Dealing with Depression

Friends, we've got a wake-up call for you today, plus some encouraging news about depressed people in the Bible.

It's 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Friends, we're going to do what we're called to do. We're going to do what we're called to do on the air. We're going to be your voice of moral sanity and spiritual clarity today. And you'll be encouraged and uplifted in the process, but you'll be stirred as well.

This is Michael Brown. Welcome to the broadcast 866-34-TRUTH, 866-34-87884. At the bottom of the hour, we're going to shift topics and speak with the author of a brand new book on depressed people in the Bible. So if you struggle with depression, if you struggle just with being down and melancholy and discouraged, I believe you'll be encouraged by the interview and by the broadcast today.

But we're going to deal with some urgent matters in the world around us first, if you'd like to call in, 866-34-TRUTH. Let me be as plain as I can be plain. There is a reason that I have been sounding the alarm and raising my voice for many years now about radical LGBTQ activism. It is not out of hatred. It is not out of malice. To the contrary, it is out of love and it is out of a heart for truth.

It is out of a desire to see what is best for everyone in the way that God has set things up because he set things up for human thriving. There is a reason we've been pouring these things out for years and years. I would much rather deal with other topics. I would much rather deal with other subjects.

I don't mean pour me. I'm just saying this is not my choice. It was my choice to just be teaching the Word and writing commentaries and making disciples and stirring revival in the hearts of people and traveling all around the world and working with our missionaries. If I was just pressing a button and making a choice, I wouldn't deal with issues like LGBTQ activism, issues where you're going to get hated for doing it, issues where people are going to think you hate them, where you're going to alienate people and they're going to feel hurt by words that you speak. And if you speak with love and having to read types of things that are disturbing and distressing, it's not my thing that I'm into, but I do this out of burden before the Lord.

I do this out of calling and I do it in that sense grateful to God that I can be part of the solution and call you together to be part of the solution to bring about positive change. You say, well, what are you talking about now? Let me share with you a quote from G.K. Chesterton. If you've never read Chesterton, what an incredible thinker and author from last century. Listen to what Chesterton said. He said so again, he died, what, before World War Two?

I mean, long time back, right? We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which furious party cries will be raised against anybody who says that cows have horns, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three sided figure and hang a man from maddening mob with the news that grass is green. Yeah. Think about that, friends, for speaking the truth, as George Orwell said, that that will become a revolutionary act. That's where we're at in society today. People can be punished. They can be canceled.

They can lose jobs. They can be blacklisted for simply speaking truth and saying two plus two equals four. Look at what Francis Schaeffer wrote in 1968, 68. This is before the Stonewall Riots, before the rise of modern gay activism. But much modern homosexuality is an expression of the current denial of antithesis. It has led in this case to an obliteration of the distinction between man and woman.

So the male and the female as complementary partners are finished. He wrote this in 1968. Think of that insight.

And then he added this. He said it is imperative that Christians realize the conclusions which are being drawn as a result of the death of absolutes. Nineteen sixty eight nailed it. The death of absolutes, the death of distinction between male and female. You say, well, what's prompting you to talk about this today? Well, pretty much the news almost every day. The news from state after state that the news for the push for the Equality Act, so-called Equality Act, which would gut religious liberties in America and be unfair to women and others.

This is something we could talk about every single day. But check this out. CNN has now said that there is no agreed scientific way to determine or assign gender at birth. The CNN reporting utter madness.

So in response, Molly Hemingway tweeted this. Remember when the propaganda outlet CNN ran an ad campaign about facts called This is an Apple. This is a banana. Maybe they should work on this is a penis.

This is a vagina. And referring to this quote from CNN, it's not possible to know a person's gender identity at birth. And there is no consensus criteria for assigning sex at birth.

This is madness. There is no consensus criteria for saying that's a boy or that's a girl at birth. And this is just being tweeted out as if it is news. Here, check this out. Evolutionary biologist Colin Wright, so not a religious fundamentalist.

Here's this is his reply to CNN. He says, observing genitalia is the consensus criteria for determining one's sex at birth. That's how you figure it out. It's a boy.

It's a girl. Same with an ultrasound. He said it is inaccurate only about zero point zero one eight percent of the time. That's approximately the same likelihood that a coin will land on its edge when flipped.

