Does your faith need strengthening? Are you confused and wondering if Jesus Christ is really "The Way, the Truth, and the Life?" "Fight for Your Faith" is a blog filled with interesting and thought provoking articles to help you find the answers you are seeking. Jesus said, "Seek and ye shall find." In Jeremiah we read, "Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall seek for Me with all your heart." These articles and videos will help you in your search for the Truth.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Declarações Positivas para Combater a Negatividade

http://anchor.tfionline.com/pt/post/declaracoes-positivas-para-combater-negatividade/

Maria Fontaine

Eu gostaria de compartilhar algumas declarações edificadoras da fé, inspiradas pelo Senhor, que oro ajude a turbinar sua fé quando estiver combatendo a negatividade. A variedade é grande, mas se não tiver nenhuma que se encaixe perfeitamente na sua situação, espero que sirvam de exemplos e o ajude a encontrar expressões de fé que expressem o que você sente e as batalhas que trava.



* Não importa se me sinto capaz ou talentoso ou não, estou determinado a fazer o melhor que posso. O Senhor me criou, então Ele vai ter que fazer a obra através de mim. Acredito que ter fé é agir, não sentir, portanto vou fazer o meu trabalho por fé, não importa como eu me sinta.

* Cometi um erro hoje, mas estou decidido a crescer e aprender com ele. Não vou permitir que o desencorajamento e o sentimento de culpa por causa deste erro me derrubem. Em vez disso escolho louvar Você, Jesus, por esse erro, porque com ele posso aprender maiores lições sobre humildade. E agora vou me levantar e tentar outra vez.

* Estou progredindo porque estou decidido a lutar, e hoje me recuso a desistir.

* E daí se eu não sou perfeito? Estou lutando para mudar e crescer. Enquanto eu continuar seguindo Jesus e o que Ele me mostra na Sua Palavra, posso ter certeza que vou avançar e me tornar quem Deus quer que eu seja.

* Eu vou louvar Jesus hoje não importa como me sinta. Não quero saber se estou cansado, preocupado, ansioso ou desanimado com todas essas coisinhas. Hoje eu quero me sentir feliz, satisfeito, alegre e positivo. Portanto vou encher a minha cabeça com coisas boas, pensamentos positivos e palavras de louvor. Jesus, eu Lhe agradeço por este dia dedicado ao louvor!

* Eu talvez me sinta uma porcaria, e até seja, mas Jesus prometeu que sempre nos será dispensada a força necessária. Clamo essa força para hoje.

* Eu me recuso a pensar negativamente sobre mim mesmo. Vou olhar para fora, para os outros, para as necessidades das pessoas ou situações carentes, para as almas perdidas que precisam desesperadamente de Jesus. Hoje eu vou fazer algo positivo por alguém que cruzar o meu caminho. Vou fazer algo para tornar o dia das pessoas melhor e para elas serem mais felizes.

* Jesus me escolheu. Jesus pagou por mim. Jesus pagou o preço mais alto por mim. Eu valho isso. Fui comprado por bom preço, pelo sangue de Jesus, de tão precioso que sou para Ele. Sou precioso para Jesus e vou viver o dia de hoje para fazê-lO Se orgulhar de ter investido em mim.

* Não vou comparar a minha vida negativamente com a de outros. Jesus não reteria nenhum bem de mim,[1] então, se existe algo que eu gostaria mas não me é possível ter, posso presumir com segurança que não seria bom eu ter.

* Mesmo que eu não me saia muito bem no que faço, posso fazer o melhor possível em seja o que for, e vou fazer o melhor que posso não importa o que eu pense de mim mesmo ou dos meus talentos. Mesmo que eu não tenha nenhum talento em um certo aspecto, se o Senhor me pedir algo, vai me ajudar a realizar.

* Não importa o que penso, eu sou lindo. Sou criação de Deus e ele nunca diz “foi mal.” Sou exatamente como Ele quer que eu seja. Sou lindo, porque Ele me criou. Vou ficar satisfeito em qualquer situação que me encontre. Vou ficar agradecido pela maneira como Ele me criou. Vou ficar feliz pela maneira como Ele me formou. Quero que Ele saiba que não importa o que aconteça, eu O amo e continuarei louvando.

* Eu estou progredindo na minha vida espiritual, e cada dia Jesus me leva mais longe. O Senhor não me compara com os outros, então eu não deveria fazer isso também. Vou me contentar com a maneira como o Senhor me criou, com as experiências que Ele me confiou e a profundidade e a maturidade que Ele me deu. Vou continuar amando e servindo a Ele o melhor possível, não importa o que eu pense do progresso da minha vida espiritual.

* O Senhor me fez ímpar, com habilidades únicas, uma mente e personalidade só minhas, um sabor só meu para acrescentar a este mundo. Vou mostrar a Jesus que estou feliz com a maneira como me criou e em ser criação Sua, vivendo de todo o coração a vida que Ele me deu, satisfeito, feliz e animado.

*

O coração em paz dá vida ao corpo.—Provérbios 14:30[2]

*

De fato, a piedade com contentamento é grande fonte de lucro, pois nada trouxemos para este mundo e dele nada podemos levar.—1 Timóteo 6:6–7[3]

*

Bendiga ao Senhor a minha alma! Bendiga ao Senhor todo o meu ser! Bendiga ao Senhor a minha alma! Não esqueça de nenhuma de suas bênçãos!—Salmo 103:1–2[4]

*

Tu conservarás em paz aquele cuja mente está firme em ti; porque ele confia em ti.—Isaias 26:3[5]

*

Deleite-se no Senhor, e ele atenderá aos desejos do seu coração.
Entregue o seu caminho ao Senhor; confie nele, e ele agirá.—Salmo 37:4–5[6]

Publicado originalmente em abril de 2006. Adaptado e republicado em março de 2014. Tradução Denise Oliveira. Revisão H.R.Flandoli.


