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Christian Anxiety & Depression Forum

Discuss your anxiety panic attacks or depression with other Christians. Find support from other Christians who are experiencing the same thing. Find answers. Pray and encourage one another through Jesus Christ.
 
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 Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!

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pietertje




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Join date : 2014-02-09

Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! Empty
PostSubject: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptySun Feb 09, 2014 9:49 pm

Hello my name is P and I live in Tokyo. I have lived here for 20 years and used to conduct weddings using Japanese/English.
I started this job as a non christian and was just interested in the money until one day I started to experience some really scary panic attacks in front of 100s of people and felt totally humiliated. The odd thing was that people just asked me if I had a cold or if I wasnt feeling well. I continued doing these weddings for 6 or 7 years with on and off panic attacks.............why they didnt ask me to take leave was beyond me. However, this allowed me to provide for my family but also to dig a deeper and deeper hole because they reasons werent being dealt with.
I didnt grow up with my father around cause parents divorced when I was still very young. However, since moving to Japan I was able to restore some contact with him although it was mainly beer based and my father didnt really want to dig into the past too much cause I guess it hurt him too much. He also thought it was great that I could be 1doing such a job but at the same time he condemned me for raising my hands and blessing people during the wedding ceremony. Then one day he came to Japan and as I was conducting the ceremony in this huge hotel lobby I saw him come in and he looked so proud eventhough he thought it was a joke for me to be doing this. My father goes to church once a year, doesnt read the bible and really only knows there is a heaven and a hell and nobody knows which one we will end up in..........When I saw him enter the hotel the ceremony was almost finished and I was totally overcome with emotions that caused my voice to make the weirdest sound, amplified through the whole hotel lobby. After this incident it became a case of worrying what will happen the next wedding and this went on for 6 or 7 years (more than a thousand weddings and I really became to think that I was the freak show everyone wanted to experience!)
I tried all the flesh things to get over it and of course, as you pointed out, it didnt work. It started to affect me in other areas and finally I had to quit because my voice simply didnt come out.
I decided to try the other way. ..........................get baptized go to church sometimes and leave it at that. That worked for a little while as I made a comeback but then it struck again..................the worst one, so I thought. I used all my positive thinking and was told by my new age mom you should get right back into it so you are not defeated. I did, and the most beautiful weddings until it came back again....................in the most prestigious of all hotels .........with only one wedding left after having done 9 that day. I was so scared to go out and do that last one that I asked some other pastor to do the wedding for me, he didnt want to and said, Lets pray. I heard the knock on the door and it was time to enter the chapel, I felt the most amazing peace and heard a little voice, you will be ok but it must be your last one........?
THis is all 6 years now and I have grown so much in the Lord, havent had panic attacks, love reading the bible.............and know that there is much more room for improvement.
When I read your blog about controling your thoughts and the three steps to take..............I felt like Ureka!.............maybe I shouldnt use that word but you know what I mean......especially the point about people looking at you and giving them power they dont have.............they certainly didnt get that from Jesus to judge me.
I am contemplating a return to the wedding scene because Jesus rules and I shouldnt be running away from something just because I had irrational fears.
What are your thoughts on this?
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Statesman63
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Statesman63


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Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptySun Feb 09, 2014 10:23 pm

Hello P. Welcome to the site! I'll be turning in soon, so if you write again, I probably won't get to it tonight. I enjoyed your testimony. I've experienced days where the beginning was all peace because I felt prayed up, and then the Accuser (Satan) doesn't like that, so he is not going to just leave us alone. His only weapon against us are his lies because he was defeated and sentenced at the cross. Unfortunately, for us, his sentence is not due to take place until later because God is using Satan as his pawn to accomplish more of His will before the end times. His power was taken away from him at the cross. Jesus purchased us with his blood. He purchased us into life and took us from death, which is Satan's reign. So Satan can only attack us with his lies. His lies can feel like a relapse, but in actuality, they are just lies. I don't know if you had a chance to read my Truth blog. We must focus on truth to overcome Satan's lies; and Jesus said that the truth will set us free.

The Holy Spirit gives us power to overcome demonic attacks. I plan on writing on how to access our power through the Spirit if I can get some extra time. To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with God's power, and Satan cannot overcome that. The Holy Spirit is all about bringing Jesus glory. So when we are bringing Christ glory, we are being "filled" with the Holy Spirit. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit, but not all Christians are constantly filled with the Holy Spirit.

