Share Immanuel

(book review)

Wilder, E. James, and Coursey Chris M. 2010. Share Immanuel – the healing lifestyle. Pasadena, CA: Shepherd’s House.

“Share Immanuel” is the latest publication from Shepherd’s House in Pasadena, CA. It was written in collaboration by Jim Wilder (director of Shepherd’s House) and Chris Coursey (www.thrivetoday.org)

The booklet has only 21 pages but is an excellent introduction to and summary of the Immanuel approach, which was developed by Dr. Karl & Charlotte Lehman and is part of the Life Model teaching at Thrive! conferences and Thriving recovery classes. It has already been used successfully in several different countries and cross-culturally situations.

The healing lifestyle of “Share Immanuel” includes only three simple steps:

• Sitting with God
• Sharing minds
• Speaking

1. Sitting with God means spending time in God’s presence, so to say “on the hill top.” This works much better as starting point for working through painful memories, than sitting in your pain, waiting for God to intervene and trying to “climb uphill.”

A good starting point is either remembering a situation where we experienced an interactive time in God’s presence (called the “Interactive memories seat”) or remembering things that fill us with appreciation (called the “Appreciation memories seat”). The later can include thankfulness for God’s gifts, or just special moments like a sunset or the smile of a child.

2. Sharing minds means synchronizing our perspective with God, understanding how he sees things, and thereby making sense of things that trouble us. This results in “God peace” – a peace that is so perfect that you can’t improve on it.

This step often includes a “question time” with God, where we can ask him, for example, where he was in the painful moments, what keeps us from seeing him in the painful memory, and what we need to know about a certain situation. Once we have received his perspective on things, we can share the joy with others.

3. Speaking refers to telling the Immanuel story you just experienced to others. It helps us to consolidate the new perspective and it creates hope in others.

We can tell the story from two angles: the “Once I lived in thorns” version has the bottom of the hill perspective, elaborating on all the pain we experienced – this will trigger similar memories in our listeners and depress them; while the story “What I appreciate about Immanuel” is told from the hill top perspective and encourages both story teller and listener.

This is the basic idea of “Share Immanuel.” The booklet includes of course much more, such as more details on how to tell the story, explanations on how we process pain, a chapter on solutions when you get stuck in the process, frequently asked questions, and links to more resources. I found that the booklet explains the process very well and in a way that anybody can understand, even without knowing the Life Model.

It is exciting to hear how the booklet has already been used in workshops in different countries and caused a snowball effect – participants who learned the basic steps, then shared their Immanuel story with others, and through this helped others to start “sitting with God” and experiencing Immanuel.

The booklet is a great summary and tool to share the Immanuel process with others.

I found one phrase in the booklet especially descriptive:

God offers hospitality!

Let’s accept the invitation – come and sit with Him!

The booklet can be ordered here.

Bist du HSP?

Vor einem halben Jahr entdeckte ich, dass ich HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) bin – das heißt ich bin hoch-sensibel. Das war eine ziemliche Überraschung für mich, da mich bisher nie jemand als zu sensibel bezeichnet hat, eher das Gegenteil. Ausgelöst wurde das ganze durch meine Überlegung, wie es möglich ist, dass ich einerseits sehr sensible auf Lärm reagiere, aber anderseits in einer großen Menschengruppe das Gefühl habe, halb taub zu sein. Auf Empfehlung einer Freundin habe ich mir ihr Buch über HSP ausgeliehen und den Selbsttest von Elaine Aron gemacht – das Ergebnis war eindeutig: ich bin HSP. Als ich dann auf einem Flug die ersten zwei Kapitel des Buches las, hatte ich am Ende eine Liste von mehr als 20 Dingen, die nichts miteinander zu tun haben, die ich über mich selbst wusste und die typisch für HSP sind. Mir sind ganze Kronleuchter aufgegangen. Seither habe ich andere Bücher gelesen und einiges Neues über mich selbst herausgefunden. Während der letzten Monate entdeckte ich auch, dass alle meine besten Freunde HSP sind. Interessant!

