A Discordant String in God’s Harp

A Compassionate Approach to Mental Illness in the Church

By: Donald Standeford

Narrated by: Dan Caringer

Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

A Discordant String in God’s Harp is a book of informative poetic essays, each essay dealing with a different aspect of poverty or mental illness in relation to God, the church, church leadership, and those who hijack church functions for their own gain. How do weaknesses in the infrastructure of the church wear away at the strength and integrity of the church as a whole? Discussed is the threat that a church, especially at its infancy, is vulnerable to fissures, cracks, and small structural damages that have much more of an effect on the body of Christ, specifically individual churches, than one might think.

The Bible talks about foolish flatterers who treat the wisdom and presence and holiness of God as if God were one to be trifled with. They disrupt the body of believers they happen to be involved with by manipulating church individuals and leadership for their own gain. They may or may not mean harm to the church, but their actions do harm the church, whether they intend to or not.

Flattery is a shallow means of dealing with the world around you. It's about as opposite to the wisdom of the Bible as you can get. The word of God shows us that "beginnings" are a vulnerable time for any vital enterprise. God always guarded the infancy of spiritual things with great care that no harmful force would interrupt the plans he had for the world, his people, his enterprises, and any new thing that might be hijacked by either devils or humans for uses he has never intended.

An example of how evil can hijack God's creation if allowed to lies in the famous story of original sin. Satan, the serpent, managed to drive a hurtful blow into God by successfully enticing Eve and Adam into sin. This happened in only one conversation. Satan has attempted to block God from working out his plan of salvation for all people by taking as many people into Hell as he can.

Satan can never win of course, but he can strike a hurtful blow at times to Christ and his church. As shown all throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, Satan has attacked any weak link he feels will give him an advantage.

A Discordant String in God’s Harp investigates Satan’s attempts to disrupt or harm God’s people and God’s church in modern day times. This is not an exhaustive study, but I do try to pinpoint how church members who lack money, power, and social influence can be cut off from church leadership by Flatters who have more influence in church operations and in church dealings with the community.

Besides talking about the poor, I also discuss in much more detail the various influences and disruptions mental illness can have on Christians. I discuss the challenges the mentally ill face trying to fit into a church environment, especially when they are harassed by those in the church who want to retain their power and care little about those who have nothing of worldly substance to offer them.

©2018 Donald Standeford (P)2019 Donald Standeford

'A Discordant String in God's Harp' is a great teaching tool

This book is great for bridging the gap between Christians who suffer mental illness and those trying to help the mentally ill. The theme of the mentally ill seeing only two doors to take in life., which contrasts with the three doors or paths available to most people, reveals much about the limited choices available to those who want only to give up on their lives.