So not less than one one hundredth of a time, but less than two one thousandth of a time. When you look at the genitalia, you will make a mistake about whether the child is male or female because of some other genetic problem or issue or abnormality. Friends, this is the madness that we're dealing with today. Here, Ali Beth Stuckey tweeted this. She said, we live in a literal clown world where the elites pretend not to know what it means to be a man or a woman. The only way to maintain your sanity is to reject this absolute nonsense everywhere you see it. And friends, this is everywhere.

This is out there. This is why we've been sounding the alarm for years and years and years. It's not just a matter of people being confused. It's not just a matter of people having struggles.

We want to have compassion. It's about an agenda trying to overturn reality. And then with that confusing more and more young people who are impressionable and often struggling with other issues in their own lives or young girls or your teen girls unhappy with their bodies. Maybe this isn't wrong.

Maybe I'm really a boy trapped in a girl's body. All this confusion is leading to destruction of lives. And with it, when it becomes normalized, then it's the crackdown against those who differ.

All right. Sophia Bush, actress I'm not familiar with, but she's got three point seven million followers on Instagram. And she put out a wide-ranging post the other day, as I'm looking at it's got over eighty two thousand likes.

And the end of the post, she said this. Trans kids are under attack across the country. Arkansas just banned them from accessing health care.

This is tantamount to murder. Kids will tell us who they are. It's our job to support them, not demonize or harm them. Each of these issues that she listed needs advocates.

How will you stand up, show up and speak up? So what happened in the state of Arkansas, they said no, no hormonal treatments for, let's say, a 10 year old girl thinks she's a boy. You cannot give her hormones to block the onset of puberty or cross sex hormones to prepare, say, a 13 or 14 year old for sex change surgery at the earliest opportunity.

You can't do that. Thank God. This is sanity. This is avoiding child abuse. This is avoiding kids making decisions that they cannot possibly have the ability to make at that age. Do I think Sophia Bush cares? I don't know her at all, but I assume she cares. I assume she genuinely cares about the well-being of children. I assume that she believes that if these kids can't get the medical intervention that they desire or doctors tell them they need or their parents recommend, whatever it is, that it will lead them down a path where they commit suicide.

I believe, giving her the benefit of the doubt, I have no reason not to think this, that she genuinely cares. But this idea, kids tell us who they are. Friends, there's a reason when you have a four year old that you're the one driving the car and the four year old is in the car seat in the back of the car.

There's a reason for that. There's a reason that when your six year old goes to kindergarten or first grade, that they're sitting there with a desk and taking down notes or learning to write letters and the adult is teaching them. There's a reason you don't hand them the keys to the car. There's a reason you don't give a 10 year old the right to vote or a 14 year old the right to carry a gun or to join the army. And a reason that you don't let your kids get married at 13. Children, by nature of being children, do not have the capacity to understand these types of lifelong decisions. I think of the idiotic, ridiculous, stupid things I did at 14 and 15 and 16 and then newly born again at 16. I'm glad that I did not have the option then to make life altering decisions for the rest of my life in terms of something to my physical body.

Glad I did not have that option to do, especially before I was saved. But I mean, who knows what people do. And the whole thing with parents is you help your kids through childhood. You're the ones to say, no, no, you're not really a horse and you play your, but you're not really a horse, that's why you have to sleep in the bed and not in the barn. You help the little child understand that.

You say, no, no, no, it's different. Kids understand their gender identity. Then why is it that 75, 80, 85, 90 percent of children who identify as transgender no longer do after puberty? You say, well, many identify as gay or lesbian or bisexual. OK, OK, but that's not transgender. That's not life altering physical decisions. That's that's not a child sterilizing themselves with drugs. That's not the 16 year old having a mastectomy.

Something crazy like that. No, no, the kids don't tell us who they are. The parents help the children develop rightly. It's one thing when the kid says, I don't feel well, I'm sick today. It's another thing when the kid says I'm a boy trapped in a girl's body.

You help them from the inside out. Friends, society is going mad around us. We must stand firm for the good of our children, for the good of this generation and for the freedoms of the next generation.

