2012 | General Session 1 - John MacArthur

General Session 07 - Shepherds' Conference 2009 (Phil Johnson)

Sound Doctrine; Sound Words (Titus 2:7-8) Phil Johnson

By Phil Johnson
Executive Director of Grace to You




This morning I want to look at two verses in Titus 2—verses 7-8.
This is an admonition from Paul to Titus, his friend, partner,
protege, and true son in the faith. Titus is one of the unsung heroes
of the early church—a young pastor whose faithful support and
constant behind-the-scenes labor made him extremely precious to Paul.
Paul writes to Titus with these instructions (Titus
2:7-8): "Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good
works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech
that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame,
having nothing evil to say about us."




I chose that text, frankly, because I'm deeply concerned about the
tendency of so many pastors lately to employ profanity, crude and
obscene words, vile subject matter, carnal topics, graphic sexual
imagery, erotic language, and filthy jokes. Most of you, I know, are
aware of the trend I'm talking about. I'm tempted to call it the
pornification of the pulpit. The justification usually given is that
coarse language and sexual themes are the tools of contextualization.
It's a way to make us sound more relevant. Lots of voices in the
church are insistent that this is absolutely essential if we want to
reach certain segments of our culture.




The apostle Paul said otherwise, and that's what I want to look at
in this hour.




When I was considering what subjects might be important for a
group of pastors and church leaders as large and diverse as this, I
couldn't get away from this issue. The New York Times Magazine
recently did a feature article on Mark Driscoll in which this was a
major theme. "Who Would Jesus Smack Down?" was the title of
the article. Here's the lead sentence: "Mark Driscoll's sermons
are mostly too racy to post on [an] evangelical Christian 'family
friendly' . . . Web site."




So this is a subject almost everyone (including the New York
Times) is already talking nonstop about. And yet it seems to me
that people in the evangelical world are not thinking very
biblically about it. What language and what kind of subject matter
are suitable for the pulpit in a worship service? What gifts and what
virtues qualify a man to be a pastor? And what should stand out most
prominently when someone analyzes our style of ministry? What would
YOU want the New York Times to focus on if they did an
article analyzing your style?

Janet Paschal & John Starnes==Looking For A City 1984

Uma Thurman, Jump: Jameson First Shot 2014

Uma Thurman, "The Gift" Jameson First Shot 2014

Dale Earnhardt - NASCAR Racing Documentary

Dale Earnhardt Sr. Fatal Crash *Live With Replays*