Dr Paul Allen

Two weeks before Christmas, my heart stopped. Seated next to me in a congregational meeting, my wife sees me close my eyes and slump. After a few seconds, the old ticker providentially revives “on its own.” It happens four times during that meeting. Maybe I’m just too inactive, I think. Perhaps if I get up and walk around a bit, I can get the juices flowing, and whatever is going on will clear up. While I’m pacing in the church lobby, one of the elders says he doesn’t think I look quite right. I call my physician, and he recommends that I get to the emergency room for an evaluation. I’m not to drive myself. In the emergency room, the surgeon hooks me up to a bunch of wires and asks a whole battery of questions to diagnose what’s going on. “Are there heart problems in your family?” “Yes, my dad died of a heart attack at 60. So did his dad.” “But do you feel pain?” “None.” “Did you feel dizzy?” “Not really. The room wasn’t spinning. I wasn’t nauseous.” “Did you pass out?” “Not really. I ...

In a time of tumult and crisis, a bishop writes to encourage his friends and colleagues in ministry. There is much to discourage them: their perceived lack of ability; biblical and theological illiteracy in their congregations; interruptions to their busy schedules; and scandals rocking the church. As he writes, he looks for a golden thread that will tie together his advice and will call them back to faithfulness in their task. That bishop was Augustine of Hippo. Though he wrote a millennium and a half ago, his words ring true today. In a remarkable section of Instructing Beginners in Faith, “How to Avoid Discouragement,” Augustine addresses a number of challenges pastors face. He binds his encouragements together under one theme: the call to follow Christ in the simple and humble work of love. His advice is timeless, and we would do well to listen to it. Communication It worries us what was imbibed by the mind in one swift draught takes long and convoluted by-ways as it comes to expre...

Depression and discouragement are not respecters of the holidays. For many reasons, the normal sorrow of life can reach a highpoint this time of year for some. It may be a reminder that we are without a loved one. It may be financial stress, or loss, in a time where the pressure is to purchase. It might be emotional pressure of getting together with a broken family. We just may not have a clue why we are discouraged, which can be discouraging itself. We can, even unintentionally, place big demands on this time of year to deliver and fulfil us in impossible ways, apart from God. And Christmas time or not, many of us experience the normal, heavyweight of discouragement and depression as a regular thing; dejection, confusion, frustration, sadness, hopelessness, anxiousness, anger, darkness, despair. But God has answers and real hope from his word for the battle. Here are 11 truths for strength in sorrow: Especially during the depression, our souls are thirsty for God. Plac...

The enemy of your hope and happiness hunts with that instinct of a lion, with a cold-hearted and ruthless hunger for the weak or hurting. Satan prowls like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). And because he’s clever, he spends a lot of his time among the suffering. He lies in wait with lies, wanting to consume the fragile and vulnerable. A School for Suffering Peter knew what it felt like for Satan to pounce on him in difficult circumstances, to find himself suddenly gasping and drowning in temptation, to lack the strength to fight and to be overcome. He abandoned and denied Jesus on the night he died — not once, but three times (Luke 22:60). Like a wounded or sick infant deer pitifully trying to escape a mountain lion, the once confident and strong Peter became the defenseless prey. But before Jesus hung on the cross, he had prayed for Peter, that his faith would not fail, and that his ministry would rise again from the ashes of fear and defeat. “Si...

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) From time to time over the centuries some Christians have taught, sometimes with tragic consequences, that a truly spiritual person never gets discouraged. To be cast down is, by definition, to be 'unspiritual.' Unless we are well-grounded in Scripture, it is very easy for us to be overwhelmed, confused, and even more discouraged by such teaching. This teaching certainly seems logical: if the gospel saves us, it must save us from discouragement! It also appears to be wonderfully spiritual. After all, are we not 'more than conquerors through him who loved us' (Rom. 8:37)? But this is not biblical logic, nor is it true spirituality . The gospel saves us from death, not by removing death, but by helping us to face it in the power of Christ 's victory and thus to overcome it. So, too, with sin. And similarly with discouragement. Faith in Christ does not remove all of the causes of discouragement; rather, it...