[1] Salmo 34:10.

[2] NVI.

[3] NVI.

[4] KJV.

[5] ACRF.

[6] ACRF.

Praise for Victory

http://anchor.tfionline.com/post/praise-victory/

Words from Jesus

Audio length: 9:45
Download Audio (8.9MB)

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.—1 Thessalonians 5:181

*

In everything give praise, for this is My will concerning you. As you give thanks in everything, as you rejoice even in the midst of pain or problems, that joy becomes your strength, your help, your comfort, and your solution through the power of praise. When you praise, you are receiving the sap of My Spirit into the roots of your being. Your spiritual strength is protected through praise. Praise is like the oxygen in the oxygen tank that gives you the capacity to climb the highest peaks. You’ll never run out of fresh, pure, strengthening oxygen if you tank up with praise, no matter how difficult or how high the climb.

When you are faced with problems and challenges and you praise Me in spite of it all, you are releasing the beautiful gifts of My Spirit for all to see. By doing so, you turn these into opportunities for others to see My beauty within you and to draw more people to Me.

When you wear praise as your outer garments, it makes you attractive to those who see you. And when you also wear praise as your undergarments, this makes sure that your outer garments suit you well and fit you perfectly. Praise is comely. The beauty that I’ve put within you is released through praise. If you wish for others to see My beautiful gift of salvation and love that I’ve put within your heart, manifest it through praise.
Praise is like varnish

Praise is like the toughest varnish a carpenter puts on the wood. It protects the wood from scratches, water, and termites. Using praise is the way to glaze your spirit so that no matter what the Enemy throws at you, you can’t be marred.

When you find yourself in an extremely difficult circumstance, that’s the perfect time to use the weapon of praise to deliver you. When you hear your own voice lifted in praise, thanking Me in the midst of some less-than-ideal event that is taking place in your life, it gives you more faith. That atmosphere of praise creates more faith and uplifts you and those around you.

When others see and hear your positive reactions in the midst of some situation which seems negative, it can lift them up too, and create a domino effect of influencing others to trust in Me regardless of the circumstances.
On wings of praise

I see, and I know how your heart hurts and breaks. I hold you ever so close during this time of loss and heartbreak. I know how hard it is to let go of your grief and pain and to praise Me. Your very being tells you to hold on to the pain and to hide it away and nurse it. But if you will open your hands wide to release this grief, it will fly away on the wings of praise, and I will complete your healing. Open your heart and hands, and let praise fill your heart—praise for how I will heal every heartbreak and grief. I will make all things beautiful once again.

If you find yourself in a difficult position, between a rock and a hard place, one of the most effective weapons you can use to help you blast through the obstacle or rise above it is praise.—Praise that flows from the innermost part of your spirit; praise that trusts Me and knows by faith that everything will be okay because you’re in My hands. Activating this weapon will set you on the road to victory.
Praise is…

Praise is your lifesaver in a perilous ocean.

Praise is your parachute that gives you a safe landing.

Praise is your set of wings that lifts you above the raging storm.

Praise is your life support.

Praise is your armor that deflects all the fiery darts and blows of the Enemy.

Praise is the key that empowers you to rise above the trials and tribulations of this life and draws My presence.
Praise in rain or shine

When you can meet success and failure with the same dignity, then you are spiritually mature. When you can praise Me through happiness and sadness, in plenty and in want, in safety and in danger, in health and in sickness, in joy and in sorrow, in life and in death, then you are a person of great faith, a man or woman highly honored in My courts, because of your great love for Me and trust in Me.

Lift your heart to heaven through your praises, and the glory will flood in, washing away the pain, fear, despair, hurt, sadness, discouragement, or anything the Enemy is trying to hold you down with. This flood is cleansing for you and destructive to the Enemy. It will leave you clean, refreshed, renewed, and revitalized.

Praise emits a positive spiritual energy that effects change in the circumstances surrounding you. You don’t always see this change in the physical, or at least not instantly, but in the spiritual realm, change for the better is immediately obvious. You can ask Me to open your spiritual eyes so that you too can see the difference and partake of the positive force of energy that has enveloped you.
Growing faith

The trials and difficulties of life that seem so big now will seem so small when you look back over your life on earth and see how clearly My hand was upon every aspect of your life. If you will ride on the wings of praise, you will learn what it truly means to rest in Me and to let Me carry your burdens.

Do you want your faith to grow? Learn to praise Me even in the tough times. Praise cannot exist without faith, because if you didn’t believe that I could bring good from it, then there would be nothing to praise Me for in trying times. So the fact that you praise means that you have faith, or that you are working toward having that faith.

Even when disaster strikes your life and you feel completely devastated emotionally, you can always praise Me for how I will make everything right in heaven. I will wipe away your every tear and repay your every sacrifice. In heaven, life will be perfect; so if all you can do is look ahead to that time and say, “Thank You, Jesus, for how some day You will make this all right again,” you manifest your faith and trust in Me through your praise.

To meet any situation without praise is to overlook My presence in it. Whatever the situation, problem, or challenge, I’m going through it with you. This situation that is troubling you so and making you so unhappy will someday, somehow, work together for your good.