That's why we speak up. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the line of fire. Remember, the bottom of the hour, we'll be talking about depressed people in the Bible.

I think you'll find it helpful overall and encouraging. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-34-87-884. Friends, it was 2004, 2004, that God burdened me about the rising tide of homosexual activism and then began to break my heart for those who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, was not as major then. God began to burden me for the people, for the issues.

Spoke to my heart as the months unfolded. Reach out and resist. Reach out to the people with compassion. Resist the agenda. Put another way, we need hearts of compassion with backbones of steel. These have become foundational issues in our ministry that we deal with.

Again, when I asked the Lord back in 2004, why me? I don't come out of homosexuality. I've never had gender identity issues. Never had a particular burden to reach those in the homosexual community. My training is not related to this. My PhD is not in counseling or family therapy or anything like that.

It's in Near Eastern languages and literatures. Why me? I wasn't running from it, just trying to understand. When God raised me up to do Jewish apologetics and to debate rabbis, there really wasn't anyone else that was doing it at that time. There was a real need. There was a void. We had so many Jewish evangelists, Jews for Jesus kind of groups.

We had folks doing research behind the scenes. We had some Orthodox Jews that had become believers from previous generations, but that was past their time. There just was a need.

There was a void. And when God called me to fill that void, it made sense. I am Jewish. I've been talking to rabbis since the early months when I was a new believer.

I've got my degrees in Hebrew and Semitic languages. God's given me grace to be a debater. So it made sense. But why this?

Why this calling? And that's when I understood. That's when it became plain to me that this is not one that we get to sit out. In other words, this is going to affect believers across America. Leaders from all backgrounds will be needed. From a local pastor, to a godly parent, to an educator, to those working in social media, to politicians. This is the generational crisis that we're facing in terms of how to deal with LGBTQ plus.

And I say that just to emphasize how this never ends. Deal with people with God's love and deal with issues with God's truth, both with truth and love. We don't get to sit this out. So here, I want to encourage you, though, if we stand, if we push back, God will give grace. If we determine in Jesus name that we will not bow down, we will not capitulate, we will not give in to the gods of this age, to the norms of the culture, to the PC spirit, to cancel culture, that we will not bow down to that. We bow down to one Lord only, and if we get rejected, hated, vilified, maligned for it, so be it. We bow down to King Jesus only.

There'll be freedom, there'll be liberty. If we say, look, I care about people, but I can't compromise my convictions for the sake of convenience, for the sake of a job, for the sake of a promotion. No, I can't do that. We keep your tithes. No, I'm sorry, I can't do that. I have to please the Lord.

Well, friends, there will be consequences, but there'll be blessing. Let me give you an example. Check out this article posted on RedState. It's on a number of other websites. Professors win in transgender case as bad news for cancel culture warriors. So let's scroll down into this article and see what actually happened. If one reads only social media, they may come away with the idea that the world is now finally and forever at the mercy of cancel culture and social justice warriors with no room left for traditional values or rational discourse on difficult topics. However, a court case in Ohio between a professor and a transgender student he quote misgendered in class should make proponents of the latter see a little light on the horizon. To be clear, that's less because it's disrespectful of people and how they wish to identify and more because it's a win. A win in the battle of cancel culture should someone run afoul innocently or as in this case because it goes against religious beliefs, whatever the current often fickle rules of the culture war happen to be at any given time. In short, if you call a transgender person by their own pronoun, this case proves there are still courts in this country that will allow you to sue on certain grounds if the culture warriors come after you. And then the facts of the case.

I'll just scroll down a little further. In the unanimous ruling, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that Shawnee State University violated Professor Nicholas Meriwether's rights of free speech and free exercise of religion by punishing him for resisting school rules that forced him to address students in terms of their choosing, the terms of their choosing. Meriwether, a philosophy professor and devout Christian, sued Shawnee State, claiming that its mandate to use terms that conflict with biology infringed on his religious belief that gender is fixed from the moment of conception. The court's decision, written by a judge appointed to the bench by President Trump and issued Friday, upheld Meriwether's argument.

