Leaderboard

Yes, misinformation coming IN would cause a distortion. But people, because of this internal negative self-talk, can interpret a statement and worm a positive into a negative. Perhaps we are just not aware how much grace we need!

A friend shared the thought from her devotional this morning: If you think you have laid all your cares upon Jesus, but you go on about your day and you STILL feel the weight - it means you didn't really transfer that load. You were just complaining. LOL. Love that.

We've probably all suffered from distorted thinking at one time or another. I never really thought about it until reading the OP. I do see the transmission of distorted thinking from my parents to myself and my siblings, not totally, but to at least to some extent. I do appreciate the likelihood of telepathic demons trolling unsuspecting humans, ever looking to gain a foothold in weak human minds. So many seem hopelessly trapped in self-destructive or murderous behavior, sometimes masquerading as religion. It would take a miracle to turn demon-infested mass-murderers away from their crimes instigated by toxic religion and towards the goodness of Christ. Maybe, in a way, we are all mentally ill to some extent, being mostly unable to perceive reality or change our behaviors because of our distorted thinking patterns and weakness in the fight against telepathic demons. Once we receive the Spirit of God, our eyes will be opened and we will have a defense against the powers of darkness which always lead to death.

Distorted thinking is BASED upon a LIE. The "CURE" is TRUTH. All LIES result in distorted thinking, IF the lie is believed, and becomes part of the persons belief system - about themselves, or about others, about the church, about whatever.... That is one reason I LOVE this forum. It exposes LIES and flasehoods. Even though the misunderstanding of some portion of Scripture, or the misunderstanding of God's character or HIs will, is small. Even a small distortion of truth, will grow and grow, until it causes great misunderstanding. The end result is a change of behavior - towards God, or towards others, or towards self. Sometimes it causes one to give up - thinking God could never forgive their particular sins.

I wonder, also, who truly is exempt. At what point does distorted thinking become problematic? We mortals likely have a different line in the sand than God does, but OTOH the potential for His healing may prove different also. And he shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free- John 8:32 In this context, this work of discovering the truth and then confronting those thoughts in our minds which are defeating us, may take a lifetime.

on my facebook Cheri Peters i have so many friends right now dealing with horrendous issues, me too. So many of us are looking for someone to blame or someone to make it right. i believe that God gave me this thought, "no one is guilty , no one is innocent ... and the Blood of Jesus covers us all" We are set free of our past because of what Jesus did... we can lay down all the shame, guilt. and trauma at His feet. He will carry it... He cares about it... He has saved us, even from ourselves. That's good news!

For some 20 (age 11 to age 31) years I had a "voice" (sounded like self-talk) saying "You're weird. No one likes you." I met Jesus when was almost 31. I began reading everything I could find. My Mom ran across some tapes and a self-help book about demonic harassment. After reading the book and listening, I had STILL had not connected the dots. I visited an SDA church. I left early 'cause I didn't want to meet people. Going down the church steps 'the voice' again said. "You're weird. No one will like you." Then ANOTHER 'voice' broke in. It said emphatically, "That's Satan!' At that moment - I finally connected the dots. I sat in my car and prayed. I asked Jesus to deliver me. Then - in the NAME of Jesus, I commanded the demon to leave me alone and never trouble me with those words again. He left. He tried again about six months later, but I recognized him right away. I rebuked him again, in the name of Jesus, and commanded him to leave, and not send any replacement, or substitute. Most folks do not realize that Satan claims grounds based upon the sin of your mother or father, or even grandfather, or grandmother. You must close that door too.

