# From the Editor FROM THE EDITOR Language: en Original issue: The Heartbeat of The Remnant, Fall 2018, Number 3 Source pages: 3, 9, 13 Read article: Original PDF: Fall\-2018\-Remnant\.pdf [The Heartbeat of The Remnant, Fall 2018]() ![]() Greetings to each of you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ\. Where has this year gone? It seems not that long since we were approaching the end of 2017\. Here in Ohio, the weather was quite interesting with an abundance of rain mixed with just the right amount of sunshine, affording the farmers’ crops to produce quite well\. One interesting fact is that here where we live it is getting close to November and the lawns are still lush and green\. In all my 47 years, I don’t remember ever that the lawns didn’t turn brown sometime during the hot, dry days of late summer\. For me, this is another “beauty” of God’s creation, almost as impressive as the colorful flowers of spring or the changing hues of the tree leaves in autumn\. ### Magazine Details This is now the ninth issue of the magazine\. Over the past number of issues, many of you have responded with notes of appreciation and encouragement\. Some have written about specific articles that have been an inspiration; others have given suggestion how we could consider making a change in the magazine for the betterment of all\. Numerous ones have told us they remember this ministry in prayer\. And many of you have continued to support this work financially\. Thank you, one and all\. Without the various means of support from each one we would not be where we are today\. We greatly appreciate the continued support of each one in the various ways God lays it on your heart\. As we think back over the past number of issues, we realize we have not done a very good job keeping you informed about what all is going on with the ministry and with our church\. When we took over the magazine in 2016, it had been out of print close to three years\. Thus, we were not sure how many of those on the original mailing list were still interested, or how many had moved, etc\. It took the first two or three issues to get all this sorted out, but surprisingly it was less than 2% that needed to be removed from our list\. Then interestingly enough, once that all leveled out, we had received enough new subscriptions that we never really dropped below our starting point and the number of readers has continued to increase with each issue\. Currently, we are sending out almost 5,000 copies each time we print a new issue\. Most of this goes to addresses in the U\.S\. and Canada, but we also have readers in many foreign countries as well\. This has gone well beyond all our expectations and we thank God for His guidance, direction, and provision in helping us thus far\. ### Our Reader Diversity As we continue to communicate with our readers that respond, it is interesting to get to know the specific situations unique to each one\. Many are in various groups within the conservative Anabaptist “plain people” of North America\. Others are in similar church groups in other parts of the world\. Some have left their home, family, and local church to share the Gospel with the lost in various foreign lands\. Numerous ones are worshipping alone, praying for a biblical church, yet not finding one in their local area\. Still others are a part of a small group or a house church, trying to serve God faithfully in that capacity\. Some of our readers are seekers, looking for something different than that which is everywhere—nominal Christianity\. They long to find others who are sold out to being obedient to God’s Word \(literally\) no matter the cost\. It is our privilege to endeavor to continue encouraging each one of you\. Some of you have requested that we start a column on Anabaptist church history and that we start featuring more testimonies of people’s lives that God has changed\. Others have requested that we print articles on specific topics addressing needs specific to individual situations\. We appreciate this type of feedback and recommendations and request that you continue to provide us with such\. As we are able, we plan to move in some of these directions\. ### Ministry Growth We are currently facing new decisions as a ministry\. The mailing list for the magazine has continued to expand with more and more people hearing about it from their relatives or friends\. The number of requests for resources and material has continued to increase as readers become aware of this part of our ministry\. We have a number of CD sets on various subjects such as *The Christian Home, Foundation Stones of the Church, Precious Building Stones, A Christ\-Centered Courtship, Re\-Evaluating People\-Helping Methods,* and *People\-Helping in the Local Church\.* We also have several booklets available which include: *Christian Counseling—Counterfeit?,* and *The High Cost of Holistic Healing\.* We are facing the need of more resources to meet the continued and growing requests that are coming\. Would you please join us in prayer about this need—that we would have wisdom to discern and follow God’s will, that He would provide the necessary finances to enable the needed growth, and that His Kingdom would be furthered through these efforts\. ### The Counseling Issue One aspect of our ministry that has seemed to strike a chord with a number of our readers is the resources we have put together to help churches better understand how to help their own people “in\-house” instead of “out\-sourcing” them to other facilities for counseling\. We have found that when churches use a “Discipleship Model” instead of a “Counseling Model”, there tends to be a peace and unity that comes into a local body of believers that would not happen quite so readily otherwise\. This seems to be a default outcome of such an approach to problems\. This topic seems to be a large and growing issue among many