If you’ve prayed for bread, but it seems that I keep giving you stones, maybe it’s because I’m trying to help you to build an oven, so that you’ll soon be able to bake all the bread you need. This is a life of faith, not sight. That’s why you’re able to praise Me for things you haven’t seen yet. With faith, time is irrelevant. You have the assurance that sooner or later I’m going to do everything that I’ve said I would, and that’s worth praising for.

The Bible tells of whole cities and regions that I was not able to help or do many miracles for because of their unbelief in My power. Don’t make that the story of your life. According to your faith, it will be done unto you. If you believe that I can turn every situation to your good somehow, whether in this life or the next, and you praise Me for this, then I can. But if you believe that a situation is beyond My help to fix, you will limit yourself through your unbelief, and that sad attitude may become reality for you.

When you offer gratitude, you invoke My full power to prosper and bless your life.

Originally published November 2008. Adapted and republished February 2015.
Read by Jon Marc. Music by Michael Dooley.



1 NLT.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Thoughts on Love to Meditate On

http://anchor.tfionline.com/post/thoughts-love-meditate/

By Maria Fontaine

Download Audio (11.8MB)

Here are a few beautiful thoughts from Jesus that you can take a bit of time to stop and think about and meditate on. I know that as you do, He’ll give you ideas about how to put His love into practice. Even with everything going on, and little time, He’ll show you how you can make a difference in the lives of others by loving them with His love.

*

I am a God of love, and I can only be accurately represented by loving servants. If you want to fulfill your mission of connecting people to Me, if you want to show them what I am like, it all comes down to love. Love has to be the foundation of your witness—true love and concern for people’s individual souls.

*

The more loving you can be, the more love you share and fill your life with, the more chance you have of being the best representation of Me that you possibly can be.

*

In all your plans, and in everything you put your hand to, only what’s done for love will last.

*

If your goal is to love, each day that you love to the best of your ability is a day that you were one with Me. Each day that you love is a day that you accomplish My best. You take on My nature, and thus you’re doing what I would do if I were there. That’s the best you can possibly do.

*

Take time to reconnect with the love that is in your heart. Drill down past every other motivation, every other aspiration, and find your passionate, beating heart of love for Me. That love may not be manifested in feelings, yet it is there. It’s why you’re serving Me, or sacrificing for Me, or working hard for Me. It’s all about love. Love is the engine that powers it all.

*

Love is life itself. Love is the universe. Love is everything. I am love, and it all starts and ends with Me and My power. How can you ever hope to find stronger power than that?

*

Take time to think about the simple truths: Love never fails. Only what’s done in love will last. Love is the power and light of God. God is love. The greatest of these is love!

*

You can’t ask for more power or motivation or beauty than is found in love.

Did you like those? They’re beautiful, aren’t they? Thank You Jesus! Praise God for love!

Originally published October 2008. Adapted and republished November 2010.
Music by Daniel Sozzi.

Posted in: audio, love, maria fontaine, meditation, music, reflection

Pensamentos Sobre Amor Para Meditação

http://anchor.tfionline.com/pt/post/pensamentos-sobre-amor-para-meditacao/

Maria Fontaine

Seguem-se alguns lindos pensamentos de Jesus nos quais pode pensar e refletir um pouco. Sei que se fizer isso, Ele lhe dará ideias de como colocar o Seu amor em prática. Mesmo com tudo que está acontecendo e do pouco tempo de que dispõe, Ele lhe mostrará como pode fazer a diferença na vida dos outros amando-os com o Seu amor.

*

Eu sou um Deus de amor, e só posso ser representado adequadamente por servos amorosos. Se quiser cumprir a sua missão de conectar as pessoas a Mim e lhes mostrar como sou, é tudo uma questão de amor. O amor precisa ser a base da sua testificação; amor e interesse verdadeiro pela alma de cada pessoa.

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Quanto mais amoroso conseguir ser, quanto mais amor der e colocar na sua vida, mais chance terá de ser um ótimo representante Meu.

*

Em todos os planos e em tudo o que for fazer, só vai durar o que for feito por amor.

*

Se a sua meta for amar, cada dia que se dedicar a amar o máximo possível será um dia em que passou unido a Mim. Cada dia que amar será um dia em que realizará o que Euconsidero melhor. Estará assumindo a Minha natureza, portanto, fazendo o que Eu faria se estivesse aí. Isso é o melhor que poderia fazer.

*

Tome um tempinho para se reconectar ao amor que está em seu coração. Faça uma perfuração além de qualquer outra motivação ou aspiração, para chegar ao seu coração apaixonado por Mim. Esse amor talvez não se manifeste em sentimentos, no entanto está presente. É por isso que você Me serve, ou sacrifica e trabalha duro por Mim. É tudo uma questão de amor. O amor é a grande força motriz

*

O amor é a vida, o universo, tudo! Eu sou Amor, e tudo começa e termina Comigo e com o Meu poder. Então, como você poderia pensar em encontrar um poder maior?

*

Tome tempo para pensar nessa simples verdade: amor nunca falha. Só o que for feito em amor perdurará. Amor é o poder e a luz de Deus. Deus é amor. O maior destes é o amor!

*

Não dá para desejar mais poder, motivação ou algo mais belo do que o amor pode oferecer.

Gostaram destes pensamentos? São lindos, não acham? Graças a Jesus! Louvemos ao Senhor pelo amor!



Publicado originalmente em outubro de 2008. Adaptado e publicado em novembro de 2010.

Música de Daniel Sozzi.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Walk Hard. Walk Easy. Repeat.