Hier einige Beispiele die im Selbsttest von Elaine Aron vorkommen:

• man nimmt Feinheiten seiner Umgebung wahr
• man wird von den Gefühlen anderer beeinflusst
• man hat an geschäftigen Tagen ein starkes Bedürfnis sich zurückzuziehen
• man empfindet helles Licht, starke Gerüche, raue Materialien oder Sirenen als überwältigend
• man hat ein reiches, komplexes inneres Leben
• man empfindet laute Geräusche als unangenehm
• man wird von Kunst und Musik tief bewegt
• man bemüht sich sehr, keine Fehler zu machen und nichts zu vergessen

Um den ganzen Test (in Englisch) zu machen geh auf diese Webpage. Bzw. gibt es einen ähnlichen Test auf Deutsch hier.

Einige Auszüge von HSP Definitionen und Beschreibungen, die man im Internet finden kann:

„HSP sind normale biologische Unterschiede in der Persönlichkeit und Physiologie, die von ca. 15- 20% der Bevölkerung geerbt wurden, und unter allen höheren Tieren zu finden sind. Diejenigen mit diesem Charakterzug nehmen Feinheiten in ihrer Umgebung war.
„Es scheint logisch, dass jene die mehr Feinheiten wahrnehmen daher leicht überwältigt werden von der Fülle der Wahrnehmungen. [Ich denke, dass es vergleichbar ist mit der Erfahrung von Personen mit Hörgeräten, bei denen das natürliche Unterscheiden von wichtigen und unwichtigen Geräuschen fehlt.]
„Der Unterschied ist schwerwiegend, und hat Auswirkungen auf alles was HSP tun sowie ihre körperlichen Reaktionen. Zum Beispiel, sind wir als Gruppe viel sensibler gegenüber Schmerz, Kaffein, Medikamenten, Temperaturen, Licht und Hunger. Wir sind nachdenklicher, tiefgründiger, lernen langsamer aber gründlicher, und sind ungewöhnlich pflichtbewusst.
„Ungefähr zwei Drittel aller HSP reduzieren die Überstimmulierung indem sie Introvertiert sind – d.h. sie bevorzugen wenige enge Freunde, statt sich in großen Gruppen oder mit Fremden zu treffen. Aber ca. ein Drittel der HSP ist Extrovertiert. (www.hsperson.com)

„Ein HSP zu sein ist kein Fehler. Es ist in Wirklichkeit ein erblicher Charakterzug, den man zu seinem Vorteil einsetzen kann. (www.thehighlysensitiveperson.com)

Basierend auf den Einsichten, die ich beim Lesen von Arons Buch erhalten habe, begann ich mich selbst zu beobachten und entdeckte, dass ich wirklich ziemlich oft „überstimuliert“ (Fachausdruck von Elaine Aron) bzw. überfordert bin von Sinnesreizen. Und zwar in Situationen wo ich früher einfach dachte, ich bin müde, gestresst, ‚peopled-out’ („übermenschelt“), usw. oder dass ich einfach wie ein typischer introvertierter Mensch reagiere. HSP nehmen auch leicht die Stimmungen anderer Menschen wahr, was mit ein Grund ist, warum sie sich in Gruppensituationen leicht überfordert fühlen. Ich merke langsam, dass mir das öfter passiert, als ich ursprüngliche dachte.

Ich habe auch festgestellt, dass ich mich in all den Jahren sehr angestrengt habe wie andere „normale“ Menschen zu sein, indem ich mich zwang so viel Lärm, Stress, Menschen, Arbeit, usw. wie andere auszuhalten. Anderseits wurde mir auch bewusst, wie Gott mir geholfen hat, Dinge in meinem Leben zu ändern, die gerade richtig sind für HSP bevor ich wusste, dass ich das bin. Diese Dinge haben mir geholfen die Lärmreiche und Menschenreiche Umgebung hier in Afrika besser auszuhalten.