within the conservative element of the Anabaptist groups\. Every year there are numerous seminars held in different communities in an effort to help people with their problems or to teach how to help others find healing from life’s many and various hurts\. There are books, CDs, DVDs, videos, and online media all focused on providing the “plain people” with answers to all their woundedness\. There are many conferences scheduled each year in various parts of this country where people can go to gain a better understanding about emotional damage, the pool of pain, locked hearts, and all manner of other perceived evils each purportedly caused by some type of abuse\. This abuse ranges from verbal, mental, and emotional abuse, to physical and sexual abuse\. There is even that which is referred to as spiritual abuse\. The interesting thing is that the Bible does not define these situations as abuse, rather God simply calls it sin\. Actually, come to think about it, sin doesn’t seem to have near the same intrigue as abuse does\. But wait, this isn’t just a problem with the conservative Anabaptists\. This is something that has been a global issue ever since Psychology set out to unseat God from His Throne about the understanding of the nature of man, his behavior, and what goes on in his soul\. Consider this: in Greek \(Psyche\) \= *“Soul”* and \(ology\) \= *“the Study of”*\. Thus, we have Psychology presenting itself as the authority on the soul of man and human behavior, because by its very name it is claiming to be “a study of the soul of man”\. More recently, with some of the mass shootings here in the U\.S\., there seems to be a shift by the mental health community towards more of a “screen and prevent” instead of the past “diagnose and treat”\. Herein we would be wise to ask ourselves how far down this slippery path we as churches are willing to go, before we wake up and realize that much of it is taking us away from God and His Word\. Here is another interesting point to consider\. What did all the believers down through the ages do before there was counseling, Psychology, and Psychiatry? *The soul of man* has always been *the soul of man* and human behavior has always been a problem ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden as recorded in Genesis\. The New Testament church, the early church, and the Anabaptists of 16th century Europe, all would have had all the normal struggles that go with human beings living in a fallen world\. They didn’t have specialized centers with professionally trained individuals waiting to be their solace in their time of need\. Rather they learned to come to a God whose *yoke is easy, and …burden is light\. \-Matthew 11:30* A God who declared to His children that *I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee\. \-Hebrews 13:5* A God who promised each of us that if we come to Him on His terms and learn of Him that then we would *find rest unto \[our\] your souls\. \-Matthew 11:29* What most people do not realize is that Psychology is derived from the thinking of experts who did not want to retain God in their knowledge \(see Romans chapter 1 about this error\)\. Without God, these men would have been influenced to one degree or another by **humanism** and **evolution**\. Thus, the reality is this, “We have been gifted with a package of goods that is in direct opposition to the God of the Bible\.” Here we wish to make a disclaimer, “We make a clear difference between \(p\)sychology as a general, common sense observation of human behavior and \(P\)sychology as a discipline, as a religion, or as a science\.” We have received numerous requests for printed material on numerous topics regarding this whole matter\. With the Lord’s help we plan to move forward on this in the near future as we are able\. It is our goal to provide clear Biblical answers \(as an alternative that works\) to the world’s philosophy and secular wisdom on these matters\. Most Christians today don’t have a ready answer from God’s Word regarding the understanding and “help” for many of the situations the world has given us terminology on\. Here are some topics that generally are seen as so serious that they need to be sent away to specialized locations for help\. We encourage each of you to consider each of them through the lens of Scripture—a marriage that is on the rocks, severe depression to the point of suicidal thoughts and contemplation, long\-term addictions \(such as drunkenness, pornography, gambling, etc\., etc\., etc\.\), rebellious youth whose hearts have turned away from church and family for years, mental disorders \(such as ADD, ADHD, OCD, IED, ODD, Bipolar Disorder, and even Schizophrenia\), plus all the other anti\-social behaviors and disorders\. Then there are the adoption and fostering issues which brings up such perceived complications such as RAD and childhood attachment disorders\. Where did this all begin and where will it all end? It all seems so complicated when we stop and listen to the world’s wisdom on these matters\. We see a clear difference between the brain as a physical organ and the mind/soul as a non\-physical part of us\. This is the bottom\-line for us regarding any issue that is truly of the soul/mind—“The ONLY reason there is a problem is because somewhere, someone or something is NOT functioning the way that God designed it to function\.” This is a view that is Biblical, it is a perspective that actually works to bring lasting change to situations, and it is a mentality that helps to bring clarity to all the confusion and chaos\. For you see we still believe that God’s Word is true when it tells us that He hath given unto us ***all things*** *that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: \-2 Peter 1:3* Thus, we stand on the premise that God has given us **ALL** we need to understand the issues of life, through the simplicity and sufficiency of His Word\.