Quote, the First Amendment interests are especially strong here because Meriwether's speech also relates to his core religious and philosophical beliefs Judge Amil Thapar wrote in a 32-page decision. Meriwether apparently referred to a transgender student as Mr. instead of Ms. in 2016. After the student complained he was reprimanded in 2018 by the school, his win before a federal appeals court clears him to seek damages presumably that might have resulted from that reprimand.

Okay, so you get the picture that in his mind he was being told to do something that would cause him to compromise his convictions, deny his religious beliefs and act contrary to truth by referring to a male, a biological male, as a female. When he wouldn't and couldn't do that he was reprimanded by the school. There are teachers who have been fired, school teachers literally fired for doing that. That in good conscience they cannot tell their class, okay, you know, eight-year-old kids maybe in second grade, we just want you to know that Jane is now Joe and you refer to him now as Joe and say him instead of her and Joe will be using the boys bathroom. Couldn't do that in conscience, they've been fired. Here's someone pushed back, said that you do not have the right to dictate that.

We'll be respectful to everyone and gracious towards everyone and try to help people in the midst of whatever situation they find themselves in in an amicable way. But you cannot force us, you cannot require certain speech from us that is contrary to truth, contrary to reality, contrary to biological fact and contrary to religious convictions. And here's a court saying you bet the school cannot compel you. Look, friends, we've talked about Professor Jordan Peterson when he was just one of tens of thousands of college professors in Canada whose name most all of us would never know. That when Canada said, okay, here's the new bill and this is going to require certain speech like this across the country, when he pushed back people said, no, no, it's not what it really means, it's not what it intends to mean. He pushed back because he had studied communistic systems for years and understood the perils of state enforced speech codes, not just telling you what you can't say, that's bad enough, but what you must say, that's even worse.

So he pushed back. But what happens to him? Well, he becomes an international celebrity. His writing is now read by millions and millions and millions of people, his videos watched by millions and millions of people. So he goes from just being a professor at a college, stands up for what's right, and next thing, his voice is being heard all around the world.

Now, in some other cases, someone takes a stand, maybe in a village in Nigeria, won't deny Jesus, and they're beheaded for it. They don't become an international star. They become a star in the eyes of heaven.

They become highly esteemed in the eyes of heaven and great is their reward forever. Sometimes you suffer loss and that loss goes on for years, but you bear the reproach, it's the reproach of obedience. But friends, this is how we overcome. This is how we overcome by refusing to bow the knee to the culture. We're respectful, we're gracious, we're not mean, nasty, we're not condemning, we simply act on our convictions. When we refuse to bow to the culture and bow only to the Lord, we're free. We're free. No one can threaten us because we've already died. We've died to this world, we've died to its power, we've died to its appeal, we've died to its prestige, we live to do the will of God.

That's it. And if that gets us hatred and scorn, we rejoice because we're being treated the way Jesus was and great is our reward in heaven. If it opens a greater door and platform, wonderful, then we speak all the more loudly and clearly. And either way, no matter what hatred we receive, we don't respond with hatred. And while we work with the political system, you bet, by all means, contact your elected officials and urge them to vote against the Equality Act by all means.

Absolutely. While we work in the political system, when we vote our convictions, we don't put our trust in that system to bring about righteous change. That's got to come from God's people living this out. That's got to come from our hands being clean and our hearts being pure. That's got to come from us loving God and loving our neighbor.

That's got to come from us being revived and with that fresh revival and our hearts touching those around us. So let's stand. Let's stand strong. Let us be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. And as we come back and talk about depressed people in the Bible and dealing with depression, I understand, not from personal experience, but from what I've read, that real serious depression is in the natural, almost impossible to get out of. But God.

But God. So we're going to encourage you. First, the call to stand and now some encouragement to follow.

We'll be right back. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks, friends, for joining us on the line of fire. This is Michael Brown. And like many radio hosts, TV hosts, we get lots and lots of books sent to us really every week from different publishers, different authors. We have this guest on and we don't do a lot of interviews just because of limited time and the things that we want to cover. So either the author has to be someone I know and really want to get on or the book title gets my attention.

And this is one of those. When I saw the book came in, I thought, now, this is interesting. So Jeff Zaremski, involved in Messianic Jewish ministry, pastoral ministry and other work, has written the book Depressed People of the Bible. And Jeff, thanks for writing the book and thanks for joining us today on the line of fire.

