Finding Hope and Healing A Christ-Centered Approach to Mental Illness

Finding Hope and Healing A Christ-Centered Approach to Mental Illness

Interview with Shiloh Martin PhD

In this Faith and Family Fellowship episode, Dallas interviews Shiloh Martin PhD, author of, "Finding Hope and Healing A Christ-Centered Approach to Mental Illness".

About The Book:
Finding Hope and Healing: A Christ-Centered Approach to Mental Illness is a book that offers a compassionate and insightful exploration of mental illness through a biblical lens. Written by Dr. Shiloh W. Martin, the book draws on his personal faith and professional expertise to provide guidance and encouragement for individuals struggling with mental health issues and their loved ones. The book explores various mental illnesses--such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder--and uses scriptures to provide comfort, hope, and practical advice. The author emphasizes the importance of seeking professional help while also recognizing the power of faith in the healing process. With its compassionate tone and insightful guidance, Finding Hope and Healing is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand mental illness from a Christian perspective and find hope and healing in the midst of the struggles.

He wrote this book to offer a different perspective on mental illness, one that combines the best of his professional expertise and faith. He believes that with the right approach and support, those struggling with mental illness can find hope and healing, and he hopes that his book can be a valuable resource for those seeking to understand and address mental illness from a Christian perspective.

Buy The Book: https://a.co/d/9u9PARi

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Creators & Guests

Host

Missionary Dallas Monticue

What is Faith & Family Fellowship Podcast?

From dual studios located in Texas, and São Paulo, Brazil, Pastor Chris Buscher & Dallas Monticue bring you ‘The Faith & Family Fellowship Podcast’! At a quick glance, both Pastor Chris and Dallas have a combined 20+ years of missionary experience. Together they co-host the show addressing a host of topics such as; The Great Commission, and Christian Discipleship, and often featuring interviews with special guests who are experts in their field. The Faith & Family Fellowship Podcast is sponsored by Lay Me Down Ministries.

Faith and Family Fellowship Podcast is a Christ-centered podcast. established in 2019 and hosted weekly by Pastor Chris Busher. Addressing a host of topics such as the Great Commission, Christian discipleship, and often featuring interviews with special guests who are experts in their field. The views and events expressed on this podcast and all related materials belong solely to their author and not necessarily to the author's employer, organization, committee, or other group or individual. While all attempts are made to present accurate information, some information may become outdated over time. Fellowship Podcast makes every attempt to timely update any and all such information. Without further delay, here's another powerful episode of Faith and Family Fellowship Podcast. Welcome back to another episode of Faith and Family Fellowship podcast. Once again, my name is Dallas here. Today we have another incredible guest joining us today, Shiloh Martin. Shiloh, such a pleasure to have you here today. How are you? I'm doing great, Dallas. Thank you for having me today. I really appreciate the opportunity to visit with you and all the people out there on podcast world that are listening today. So thank you for having me. Absolutely. And today we're going to discuss your book, Finding Hope in Healing, a Christ-centered approach to mental illness. And so you are actually a doctor. So- If you could just take a few minutes here and explain your degrees, your experience, and then tell us a little bit about your faith, then we'll go into the book specifically after that. Oh, definitely. So my background is varied. If we look at education-wise, I have a couple of different degrees. So to begin with, I have my master's degree in community counseling, and I'm licensed as a professional counselor at the master's level. After I finished that degree, I went on and I completed a PhD in clinical psychology. I'm not a licensed clinical psychologist. I'm a licensed professional counselor at the master's level. So my background, when it comes to the faith and stuff like that, growing up, my parents really didn't go anywhere. They were just a personal thing. It's up to you to make that decision. So I was around it. but never truly in it. I was probably in ninth or 10th grade and I was attending church and I got baptized. But at that moment, I knew it, but I didn't believe it. And those are world different. And this is what I'm supposed to do. So I got baptized. And I think at that point in time, it was more of going through the motions as opposed to truly being there and surrounding my heart to it. I don't necessarily have any one singular aha moment. And I've listened to a lot of people that they could say this was the moment. And I don't have one of those, because it's always been part of my