I just want to be sure that you are confident that you are going to Heaven. As long as you believe that Jesus paid the payment for your sins through His blood and Resurrection from the dead, you have nothing to fear. Your spot in Heaven is sealed, and it is sealed until the Day of Redemption, the bible says. You cannot lose your salvation. His payment was a one time payment, and it is not based on our works or anything we do. No one can earn their way to Heaven. It is only a gift. I mention that because one of your statements you mentioned that you were not sure if you are going to Heaven or Hell.

If I ever get time, I have to rewrite my Heaven and Hell write up too. It's close, but I see some flaws in it.

Please stay active on the site. I encourage everyone to be more active on the site. We are here to encourage and help each other. Stay blessed.
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pietertje




Posts : 8
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Join date : 2014-02-09

Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptyMon Feb 10, 2014 12:00 am

Thank you for your quick reply. My father isnt sure wherher he will go to heaven cause he is part of this strict dutch reformed church. We are sinners is what resonates with him because hes committed a few. We all have but i have great joy to be blesses with the sacrifice Jesus madefor us. Thank you for the 3point approach which i will start to apply.
I would like your opinion on whether that voice was from the Holy Spirit or Demon telling me to quit doing weddings, reading from the bible and saying the name Jesus in front of crowds where 99% arent christians even though they like the protestant wedding style
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Statesman63
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Statesman63


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Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptyMon Feb 10, 2014 9:39 pm

Hello. I had a really busy day today. I want to give a well thought out answer to your question. I am quite sure I'll be able to answer it tomorrow. Enjoy your day!
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pietertje




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Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptyMon Feb 10, 2014 11:57 pm

Thank you for giving me so much of your time
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Statesman63
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Statesman63


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Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptyTue Feb 11, 2014 7:32 pm


I’m assuming that you are a preacher or minister since you used to perform weddings.

I do have a friend who has heard the voice of the Lord. She was at work with no one around. The voice called her by name. I’ll just change her name, but the voice said, “Jennifer, focus on me.” She looked around and thought someone was playing with her because she saw no one. Not long after she heard the same voice and statement again. This time when she looked around, she knew it wasn’t a person that spoke it. This voice didn’t come from her head; it came from the atmosphere around her. Later that day, she had a terrible argument with her husband, then she remembered the voice that spoke to her twice and connected that the message was spoken in advance, pertaining to the argument, to keep her from falling off from her husband.

Throughout the bible, when God speaks to mankind, his message is clear. It may not always be understood right away, but in the occasions when it is not understood right away, it is always understood in retrospect. God does not speak to us and keep his intentions unclear. He does not remain mysterious. If the intentions remain unclear, that is not God’s M.O. of talking to us. Satan and his demons also speak to mankind, as illustrated in the Garden of Eden. His intentions are always to bring Jesus less glory and to lead his people astray. If you are not sure, you can pray and ask God. He’ll respond and not leave you in a loop.

In the book of James it says to test the spirits. The question is how. There are only 2 sources, James says, that the spirits can come from: they are either spirits from above, or spirits from below. Elsewhere, we see some qualities of the spirits from below. Galatians 5:19 says, “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry…etc…” The bible describes the Spirit from above in Galatians 5:11: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control…etc.” So you can take any spiritual act and ascertain its agenda. If it does not match the Spirit; and if it does not bring Jesus glory, then it is not of God, but of the spirits from below.

Marriage is a Covenant with God, a sacred, holy and blessing from God. God loves marriages. Satan hates marriages and wants to break up the family because that is how God operates. The family represents the Trinity: Husband, Wife and Children; and God uses the family for his Kingdom purposes. Satan loves divorce. God hates divorce. Therefore, it does not seem likely that God would preclude any minister from marrying people, unless they are marrying ungodly couples like gay marriages.

You said that your fear was tied to giving marriage ceremonies. Fear is not from God. Jesus said, “My peace I give you.” So these spirits wanted you to stop doing what you do from the beginning by making you nervous performing weddings. The fact that your anxiety was tied to marrying people, hints that the voice telling you to stop doing it was also not from God.