• Ich weiß schon länger, dass ich mehr Schlaf als andere brauche, und dass mein Tag nicht gut anfängt, wenn ich von einem Wecker aufgeweckt werde.
• HSP brauchen mehr Ruhezeiten als andere. Ich bin froh, dass ich über die Jahre mehr solcher Ruhezeiten in meinen Alltag eingebaut habe.
• Ich brauche eine lange Zeit der Gemeinschaft mit Gott in der Früh, bevor ich bereit bin, den Tag zu beginnen. Für mich bedeutet das vor allem, Zeit in seiner Gegenwart zu verbringen, und nicht wie viele andere eine Aktivität abzuhaken, oft „Stille Zeit“ genannt, bestehend aus strukturierten Gebetszeiten und die Bibel mit einem Plan zu lesen.
• Wenn ich ausgehe am Abend, brauche ich danach Zeit, um zur Ruhe zu kommen.
• Routine ist sehr wichtig für meinen Alltag, inkl. regelmäßige Essenszeiten, Mittagsschläfchen und Fitness.
• HSP tun sich im Allgemeinen schwer mit Veränderungen. Das erklärt warum ich so ungern reise und oft ziemlich lange brauche, bis ich wieder in meine Routine zurück finde, oder mich an eine neue Situation gewöhnt habe.
• Ich kann besser in einer ruhigen und ungestörten Umgebung arbeiten.
• Ich kann schlecht mit ständiger Musikberieselung, Unterhaltungen im Hintergrund oder anderen Hintergrundgeräusche umgehen.
• Ich trinke extrem viel Wasser. Elaine Aron erwähnt, dass das hilft Stress abzubauen. Das erklärt mir, warum ich auch in kühleren Klimazonen viel Wasser brauche. Je mehr ich gestresst bin, desto mehr Wasser brauche ich.
• HSP sind tiefgründige Denker. Sie haben eine angeborene Vorliebe, Informationen tiefer zu verarbeiten, und z.B. gegenwärtige Situationen so vollständig wie möglich mit ähnlichen Situationen in der Vergangenheit zu vergleichen oder zu analysieren. Dies erklärt, warum ich so lange brauche, um Dinge durch zu denken, inklusive dem Analysieren von Filmen oder TV-Shows. Das gleiche gilt für theoretische Probleme oder Spannungen in Beziehungen. Es erklärt auch, warum ich so lange brauche, bis ich in einem Beitrag zu einer Diskussion formuliert habe, oft erst wenn die anderen bereits beim nächsten Thema sind.
• Ich lerne nun, meiner Intuition mehr zu vertrauen. Bisher habe ich sie oft ignoriert wenn ich keinen guten Grund oder einen Namen für etwas hatte. Wenn ich zurückdenke, wird mir klar, dass es viele Situationen gab, in denen ich etwas richtig wahrnahm, aber nicht darauf geachtet habe.
• Ich bin lieber mit ein paar engen Freunden zusammen als auf einer großen Party. Ein Grund dafür ist der höhere Geräuschpegel; der zweite Grund ist, dass es dort oft zu keinen tiefen Gesprächen kommt.
• Ich glaube, ich bin ein guter Beobachter, und lerne jetzt erst, dass ich wahrscheinlich oft Dinge richtige kombiniere.
• HSP sind meist sehr begabt in verschiedenen Bereichen (Entwicklung von Theorien, Analyse, künstlerischer Ausdrucksformen, Einfühlungsvermögen, …), aber sie unterschätzen sich selbst oft und verkaufen sich schlecht. Aber diese Gaben können sich nur dann entwickeln, wenn es uns gelingt, einen HSP freundlichen Rahmen zu finden oder zu kreieren. Dies ist eine ständige Herausforderung.

Typisch für HSP, bin ich sehr gewissenhaft – weshalb es mir schwer fällt, mit der Liste aufzuhören, bevor ich alle relevanten Punkte erwähnt haben.
Aber es reicht auf jeden Fall für einen Anfang. Wenn es dich interessiert, kann ich dir nur empfehlen, das Buch von Elaine Aron zu lesen.

Hier ist eine Liste von Ressourcen über HSP, großteils auf Deutsch:
Das grundlegendste Buch ist von Elaine Aron auf Englisch von Amazon.de erhältlich, gibt es aber auch in deutscher Übersetzung, wie auch ihre Bücher über HSP Kindererziehung und Liebesbeziehungen.

Es gibt auch andere Autoren, die auf Deutsch geschrieben haben:

Georg Parlow – Zartbesaitet. Es gibt von ihm auch einen Nachfolgeband über den Arbeitsplatz. (Ich habe seine Bücher nicht gelesen, kann sie daher nicht ausdrücklich empfehlen.) Damit verbunden gibt es auch eine Internetseite mit vielen Links. Dort gibt es auch einen ausführlicheren Test als der von Elaine Aron.