By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, February 19, 2015

Intense, interval-style workouts—brief bouts of very hard exercise broken up by periods of recovery—have been shown to improve the health and fitness of people who exert themselves for only a few minutes a week. Such efficiency is alluring, and has helped this kind of conditioning attract widespread media attention in recent years (including in this column). But high-intensity interval training programs aren’t for everyone. As researchers from Australia and England point out in the December issue of Frontiers in Psychology, “a largely sedentary population” is unlikely to “feel physically capable and sufficiently motivated to take up and maintain a regime of highly intense exercise.” That doubt is what makes some news out of Japan about a much-less-punishing form of interval training so welcome.

A decade ago, scientists led by Dr. Hiroshi Nose at the Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine in Matsumoto, Japan, started developing walking programs. They knew that walking was physically the easiest (and also the most practical) exercise for those in middle age and older, but the researchers suspected that people might need to push themselves to achieve the greatest health benefits. So they created a regimen consisting of three minutes of fast walking at a pace that Nose says approximates a 6 or 7 on a scale of exertion from 1 to 10. Each “somewhat-hard” three-minute spell was followed by three minutes of gentle strolling.

In their original experiment, the results of which were published in 2007, walkers between the ages of 44 and 78 completed five sets of intervals, for a total of 30 minutes of walking at least three times a week. A separate group of older volunteers walked at a continuous, moderate pace, equivalent to about a 4 on the same exertion scale. After five months, the fitness and health of the older, moderate group had barely improved. The interval walkers, however, significantly improved aerobic fitness, leg strength and blood-pressure readings.

In their latest study, which came out in December in the Journal of Applied Physiology, Nose and his colleagues report that most of the participants stayed with the walking program long after their original five-month commitment ended. Two years later, almost 70 percent of the walkers with whom the researchers remained in contact were still following their regimen at least three times a week and had retained or improved their health gains. Those who quit often cited “family, health and job issues,” says Dr. Shizue Masuki, the new study’s lead author, but they rarely complained about the complexity or difficulty of the training.

So those who have considered high-intensity interval training but have been apprehensive about its demands should go for a walk. “Perform the training for 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the afternoon and 10 minutes in the evening,” Masuki suggests. Three days of exercise per week is best, but if that’s too challenging, she says, “do it on the weekend” and cram the workouts into two days. Doing so, Masuki adds, “can have a profound effect on physiological regulation.”

O Segredo da Videira

http://anchor.tfionline.com/pt/post/o-segredo-da-videira/

Uma compilação

“Permaneçam em mim e eu permanecerei em vocês. Nenhum ramo pode dar fruto por si mesmo, se não permanecer na videira. Vocês também não podem dar fruto, se não permanecerem em mim. Eu sou a videira; vocês são os ramos. Se alguém permanecer em mim e eu nele, esse dá muito fruto; pois sem mim vocês não podem fazer coisa alguma.”[1]

Como produzir muito fruto? O que o Senhor está querendo dizer?

No mundo moderno, a ética de trabalho manda conquistar e produzir trabalhando mais e mais arduamente! — O foco é gerar resultados pelo esforço humano. …Mas a maneira de Deus trabalhar contraria essa abordagem, pois é muito mais orientada a processos e relacionamentos que a desempenho e produção. Ele está interessado nos resultados, que Ele chama de “frutos”, mas não nos força nem nos incentiva a trabalhar mais intensamente ou por mais tempo.

O Senhor trabalha conosco e por nosso intermédio, para que todo resultado ou produto venha como consequência de permanecermos nEle, já que, sem Ele, não podemos fazer coisa alguma.

É o contrário da cultura predominante e da natureza humana no geral. …O caminho de Deus para o sucesso produz resultados de valor para Ele; resultados advindos [não apenas] do esforço próprio, mas que brotam de uma relação íntima com Ele, na qual buscamos permanecer todo o tempo.

A única maneira de darmos fruto em abundância é entendendo o processo de frutificação do Senhor. Devemos deixar de lado o esforço próprio e a atitude independente inerente ao ser humano, para buscarmos a comunhão com Ele, permanecermos na Videira. Assim, Seu poder, vontade e desejos se realizarão em nossas vidas, e produziremos fruto que permanecerá por toda a eternidade! — George Whitten[2]

*

Cristo disse: “Eu sou a videira, vocês são os ramos. Permaneçam em mim e eu em vocês. Nenhum ramo pode dar fruto por si mesmo, se não permanecer na videira. Vocês também não podem dar fruto, se não permanecerem em mim.”

“Permaneçam em mim” é um lindo e inteligível conceito. A elegante versão King Jamesda Bíblia em inglês utiliza o vocábulo “abide”, uma palavra pouco usada hoje em dia. Eu passei a apreciar muito mais essa admoestação do Senhor quando conheci a li em espanhol, que usa o verbo “permanecer”. Em outras palavras, ficar, continuar. Até um gringo como eu consegue reconhecer a raiz na palavra em inglês “permanence”. O sentido é “ficar, mas para sempre”. Essa é a mensagem do Evangelho… Venha, mas venha para ficar. Venha com convicção e capacidade de suportar. Venha de forma permanente, para o seu bem e para o bem de todas as gerações posteriores. E nós nos ajudaremos mutuamente até ao final. — Jeffrey R. Holland[3]

*

“Nenhum ramo pode dar fruto por si mesmo, se não permanecer na videira. Vocês também não podem dar fruto, se não permanecerem em mim.” O ramo só pode dar fruto se estiver constantemente ligado à videira. Não é um fruto do ramo, mas é a videira que produz frutos. ...