Whatever job you have, you should sanctify it to the Lord. You are not working for man, but for Christ Himself. Do your job with the intention of maximizing the Kingdom of God. A job where you are doing weddings, you can easily maximize the Kingdom. You can do such a job as to bring Christ all the glory. When there are times when Jesus is not being glorified, such as a gay wedding, then refuse such a job. This is just my take on your situation from what gave me. Hope it helps.
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pietertje




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Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptyTue Feb 11, 2014 9:21 pm

Thank u for your extensive reply
I am not a pastor but a wedding celebrant 99% of japanese are not christians but they like western style wedding where we sing What a friend we have in Jesus, i pray read from Cor13 and bless the couple.......it is a strange concept for westerners but for many couples it is want they want eventhough they are not chritians. I will not do gay weddings. Is your take still the same
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Statesman63
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Statesman63


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Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptyThu Feb 13, 2014 6:32 am

pietertje wrote:
Thank u for your extensive reply
I am not a pastor but a wedding celebrant  99% of japanese are not christians but they like western style wedding where  we sing What a friend we have in Jesus, i pray read from Cor13 and bless the couple.......it is a strange concept for westerners but for many couples it is want they want eventhough they are not chritians. I will not do gay weddings. Is your take still the same

What you describe is certainly "different" than Western culture.  If it were me, I would only do weddings of professed Christians. But, as you said, that would only be 1% of the population.  Marriage is a covenant with God.  God does not make covenant with those who are not His people.  He never did in the bible.  A non-Christian marriage is not one that is signed off by God.  If it were me, and I was in a culture with 99% non-Christians, I would focus more on converting people to Christianity than marrying people into a marriage that God does not recognize anyway.  Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their own dead." From that, I'm saying let the dead marry their own dead.

If a married non-Christian couple converts and becomes Christian, then their marriage is sanctified and recognized as part of His divine covenant.  Even if one converts, the marriage is sanctified and regarded as holy through that one person.  In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says the children and unbelieving spouse is sanctified through the other spouse who is Christian.
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pietertje




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Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptyFri Feb 14, 2014 6:57 am

Healthy people dont need a doctor.....could it be that me doing the wedding ceremony for a couple could result in them becoming christian if that is my sincere desire and prayer or am i arrogant to think this could happen? I dont meet the couple after the ceremony so i will never find out only God knows. Ask anything in my name and i will give it to you according to your faith......could i ask for Gods favor on the lives of the non christians and that He will reveal Himself?
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Statesman63
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Statesman63


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Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptyFri Feb 14, 2014 6:36 pm

pietertje wrote:
Healthy people dont  need a doctor.....could it be that me doing the wedding ceremony for a couple could result in them  becoming christian if that is my sincere desire and prayer or am i arrogant to think this could happen?  I dont meet the couple after the ceremony so i will never find out only God knows. Ask anything in my name and i will give it to you according to your faith......could i ask for Gods favor on the lives of the non christians and that He will reveal Himself?

The New Testament uses the analogy of crops all the time.  We must first plant the seed before asking God to turn it into fruit.  We cannot pray that God bless us with a productive harvest if we did not take the time to first plant the seed.  God uses His people to convert non-Christians.  I do not think it is enough to pray for someone to become saved without planting the seed to make it a possibility.  A culture, as you described, that does not recognize the sanctity of marriage as a Covenant with God, but just marry because it is the cultural norm, I do not see how that would lead anyone to Christ without further effort to convert them.  

I have a question: if 99% of your culture is not Christian, what are they?  Buddhists?  Atheists?  I have some suggestions on how to convert people, but it depends on what religion or lack of, they conform to.  I think that along with the weddings, you should think of ways to introduce the true Gospel of the Lord to them, making it a part of the service.  Many, I’m assuming, have not heard it in its unadulterated form.  There are many professed Christians here, that I do not think are really saved because they do not understand what the Gospel is.  Many think they have to work their way to heaven, and live the good life, abiding by the 10 Commandments to get saved. We cannot be that perfect because the standard to being saved is perfection.  Any sin at all separates us for an eternity from a holy God.  Moreover, hypothetically, if someone were able to live the perfect life (which, only Jesus was able to do that), but hypothetically speaking, he or she would still fall short of Heaven because they were born into sin, inherited by their father Adam; for the human flesh itself is tainted with sin through the father’s seed.  If you had a human father, you (and I), therefore were born into sin.  Jesus, who is God, escaped the curse of Adam because He did not have a humanly father, rather, He was born of a virgin from the seed of the Holy Spirit.  When I evangelize to professed Christians here in America, I test to see if they are saved by asking the question, “How do you know that you are saved?”  When they start answering the question like, “I go to church”; or, “I am a good person,” I already see that they are not saved and need to understand the Gospel.  

