Just a quick update: still struggling with a little depression. I am functioning well with daily things, but my Muse has left me. I don't know when I will get back to blogging every day again. I will update you on Facebook. I hope it won't be too long so that I don't lose all my readers. But I won't feed you tripe unless I am making Menudo!
M. Scott Peck, author of the Road Less Traveled wrote of depression that depression is a gift, even though it doesn't feel like one. It means that our subconscious recognizes that we need to move on, make changes, do things differently. Our conscious mind doesn't realize or accept the need for this new reality, so it rebels and depression is the result. If one can see depression in this light and look inside for the new reality, the depression can lift and the person can let go of the old and move into a new beginning.
My daughter's fifth grade teacher called TV "Twinkies for the mind." Today, there are a lot of plug-in drugs. Video games, the web, DVDs, Facebook, Twitter, I-Tunes, etc., etc., etc. They are wonderful entertainment and even distractions when used judiciously, but when they can be overused. When I am depressed, I tend to use them to avoid dealing with the depression and any other problems that arise.
When you are depressed, sitting around your house moping is an open invitation to the dementors. There is no day so long and a day when you have nothing to do. Without a reason to get out of bed, I often don't. So as I struggle with the edges of depression, I do something every night before I go to sleep: I think of at least one thing I can do productive the next day and one thing I can do for fun. Work may be something simple, like organize a box of pictures, clean out a cupboard, or wash a couple of loads of laundry. Fun may be to watch a movie or read a chapter or two of a favorite book.
The Camel's Hump
The routine doesn't have to be elaborate, but it should include some sort of to-do list, at least mental if not written. I check my Outlook calendar in the morning for any appointments or commitments for the day. That helps me know what my military father used to call "the dress of the day."
One of the techniques I learned in college was that of acting "as if." This works well for mild depression and for anyone who feels stuck or in a slump. (Remember that Big D serious clinical depression usually requires medical intervention.) Decide what you want to do and be, and then act as if you are already that person doing those things. It's like practicing the piano or blocking a play on the stage. If you do this consistently, you will begin to do and become what you are portraying.
These are simple things, but I know they can work. I love the Charles Kettering quote; I remember hearing it somewhere years ago. Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail. So much of depression is built on a failure mindset - hopelessness, helplessness, and negativity. If I feel my body well and feed my mind and spirit on living water and the bread of life, I will not fail. Until I get the true motivation on board, I will go through the paces of acting as if and soon I won't be acting at all.
Massive depression when the dementors have a firm grasp of things is easy to recognize. The symptoms are so overwhelming, they are hard to miss. But what about the insidious depression that is not recognized as such? It can be dangerous.
When J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban, she introduced some terrifying apparitions called dementors. Like J. R. R. Tolkien's ring wraiths or Charles Dickins' Ghost of Christmas Future, the dementors are portrayed as cloaked and hooded figures that inspire such terror because they represent, in some way, the unknown. Rowling later said that her dementor was patterned after clinical depression. Anyone who has ever experienced this disease would agree with her.
In the Harry Potter books, Rowling describes the one way to fight off the dementors: the patronus charm. With the appropriate wand movements, the young witch or wizard thinks of his or her happiest memory and shouts, Expecto patronum. The patronus erupts from the tip of the wand as a silvery vapor that quickly materializes into a guardian shape that can stand between the dementor and its victim. It is built on the logical premise that darkness cannot abide light. Harry's patronus is a stag in memory of his deceased father, but other students produce different and very personal patronuses that are never fully explained in the books.
After living what I felt was a 'decent'
life, my time on earth came to the end. The first thing I remember is
sitting on a bench in the waiting room of what I thought to be a court
house. The doors opened and I was
instructed to come in and have a seat by the defense table.
As I looked around I saw the
'prosecutor'. He was a villainous looking
gent who snarled as he stared at me. He definitely was the most evil person I
have ever seen.
My sister had a friend visiting this past week. Because of several health conditions, this man has some challenges and they became very apparent when he drove home. He left my house at 8:30 A.M. so that he could get to his home town before dark, some 8-9 hours away. He got home at 3:30 A.M. the next day - 19 hours later. How? He got really lost!
He had the ringer turned off on his cell phone. Friends and family tried to reach him all day to offer help, but he just didn't get the messages. How many of us have our spiritual ringers turned off? God is trying to reach us to give us guidance and help, but we've dulled our senses so much that we aren't receiving it. God is constant. If we're not getting the help we need, it is not God who has moved.
Jesus is there to help us, but He can't do it for us. We have to tune into the Spirit, study His word, and follow His directions. If we don't, we are truly lost. In this famous picture illustrating a quote from the Book of Revelation, "I stand at the door and knock," you will notice that there is no door knob on Jesus' side of the door. Only we can open the doors to our hearts and let Him in. Then He can and will help us find our way.
To review from the writings of Paul, There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon . . . (1 Corinthians 15: 40-41)
First, here is what we can learn from modern day revelation and the theophany given to Joseph Smith and his scribe:
* We first learn about Christ preaching to the dead from the ancient Apostle Peter. He wrote: For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. (1Peter 4: 6)
And the chosen messengers went forth to declare the acceptable day of the Lord and proclaim liberty to the captives who were bound, even unto all who would repent of their sins and receive the gospel.
I used to think that heaven was some sort of strange place floating in the sky. In fact, we often use the words sky and heaven as synonyms. Many people still think that. But as I've matured in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I have come to understand that the heaven the righteous will inherit after all is done will actually be this new and sanctified earth as John describes it in Revelation 21 and 22.
This hints of three degrees of glory: that of the sun, of the moon, and of the stars, and that even among the stars, there are differences in degree of glory. What are the celestial and the terrestrial glories of which Paul wrote?
First) The Bible is not one book, it is a collection of
books. In fact, the root word for Bible is bibliotheca which refers to a library. God did not sit down and write the Bible from
start to finish. The Bible is a
collection of manuscripts, mostly parchment scrolls (similar to those found at
the 
The Torah contains only the 5 books
written by Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy) and the writings of the prophets
(roughly our Old Testament). It is usually referred to as the Hebrew Bible.
There have been many modern translations of
the Bible today, some of which contain only certain portions of what we
consider to be the Bible. This is a picture of a children's study Bible based on the NIV or New International Version. There are many other new versions in addition to the NIV, but they are too numerous to mention.
There are many
manuscripts still in existence that have not been included in the Bible. The Bible itself refers to some of these books
or writings even though they are not included in the Bible. Many of these were found in the Nag Hammadi Library in Egypt in 1945 and are considered to be scripture by the Coptic Christian Church. These scrolls contain over 50 additional books.
So when John wrote the Book of Revelations,
he didn’t know where it would be placed when Christian doctrine was finally
codified. John’s admonition in
Revelations 22 relates only to that
particular book: the Book of Revelation.
He was putting his copyright on his own written account of his wonderful
apocryphal vision.