Oh, it's my privilege. I'm really thankful to be on with you. And I followed you as a Jewish believer for many years. What God has done for you. Well, thanks.

My joy to have you. Well, what on earth prompted you to write this book? Well, a number of years ago, my mother suffered with depression and she was in a counseling session with a believer. And he used Jonah as an example to help her out. And that stuck in the back of my mind.

That was back 30 years ago or more. And and then so as preaching and studying the Bible, I saw there were a lot of people in the Bible who suffered from depression. And then, of course, knowing there's a lot of people in our world suffering from depression. I thought to be helpful for those that are suffering from depression to know that they're not alone and that people from the Bible, times famous ones, popular ones, ones that God used mightily also at times suffered from depression.

Hmm. So so when you went in and started studying this, were you surprised to find that there were more figures? I mean, I think of Elijah struggled right after confronted by Jezebel after one of the greatest high points.

You know, he struggled. And maybe off the top of our head, we can think of one or two. But were you surprised with what you discovered? Yes, I was. Yeah. And then there's some, you know, like Judas, you know, it's all commit suicide. So we see those obviously. But then to see, yes, some people like like Elijah and Moses and David and Jeremiah.

Yes, it is. It was, you know, pretty eye opening. All right. So what would you say for someone that's that's listening to this broadcast and they struggle with depression, either occasionally in very deep ways or it's an ongoing thing in their lives or they find themselves just stuck in a terrible rut right now. What are some of the practical things that you learned in writing Depressed People of the Bible?

Well, yeah, a couple of things. One, there are bad depression and there's good depression. Right. So now all depression is bad and needs to be avoided.

Right. If someone in our family dies, a close loved one dies. My spouse dies when my my grandma, my grandfather died and my grandmother went for her regular checkup to her regular position. And he said, how are you doing? Well, I'm depressed. And so he wants to prescribe her on depression medicine.

And she didn't do it. But, you know, it's wrong to be depressed when your spouse of more than 50 years die. Right. That's normal to go through the grieving process and feeling down and feeling bummed out about it. So there are times that we should be rejoiced and there's times when we should cry.

Right. So it's not always bad. It's sometimes normal to be depressed. And some of the people that we read about in the Bible experience some of that normal depression, that healthy depression. And then another aspect that I think is important for people to realize is that depression is not a lifelong doesn't have to be a lifelong diagnosis. Depression is is really just a constellation of symptoms.

Right. It's not a disease. It's not a permanent disability like you're losing a leg. Well, we can have a prosthesis leg.

We'll never grow back the real leg. Depression is not like that. While we fall into even a clinical depression, we can come out of it and then be restored to how we were before. And even better because God is able to heal us of that. Got it.

All right. So some people might think that it's just physiological, genetic, chemical imbalance. And I'm always destined to be like this. But you're saying that that depression, as it affects our emotions or our spirits, that there there are God given solutions that can liberate us from it. Give me some some hope from scripture. Give me an example or a scriptural principle that would help somebody right now that doesn't see light at the end of the tunnel. It's not mourning the death of of a loved one or they're in an ongoing bankruptcy thing that's draining them every day.

And, you know, they have an appearing court day and night. But just there, they're in a deep rut. They're in a funk.

They're stuck. Give us some encouragement or principle from depressed people of the Bible. Yes. So there are one of the things that that is encouraging is is seeing how people from the Bible and others. We have a lot of testimonies in the book about modern people who suffered from various different types of depression and who were liberated from it by God's power. So that's encouraging. Just seeing that others have walked my path and have found the way out of the cave.

Right. So out of the darkness and into God's glorious light. So that is encouraging. And then through the Bible, there are wonderful promises, tons and tons of promises from God, like from Isaiah 26, verse three. You referring to God, you will keep him in perfect peace.

Whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. That's a powerful promise. And that's important for us to keep those type of promises in mind. Now, Jeff. Yeah.

Go ahead. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. We can claim those promises. How do you claim them?

What does that what does that mean? Help somebody that doesn't understand how to claim a promise. Let's say you're struggling in your own life and you're looking at what the word says and the promises of God and you seem unable to grasp all them. How does someone claim a promise like that? Someone in your congregation struggling?