life. And I do know, so I'm married. I got married in 1992 to my high school sweetheart. Been together for a while now. We have two wonderful children, adult daughters. We have two grandchildren as well. But I do know that once you have children, that changes your mindset completely. And so you start looking at the world a little bit different. Some of the music you listen to, you're like, oh, wow, okay. Some of the movies you're watched, yeah, you're looking at different things and going, this is someone's daughter, this is someone's child. So it shifted things. And I think having them really brought me closer to a true understanding and a true acceptance. I am a veteran, so I was in the Army. While in the Army, I saw a lot of different things that could shake faith and could cause you to question different things. And it'd be really, really easy to get hung up in that. But the flip side of that is I also saw a lot of things that affirmed the faith, the little great moments that if we're not looking, we pass them by quite easily. And there's an author I read one of his book, his name is Victor Franco. He is a survivor from the Holocaust. And he wrote a book that's called a man's search for meaning. And part of the thing in there talks about that. How we perceive things, what we believe of them shapes our ideas. He was next in line to get on the box cars to be freed. The gate shut in front of him because there was not enough room there for him. And so he was very depressed. He was very upset because he was that close to freedom. What he found out later was the individuals who were in those VAC cars were actually being shipped off to the gas chambers. So all of a sudden, that gate that prevented him from being free was actually the gate that saved him. And so he started to look at, OK, so it's not necessarily what happens to us. It's what we believe or the value we place on what happens to us. And he had a quote that says that man is not destroyed by suffering, but he is destroyed by the suffering without meaning. Okay. And so then I look at that and I'm like, that is very, very much what Jesus Christ did. He suffered, but it was the meaning behind that suffering, the purpose of that suffering to give us a freedom to forgive us for our sins and things like that. Um, so just along the way I've had a lot of these little things that, um, I would love to say, or I, historically I would have loved to say, Oh, it's just coincidence. There's no way. Right. There's just too much. Exactly. A hundred percent. And so that's what brought me to today. Um, I've been counseling for about 20 years now. And one of the common things that I found throughout is. We search for purpose. We search for meaning. We want some guidance. Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? And ultimately what I found, whether somebody is religious, whether they're spiritual or they're not, that is common throughout them all. And once we can identify that, once we can find that, we have this sense of peace that comes over us. Yeah, and you're saying this is men and women, and what age do we see this in children? What age do we start seeing this? Exactly, exactly. 100%. And so the thing is that it's unique in its individual. Each person has that very unique relationship with God that he is going to reveal himself in that moment when you need it most. Right? Just now thought about the footprints in the sand, right? God, why have you forsaken me? Why is there only that one thing? It's like those are the times that I carried you, my child, because you're the one that was needed to help there. But so in creating this book, it was a matter of, I've had many people that the division of it, the mental health arena, the medical arena, some will believe that religion is a crutch or that it's just an excuse. Then on the other side of that, you would have some Christians that say, everything we need to know about mental illness or anything is all included in the Bible. Neither one of those is accurate. And so I thought, you know what? Over the years, I have shared this information with others and with the hope and belief that it will make a difference. And I've had a lot of people, hey, you need to write this down, you need to put these in books. And so I finally said, okay, let's do it. And so that's what brought me to here now. You're listening to the Faith and Family Fellowship Podcast. We'll be right back after this quick word from our sponsors. Discover a fusion of faith and fashion at BaySinger by design. Your style meets spirituality in every garment and accessory. Explore their special collection featuring scripture-based designs and cross-themed accessories that express your faith affordably and stylishly. Your satisfaction is their priority. Visit etsy.com slash shop slash BaySinger by design and find something you love. Embark on a transformative journey with You Don't Need God to Send You a Husband, You Need God to Send You Yourself by E. Samara. Uncover the power of faith and self-discovery as you explore daily prayers, spiritual counseling, and the unique experiences that shaped E's spiritual path. This inspiring guide, available on Amazon, offers practical insights for