INPIRATIONAL PICS/STORIES
I worked for a couple of years making inspiring pics and messages. I am slowly adding them here. Enjoy!
Sunrises are symbolic of hope. A fresh start. “Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.” 2 Corinthians 3:12 NIV Are you feeling run down because of life? Down and depressed? Crippled with fear and anxiety? NO!! WE ARE TO BE BOLD. It is hope, hope in Christ and His promises, that give us this boldness. We are loved. We are forgiven. We have a Helper to give us strength and help us with our problems today. And we have a guaranteed great future in Heaven! Do you believe this? Do you really??
Hang on! Heaven is coming, and it’s going to be great! Many people, including a lot of Christians, believe that Heaven is just sitting on clouds playing a harp and singing all day long. Heaven is so much more than this! We will have real trees, flowers rivers, beautiful clean cities. We’ll have interesting, meaningful jobs. We’ll have fellowship with our loved ones, and most importantly we will be able to hang out with and worship God in person. We will have peace of mind, security, good health, and love. We will still be ourselves with our own personalities, creative and intelligent. And this is just the start. There are going to be amazing wonderful things that we can’t even begin to imagine, that will totally exceed our expectations. And this is all a free gift from the great amazing love and grace of God, through the death and resurrection of His son Jesus. Could I give a better reason to have hope, and and to have strength to get through today’s storms of life? “However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love Him—” 1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV
“Oh God, please help me!“ It is Okay to beg for God’s help. It is good and Biblical to do so. God wants to help us. But more importantly, God wants us to be with Him. He loves the position we are in, with us at His feet prostrate before Him. We are acknowledging that He is powerful and we are not. But can you have this position in every day of your life? In good times and in bad? For this is why we were made, to sit at His feet. He is amazing and wonderful and perfect and Holy and powerful and all loving. We are the created, not the Creator. We are not capable of doing anything without Him. Do you want God to help you in your time of need? Then go to Him humbly when things are good. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6
Some of us may actually want to be depressed. Do you? I know from my own experience. May sound silly at first but trust me any of us can be depressed because you want something out of it. Years ago I was going through a difficult time in my life and was very depressed. I wanted my first wife to love me back and couldn’t figure out how to get her to do so. I was getting more down. One day I realized I was wanting her to see that I was depressed so that maybe she would look at things differently and try to give me love. I eventually realized it wasn’t going to work and I was only making myself miserable in the process. I tried to accept what I couldn’t change, and change what I could, and to make the most of what I had, especially my daughter. Do not let others, even spouses or children, be the main source of your happiness. God alone is your joy and your strength. He will never fail you. But He is worthy of it. “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:2 NIV
I am a Christian counselor, a Christian psychologist. This means that I believe that the best way to help somebody with their mental health issues is by developing their faith. The Bible is all about God‘s love and redemption of us. It has all sorts of wisdom in it. It does not cover all things mental health, additional knowledge of psychology and techniques to help people are needed. Similarly, the Bible does not teach everything a medical doctor needs to treat his patients. However psychology can also be seen as the study of people. Who knows people better than our maker? Thus, the Bible is the primary textbook on psychology. I have found that of all the strategies to help someone fight depression, anxiety, anger issues, the best is to help them understand the wisdom of the Bible, and learning to submit to God more deeply. If you truly learn to love the Lord and submit to Him, you cannot help but feel better about your life and cope better. “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” Isaiah 40:29 NIV
Let TRUTH be in charge of your mental health, not negative emotions. Emotions can be great. They make us human. They motivate us. They help us to live life. But too many times our emotions become too dramatic and change how we think, making us think things are hopeless and helpless. When we are depressed, our emotions brains tell us things are worse than they really are. We do not feel that anyone loves us, or that God is even there. However, the truth is, we are loved, there is Hope, God is here! These things do not vary based upon our life circumstances or how we are feeling at the time. So tell yourself the truth. Do not trust you mind when overly emotional! “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7 NKJV
Where ship Sunday. One of my fundamental beliefs is that if you want good mental health you need to focus on praising God regardless of your situation. No matter what storm of life you are in, God is still God. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving! He sent His son to live the perfect life and then sacrificed Himself for us to save us. Oh yea. He also came back to life. No small deed. God deserves for us to just look at Him and tell Him how awesome He is!! It’s not about you, it’s about Him. He is God. You are not. But He knows how to take care of you best! I think He’s proven it. So submit to Him and feel better! “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised.” Psalms 18:3 NKJV
Are you grieving even though you don’t realize it?? Grief is not just a time when a loved one dies. Grief is the time to recover whenever you have had any significant loss. A divorce, or break up, loss of a job, a move from my home, loss of a friendship, loss of a dream. All these things and more could be a loss in your life and result in us grieving. We all see it as normal to be depressed when grieving the loss of a loved one. But we also need to see that it is normal to be sad with any of these other losses. You do not want to be sad forever and want to work towards acceptance and moving on, but for the time being, it’s OK to cry and have a pity party for just a little bit. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4 NIV