Ein deutsches Buch aus christlicher Sicht ist „Lasten tragen, die verkannte Gabe“ von Ehepaar Lüling. Ich habe es selber gelesen und kenne viele, die dieses Buch als sehr hilfreich empfanden.

Beide christlichen Bücher (Carol Brown & Ehepaar Lüling) sind von John Sandford (Elijah-House) geprägt, der HSP als Lastenträger bezeichnete und vermutlich schon vor Elaine Aron darüber lehrte, aber selber kein Buch darüber schrieb. Beide Autoren sind von Elijah-House geprägt und verarbeiten Sandfords Ansatz in ihren Büchern weiter.

Nun bin ich natürlich neugierig, wer von meinen Lesern HSP ist.
Weißt du es schon lange? Oder bist du durch diesen Blog-Eintrag drauf gekommen?

Are you HSP?

Half a year ago I discovered that I am HSP – this means that I have a highly sensitive personality trait. This was quite surprising to me because nobody ever called me too sensitive, more to the contrary. What triggered the insight was my sensitivity to noise and the feeling of being half-deaf in group settings (which seems contradictory). Once I did the self-test in the book by Elaine Aron, it became very obvious – I am HSP. When I read the first two chapters of her book during a flight, I ended up with a list of more than 20 items, unrelated things that I knew about myself and that were mentioned as being typical for HSP. I had lots of aha-moments. Since then I read several other books and discovered more about myself. I also discovered over the last few months that all my best friends are HSP. Interesting!

Here some examples of things mentioned in the self test on Elaine Aron’s webpage:

• being easily overwhelmed by strong sensory input
• being aware of subtleties in my environment
• being affected by other people’s moods
• feeling the need to withdraw during busy days
• being overwhelmed by things like bright lights, strong smells, coarse fabrics, or sirens close by
• having a rich, complex inner life
• being uncomfortable by loud noises
• being deeply moved by the arts or music
• trying hard to avoid making mistakes or forgetting things

For the complete test go here.

Excerpts from HSP descriptions found online:

“HSP is a normal biological individual difference in personality and physiology inherited by about 15 to 20% of just about all higher animals. Those with this trait notice more subtleties and process information more deeply.
“Anyone noticing more subtleties would logically also have to be more easily overwhelmed than others by prolonged, intense, or chaotic sound, sights, etc. (I think that this is probably similar to the problem people have with hearing aids, the natural filtering of important from unimportant sounds is missing and therefore it often becomes overwhelming.)
“The difference is quite profound, affecting everything HSPs do and many bodily responses—for example, as a group we are more sensitive to pain, caffeine, medications, temperature, light, and hunger. We are more reflective, learn more slowly but thoroughly, and tend to be unusually conscientious.
“About two thirds of HSPs do reduce the stimulation in their lives by being introverted—preferring a few close friends rather than being in groups or meeting strangers. But about a third are extraverts. (www.hsperson.com)

“Being a HSP isn’t a flaw. It’s actually a genetic character trait that can be used to your advantage. (www.thehighlysensitiveperson.com)

Based on the insights from reading Aron’s book, I started to observe myself and realized that I am actually often “over-stimulated” (term used by Elaine Aron) by sensory stimulants when I previously thought that I am just tired, stressed out, peopled-out, etc. or just being a typical introvert. HSP are also very perceptive to other people’s emotions which is one reason that they easily feel overwhelmed in group situations. I probably experience that more often than I originally thought.

I realized that I have been pushing myself too hard over many years, by trying to be like “normal” people, support as much noise, stress, people, work load, etc. as others. On the other hand, I also discovered that God has helped me make adjustments in my life over the last few years that are just right for HSPs and helped me ‘survive’ in the high-people and high-noise environment of Africa.