So what is the Gospel?   The Gospel (Greek word meaning: “Good News”):  It is the good news of Jesus Christ.  It is the free gift from God, given by simply accepting the payment Jesus made at the cross through His blood and resurrection for our sins. It has nothing to do with what we do because He did all the work.  It is only by faith that one is saved.  It is not by works.  It is not Jesus plus us.  It is only Jesus that we are saved by.  Once saved, we are to do good works out of our appreciation of what He did for us.  Once saved, God will discipline us if we disobey Him, but we cannot lose our salvation because we have been adopted into His family and have been sealed by the Holy Spirit into the family of God.  Jesus paid our debt for us so that we are now free from the wrath of a Holy God who cannot and does not tolerate sin.  

What does the Gospel do for us?  Among the obvious benefits of being a child of God, the cross did 2 things for the Christian, not 1.  The cross did not just save us and have God forgive us of our sins.  Through the resurrection, we resurrected with Him, and God credited Jesus’ righteousness to our account, thereby making us as holy as Himself. Just taking our sins away would not be enough.  God took our sins away and credited us with perfect righteousness.  God Gave us His righteousness so that we are no longer sinners, we are Saints who sin.  He changed our identities.  Our flesh is dead because it was contaminated with sin through the sin of Adam.  When we die, we will drop these dead bodies of flesh, and Jesus will one day raise up new perfect bodies for our spirits so that we will be holy on the inside and out.  Our souls are becoming saved as we live the Christian life.  God is continually working on us to make us more like Jesus.  Our souls are our personalities; how we think.  That is contaminated with sin, but it is being conformed to Christ.  Our spirits is what Jesus died for to save and make perfect.  We are tri-une beings, just like God is a Tri-une Being.  We are made up of the flesh, spirit and soul.  Jesus did not die to save our flesh or our souls.  He died to save our spirits, and it is that, which is perfect inside of us.  Everything else, He will make perfect later on.  Most people, both where you are and here in the United States, do not know what the Gospel is really about.  They feel they have to work for God’s approval, thereby cancelling the gift.
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pietertje




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PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptyFri Feb 14, 2014 9:00 pm

I feel hope so i know i understand about the gift. I would feel hopeless if salvation was determined by my own effort . Most people are Buddhist but they still pick Christian style wedding rather than a Buddhist. Iam very limited in what i can say during the ceremonies cause the content is not dtermined by the couples. I can mention jesus but cant say he died on the cross for u and i and if you dont accept his gift u will burn in hell. I m sure i can say that God is love and that he sent His son Jesus and that we must make Gods love our priority in our lives. I really like to do weddings again but must be clear in my head that what im doing is not wrong otherwise i am opening myself to attacks again. It took me 30years to get saved and mainly because of the numerous friendly reminders by various people in different countries These people prayed for me eventhough i didnt know but what has stuck with me, maybe this was the seed they planted, was their kindness
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Statesman63
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Statesman63


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Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptyFri Feb 14, 2014 9:57 pm

You do raise a peculiar scenario, but I am quite convinced that you should not participate in marrying Buddhist couples, even under the facade of a Christian-like formality.  Only partake in marrying Christian couples.  I am quite convinced that even reciting Christian prayers in uniting a Buddhist couple should not be done.  God says in the bible (Hebrews) that He does not even discipline non-Christians, but has a Day in store for them in the future.  We are to not judge non-Christians (one of the Corinthians says).  Buddhists serve a different god: a god that does not exist. Such is a demonic religion.  Christian prayers, blessings, and Covenants are exclusive to Christians.  So I don't think that you should be participating in the marriages.  That's not a form of evangelizing.  It is uniting a couple under a false covenant.  You should stay with Truth and just evangelize the old fashioned way.
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pietertje




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PostSubject: Re: Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself!   Hello................I worked out how to introduce myself! EmptySat Feb 15, 2014 7:55 am

Thank u for all the info and theres a lot to think about and pray about. I agree with most but not all of your info. I also need to remind myself that my wife and i had a non christian wedding and became christians as a result of these weddings and that God works in mysterious ways. Unfortunately i have no way of knowing how many couples decided to check out Christianity and this Jesus guy as a result of me doing their wedding.
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