Read More Daily Jesus Scripture: Proverbs 22:6 Starting Question: What is something that one of your parents said to you that you will never forget? Great Plans When I was about 8 years old, my Mom said something to me that surprised me. It was Sunday morning. I had finished breakfast and was heading out to hop on my BMX bike for a day of riding around our country property. There were lots of bush tracks, dirt roads and the occasional system of jumps to make the ride fun! As I was getting my mike out of the garage, Mom said, “I don’t want you riding on the paved road. Stay on the dirt roads.” This sounds like a perfectly reasonable request unless you know about the jumps on the section of paved road in the cut-away just above our property. A small hillside had been cut into so the road could travel up gently. There were huge dirt sides with drainage ditches on both sides of the paved road. And, in these ditches were jumps that used the momentum of coming down the hillside and launched you high up and far out - onto the paved road. “Awwww, please!?! Those are the best jumps!” I begged. “Davy,” Mom said, “Cars drive through there very fast. If you got hit by a car, you could die!” Those were the words that surprised me. “You could die!” It’s not that I thought I was Superman or some other superhero. I knew I was mortal. It was just very different than something else my Mom repeated many many many times as I was growing up. God has great plans for you life. She told all of us kids that more times than we could count. “But Mom,” I said, “I can’t die.” Now it was Mom’s turn to be surprised. She folded her arms across her chest and said, “Oh, really? And why would you think a silly thing like that?” “Because,” I said, with complete confidence, “You always say God has great plans for my life and I haven’t done anything for Him, yet!” Mom laughed! Then she said, “Davy, God does have great plans for your life. That’s true. But He also expects you to act responsibly. No riding on the paved road. I mean it!” Well, that settled it. Every kid knows “I mean it” means business! I honestly do not remember where I rode my bike that day. But, what I do remember is that story and that promise: God has great plans for my life. God has great plans for your life, too. Hopefully you have someone reminding you of that promise every day. That single phrase has given me hope and a sure future over and over in my life. Thanks Mom! Reflection Question: How will you speak God's promises into someone else's life today? Prayer time: Before you pray together, ask: What would you like to say to Jesus today? Further Reading: The Review and Herald, November 17, 1896 -x-x-x-x-X-x-x-x-x GET ONE OF DAVE'S BOOKS, FREE! Support this project by clicking here and pledging a small monthly amount. View the full article