• I know I need more sleep than others do and starting the day with an alarm clock is not good for me.
• HSP in general need a lot of downtime. I am glad that I have adapted my day to this need before knowing that I am HSP.
• I need a long time of fellowship with God in the morning before being ready to start the day. For me this means spending time in his presence, not the usual checking off of an activity called ‘quiet time’ consisting of structured prayer times and reading the Bible according to a plan.
• Time to unwind in the evening after having been out is very important for me.
• I need a good routine, including regular times for eating, a nap at lunch time and physical exercises.
• HSP in general have a hard time adapting to change. That explains why I find traveling very difficult and it takes me fairly long to settle back into my routine or adapt to new circumstances.
• I am working better in a quiet and uninterrupted environment.
• I can’t handle constant exposure to music, talking or other noise.
• I drink a lot of water, much more than others, which Elaine Aron mentions as a way to reduce stress. This explains why I can’t go very long without drinking water, even in colder climates. The more I am stressed, the more water I need.
• HSP are profound thinkers. They have an innate preference to process information more deeply, to compare the present situation as completely as possible to your knowledge of similar situations in the past. This explains why it takes me such a long time to think through things, including analyzing movies or TV shows. The same applies to theoretical problems or tensions in relationships. It also explains why it takes me so long to formulate my contribution to a discussion, when others have already moved on to the next topic.
• I am realizing that I need to trust my intuition more. So far, when I did not have a good reason or name for what I felt, I disregarded it. Thinking back, I realize that there are many situations where I correctly sensed something but did not pay attention.
• I enjoy being together with a few close friends more than attending a big party. One reason is the higher noise level, the second reason is that there is often no opportunity to go deep in conversations with people.
• I think I am a good observers and I am now learning that I do often make correct deductions from the things observed.
• Being HSP also means being very gifted in different areas (theory building, analysis, artistic expressions, empathy, ..), even though HSPs often underestimate their abilities and sell themselves badly. But these gifts can only develop when we manage to create or find an HSP friendly context. This is an ongoing challenge.

Typical for an HSP, I am very detail oriented and conscientious – which is why it is hard for me to stop here with the list before I have mentioned all the relevant points. But this is definitely enough for a starter. If you are interested I can recommend reading Elains Aron’s book.

Here is a list of resources about HSP:
Online introduction
If you want to know whether you are HSP, do the self test.

The first and most well known book on the subject is from Elaine Aron “The Highly Sensitive Person.” She also wrote several others, for different sub-fields – child raising, relationships / love, work environment.

A very interesting treatment of the topic from a Christian point of view comes from Carol Brown: “The Mystery of Spiritual Sensitivity.”

There are several websites that offer help and/or networking for HSPs

• www.drtedzeff.com
• www.hsperson.com
• www.thehighlysensitiveperson.com

There are also several Facebook groups on the topic.

• http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=2232091680&ref=ts
• http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/The-Highly-Sensitive-Person-Publishing-Company/218089290709?v=wall&ref=ts
• http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?v=info&ref=ts&gid=5553709195

HSP is sometimes misinterpreted as ADD or Asberger Syndrom /Autism. Here is one article that addresses this question.

Now I am, of course, very curious who of my readers is HSP or just discovered it through my blog post.

Why Western Christianity Failed 2

In September/October Deeper Walk International brought an interesting series of webinars on the topic of “Why Western Christianity Failed.” The speaker was Dr. Jim Wilder from Shepherd’s House in California.

- The first part was about a 300 year old philosophy that heavily influenced Western Theology (which I summarized here)
- The second part looked at how medieval psychology influences us until today (see summary below)
- And the third part explained how we ended up with a false dichotomy because of these two influences.

In this post I will give a summary of part two:
Many people don’t realize that our Western theology has been influenced by all kinds of things besides the Bible.

Among other things are:
- rationalism – is about thinking the right things
- voluntarism – is about making the right choices
- Pietism – had the tendency to neglect the body
- Northern European culture – influences people to live in survival mode, value stoic resolve, ignore pain and emotions

> all these affect our theology
> all these even affect how we do Bible translation
> they influence what we think is important

One major influence is the medieval psychology that divides human beings into two main parts:

Physical conditions, the body, emotions and anything related were considered of doubtful use for spiritual things. In contrast, the intellect and the will were seen as separate from the body. Today we know that intellect and will are tied up in the same body, and interact strongly with each other. They cannot be separated from each other as medieval psychology did.

Despite newer insights into how God created us (body and will interconnected), theology still uses these categories until today.