How would you counsel them? Yeah, I very much appreciate that question, Dr. Brown, because that's very practical. Right.

I'd like to get practical with it. And that's that's important. Right. And in the book, we try and make it very practical. So like, here's an example from that when I quoted Isaiah 26, verse three. What a person can do is put themselves in the text itself.

Right. And then they expand on it, make their own like amplified Bible verse. So here you will keep him in perfect peace.

His mind is stayed on you because he trusts. And the person can read it saying, you, Lord God Almighty, you created the heavens and the earth, your overall things. You are all mighty. Know all things. You know the end from the beginning.

You've helped people in the past. You are able to keep me. And then read the rest of the verse.

And then the next time read it through emphasizing the second word. You will. You will definitely do it. You promise to do it. You will do it. And what you say you will do. I claim that because you say so.

Right. And then the third word, you will keep permanently forever, day by day, moment by moment, second by second. You will keep me in perfect peace as my. So praying through the Bible that way, praying the text and making it personal and putting yourself into the text is a very powerful way of claiming God's promise.

Yeah, I love that idea of of of emphasizing word by word. You know, do it one day, emphasizing who God is and then the nature of the promise and the certainty of the promise and break it down. I'm sitting here listening. I'm getting edified.

I mean, I I'm in good spirits, you know, but I'm sitting here listening and I'm getting edified as you as you speak about that. Now, the front cover, go ahead. Normal basis, like with a warranty, we can look at these promises of God's promise, God's warranty, right?

So if I I bought something, I bought a car and it had a year warranty or whatever three year warranty and something broke down that was within the warranty. I go back and I say, you fix it. And they say, we're not going to wait. I got this piece of paper.

I got this warranty. Right. So you can take God's word and say, look, it says right here, God, you've got a fulfilled and holy promise, not that he's not willing to and not wanting to, but it's the struggle is against the devil also that resist.

Right. And there's ourselves. The struggle is not against God. It's struggling with God. I like Jacob struggling with God to become that overcomer. Yeah, and that's that's how we grow in the in the process. That's why God puts us in this journey. The front cover of the book is I was looking at it. There's a there's there's an empty tomb.

There is bright sun shining. How does Yeshua's resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus, undergird hope in our lives? How can it be personal and a foundation on which we build? Because he lives, right? If he stayed in the tomb, we really wouldn't have much hope. But he lived. God's lived. He's the resurrection. He has overcome the world. He has overcome sin.

He is our example. He walked this life on earth. And there's a whole chapter on him because he also, in his humanity, suffered from depression. Not clinical depression, but he went through he went through grief, right? He went through times when things were not so great. He's there in the Garden of Gethsemane. He struggled.

Not my will, your will be done. And he struggled. He struggled in prayer. He struggled in surrender. He struggled in death to self, like you mentioned earlier on in the program.

He struggled with that, but he surrendered. And by God's power, he found he gets he got the victory in his humanity. And then he dies. He goes to the physical death, the second death for us. And then he's resurrected. And so he has been there. He's done that for us. He understands. He was tempted in all ways, like as we are. He's thrown the path for us, and we can follow his blood-stained path straight to heaven.

Because he lives, because he's resurrected, we can have the assurance he is with us and walking with us today, and he will carry us through. Amen. It's reality, friends. And when that reality floods your life, it changes your attitude. Depression does flee. And there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Jeff, we've just got about a minute before the break. But you're not just an author. You're a pastor. Have you seen people long-term changed through these biblical principles, where they used to really struggle with depression, and it's a thing of the past in their lives?

Oh, yes, yes. I've seen people who were suicidal. I've seen people who were cutting themselves. And God has set them free and liberated them now. 20, 30 years ago, there was one lady I know. She was a young child. She had a minister for her father, and he not only would abuse her, but he sold her. Sometimes the other ministers would be abused. Yes, horrible, right?

Horrible, unthinkable. But God has miraculously healed her. She is a powerful witness, and she uses that horrible past experience in ministering to other people.

And so, yes, God is able to totally transform. Amen. All right, friends, get a copy of the book, Depressed People of the Bible. Jeff, thanks for writing the book, and thanks for your ministry.

