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Thread: Another Pastor commits suicide

  1. #1
    Senior Member Pentecali's Avatar
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  3. #2
    So tragic.

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  5. #3
    I don't really understand long-term depression. Certainly not to the extent of suicide. I can be minorly depressed, but it usually passes in a day or two. I know sometimes depression can be of a physical origin and can be treated with drugs. But if it's not from a physical origin, then it seems to me that it's something a person can overcome in Christ. We must all bring our thoughts into captivity. I've adopted the attitude that to be depressed--or rather not to be joyful--is disobedience to the Lord. I rely on His promises and meditate on certain Scriptures. One of my favorite at such times is Isaiah 26:3-4.

    You keep him in perfect peace
    whose mind is stayed on you,
    because he trusts in you.
    Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

    That said, I feel great sympathy for this man and the torment that led him to end his life. Lord have mercy.

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    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bookman View Post
    I know sometimes depression can be of a physical origin and can be treated with drugs. But if it's not from a physical origin, then it seems to me that it's something a person can overcome in Christ.
    If it's not of a physical origin then Jesus can still heal it, whether medical science has treatments for it or not.

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  9. #5
    Back in my wrestling coaching days I would continually teach the smaller guy to “change your level”. Without knowing that tormented soul I wonder while in his battle with a larger opponent how often he would change his level.

    It does keep your opponent trying to change his strategy while you make the escape.

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  11. #6
    Frozen Chosen A.J.'s Avatar
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    I know what it’s like to be severely depressed. Mine seemed to be more seasonal (SAD) and think that I just couldn’t do it anymore. The only thing that kept me going was the thought that I couldn’t do that to my kids. Yes, I was a Christian for many of those years.

    And yes, people would pray for me and quote scripture to me. The joy of the Lord is my strength, think about these things, take every thought captive, yada, yada, yada. I did 8 YEARS of inner healing and wondered how I could work so hard at getting my emotional life in order and still hurt so badly.... finally God led us to Bob Larson Ministries. I got deliverance at the very first meeting I went to and haven’t been depressed since. It wasn’t Bob himself who prayed with me that night, but I got free. And that’s why we joined the deliverance team. His pushing past all the criticism and ridicule to do what God called him to do saved my life.

    We don’t have any idea what this young pastor was battling and for some reason, he never found a safe place to get the ministry he desperately needed. I get it. It’s a terrible place to live. And as believers, we don’t have to. But the condition of the North American Church puts us there.

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  13. #7
    Senior Member Highly Favoured's Avatar
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    Depression is so difficult. My father suffers from it, and won't come to a place where he would seek wise/Christian counsel or deliverance. Like Bookman, I have sometimes had depression come over me like a black cloud. I'm very aware that this is demonic and not from within me, but outside of me, and I fight tooth and nail to get out of it. In fact, the last attack I had I was determined to call one of my pastors if I didn't pull out of it the very next day. I'm aware that while I am a new man in Christ and all things are made new, that there is a reason why Paul told us to prepare to fight with the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, etc., etc. Because we are in a war against principalities and powers...

    My heart does go out to this young man, and his family and church. How heartbreaking!

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  15. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by A.J. View Post
    I know what it’s like to be severely depressed. Mine seemed to be more seasonal (SAD) and think that I just couldn’t do it anymore. The only thing that kept me going was the thought that I couldn’t do that to my kids. Yes, I was a Christian for many of those years.

    And yes, people would pray for me and quote scripture to me. The joy of the Lord is my strength, think about these things, take every thought captive, yada, yada, yada. I did 8 YEARS of inner healing and wondered how I could work so hard at getting my emotional life in order and still hurt so badly.... finally God led us to Bob Larson Ministries. I got deliverance at the very first meeting I went to and haven’t been depressed since. It wasn’t Bob himself who prayed with me that night, but I got free. And that’s why we joined the deliverance team. His pushing past all the criticism and ridicule to do what God called him to do saved my life.

    We don’t have any idea what this young pastor was battling and for some reason, he never found a safe place to get the ministry he desperately needed. I get it. It’s a terrible place to live. And as believers, we don’t have to. But the condition of the North American Church puts us there.
    And that is part of what I meant by the wrestling term “change your level”. One of Dobson’s recommendations was a change in the scenery of life, get a new job, go on a vacation, go for a weekend getaway. The onset of depression includes the thought that one is stuck and cant break free, it breeds hopelessness. One thing I’ve seen in our District A/G is the support for a pastor’s sabbatical...change your level. The district officers will help cover the Sundays the pastor is out. My pastor/friend in Charlevoix just came back from a summer break, all summer.

    This would save pastors, ministries, marriages and lives. Change your level.

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  17. #9
    Senior Member Pentecali's Avatar
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    Greg Laurie is the lead pastor. He’s been posting about it on Facebook.

    Just a bit off topic here for a sec... I’m not sure if Laurie is charismatic?
    Word of Faith? Or Calvary Chapel? After the Jesus movement, many of them became apart of CC.

    The whole thing is very puzzling to me and many people, how a person who has so much going, yet would rather die then raise his kids & devesate them.


    .

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  19. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Pentecali View Post
    Greg Laurie is the lead pastor. He’s been posting about it on Facebook.

    Just a bit off topic here for a sec... I’m not sure if Laurie is charismatic?
    Word of Faith? Or Calvary Chapel? After the Jesus movement, many of them became apart of CC.

    The whole thing is very puzzling to me and many people, how a person who has so much going, yet would rather die then raise his kids & devesate them.


    .
    From what I know, Greg is not Pente/Charis. I would like to hear differently.

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