Our bodies are seen as something fallen and unable to please God, while the spirit and will were seen as more important because they can be affected by God, as something that God can transform. The will is fallen but can be empowered by God’s grace to make the right choices. The body and emotions are only causing trouble (implicit – they are beyond God’s power to transform). Therefore the body was left out of any teaching and considered unimportant. The soul was sometimes included with the body, and seen as causing trouble. The only hope was that God would transform the spirit enough to dominate body and soul. The solution to this problem is to have more “truth” (teaching, knowledge) to help the spirit dominate the body.

The result is a false dichotomy that influences our theology until today.

This made perfect sense in medieval psychology but not today!
It is in contradiction to what we know today about the brain:

Our brain is primarily relational. Any strategy that bypasses the dominant emotional and relational center of the brain, and emphasizes thinking and will, is not “Good News” at all. As a result we keep trying to think the right things, but we are still acting and reacting the wrong way.

Antonio R. Damasio in his book “Descartes’ error” pointed out that what makes the human mind run are our emotions not reason. For example, trauma recovery requires body awareness. The priority of our brain is to first ask what our body feels before asking what we think about something.

This has to do with our vagus nerve, which tells the brain what we feel like and influences our relationships and what we like. This vagus nerve does not sound very spiritual but influences everything we consider spiritual. It has two parts:
dorsal vagal – takes care of your own body
ventral vagal – regulates interpersonal relationships

Maybe it is more important to make our vagus nerve “Christian” more than our thinking!

The Old Testament refers to our “inward parts” (e.g. Jer 4:19, Lam 2:11) but they are often translated with ‘mind’ in Greek. In other places the Hebrew text speaks about the “bowels.” The translation of these verses often shows a lot of bias. Since the body is not important, bowels are sometimes translated as heart and sometimes as bowels and nobody cares if these are really referring to the same thing.

Conclusions from Voluntarist Philosophy

>> Western Christianity became about ideas and choice
>> Solution – all important life problems are corrected by truth and choice
>> This statement should feel true to you because your culture says it’s true
>> The Bible translations were made to fit that assumption due to language and culture.

Conclusions from Medieval Psychology

>> Choice is in the intellect
>> Will is in the reason
>> Intellect and reason are in the mind /spirit
>> Bible translation is made to fit those assumptions
>> The mind and spirit are changed by choices and knowledge
>> The body and emotions are not important for the spiritual life as will and choice.

Corrections to Medieval Psychology

>> What controls the brain, will, body and emotions is relationship not information.

“Who you love or who you fear, will determine what you’ll choose, how your body responds to it and how you feel about it. That relationship is actually experienced in your brain, not your emotions, not your body, not your will.”

>> We have more than one will and there can be conflict.
>> Emotions and related body responses are in executive control of the brain
>> Relationships based on love produce very different interpretations of the information in the intellect than the same information with fear.

For example, “your dad is coming” can produce two different reactions, depending whether your relationship is love or fear based. The same happens with biblical information – “God is watching you” can cause two different reactions.

Living with the Lord means having our “bowels” transformed.
We need a Christianity that transforms both sides of our character, also our body not just our mind. We need to overcome this false dichotomy (more about it in part 3).

***

If you are interested in listening to the whole webinar, go to Deeper Walk International Resources Center – Webinars and scroll down to

Webinars by Jim Wilder

How Western Christianity Failed

Each webinar is available for $3.00. Once you have paid, you will receive a link to download or listen online to it.

Why Western Christianity Failed

In September/October Deeper Walk International brought an interesting series of webinars on the topic of “Why Western Christianity Failed.” The speaker was Dr. Jim Wilder from Shepherd’s House in California.

- The first part was about a 300 year old philosophy that heavily influenced Western Theology.
- The second part looked at how medieval psychology influences us until today.
- And the third part explained how we ended up with a false dichotomy because of these two influences.

In this post I will give a short summary of part one:
The Voluntarist philosophy goes back to people like Réne Descartes. His famous “I think therefore I am” led to the idea that thinking is what makes us humans. Other rationalists and empiricists like John Locke, Gerorge Berkely, David Hume and Bertrand Russell followed. This emphasis on our left brain activity led others to the assumption that “it must be that the first beginning of faith lies in the will” (William Ames). As a result will and reason became the cornerstones of US theology. Conversion became a matter of the will and is based on right information and right choice.