May many be set free through it. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much.

All right. Depressed People of the Bible. That's the name of the book.

You can get it online. That's for your local bookstore, Jeff Zaremski, Z-A-R-E-M-S-K-Y. We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Let me share something with you, especially if you've tuned into the broadcast today, struggling with depression or with a loved one that's struggling with depression. I'm not a professional counselor.

You understand that. But over the decades of ministry, of course, you've ministered to people in all kinds of situations, and the word of God addresses every major need in human life. And if if if hope can be infused, if there is real hope that that the future is bright or God's with you or simply that he's for you, sometimes just that one ray of solid hope changes everything. You know, for example, if you were going through an absolutely horrific season of life and let's say you're you're a young married woman. You've just had your third miscarriage in two years. And the doctors are telling you it's unlikely you'll ever have children of your own. And, you know, think about adoption, et cetera.

And, you know, all your life since you were a little little girl, you could think about wanting to have babies and have children. And you feel, you know, the enemies messing with your mind. You're beating yourself up. You feel I'm a failure.

What's wrong with me? I'm disappointed. My husband. I mean, all this junk that you're just getting hit with. Right.

No matter how encouraging your husband is and those around you. And hey, it's fine that adopt kids will be great. And for some, that is the path. And adoption has been great. Well, if if you in the midst of that pain, so you're suffering the loss, that loss is real. The loss of those kids by miscarriage. That's real.

And you'll never forget that. And you look forward to the day when you can see those children in the world to come. But if you in the midst of that depression and feeling of hopelessness saw yourself giving birth to one set of twins and three other healthy kids over a period of the next five years. And you see there, you just have this vision of the future and you're running around the house and your father chasing your husband, chasing the kids and all this. And and there you are holding the baby you just birthed. Even though that pain of the miscarriages is going to be there and it's real, suddenly that hope that everything would change.

Everything would change. If you feel you've completely failed in what you're doing, maybe felt called in ministry and and just felt like a failure. And I'll never live up to God's calling. And and he just shows you a glimpse of the future, kind of with his arm around you saying, that's my boy. That's my boy. I'm with him.

That's my boy. It changes everything. So I'm not talking about a false hope. I'm not talking about manufacturing something that's not there. But I am saying this, that if you can grab hold of the spiritual reality that God is with you and that in him your future is blessed, it'll change everything.

And you say, well, how do I get hold of that? Well, if there is known sin and rebellion in your life, you have to turn from it. In other words, if you are let's say you've left your wife and you're living in an adulterous relationship and feeling depressed. Well, I'm glad you're feeling depressed. You should you feel miserable and break that off and plead for forgiveness from your family and try to make things right. Yeah. And get to the root of the sin that drove you away.

So it's not repeated again. By all means, feeling miserable. That's a good thing.

Go ahead. Feel miserable. And then with that, let there be repentance. But if there's not some blatant disobedience in your life because of which God's blessing cannot be poured out on you. All you do is you look to the cross when I say, oh, yeah, I'm not making it like this is an easy thing.

OK, but set your heart not on yourself, but on the Lord and who he is. When he died for you on the cross, did he know every sin you commit? Did he know every failure?

Yes. And he died for you. And he said his love on you. And I know is some years back, Nancy, my wife, Nancy, was really seeking the Lord earnestly and pressing through in certain areas where she wanted to get hold of God in a deeper way.

Because, you know, the real, real serious change. It has to be there has to be hunger, thirst, desire. It doesn't just fall on your head like ripe fruit from a tree. And she was just pressing in and going after the Lord and pressing in and going after the Lord. And she so wanted to take hold of the reality of his character that she printed out hundreds of verses about the nature of God. And literally every single day would read through those verses on her knees until her mind was renewed and her heart took hold of it. There's just one promise in scripture, as Jeff mentioned, from depressed people of the Bible, just one verse from scripture. And you prayed that through that promise the way he suggested, you know, every day put an emphasis on a different word in it.

You know, you may have to be a phrase within it and take hold of it. And then this hope rises. I don't want to have a false hope. Hope in God is never false. Hope in the one true God through Jesus is never false. Jesus, Yeshua, has risen from the dead, being celebrated in the midst of the Passover Easter season. He has risen. Ultimately, that's all I need to know if I'm in right relationship with God and I know Jesus rose. That's it.