You want love, but are youwilling to pay the price? Love is not a desire for somebody, like we tend to use the word. Love is a genuine concern for the happiness of somebody else more so than our own happiness. If you want love from your spouse, you first need to be concerned with their happiness. You have to actively, purposely do things to try to make their life better every day and throughout the day. When people first start dating, they’re always trying to put their best foot forward and make the other person happy. That should never stop being like that. But we get selfish and lazy and the love dies off. And then we feel sad and complain that there’s no love in our marriage. God gave us a great example of love. Jesus washed our feet, He came to earth for us. He died for us. What greater love is there? Can’t we likewise give love to each other? “Love is ... not self-seeking” I Corinthians 3:5 NIV
Why? Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Why do bad things happen? These are big questions. ‘Why’ is in fact THE question. To put it simply, the number one reason God created us Is to worship Him. He created us for fellowship, out of love, for His glory. He made us. He knows us better than anything. He knows what is best for us. He wants us to freely choose to love Him back. When we realize our proper place in this universe, which is at His feet worshiping Him, then we are in our right place and we feel complete and whole. If we look to anything else in this life for meaning, we come up empty. The pleasures of this life, even good things such as family, friends, even the simple freedom of good health, should never be our source of happiness. The point of this life, which sometimes takes losing everything to realize, is to learn to submit to God, our maker. When you really see the big picture, and you find the place for which you were made and you just stop and worship God, then you find peace, even in the midst of life‘s storms. “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Isaiah 43:7 NIV
God wants you to be happy. But not just for today. You learning to trust in God and thus submit to Him is more important for your long term happiness than God just fixing your problem now without you learning to trust Him. And He is not just a Gennie in the sky who is only here to grant you your wishes. He knows what is best for you. Trust Him. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;” Proverbs 3:5 NIV
Our New Family member! Hoss. A 3 year old rescued Great Pyrenees!! He’s huge, but sooo loveable and good! Dogs give love just about more than any other creature on the planet. It almost seems like God gave us dogs just thought we could feel the love when humans let us down. Can you try to love others in the same way? Wouldn’t this be a great world if we all could love like that? ““A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34
Do you really see the how amazing the cross was? Worship Sunday. One of my fundamental beliefs is that if you want good mental health you need to focus on praising God regardless of your situation. God sent Jesus to die on the cross. Think about it. We hear this so much we stop seeing the magnitude of it, the audacity of it all! God, the big guy, loves me, little ol’ me, enough to send His only son to die a horrific death to save me, when I don’t at all deserve it! Wow! I mean, wow! And I complain about petty things in this life and feel unloved sometimes. Ha! “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2 NIV
We who love Jesus will be wearing white very soon! Even though they say don’t wear white after Labor Day. (Whoever “They” are??) Don’t forget your this when you are down and feeling like wearing black all the time. We do not deserve it and we cannot earn it, but only because we decided to give ourselves up to God and submit our lives to Him, will we get these robes. All of our failures and shame, all of our damaged parts, will be remembered no more! We will be made pure and will go before God’s throne boldly. All because Jesus’ blood cleanses us! “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.” Revelation 7:9 NIV
Do you have hope in Christ? Does this bring you contentment in the midst of your storms of life? Hope does not just mean a wish. It means a promise. Tuesday morning sunrise pick. Sunrises symbolize hope. (Normally Monday morning but with the holiday) God gave us promises. We can hang our hats on these. This is why we can have hope and smile. We tend to use the word hope as I wish. As in, “I hope there’s something good for dinner tonight. I hope I win the lottery.“ We are not just wishing that God will love us and take care of us and take us to heaven. We have a guaranteed promise. We absolutely know for certain that God is in control and he will make all things right if we just let Him. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 NIV
Are you tired of fighting? I know that I am so very tired. This life seems like one problem after another sometimes. I get overwhelmed with feelings of fear sometimes of what else may happen bad. I know God is with me and he will work everything out in the end but for today and tomorrow it’s hard and uncertain. But I have to keep going and keep my eyes on God. Each day does not have to be a struggle. Not if I realize that God is with me and I stay with Him. I need to let God fight my battles. Then, with God fighting, why would I be tired? “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV
Take your focus off of yourself and put it onto others. You may have a right and it may be very normal for someone in your situation to feel sad and feel sorry for yourself. But the problem is that when we are depressed, we become more self-centered which just leads to further depression. Ironically, taking your mind off of yourself and on to others helps yourself feel better. I call this the irony of happiness. Those who only seek their own happiness never find it, and those who focus on others happiness become more happy. But isn’t this the nature of love? Isn’t this the example in the teaching set out by Jesus? Remember that Jesus is also called a counselor. “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Hebrews 13:16