Experience shows that this does not work. A lot of people have all the right information but make the wrong choices. More information (i.e. more training, more Bible study) is not the solution for everything. Why? Because this is not how our brain works.  It is not the left brain hemisphere (which stores verbal knowledge) that takes care of our decisions. Actually, it is the first part of the brain, that won’t work properly when we are under pressure, or just sleepy. It is highly unreliable and can’t change our character. It is the right part of our brain (the relational, emotional center which stores experiential knowledge) that makes a pre-selection before we even start thinking about a decision.

Wilder points out that

“We (the Americans) are the most well informed and best educated people in the history of our planet. We should be the best model of healthy community, character, maturity, and relational integrity in church and world history.”

I am sure the same could be said about other countries with a high percentage of Christians.

Why do our choices and emotions not line up?

“Could it be that we have developed a system that is focused on building our intellectual capacity – while our emotional, relational and character development have atrophied?”

Thinking and willpower are not enough to transform our character. The real control center of our life, including our cravings, is located in the right hemisphere of the brain. Any strategy that tries to solve our problems by bypassing the right brain hemisphere won’t work.  As a result there are many people who have all the right information and are still a failure in character.

Wilder mentioned another very telling example:
Today the WWII veterans are getting older and many of them develop dementia. As a result of their failing will power, a lot of old fears, other negative emotions, bad temper and character defects come up. Their will power did not change them, but just held these negative things at bay.

This shows me that our will power can keep our negative emotions under control, at least sometimes, but it can’t change our character.
The same happens to us when we come under pressure in everyday life – our true self comes out and we are embarrassed about our behavior under stressful circumstances. This also happens to recovering addicts if they use cognitive approaches to overcome their cravings – this works fine as long as life runs smooth but as soon as the pressure is on (e.g. things don’t work out) this left brain oriented approach no longer works. Their (and our) good solutions go down the drain.

What we need is a character transformation that is right brain oriented. All the right information in the world, our intellect and the will are not capable of transforming us. If we want to see real transformation and the fruits of the spirit, for example, control our tongue or our cravings, we need to give the right brain what it needs to change – joy strength, relationships and belonging.

***

If you are interested in listening to the whole webinar, go to Deeper Walk International Resources Center – Webinars and scroll down to

Webinars by Jim Wilder

How Western Christianity Failed

Each webinar is available for $3.00. Once you have paid, you will receive a link to download or listen online to it.

Bible Giveaway

Each month from July to December Logos.com will give away 12 Bibles. That makes a total of 72 nice Bibles. Wow! Some of them are very classy and expensive.

This month they will be giving away the following Bibles:

1. ESV Study Bible, Black Calfskin (Retail $239.99) from Crossway
2. KJV Concord Wide Margin Reference, Black Goatskin (Retail $229.99) from Cambridge Bibles
3. NASB In Touch Ministries Wide Margin Edition, Burgundy Calfskin (Retail $149.99) from Lockman Foundation
4. NASB Large Print Ultrathin Reference, Black Calfskin (Retail $149.99) from Lockman Foundation
5. NASB Side Column Reference Wide Margin Limited Edition, Black Calfskin (Retail $149.99) from Lockman Foundation
6. NIV New Women’s Devotional, Espresso Renaissance Fine Leather (Retail $59.99) from Zondervan
7. NLT Tyndale Select, Black Calfskin (Retail $135.00) from Tyndale
8. NIV Study Bible, Black Goatskin (Retail $229.99) from Cambridge Bibles
9. NIV Study Bible, Black Renaissance Fine Leather (Retail $124.99) from Zondervan
10. NKJV UltraSlim Bible Signature Series, Black Calfskin (Retail $129.99) from Thomas Nelson
11. NLT Tyndale Select, Black Calfskin (Retail $135.00) from Tyndale
12. TNIV Reference Bible, Black Renaissance Fine Leather (Retail $99.99) from Zondervan

Quote:

Logos Bible Software is celebrating the launch of their new online Bible by giving away 72 ultra-premium print Bibles at a rate of 12 per month for six months. The Bible giveaway is being held at Bible.Logos.com and you can get up to five different entries each month! After you enter, be sure to check out Logos and see how it can revolutionize your Bible study.

Life Model Mondays

Have you ever attended a “Webinar”? It’s a seminar on the web. You can attend it from wherever you are. You only need a computer with an internet connection and speakers or headphones. You can even participate in the discussion by typing questions in a chat window.