That's all I need to know. And I can live rejoicing the rest of my life through anything. May those realities take hold of you. May they take hold of you. May God's grace be poured into you. In Jesus, you are an overcomer, more than a conqueror.

Don't listen to the devil's lies. Hope starting to rise from your hearts. Take hold of it, friends.

Take hold of it. Amen. All right. I want to shift gears here and read an apology to you. To you. Let's let's read. Let's restart that. I want to shift gears and read a heartfelt apology that was sent to me.

And my ministry team passed on to me this week. Let me read this to you. Dr. Brown, I owe you an apology.

And the gentleman identified himself by name. Please forgive me for the things I have wrote to you on social media. I've been harsh in my words towards you in regard to the elections. I confess I become blinded by these elections. I became more passionate for Trump than I was for God for a season.

Because of that, I attacked opposing views. I'm sorry. I love your ministry. And I'm in full support of all you do.

God bless. And I will again start to financially support your ministry like I used to in the past. So, of course, we sent a note back assuring them of complete forgiveness and appreciating this integrity and humility and understand how people got caught up in things. And when I warned about getting caught up and when I warned about looking to a man in an unhealthy way, many were upset and lashed out. And I understand it's a volatile time, an intense time. And many are so grieved by where the left is going and wants to go that the elections felt like kind of life or death for the nation and and and so on. And I understand how things got intense.

And that's also why I kept saying, hey, we've got to keep our focus where it belongs. Jesus is the only hope of America. The political system is not going to save us or do a lot of damage.

You do good. It's not going to save us. We need a deeper work.

We need God to work. So we've been hearing from folks just like this dear brother who wrote in. And you have to understand my concern is not me. My concern is you. I'm blessed by the Lord.

I'm his child and I'm blessed by the Lord. But I'm on the radio. I'm on Internet. I'm on TV.

I'm writing. So as to be a blessing to you and help to you in order to serve you and encourage you and strengthen you and equip you. And if you're angry with me, if you if you feel that I'm speaking wrongly or whatever, then I'm not able to help you. So I don't I don't mind the arrows coming my way. I've said it many, many times. It's part of my calling.

It's part of my calling to have arrows coming me from every angle, day and night. My concern is how can I reach and help and edify and bless and strengthen you? Over on our Facebook page, which is our largest social media platform, we went maybe from five hundred ninety thousand people to five hundred eighty thousand people. So we lost, you know, a percent or two of followers there. And a lot of it was in the aftermath of of me coming after QAnon conspiracy theories in the aftermath of warning that we were looking to a man in an unhealthy way. In the aftermath of me saying that that we had become politicized and draped the gospel in the American flag, giving warnings like that. We got a lot of flak, a lot of people angry.

And then a certain percentage dropped out. Hey, we're going to honor the Lord either way. We're going to do what we believe is right in his sight either way.

We don't like losing people. But hey, Jesus lost large crowds, went down to small crowd and then people fled when he was crucified. So having numbers is not necessarily proof of favor.

And the biggest numbers of anyone on the Internet are people in the world, you know, celebrity or sports star, someone like that. Right. So our goal is not to impress people with numbers. Our goal is to to produce disciples and to equip people for the kingdom, whether it's three or 30 million. Either way, we're going to honor the Lord. But what I want to say is to all of you who had differences with me, but said, hey, we agree on the big things.

And you didn't drop off or like this dear brother said, hey, you know, we reacted against you. God blessed you because we are in this together. We do stand together as as one. And and it is by loving each other despite differences. Oh, I don't mean heresy.

I don't mean denying fundamental biblical truths. We're going to have differences. And sometimes we're going to rub each other the wrong way. And sometimes if I'm doing my job in God, I will say something that hits a button there.

Press a button in you and there's reaction. But but it's for good reason because we're uncovering something. So let's move forward together. Let's honor one another. Let's give respectful place to our differences. But then let's determine the devil will not divide us in Jesus name. We will stand as one around the cross and stand as one to make him known to a dying and lost world. God bless you.