Jesus deseja que nos afastemos de nós mesmos e da nossa própria força e recorramos a Ele e à Sua força. ...Permanecer na Videira é, afinal, uma tranquila entrega da alma para Jesus tomar posse e assumir controle total, como acontece na natureza, em que o ramo fica firmemente preso à videira e nada mais. — Andrew Murray[4]

*

Aquele que diz estar nele, também deve andar como Ele andou. — 1 João 2:6[5]

*

O ramo não frutifica separado da Videira. Precisa dos recursos vindos da videira para brotar folhas, florir e dar fruto. O ramo não cria a própria seiva. A força que o sustenta e dá vida só pode ser obtida da associação.

[Da mesma forma] o ser humano só pode se completar por meio de uma conexão íntima com Jesus. … Para as capacidades [humanas] se tornarem habilidades, alcançarem maturação e se realizarem, para o “ramo” humano poder brotar, florir e dar fruto, para ele ter vida e atingir sua capacidade máxima, faz-se necessário um profundo e forte relacionamento com Jesus. — J. H. Jowett[6]

*

Se vós estiverdes em mim e minhas palavras estiverem em vós, pedireis tudo o que quiserdes e vos será feito. — João 15:7[7]

*

Jesus falou sobre darmos fruto. Ele disse que devemos permanecer nEle e Ele em nós, e então produziremos muito fruto. Eu sou o ramo, vós as varas. Aquele que permanece em mim e Eu nele, esse dá muito fruto.”[8]

E disse também: “Eu rogarei ao Pai, e Ele vos dará outro Consolador, para que esteja convosco para sempre, o Espírito da verdade... Naquele dia conhecereis que estou em Meu Pai, e vós em Mim, e Eu em vós.”[9]

Se Jesus e o Espírito Santo habitarem em nós, daremos fruto. Se estivermos abertos ao direcionamento do Espírito Santo e seguimos Suas orientações, daremos fruto. Ele nos conduzirá segundo a vontade de Deus — se deixarmos — mostrando-nos aonde ir, o que fazer e como fazer. Se seguirmos suas instruções daremos fruto.

Como Jesus disse, o fruto depende de termos o Espírito de Deus habitando em nós. Podemos então interpretar que também está ligado a seguirmos as orientações do Espírito. Cada um pessoalmente dará fruto se seguir a orientação do Espírito para a sua vida pessoal. Você deve seguir na direção em que Deus guiá-lo, e então dará fruto.

Pelo que Jesus disse, o fruto depende de termos o Espírito de Deus habitando em nós. Podemos então interpretar que também está ligado a seguirmos as orientações do Espírito. Cada um pessoalmente dará fruto se seguir a orientação do Espírito para a sua vida pessoal. Você deve seguir na direção em que Deus guiá-lo, e então dará fruto.

Alguns fatores-chave para fazer o que Deus lhe mostra são: fé, confiança e paciência. Fé para seguir aonde Ele guiar; confiança de que, ao fazê-lo Ele cuidará; e paciência para esperar pelo fruto.

Permaneça nEle e dará fruto. — Peter Amsterdam

Publicado no site Âncora em setembro de 2014. Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.


[1] João 15:4–5 NVI.

[2] http://www.worthydevotions.com/christian-devotional/abide.

[3] https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/04/abide-in-me?lang=eng.

[4] Adaptado de http://www.ccel.org/ccel/murray/true_vine.xi.html.

[5] RC.

[6] Adaptado de Brooks by the Traveler’s Way (Londres: H. R. Allenson, 1902).

[7] RC.

[8] João 15:5.

[9] João 14:16–17, 20 NVI.

At the Heart of Discipleship

http://anchor.tfionline.com/post/heart-discipleship/

By Peter Amsterdam

Audio length: 10:56
Download Audio (10MB)

I’ve been meditating recently on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. A disciple is defined as a follower of the teachings of another; someone who accepts those teachings and tries to act according to them, and who assists in spreading them. So a disciple of Jesus is a person who accepts and follows His teachings, meaning that person is an active adherent, applying the teachings to his life; and he assists in some manner in the spreading of the good news of salvation—the message of Jesus.

Believers accept Jesus’ teachings as true; they believe in Him, believe that He is their Savior, and they are saved. Jesus made it clear that belief in Him is sufficient for salvation when He said in John 3:16 that “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” It’s a wonderful thing to be a believer! It brings with it everlasting life, eternity with God.

Walking the path of discipleship means that someone makes the choice to add actionto belief. It’s going beyond the acceptance of the teachings and involves choosing to followthe teachings, to apply them in daily living. That path leads to becoming active in spreading the teachings. The word disciple comes from the Greek word mathetes(pronounced ma-tay-teis), meaning a learner. In the New Testament the word disciple is only used in the Gospels and the book of Acts. It’s a word that shows the contrast between the teacher and the learner. It also implies that the learner is an adherent of the teachings of the teacher, that he accepts the teachings not only in belief but in life, by applying and following them.

Disciples are key to the spreading of Christianity, to fulfilling the commission Jesus gave to His first disciples, those originally tasked with bringing the good news to the world of their day. As disciples today, we are tasked with bringing the gospel to the world of ourtime.

Each instance of one person introducing Jesus into the life of another, who in turn reaches someone else, is a microcosm of the history of Christianity. Christianity continues because disciples assist in spreading the teachings of Jesus. The spiritual lineage or genealogy is carried on from person to person, generation to generation, because of those who believe, follow, and spread the teaching.

Every Christian is a distant spiritual relative of the first Christians, of those who knew Jesus, who were the first to preach the good news. They preached the gospel, they taught others, they grounded them in the faith, and then the process was repeated over and over again, century after century. Christianity exists today because those throughout history have done what Jesus taught the first disciples to do—to preach the gospel and make disciples. So the presence of disciples in the world is vital to Christianity’s continuation. Faithful witnesses can never fully know the fruit they may bear years, even generations, into the future.