On the next three Mondays Deeper Walk International offers three webinars on the Life Model and they are free. I have already participated in two similar webinars and really enjoyed them. It’s a unique opportunity – don’t let it pass! You can register for each Webinar separately. Just click on the “Register Now” link below each date.

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Monday, July 6 – What the Life Model Says About Belonging

Dr. Jim Wilder, Ed Khouri, Chris & Jen Coursey

3:00pm to 4:00pm EDT

(2:00pm Central, 1:00pm Mountain, 12pm Pacific)

Register Now

Monday July 13 – Relational Brain Circuits & Your Intelligence

Dr. Jim Wilder

3:00pm to 4:00pm EDT

Register Now

Monday, July 20 – Addiction Prevention and Your Family, Lesson One

Ed Khouri

3:00pm to 4:00pm EDT

Register Now

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Space is limited.

Deeper Walk International sponsors these webinars and more! View their conferences, webinars & training!

There are also other Webinars which you can find here.

N.B. If you are in Europe 3pm EDT is 9pm West European Summer Time, or 7pm GMT.

Twitter conference

TIME brought an interesting article that describes a real-life conference on the topic of education reform and how it intertwined with the virtual reality of Twitter :

At first, all these tweets came from inside the room and were created exclusively by conference participants tapping away on their laptops or BlackBerrys. But within half an hour or so, word began to seep out into the Twittersphere that an interesting conversation about the future of schools was happening at #hackedu. A few tweets appeared on the screen from strangers announcing that they were following the #hackedu thread. Then others joined the conversation, adding their observations or proposing topics for further exploration.

Read the full article here: How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live – TIME >> Fascinating!

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Quote for the week

For this week I want to share a few quotes from Brother Lawrence (c 1614 – 1691) with you.

I walk before God simply, in faith, with humility and with love; and I apply myself diligently to do nothing and think nothing which may displease Him … and this without any other view than purely for the love of Him, and because He deserves infinitely more.

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In continuing the practice of conversing with God throughout each day, and quickly seeking His forgiveness when I fell or strayed, His presence has become as easy and natural to me now as it once was difficult to attain.
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The most excellent method of going to God is that of doing our common business without any view of pleasing people but purely for the love of God.

(found on Practice God’s Presence.com)

Brother Lawrence became known for “practicing God’s presence.” His letters and conversations were later published in “Practicing His Presence” which can be downloaded from Gutenberg.org or from Christian Classics Ethereal Library here.

Life Model

Maybe you have wondered about this Life Model I keep talking about. The Life Model is “a new paradigm for spiritual and psychological health.” It was first described in  “The Life Model: Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You” by Dr. James G. Friesen, et.al. which is still the basic book on this topic, even though there is much more to it than this little booklet can cover. It is the basis of the ministry and teaching of Dr. Jim Wilder and others at the Shepherd’s House in Pasadena, CA.

I first heard about their approach in 2006 from a friend and since then read several of their publications. Last year I had the opportunity to attend their teaching classes for the first time. I have already profited so much from their teaching and ministry and can highly recommend them. Their ministry approach is a very interesting combination of their counseling experience and insights from brain science which can be helpful for any Christian to grow in their maturity and help others grow.

They also have a lot of experience in working with abuse victims and with all kinds of other areas in counseling. Their different branches of ministry are all focused on helping people break the unhealthy patterns that result from childhood trauma and other hurts. They do this by helping people learn important brain or maturity skills that we missed to learn when growing up. I believe that this can be profitable for anybody, not just for those who have experienced problems.

You can find more information on:

Shepherd’s House (counseling center)
Life Model, Living from the heart Jesus gave you (book)
Thriving (their recovery program, developed by Ed Kouri together with Jim Wilder)
Thrive (their training conferences, organized by Chris and Jen Coursey together with others from Shepherd’s House)
Immanuel approach (developed by Dr. Karl Lehman in collaboration with Jim Wilder)

On these webpages you will find plenty of material to read, as well as contact addresses for counseling and training.

The class on Belonging that I have frequently mentioned in my posts is part of the Thriving program. In total there are five modules, of which I have now attended four, even though not in the right order. I have profited from each of them. This is why I try to share some of the good stuff here on this blog.