deeper connection with the divine. Buy now and unlock the keys to your true potential. And why I wanted to have you on our show, because you also talk about this Christ-centered approach, not just an approach, not just any approach, a world approach, but the Christ-centered approach. And so how does a Christ-centered approach differ from the world's approach to mental illness? Well, if we look at something being centered, that means that if you look at like a wagon wheel, at the core of that is the base of it. Those spindles are not going to work without that center. that center is going to be the guiding principle for what's going to happen. If we look at it from a worldly view, that's gonna shift. That's gonna depend on politics, that's gonna depend on what's going on in the world arena, that's gonna depend on, is it Tuesday or Thursday? Right? If we look at it as a Christ-centered approach, that's tried and true. That is the core of everything. And actually, after I come up with that title, and I'd already submitted everything, I started thinking, And I think it should actually be Christ-focused approach. Now, that may sound semantics, but here's the reason why. If we have something that's centered, the further out we get from it, it's still centered, but it may not actually be focusing on that. But if everything we do is Christ-focused, then we're always going to be looking through the lens of that and focusing on that component and coming back to that foundation. You've got to have that good solid foundation. else the walls of your house are going to crumble. The roof's going to fall. Right. Okay. Over your 20 years of experience, what do you think has been the biggest thing that brought people into your office and the biggest trial that we see as, I mean, so many things are happening nowadays, right? That caused trauma. Right. Probably the biggest thing that got people coming in to see me was that I'm a very proactive approach to it. Yes, things have happened in our past. They can affect us. But I'm more along the lines of, hey, this happened. What are we going to do about it? How are we going to change this as opposed to just, oh, yes, this happens. And I think that just resonates throughout history, throughout the Bible. You have these people who are taking action who are doing as opposed to receiving, having that proactive approach to it. Yeah. life is 90% it's 10% what happens to you 90% how you react to it. Oh, completely. You know, and so an example that I give whenever I'm visiting with someone and I say, so let's say that you're driving down the road and this car swerves in front of you, you got to slam on your brakes. What do you do? Right. Do you honk at them? Do you curse under your breath? Do you grip your what you do? I say no, you didn't die. Exactly. I say, so now the exact same situation, but this time, how you know, I don't know, but you know, they're rushing a baby to the hospital. Would you respond the exact same way? They're like, no, not at all. So it's not the behaviors of the person that elicited that response, but the value you placed on those behaviors. And I say that if we look at any disputes, any problems we have with anybody in the world, it comes down to one thing. they did not live up to the expectations we had of them. You have a couple that's arguing over money. One of them expected it to be spent a certain way. You have a boss who gets onto you because you weren't at work on time. They expected something of you. And so a lot of times we call some of those issues ourselves because of the expectations we've placed on someone without clarifying what those expectations are. And I think it's really great if we go back to the idea of Christ-centered. What does Christ expect of us? What do we want? And if we go back and we look at it, he's told us point blank, this is what I expect. This is what I want. So we have no excuse not to, because those are very clear expectations. Right. Yeah. And those expectations for ourselves, how do we find the balance between relying on our faith and relying on Christ and then seeking out somebody like yourself? It's an interesting question because I don't necessarily think that it's a balance. And a balance would imply that they are two separate entities that need to be combined in some capacity, like we're making a stew, we need this, and this. I view it more along the lines of you have to have them both, and it is one and the same. If we look at things throughout the Bible, and a lot of people like to say, oh, well, there wasn't mental illness in the Bible, or there wasn't this, that, or another. Um, that's not true. That is, I believe it was Elijah. I think it was Elijah. And I could be incorrect on those. I believe he went out into the woods and he said, God, I'm done. I just want to die. That's a suicidal thought. That's a suicidal ideation, but we don't like to talk about that. Society as a whole doesn't like to talk about that. Right. Um, but so historically, up until probably the 19th century, Religion and psychiatry or medicine were not separate. The religious institutions were the ones that cared for the mentally ill. It wasn't until, I believe his name was Jean Martin