God is your best friend! Not just your Lord and Savior. He wants to be with you, hang out with you, help you. And...He is a powerful friend; others should not mess with you! Mean people, life’s problems, the demons -all should watch out! One of my favorite stories of a vision of Heaven is of a 7 year old boy who had a water fight with Jesus. He said that in that moment, Jesus became my best friend. What a cool experience! “And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.” James 2:23 NIV
Breathe! I’m a big believer in manually controlling our breathing-deep slow breaths. This gets the rational and emotional parts of your brain more oxygen, allowing you to keep your cool and remember what’s more important and how to get through your problems. Then, put your mind on God. Trust in Him, fully, deeply, with everything in your life! Submit to Him. If He wants you to go through a storm, then learn what He wants you to learn from it, grow. Of course, learning to trust and submit are really the primary lessons He wants you to learn from suffering. And then you’ll find true peace. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
Even when you’ve been bad, or life has been bad to you, God is good - always. Do not doubt that God is still there, watching, caring. He is all loving, all knowing, all powerful. He is worthy of praise and of our trust. Take time to thank Praise Him, regardless of your situation. Worship Sunday. One of my fundamental beliefs is that if you want good mental health you need to focus on praising God regardless of your situation. “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.” Psalm 145:9 NIV
At your wits end? Give up! But we are taught not to give up. I would never want you to give up on life! However, we do need to give up trying to get through this life on our own. We need to even give up trying to get through the problems of this life on our own, and even with God just helping us. We need to let God take over everything for us and fight the battles for us. We need to learn to surrender to God and learn to love and trust Him even if things don’t go well, even if we do not get our way. You might just find yourself getting through problems better, much better. “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.” Job 22:21 NIV
Depression equals hopelessness. Jesus equals hope. I always talk about how our thoughts lead to our emotions. If we are feeling depressed it must be because we are having thoughts that things are not what we want them to be and they’re not likely to get better. If you can get your mind to see that there is hope, that there is a solution, a knight in shining armor will come and rescue you, and that should help alleviate the depression. Jesus has not forgotten you nor abandoned you. He promised he will be there with you through the fire and will rescue you out of the fire. Hold onto this hope. “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12
Psychiatric medications should never be used without counseling of some kind. It shocks me how many American Christian adults are getting antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, or sleep medications without ever attempting to change the way they think about their life. Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for medications for some people. But even if you have a very distinct physiological problem, if it affects your emotions or mood, you can use your mind and your attitude to cope with your problems better. Medications only are only a Band-Aid to the problem and not looking at the source of the problem. So many people are depressed or anxious, not because their physiology is wrong, but because they have not really learned to truly deal with the thoughts that are causing the depression. Of course as a Christian psychologist, I believe that learning how to identify your thoughts and then learn to more deeply trust in God is the solution to so many of our problems. Life is indeed truly hard and I don’t wanna make the process sound easy, but there are ways to cope with every problem. Call me, or someone, if you are on psychiatric medications and not trying to learn how to cope with it without the medicines. There are solutions no matter how bad your problem is. I can help you look to God for your answers, no matter how bad your physiology is or how bad your storm of life is. “‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’” Jeremiah 33:3
One of my fundamental beliefs is that if you want good mental health you need to focus on praising God regardless of your situation. Are you feeling overwhelmed with anxiety? Worried about what might could happen? Today, I’m personally feeling overwhelmed with anxieties today. Several big potential problems are coming up and it seems too much to handle. But I know in my head that God is in control. I throw myself off a cliff, trusting that He’s going to catch me. I trust that He will go and fight my battles for me, if I just let Him. “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.” 1 Chronicles 29:11 NIV
We ALWAYS have hope! If you have Jesus, then you always have a friend to be with you, to miraculously help you, and certainly to take you to a much better place. Never forget this. Nothing is truly tragic. No situation is hopeless. It WILL end up okay, maybe not yet sadly, but it will! Monday sunrise picture. Sunrises symbolize hope. Never forget the hope we have in Christ. “As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.” Psalms 71:14 NIV
When we are overly emotional, depressed, anxious, angry - our hearts start telling us things are worse than they really are. They may indeed be bad but are they as tragic as your heart is making you think they are? Or, you might be sad about one thing, and then your heart starts looking for everything else sad in your life. But what your heart is leading your mind to think is not the truth, or at least not the whole truth. When you’re in Christ you have to keep in mind the unchangeable truth of God, His love for you, and the truth of His Word. Stay appreciative of all that is good and stay hopeful of the good things coming to you in the future. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