We live in the age of social media. According to the digital marketing company Zephoria, as of two months ago, over 1.05 billion people access their Facebook (FB) accounts daily, and since May of 2014, over 4.5 billion “likes” have been generated every day. In September of 2014, the Pew Research Center reported that 40% of all people who own a mobile phone had one or more social networking applications in active use. By September of 2015, Facebook alone boasted over 1.39 billion users actively accessing the website via a mobile device at least once within a month’s timespan! According to Emarketer, approximately 30% of Facebook users are aged 25-34 (the largest reported age group), and according to the Pew Research Center 89% of persons between the ages of 18 and 29 (the millennial generation) regularly use social media websites. We are the workhorses that run social media; we are the fuel that feeds its fire. At this point you may be wondering why it seems like I vomited a bunch of statistics and facts onto your screen, but stay with me! There’s a point to I all, I promise. News headlines are dictated by what’s trending on Twitter (the Pew Research Center reported that ~50% of social media site users draw their news information from social networking sites – that means 1 in every 2 adults in America let Facebook tell them what’s going on in the world around them). Government agencies’ statements and policies are swayed by how viral videos and topics affect public opinion (e.g, the current nationwide social movement on racial equality was started from the hashtag “#BlackLivesMatter”). YouTube “stars” boast salaries grossing in the millions (Forbes Magazine reported that 23 year old Felix Kjellberg made upwards of 12 million in pre-taxed dollars on his YouTube channel in 2015 – because apparently 40 million subscribers are entertained by him throwing expletives around while they watch him play video games). All these numbers add up to one simple idea (and the point I promised earlier): we live in an age of governed social media. Which causes me to wonder, if social media shapes tides of government and current events and so on, and if almost 9/10 people in the millennial generation regularly ascribe to social media, does that mean social media governs the millennial generation? Maybe we don’t actually run social media, maybe (just maybe) it runs us. I have a friend who adds roughly twenty hash tags to every picture he posts to Instagram (IG), or maybe he adds fifty. I lose track. Every possible related idea or concept or word is thought of and hash-tagged away. I asked him why once, and he said he was on an IG come up and that I needed to step my ‘like game’ up. (I shrugged ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.) I have another friend whose entire life is chronicled on twitter. I never need to ask them what they’re doing, because 15 seconds after I wonder, they send out a tweet letting the world know. I have a friend who pops up on TV shows now and again, and when they do, they spend ridiculous amounts of time and energy making sure their appearances go viral. I have a friend who updates their Snapchat so often, that at the end of every day they have at least 400 seconds of snaps to get through. I almost got carpet tunnel from trying to fast-forward through them all her snaps once. Okay, I’m clearly exaggerating about that, but the point remains: we are a generation governed by social media, living in the age of social media. You already knew this though. Something in the back of your mind gave it away when your FB profile pic’ got over 100 likes (or some arbitrary number that you’ve given yourself based on your own “average number of likes”). It gave a very small sense of accomplishment, or a very small sense of pride. It’s like you could hear Sally Field’s 1984 Oscar acceptance speech running in the back of your head saying, “You like me! …You [really] like me!” Or maybe a tweet you sent got a ridiculous amount of re-tweets, or an IG pic’ you posted got dozens and dozens (or hundreds) of “likes”. You saw that, and sat back satisfied because someone somewhere affirmed your thought (or picture or video). Someone somewhere cared about what you had to say. Someone thought you were funny, someone thought you were cute and for a very brief second, that made all the difference. You mattered. Your words, your insight, your imaged mattered. How do you know? Where’s the proof? You got a lot of “likes” – social media’s stamp of approval. So the wheels started turning on how to keep it up. What funny caption to ad, what filter to use, how much skin to show, what series of hashtags was the best combination to draw attention to your new haircut? You have a reputation to keep! A popular opinion to appeal to, and you want, or maybe you need, social media’s affirmation – more “likes”. You want someone somewhere to value what you say, what you think, what you look like and the “likes” to prove that they do. So, you see, we live in the age of social media. We, the millennial generation, are the workhorses that run its campaigns. We are the fuel that feeds its fire, and we are the embers that burn those who don’t meet its standards. We have created a culture built around proving our worth based on Internet popularity, and we, the millennial generation, need to help it stop. Why? Because we need to remind others (and ourselves) that importance or value does not come from a random series of “likes” given by friends or family or anonymous strangers. The value of an object comes from the price someone is willing to pay for it, and you, kind stranger, were bought at an infinite price (1 Peter 1:18, 1 Corinthians 6:20, Acts 20:28). Your self worth is immeasurable because the price Jesus paid for you is incomprehensible. So the import of the things that make you *you* (what you say, how you appear, what you think, what you feel) can never be measured by “likes” because your value is rooted in eternity. Someone thinks you’re hilarious. Someone is captivated by how you look. Someone hangs on your every word. Someone always wants to know how you feel. Someone knows that you matter, and at the end of it all, the only opinion that really matters is His. Now I challenge you to measure your social media success not in how many likes you get, but in the positive impact of the life you live. Verses Referened Above: Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 1 Corinthians 6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. NIV 1 Peter 1:18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom He paid was not mere gold or silver. NLT View the full article

I wish we could!!!!!

Only IF the person has repented SIMPLY to OBTAIN the Kingdom Blessings. If the person has repented BECAUSE they came to understand that their sin has wounded the heart of God, and they are truly SORRY that they wounded Him, then the relationship is restored. The Hebrew word translated "atonement" also means "reconciliation". It's the reconciliation (of heart) that makes the difference.

And self-talk in both directions: demeaning to oneself and demeaning concerning others while uplifting oneself.

Proverbs 24:9 The thinking of foolishness is sin, and the scorner is an abomination to men.