Picot or Charcot, and he had a student named Sigmund Freud. Well, the two of them started introducing the idea that if you had any mental illness, depression, things like that, it was basically, oh, I can't remember what they called it. But basically it was saying those were two division things that they had to be separated. And unfortunately that comes through even to today. There are many medical models that say those are two separate things, but that's not the case. And so when we're talking about balancing faith with the idea of getting that secular help, I don't think it's a balance. I think instead of being separate, they need to be together. And once we put them together, we have that holistic view on it. then that's when it's gonna work. It's hysteria. They call it hysteria. There's another famous book out there called The Battlefield of the Mind, right? Joyce Myers has this book. There's a lot of other books that the battlefield is in our mind. And so what is the difference between a chemical imbalance, spiritual warfare, just our own thoughts? How do you define this when working in mental illness? Well, it's You've got to go back to that Christ-centered or that Christ-focused. Okay. Um, if you believe that the intricacy of the human body was created by chance or was created through the evolution of senile cell organism, this and another. Okay. And that's the lens you're going to look at everything through. And so you're going to say, okay, a chemical balance, here's a pill to treat it. Spiritual warfare, that doesn't exist. Right. Instead, if you look at it through the lens of God created us in his image, then we start to look at, okay, does God make mistakes? No, not at all. Okay. So how can we explain that there is a chemical imbalance in somebody if God does not make a mistake? I remember my grandmother's, my wife's grandmother had a bumper sticker on her car, says, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. that is 100%. There is a purpose, there is a reason. We all go through some sort of trauma in our life. And so if we understand that, I don't know my purpose in this, you know, my purpose could have simply been to say hi to that person walking down the street who may have been suicidal waiting for somebody to talk to them, right? So when we look at the idea of a chemical imbalance from a biological viewpoint, We are made up of chemicals and neurons that are firing all the time. Is there a possibility that some of that could come out of whack? Oh, 100%. Okay. Spiritual warfare. I believe that the more you're struggling, the more the devil's whispering in this ear is because he knows God has a great plan for you. And so I tell people, if you're struggling, there's a reason for it. There's something great coming your way. This is your trials and your tribulations to prepare you. just like a soldier puts on that arm, okay? I can't imagine having a medical doctor who's never had a medical problem. They wouldn't understand it, okay? So when we're looking at the spiritual warfare, just understand that there's a rhyme, a reason, a purpose, and it's not up to me to make that decision what that purpose is. Years ago, I had a preacher tell me, I had all kinds of questions, whenever I was exploring and I was, you know, trying to figure out my purpose, And I'm sure he was like, Oh man, here comes Shiloh again with more questions. Right. And he finally told me, he says, here's what you do. You write down every single question you have when you get to heaven. You ask God, is it one of two things will happen. He will give you every answer you ever wanted. Or you realize those questions didn't matter anyway. I still carry that with me. I was probably like 15, 16 when he told me that. Yeah. In talking about. getting help, what are the common misconceptions that people have or that you see why people don't come and see you or someone in your field? One of the funniest things that I think is funny, but not funny is it's all in your head. It is 100%. Mental illness is in your head. And so I say jokingly, do you expect it to be in your toe? Right. Okay. And so you have individuals, oh, my family doesn't believe in that. So I've never done this. or especially within the military, they're afraid that something's going to affect their career. You see that in first responders, police officers, firefighters, pilots. You have some that believe that if my faith is strong enough then I won't have this. I remember I was in a guest lecture one time and I was listening to this individual lecture, very respected man and I respect him. He made a comment that kind of just like, hmm. He said that his belief was individuals that were suicidal was because they were not close enough to God. Okay, so that would be another misconception is that if your faith is strong enough, you're not going to have any issues. That's not true in any way whatsoever. Is we are born in sin, our flesh is sin, therefore we're going to have issues with it. other issues that interfere is what will people think of me? And when that happens, we have to stop and go, okay, where's my focus? I'm now worried about what Dallas will think of me. I'm worried about, you know, what Mike or Christie or whoever will think of me as opposed to living and being the person God wants me to be. Yeah. That we're putting that over the value of freedom, right? We're putting that over that and that's not a good place to be. You should seek freedom first, right? Over all those other things. Right. Can you tell our audience today, what kind of services do you offer? Oh, well, actually, I work at a hospital. I work at a federal hospital, so I'm not in a private practice in any way. I do consultations as well. I say I'm not in private practice, so I don't do current ongoing counseling. I do consultation. Basically, I can do, I do different life coaching and things like that. One of the biggest things that I've been doing recently is a lot of guest speaking. And so that's probably one of the biggest factors that's happening right now is I will come in and I'll share my story and then I'll also explain to them, hey, this is kind of what's going on. When they ask, you know, how do we, I guess, combine, or like you mentioned earlier, combine the idea of the secular component along with the religious component and help them find things where they're at in that moment. Because the truth of the matter is that I have visited with people before, I'm thinking of this one particular lady, and I'm going to say her name is Anna. And so with Anna, she came in and she was struggling in a relationship with her spouse. Okay. But her religious belief was once you're married, you never divorced no matter what situation you're in, okay? So we visited for a little bit and it was not my place to tell her this, you know, you're, he's abusing you, you need to leave this abusive relationship because of her values and her beliefs in that. And so visited with her for probably about three months, this was when I was in private practice and then she just quit coming. And so I was kind of scared what had happened, no calls, no nothing, anything like that. And then probably about a year later, I get this phone call and it was from her. And she had done a lot of soul searching. She had turned to some individuals in her church, this, that, and another, and she realized God did not want her in that abusive relationship. So we visited for probably another six months and she actually went on to become a huge advocate against victims and her partner, victim violence. And so we look at those type of things. I was there for each other about services offered. I was actually there for her and I was able to help her identify. I experienced this. What am I going to do with it? Exactly, exactly. She had never done that before. And I remember a thing that I told her, I said, So if you imagine that you have this backpack that you're carrying, and life is filling you with these bricks, right? and you just feel like you can't go on and on and on. I said, turning to those people in church, coming and visiting with me. So you're with them on the religious end. You're with me on the secular end of it. All we're offering is emotional support. We will never take that backpack from you, but we can carry it for you for a little bit. We can help you carry it like the things. And I remember when she came back later, she said she just kept thinking about that backpack. And every time something came on, she's like, am I choosing to put that brick in my backpack? I might choose to let somebody help me carry that. And so- That's such a good advice. Yeah. Carry with us. I have one more question that I'm curious with because as I said earlier, there are so many things happening in our world, so many ways that can cause trauma. So if you could just give us one thing that we should stop doing to avoid future trauma, like one simple thing, stop using social media so much, like just practical things that we could do for our mental health. Too often we think, and it's a bit of a catch-22, because we are called to servitude. And so we believe we should serve, which we are 100%. The problem is too often we give too much of ourselves. And I know that people are like, oh, you can never give too, you can't, because how are you going to help others when you're not there, right? years ago, I watched that movie Left Behind with Kirk Cameron in it. And the preacher in there, when the rapture comes, the preacher gets left. And he's like, I knew a God, but I didn't believe in God. Right. And so you look at that and it's like, okay, how can I be there for others? If I'm not there for myself? And I have a motto, or I have an idea, I guess, which is kind of controversial, but I do believe that at our base, we can accomplish selfish things that turn out good. Okay. Such as let's say that I'm going to go out and I'm going to feed the hungry because it makes me feel good. Well I'm doing it because it makes me feel good. But does benefit come from it? Yes, 100%. You know, I'm not advocating let's all be selfish. No, I'm not saying that in any way whatsoever. I'm saying understand we are human. And so the best thing that we need to do is to accept that and accept that every now and then you gotta take that Superman cape off and you gotta take care of yourself or let somebody else take care of you. I think understanding and accepting our limitations is probably the best thing that we could do for our mental health. That's not what I was expecting you to say, but it must be value in it. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, I figured it was something like maybe with our digital age, just something like this that just causes a lot of people to be sad or depressed or whatever comparison. But what you're saying, it makes a lot of sense. I'm going to think about that. Well, even if we look at it so within our digital age, that means that we are turning to it for some as a coping mechanism. Exactly. that there is something that we're turning to. So I believe that our motivations are very simplistic. I'm going to do something to get me pleasure or I'm going to do something to escape pain. That's it, okay? So if I'm trying to escape pain, that means that there's something harming me in my life. I need to accept that, I need to identify what that is. And if I'm doing it for pleasure, then there's something missing in my life that I'm looking for. I have to accept that I do have those limitations because if not, you can be your own worst enemy and beat yourself up on it, right? I do wanna go back to something you had asked earlier about some of the misconceptions, okay? And in talking, I was thinking of this one, there's a misconception that if somebody has a mental illness, they cannot, or even a diagnosis, they cannot be an effective leader. especially in a church setting. That is not accurate in any way whatsoever. Okay. As a matter of fact, because they struggle with that, they actually might be a more effective leader because they have more empathy and understanding. But I know that there's been a lot of times where I've visited with people where they are hesitant to share because they might be a prominent figure in their church and they are, I have to be like this, I have to look like this. Because if not, I believe that struggling with it on a day-to-day basis or being open to share that makes them a much more effective leader. Because it's just kind of a catch-22 as well, because on some half you respect them more because they're relatable and you can understand what they're going through. And with the other side, you do want someone to look up to that we almost put them on a pedestal, but we understand that they're human as well, but that's a tough one. Which goes back to what I said earlier, the expectations we have as someone, if they don't live up to those expectations. And so how many people do we put on the pedestal that they're just, they're flawed just like us, you know? And it's important to remember that we ourselves, we don't save ourselves and we don't save other people. Okay, we can be there for them, but it is not our decision or our saving grace in any way whatsoever that does that. Yeah. Thank you so much for everything that you shared today. And if you could answer these last two questions for me, so where are you located and where are you doing some of those live speaking events? If we are in the area, maybe we could stop by and check one out. Okay. So right now I'm located in Oklahoma. I'm in Eastern Oklahoma. So just a little bit outside of Tulsa. Okay. So yeah, I mean, y'all can come by and if I have any, then definitely I'd be putting them out there on different social medias and stuff like that. I have been invited to go to different states as well. So that's not unreal either. Okay. But yeah, so pretty much anywhere, I've spoken internationally as well. So it just kind of depends as it was on my view, if it's meant to be, it will happen. Yeah, that's it. And how do we find this book if we want, if we're wanting to pick this up and read it in- It's available on Barnes and Noble, Amazon. The publishers, Covenant Publishing, so you can actually go to their website and look it up. But yes, pretty much anywhere the books are sold, you should be able to have access to it. All right. Great. Anything else you want to add for our time here today, Sean? I'm trying to think here. Really I'd just like to look at with the idea of anybody who's listening, first of all, take a look at yourself. Okay. I mean, you know, Don't judge a splinter in your neighbor's eye before you remove the plank out of yours, right? Okay. And so if you find maybe you are going, oh, wow, I do some of that. Okay. So stop and look on how can I be more accepting? How can I show love and compassion for those that are struggling in any capacity? Okay. And... I thought about that and so I actually wrote a few things down for here that I want to share very specifically. So first of all, avoid stigmatizing and stereotyping. Just we're not all the same. Okay, we are all very unique and we have a purpose for that. Those that are struggling with mental illness, they're already in enough pain and they don't need more from us. Right? And so just imagine when we're in our weakest time, do we really need that from someone else? Second one, don't offer false cures or solutions because at the end of the day, they need to do that. Okay. And if you set them up and it never works for them and you just build it up, build it up, build it up, they're going to crash even harder and