A disciple is someone, famous or not, flamboyant or not, known or unknown, whobelieves the teachings of Jesus and strives to put them into practice in his or her life, which includes spreading and teaching the gospel in some manner. Disciples are incredibly important, as it’s through them that other people are introduced to Jesus and salvation. It’s through them that Christianity grows, that the gospel is preached in all the earth.
The path of discipleship

When Jesus says to forsake all that you have,1 or as it says in other English translations, “any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple” (ESV); or “any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple” (NIV); or “none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions” (NAU), He’s speaking of priorities.

In principle, to renounce your possessions, to give them up, to forsake them, all have to do with the question of priorities. What comes first, God or your things? As a disciple, one who is committed to loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, the priority is God. Not your stuff, not your house, your money, your investments, but God.

Jesus isn’t recorded as asking everyone who wanted to follow Him to physically leave all of their worldly possessions. Joseph of Arimathea was both rich and a disciple. From his being called a disciple, one can conclude that he placed the right priority on his material goods in relation to God. It was this Joseph who supplied Jesus’ tomb, and who also used his position and influence to ask Pilate to release the body to him for burial.

On the other hand, the call He gave the rich young ruler was different:

“One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”2

Why? Because often when a person has wealth, it’s harder to prioritize it in relation to God, especially if He does ask you to give it up completely, or to share your wealth with others. The rich young ruler couldn’t let his wealth go and he was saddened by that realization. His possessions were his priority.

Forsaking, renouncing, giving up, all have to do with relinquishing the claim of ownership of material goods to God; they become His, and you are simply the steward. If He asks you to leave them behind as you walk on the path of discipleship, you do so, because God is the rightful owner of all things. A disciple’s allegiance is to God, not to things. A disciple’s allegiance is to the call God gives him or her.

When Jesus says “Follow Me,” He’s speaking to you personally. The path He calls you to follow is your path of discipleship. It’s an individual path, and each follower of Jesus has a distinct path. With the rich young ruler, the path Jesus asked him to take was to sell all that He had. Someone else’s path would be to keep the material possessions and follow God’s lead in a different manner. The principle is that the disciple belongs to God, his first allegiance is to God, and he loves God enough to do what God asks of him.

A principle of discipleship is loving God in a manner that makes you willing to follow what He shows you, no matter how steep the cost. The cost may be different with different individuals. So when Jesus said, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple,”3 He’s talking about your own cross, your individual cross that you must carry. The call He gives you is yours, and your willingness to carry it is reflected in your readiness to give your first allegiance to God and His call for you. When He says to you, “Follow Me,” He’s asking you to put yourself into His hands, to make Him your first priority, to give up ownership of yourself, to put yourself in the rightful place in relation to God, the sovereign of all. Jesus stated the proper priority when He said:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.4

Understanding the principle of loving God, keeping His word, and the positional relationship that God deserves in relation to the loves of this life, and the possessions we have, provides a guiding principle which can help you in the life decisions you are regularly faced with. The basic principle being that God—our Creator, our Savior, and the Spirit that dwells within us—asks for and deserves our love and the proper allegiance and place in our lives. This is the starting place of discipleship. It’s in loving Him that we take the first step of discipleship.—Peter Amsterdam

Originally published October 2011. Adapted and republished February 2015.
Read by Simon Peterson.



1 Luke 14:33 KJV.


2 Luke 18:22–24.


3 Luke 14:27.


4 Mark 12:30.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

WHY DO GOOD PEOPLE BECOME SILENT—OR WORSE—ABOUT 9/11?

http://www.ae911truth.org/news/196-news-media-events-fran-shure-part-14.html

Learned helplessness is associated with subsequent depression, anxiety, phobias, shyness, and/or loneliness.
PART 14: LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

By Frances T. Shure

Editor's Note: Frances Shure, M.A., L.P.C., has performed an in-depth analysis addressing a key issue of our time: "Why Do Good People Become Silent — or Worse — About 9/11?" The resulting essay, being presented here as a series, is a synthesis of both academic research and clinical observations.
© BY FRANCES T. SHURE, 2015


In answering the question in the title of this essay, the December 2014 segment —Prior Knowledge of State Crimes Against Democracy and Deep Politics — explored how our prior knowledge of high crimes by governments, as well as our knowledge of the deep state — as opposed to the visible public state in which we participate as citizens — influences our level of receptivity to the evidence that contradicts the official 9/11 storyline.

Here, in the January 2015 installment, we continue Ms. Shure's analysis with Part 14: Learned Helplessness, a conditioned response to trauma or adversity that involves ongoing pain as well as actual or perceived lack of control.

“I can see that 9/11 was a false flag operation, but there is nothing I can do to make a difference,” a male friend quietly admitted to me.

He is one of several friends who, in the years since September 11, 2001, have made similar remarks when I have asked them to tell me their thoughts about the evidence that refutes the official account of 9/11.

A female friend made another such statement, forcefully declaring, “If this is true about 9/11, then we’re in much worse shape than any of us have thought. This is way, way bigger than I am. In this case, perhaps evil will just need to run its course. There is nothing I can do.”

Then there was the man I met at the Denver People’s Fair, who hurried away from me to avoid any further conversation, simultaneously explaining, to my astonishment: “I agree with you that 9/11 was a false-flag operation. But this is what those in power have done to the rest of us for centuries. It will continue into the future, and there is nothing we can ever do to stop it.”