Imagine your whole life as a book. The problems you’re going through now are just one chapter of the book of your life. But I have seen the last chapter of your story. The good guys win! The knight in shining armor comes to save the day! Because of Jesus‘s death and resurrection, we now have eternal life and the blessings of being and Heaven. Do not despair in this life. Do not ever feel hopeless. Learn to trust God on a deep level and give Him your problems! “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Revelation 2:7 NIV
Just cry out to God with your spirit. Don’t even use words. When you’re feeling overwhelmed and hurting so badly, you desperately want God’s help. But our simple English words, especially when one is very upset, do not really cut it with what you’re trying to convey. Our heart, our spirit, has so much more to say when we are desperate. Just let your spirit talk to Him. Let Him hear all that is in your heart and know that The Holy Spirit can understand it.. Another benefit of praying in the spirit is that you can more easily hear what God is trying to tell you. You can more easily be quiet and listen, instead of just talk. When you’re praying in the spirit, your focus should be more on being in the will of God and understanding your situation as He wants you to understand it. “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” Ephesians 6:18 NIV
Sunrise symbolizes hope. A new beginning. Our mood gets much worse when we experience something that is indeed bad, but turn it into something that is overly bad - devastating, or catastrophic. But when you have Jesus on your side, nothing is ever truly devastating. In the big scheme of life, your eternal life, the worst problem you can have will still seem like only a small problem and you will see how wonderful everything is. I don’t want to minimize your problems of today. Life can be truly very difficult. However, it is still a solid core truth, regardless of your feelings, that Christ has given us power, a helping hand, and comfort during this life and a promise of a perfect life that will go on forever, after this. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
Do you have the faith of Job? Job had just found out that he had lost all 10 of his children, in addition to all his wealth. What was his first response? “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1:21 NKJV Honestly, I do not think I have this much faith. I would not curse God, but I would not be praising Him the very first thing. But how wise of Job to see that God is still an awesome God and deserves to be praised. But even then, Job had to get to an even deeper level of faith throughout the book. Job is an excellent study and how to completely let go of all your demands of God. Does He serve you and give you the perfect life you want? No! God is God. We are not. He deserves to be respected as such. He does not owe us anything.
I am so desperate for your help. I cannot make it on my own. I need your supernatural blessings and guidance. Please, oh Lord, love me and forgive me. I’m not worthy of your help, but I ask anyway. Forgive me for any sense of demandingness or entitlement in my heart. I know you’ve got my back, God and you want what’s best for me, and in the end, everything that is happening to me you are using for your glory and for my betterment. Just please give me the strength to endure all this, and please keep any more harm from me and my family. I will always trust and love you Lord Jesus, even if I’m frustrated that things don’t go as well as I hoped they would, even if disasters keep striking. “I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.” Psalms 17:6 NIV
When depressed or anxious, REMEMBER TO BREATHE! Deep, slow breaths will get your frontal lobes more oxygen, which then calms your emotions and lets you think more clearly. You can then have a better, more Godly perspective. Online counseling available. Reduced prices during this crises, until remaining slots filled up! Contact me if you or a loved one needs help, and honestly, who doesn’t during this time! Feeling overwhelmed yourself? Can’t go on much further? You want to use your faith in God but it doesn’t seem like enough?
Let's say you’ve gone through a tragedy. Do not assume it was God's will. God gives us all free will, people do their own thing, and therefore... bad things happen. However, if you turn to God, look to Him, and submit to Him, something good will come out of it. God is the master at turning lemons into lemonade. He is the Master at turning what the Devil intended for evil into something good and Holy. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.” Genesis 50:20 NLT
God is in control. Even if things are not going as we want, even if things are falling apart, God is orchestrating His plan. We just have to trust Him. And we have to submit to Him, especially when things are not going as we wanted them too. We have to surrender to His will. God knows best. Trust Him. You then have perfect hope. We ALWAYS have hope for a great future when we have Jesus. “Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.” Isaiah 26:4 NIV Feeling overwhelmed yourself? Can’t go on much further? You want to use your faith in God but it doesn’t seem like enough
In order to have hope, we first have to have faith. Do you really believe that this Jesus guy really died for you and was resurrected, and is still around today? I think God the father, and Jesus have proven themselves To be trustworthy and to love us with an amazing love. Therefore, we have every good logical reason to believe that Jesus will continue to be there for us in every problem of today and a guaranteed bright future with no more tears. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 NIV
Ever feel like it’s just one thing after another after another? It gets easy to get discouraged. You start to think “Why even try, it’s not gonna make any difference anyway. Things are still going to turn out bad.” The devil loves this!! He wins if we give up trying. I admit that I feel like this lately. After a few more disasters. I do wonder why God has allowed more pain to come into my life and more stress when I had strong faith that He would have this turn out better. But I always know the truth, that I do not understand so much about my life. I trust in God even if I don’t know understand. I will not leave him even if I do not understand. I will keep fighting for Him. “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV