Hartland Summer Convocation 2022: Healing the Broken Brain

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Angeline D. Brauer

The Devil’s Battleground: Addictions and the Last Days

Well, I hope you all have been blessed so far this entire weekend.

It has just been a joy for me to be here to see some old friends who I haven't seen in years, and to meet some new friends too.

So thank you for again, Elder Ristropho, for the opportunity to be here.

It has been an honor for me and a blessing.

So Today we want to talk about addictions and I call it the devil's battleground and so we're gonna get into that but before we do again just a reminder where can you find our mental health resources from the North American Division?

This is the website, nadhealth.org slash restored.

By the way, the word restored, we really labored over finding just the right terminology for our focus on mental health.

But through actually several months of praying and conversations, talking to different mental health professionals and young people.

And what it reminds us is of the renewing of the mind that Christ wants in each of us.

He wants to restore us to the Eden world where he created us whole.

And so what we want to do with our mental health is restore it through the power of Christ.

So yesterday I met some friends here who told me, oh I get your email newsletter, and I said, oh really?

Wow, that's great, and we hadn't met before but we we got to meet yesterday because of that little connection.

So I thought, well, I wonder if maybe others might be interested.

So if you are interested in getting our email newsletter, we send updates, we send new resources that are being developed, new events and opportunities that are coming up.

So you can go to our website and subscribe.

We send an email once a month, sometimes once every other month.

So we're not going to bombard you too much until our health summit comes up and then we start sending out a lot more emails.

But really if you're interested in any of the work that we're doing and the resources, you're welcome to join us there.

And again our website and our email address that I do get the emails that get sent there, so you are welcome to reach out to me from there as well.

Since we're talking about addiction, I do also want you to know that we do have an addiction recovery program that was developed by the church and it is a Christian program.

We believe that it is Christ who sets us free.

And so we are utilizing the 12-step model of peer support, but it's a Christian-based, Christ-based program.

So you are welcome to go look at that as well, because recovery happens in safe communities.

And so our goal is for our churches to be a safe community.

Okay, so we had a word of prayer already, but I always like to pray again.

Father in heaven, Lord, again we come before you seeking bread from the throne of heaven, seeking strength for these last days, and seeking your calling in our lives and the purpose that you have for us because Lord we know that when we take hold of your purpose for us, That too can keep us safe from the temptations of the world.

So be with us as we study and learn about what you have planned for each 1 of us.

I'm going to give you your homework at the beginning, okay?

So I come from a long line of teachers and so teaching is something I enjoy to do and when you teach you always should give homework, okay?

So this is homework and I'm not going to check your homework, but it's up to you to search for the words deal and mines in the writings of Ellen White.

Okay, you don't have to put it all in quotes, deal minds quotes, but the words deal and minds.

I've done this and there are almost 1900 entries and you can use you know the software that they have with her writings almost 1900 entries with the word deal minds because we're talking about healing the broken brain well, we need to know how to do that how to help support that process on an individual basis, as well as with the the broad educational strategies that we have.

And so this is a very interesting study to do, to just search for the words deal and minds.

I'm going to share with you 1 of the quotes that has been really informative and humbling for me.

And this is found in Acts of the Apostles.

And this is in regards to the letter that Paul wrote to the Galatians.

An important lesson for every minister of Christ, How many?

Every minister of Christ to learn is that of what?

Adapting his or her labors to the condition of those whom he seeks to benefit." Wow.

That is tough, honestly, because we are all individuals and we have our minds as well.

We have our ways of saying things and doing things, our personalities.

You know, we just like to do things in certain ways.

But what we are being told here is to actually focus on the person we're trying to help and to turn our energies to what will be beneficial to them and to adapt our methods.

Tenderness, patience, decision, and firmness are alike needful, but these are to be exercised with proper discrimination.

To deal wisely, wow, With different classes of minds under varied circumstances and conditions is a work requiring wisdom and judgment, enlightened and sanctified by the Spirit of God.

In fact, in other passages she will say, it is the nicest of work to deal with human minds.

I don't think she means that's the most pleasant work to do, but it's something that requires a different perspective and approach.

It's something that is very, very, I would say, unique to the influence of the spirit.

Because we don't always know where a person's mind is.

So we need the assistance of the spirit in dealing with human minds.

And remember, it is in the mind that we make our decisions for Christ.

So that is where we want to influence people in a holistic and healthy way.

So I wanna apologize if I dealt with any minds here incorrectly.

So forgive me if I have let my humanity come through.

But I hope that this is, that what we have shared together has been a blessing and has enlightened us and helped us understand a little bit more of how to deal with human minds, especially those who are struggling with various mental, emotional, even spiritual health issues.

All right, I wanna point out 1 of the webinars that we did a couple years ago.

The broad topic was on health disparities, but 1 of the underlying issues that was brought out, and this presentation was done by Dr.

He's 1 of the most renowned Adventists in the world today.

He's well respected in the scientific community, and he is a stalwart in the Adventist Church as well.

He's also an honorary associate director for the General Conference, Health Ministries.

So something that, a point that he brings out here, and I encourage you to listen to it because he can explain it more.

He has done a wealth of research looking at how people make decisions.

And something that he learned through this study is that it's very easy.

In fact, he says, in the fraction of the time that it takes to blink our eye, our brain automatically puts someone that we meet into a box.

Is that we automatically say, oh, you look like this, so you're in this box.

You speak like this, your language is this, your actions are this, so you are now in this box.

Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, it doesn't have to be, because it's our way of us processing, right?

Again, we wanna deal with human minds, so that helps us to figure out, okay, how can I relate to this person?

The challenge, the danger, is when that automatic response becomes the default without any logical consideration.

Meaning we might put them in a box that says, well, you are that person and I'm this person.

It's you're 1 of them, you're not 1 of us.

And we want to be very cautious and careful with that because those barriers that we set up prevent us from dealing with human minds as God wants us to.

So we don't have to be afraid of that, but the recognition that that could be happening in our interactions with people can help us to check ourselves.

So much of working with other people is about checking myself.

Hold on here, let me reconsider what I'm doing, because I might be actually putting that person off, rather than embracing them for Christ's kingdom.

I bring that point up because it does play into the topic of addictions because as soon as we say the word addictions, what are the pictures that come into our mind?

The Devil’s Battleground: Addictions and the Last Days

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