Still another acquaintance, upon hearing for the first time some of the unanswered questions surrounding 9/11, blurted out one of my favorite retorts: “What! I’ve never heard of this! Listen! If you are going to go after Sauron, you’d better be sure you have the ring!”His colorful declaration meant that without supernatural power, such an ambitious undertaking would be hopeless.1

I have long wondered if people with responses like these could be victims of “learned helplessness,” a psychological condition that was discovered by Martin E. P. Seligman and colleagues when they performed a series of brutal experiments that began with dogs as the subjects.

In the 1960s, Seligman et al subjected approximately 150 harnessed and restrained dogs to a series of 64 moderately painful and inescapable electric shocks on the first day of each trial. It didn't take the dogs long during that first phase to “learn” that they could not escape the torture. Soon they gave up trying and passively submitted to the pain, whining and sometimes rolling over in a submissive posture.

The second phase of the trial began 24 hours later. In it, the canine subjects were each put in a shuttle box, a two-sided chamber with a barrier in the middle that the dog could jump over — an action that would automatically turn off the shocks, allowing the dog to stop the pain. Additionally, a dimming light was used to signal that the next shock would come in 10 seconds, so that the dog could not only learn to escape the shocks, but could also eventually learn to avoid the shocks altogether by jumping the barrier as soon as he saw the light dim.

“Naïve” dogs, who2 had not undergone the first phase of the trial with the inescapable shocks, quickly learned to escape the shocks in the shuttle box by jumping the barrier. They also eventually learned to avoid the shocks altogether by jumping when they saw the light begin to dim.

The very first time they were shocked in the shuttle box, the dogs in both groups ran around frantically for about thirty seconds. But after that, two-thirds of the first group of canines — those who had been given the first inescapable trial — showed a strikingly different pattern from the naïve dogs. Instead of discovering they could jump to safety, these dogs gave up, lying down and quietly whining while the shocks continued for 60 more seconds, at which time the trial ended.

To the surprise of the researchers, the same two-thirds of these traumatized dogs failed to escape in all of the succeeding trials. They had “learned” to feel helpless and hopeless. In other words, they had generalized their initial inescapabletrauma, feeling trapped in all future escapable traumatic situations.

Interestingly, the other one-third of the traumatized dogs did learn to escape the shocks in the shuttle box as effectively as the naïve dogs.

Of the approximately 100 dogs that had been conditioned to learned helplessness, Seligman summarizes:

Laboratory evidence shows that when an organism has experienced trauma it cannot control, its motivation to respond in the face of later trauma wanes. Moreover, even if it does respond, and the response succeeds in producing relief, it has trouble learning, perceiving, and believing that the response worked. Finally, its emotional balance is disturbed: depression and anxiety, measured in various ways, predominate.3

The key to learned helplessness, then, is actual or perceived lack of control.4

Variations of this study, conducted by Seligman and by other researchers, have demonstrated that whether the subjects are dogs, cats, rats, fish, monkeys, or humans, being subjected to uncontrollable trauma produces a marked decrease in one’s ability to respond adaptively to future controllable trauma.

Moreover, researchers have found that learned helplessness does not have to be the result of trauma. All that is needed to affect future behavior is an inescapable adverse event, such as an uncontrollable loud noise. Uncontrollable adverse events, they have discovered, tend to decrease the subject’s motivation to escape from frustration, retard his ability to solve problems or to learn in general, and chill his normal aggressive or defensive responses to future adverse events.

Seligman and his colleagues determined that people with the learned-helplessness condition express themselves with pessimism when they explain challenging situations. Expressions such as “It will never change” . . . “It’s my fault” . . . “I’m stupid” . . . “It’s going to last forever” . . . “All teachers are unfair” . . . “Diets never work” are clues that the speaker likely suffers from learned helplessness. These words convey the learned beliefs of: 1) permanence – the bad events or circumstances he faces are permanent, not temporary; 2) pervasiveness – a failure in one area of his life will automatically pervade all aspects of his life; and 3) low self-esteem – a sense of being inherently worthless, unlovable, and talentless.5

Learned helplessness, the researchers also discovered, is associated with subsequent depression, anxiety, phobias, shyness, and/or loneliness.6

The good news, however, is that learned helplessness is reversible. Seligman et al determined, after much trial and error, that the dogs who were conditioned to feel helpless could in fact be rehabilitated through “directive therapy.” The researchers removed the barrier in the shuttle box and, after the shocks began, used a leash to drag the dogs to the other side of the box, thus forcibly removing them from the electricity. After being pulled anywhere between 25 and 200 times, all the dogs finally responded on their own. Then, when the researchers replaced the barrier and gradually built it higher, these formerly helpless dogs continued to escape the electric shocks by jumping the barrier. Their recovery from helplessness proved to be complete and lasting.

Let’s now recall that one-third of the dogs who were subjected to the inescapable shocks acted just like the naïve dogs in the shuttle box. Why were these dogs apparently immune to being conditioned to learned helplessness? The answer most likely lies in subsequent studies, which have demonstrated that animals and people who have a history of experiences with controllable trauma — in other words, trauma that they managed to master with their own efforts (and this criterion is key) — became immune to learned helplessness. Therefore, even when these beings are subjected to a traumatic situation later on, in which the outcome is actually uncontrollable, they remain unconvinced that they are now powerless. “This,” says Seligman, “is the heart of the concept of immunization.”7

Of course, the opposite is also true: A past history of experiences in which there was no escape will make it difficult for the human or animal to believe that an outcome is controllable, even when it actually is.