that's going to be even more difficult. So be there for them, but don't offer false solutions. Don't offer guarantees, those type of things. Listen to understand. Don't listen to respond. thing. That's a tough one. That's a tough one, but a powerful one. Yeah. And sometimes, and I'm guilty of this, I was in my marriage, you know, my wife would come and tell me something in my mind's like, Okay, how can we fix? How can we fix? Yeah, there were times it wasn't a matter of fixing is a matter of she wanted me to be quiet and listen. There's a really cute video. It's like two minutes long on YouTube. It's called it's not about the nail. Okay. And so I'm not going to share what that is, it's just people go out there and look it up. It's called, It's Not About Them Now, but it really talks about listening to listen, not to give solutions to. Okay. Prayer. There are a lot of scientific studies, okay, there's a fair amount of scientific studies out there that show the power of prayer. Okay. And just praying for that individual, praying with that individual. Okay. It's actually a two-way street. The more we pray for someone else, the better we feel as well. And so it's a type of thing. Um, show genuine love and care, truly love your brother and sister care for them, truly they're not just going through the motions. Okay. Um, and the last part is encourage professional help. Okay. Um, I know I've visited with people, they say everything we need to know is in that Bible. I believe that Bible is a guidance. It does not say anything in there about brain surgery, but it's out there, right? Brain surgery is also valuable. Right. Okay. So I say that God gave all of us unique talents. And there's even a story about talents in the Bible. It is up to us to use those talents. It's up to us to encourage somebody to go with them. You know? If you're sick, you're going to go see the doctor. Okay, so there's no different in it. And really just one last thing that I'd like to mention is I actually have a couple more books that I'm in the process of doing. And one of them is actually gonna address some of the stuff we talked about today. It's called Contemporary Christianity. And so it talks about in the secular world that we live in, how do we stay true to the calling of God? How do we stay true to those Christian teaching? When we were bombarded, you mentioned social media. You're bombarded with so much stuff. It is so easy to start to, and next thing we know, we're like, oh my gosh. And then the second book is actually, I'm gonna make it into three different ones. It's called In His Image, and it's going to have some actually worksheets or different activities very specifically on what does God call for a man to be? What does God call? will want to be how do we go back to that because we were created in his image how far have we fallen from that and how do we get back to that and so those are couple those are probably do what those are valuable points right there yeah um those probably be out i wouldn't say probably summer of next year um one of them will probably be about february which will be the contemporary christianity but the other one um because for me we can talk about it all we want. But it's important to take those actions. It's important to do. The more we do, the closer we become. Mark. Thank you so much. You dropped a lot of nuggets for us. I really appreciate that. And we can, once again, for our audience, the link to buy the book is in the description of our podcast here today. Check out the book, give it a review on the several platforms as well, and be looking out for your live events and your books to come. And so hopefully we can have you back for another book as you release those. future books coming out. It would be a pleasure. And if I can have you in our time today with a prayer for our audience, that would be great. Yes. Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for this opportunity you've given me to reach more of your children, more of my brothers and sisters. Hopefully they gain some type of information from that I've provided. And in turn, hopefully I will get some information as well. It's always a learning opportunity to Try and do what you want us to do. Help us understand what your purpose is, not just our purpose. Help us and guide us in making those decisions in everything we do. I just want you to, I want to thank you for everything you provided and ask that you look out for my fellow brothers and sisters and everything that we do as we go through our life, because we know that without you in our life, it's meaningless, we have no purpose. So just please lay your hands upon us and guide us in everything that we do. In God's name we pray, amen. Amen. You've just listened to the Faith and Family Fellowship Podcast with your host, Pastor Chris Busher. Faith and Family Fellowship Podcast was recorded live in studio with final editing made before uploading. Subscribe today to Faith and Family Fellowship Podcast on iTunes or Google Play. For more fantastic daily content, visit Pastor Chris Busher online via Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Don't miss the next episode. on Faith and Family Fellowship podcast.