These discoveries have profound implications for child rearing. Infants, children, and adolescents who are subjected to uncontrollable trauma or adverse events have a poor self-image. They become hopeless, unmotivated, depressed or anxious, and they fail to learn. These children become the very adults who, when subjected to the evidence that refutes the official 9/11 storyline, might run in the other direction to avoid the messenger — or, if cornered or pressed, quietly admit, “There is nothing I can do to make a difference” (or a variation thereof).

In my psychotherapeutic work, I discovered that some of my clients had experienced severe traumas during their birth process, their preverbal years, or their childhoods. These early, overwhelming traumas caused these individuals to automatically respond with a feeling of powerlessness whenever they were faced with a challenging situation. One example that comes to mind is the person who, as an infant, was reared in dire poverty. Her overworked, exhausted mother was largely unavailable, both physically and emotionally during her infancy and childhood. None of her attempts to get her mother to care for her succeeded, making this an uncontrollable situation. Another example I recall is the toddler who was left alone in a hospital for weeks on end without his mother or father present to comfort him. Both individuals, not surprisingly, suffered from subsequent depression and low self-esteem.

Another illustration of learned helplessness comes from the work of psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, who has documented many examples of birth trauma. If, for example, the second stage of birth is prolonged, with intense uterine contractions and a cervix not fully opened, the child is subjected to an uncontrollable, inescapable, and seemingly interminable battering from the contractions. No effort on her part can change this “no exit” situation. Babies who have undergone this birth trauma, Grof discovered, can develop “inhibited depression” later in life, even if other events in their subsequent development were benign. Inhibited depression is characterized by feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, helplessness, hopelessness, and existential despair. In other words, the uncontrollable aspect of trauma at this stage of birth can result in learned helplessness.8

Learned-helplessness conditioning can be established in adulthood as well. Victims of torture and troops who served in a war are liable to suffer from a condition that has been labeled Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). As with the childhood and animal-research cases, if these adults exhibit signs of learned helplessness, it is an indication that they were probably subjected to a prolonged traumatic event that was uncontrollable.

If those who unconsciously harbor uncontrollable traumatic histories hear that they have been brutally lied to and that their fellow Americans have been mass murdered by their own government, the old, unconscious emotional reactions of being overwhelmed and helpless in infancy and childhood are likely reactivated, causing great distress and fear. These emotions are immediately followed by defensive responses such as avoidance, resignation, and/or apathy. Though the source of learned helplessness in humans often lies deep within the unconscious psyche, the condition can be healed through extensive psychotherapeutic work. Before healing is accomplished, however, any attempt to logically explain the 9/11 Truth evidence to such a traumatized person will probably fall on infertile ground.

Clearly, 9/11 is not the only tragic event in recent history that elicits a reaction of learned helplessness. The toxic cocktail of corruption, violence, and dysfunction so prevalent in today’s world can easily activate old traumas, reigniting feelings of being overwhelmed and hopeless. But then again, anyone with a modicum of awareness and sensitivity to the plight of other beings and the earth itself is rightly disturbed by the realities of today’s world.9

As activists, we need to heal our own anxiety and overarching sense of urgency to help us cultivate the understanding and compassion that allows us to empathize with people burdened by such internal handicaps as learned helplessness. These individuals are probably coping as best they can. Unless their wounds are healed, all the mountains of evidence we share with them about 9/11 Truth will likely make them feel disempowered and will thus be summarily rejected.

While the phenomenon of learned helplessness is backed by copious research, a concept called “the abuse syndrome” has not yet received this backing. Nonetheless, the abuse syndrome deserves to be considered as a possible explanation for reactions of helplessness, hopelessness, and apathy. We will explore it in the next segment of this series.



Editor's note: To be continued in the next issue with Part 15: The Abuse Syndrome. Electronic sources in the footnotes have been archived. If they can no longer be found by a search on the Internet, readers desiring a copy may contact Frances Shure for a copy [ here ].

Continued with Part 15: The Abuse Syndrome


1 Sauron is the main antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The cursed ring, which was to be destroyed by the relatively pure hero Frodo Baggins, seduced even the most pure of beings who possessed it into an insatiable lust for power. My acquaintance was implicating that if we were going to challenge such evil as was perpetrated on 9/11, then we had better have a ring of evil power in our possession.

2 After a conversation with one of my editors, I agreed with her that we should help raise consciousness about the plight of animals in our world. We have been trained in our culture to think of non-human beings as objects, even commodities — and as much less important than humans. The everyday language we use is one way to increase our awareness that animals feel, both physically and emotionally. They respond to pain, imprisonment, or betrayal with fear and anguish and confusion. They also respond to being treated with compassion, respect, and love. Thus, in this essay, I will use the pronoun “who” rather than “that” in referring to these innocents. To those who want to witness the profound sensitivity and intelligence of animals, I highly recommend one of the most beautiful films I have seen: The Animal Communicator,which may be watched or purchased online.

3 Martin E. P. Seligman, Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death (W.H. Freeman & Co., May 1992), 22 – 23.

4 Seligman, Helplessness.

5 Ibid. xx – xxiv.

6 Seligman, Helplessness

7 Ibid.60.

8 Stanislav Grof, Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death and Transcendence in Psychotherapy (State University of New York, 1985).

Stanislav Grof, The Adventure of Self-Discovery: Dimensions of Consciousness and New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Inner Exploration (State University of New York Press, 1988).

Stanislav Grof is a world-renowned pioneer of psychodynamic and transpersonal psychology.

9 Dennis, Sheila, and Mathew Linn, Healing the Future. The Linns tell their personal stories of healing from societal trauma, activated by earlier developmental trauma, offering examples of simple healing exercises.

Post by Frances T. Shure, M.A., L.P.C.

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