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This morning's message is dedicated to the Holy Bible. No other book in human history can compare to the Holy Bible as the source of emotional health, power, vitality and energy.

Many of you know that in my undergraduate days I studied psychology. I even momentarily thought of going into medical school, instead of theological seminary, and becoming a psychiatrist. But I quickly learned that the ethics of that profession do not allow a doctor to impose his value systems on a patient, and that's the way it should be.

I quickly concluded that many of the emotional and mental problems that people are struggling with, have their tap root in a defective or an immoral value system. If I cannot impose a value system that is founded on Biblical truths, then how will I be able to help them?

So I pursued my long-time dream to help people who are hurting. From college I went to graduate school in theology and I became a minister where I have the freedom to impose a healthy value system on you, and it's not a violation of ethics. I'm doing that this morning. I'll tell you where I get a healthy value system.

I get a healthy value system out of the Holy Bible!

Let's take a quick peek at the whole profession that I once thought about entering. Some of my dearest friends are psychiatrists. Two that are at the top of my list are Dr. Karl Menninger, a beautiful Christian, now deceased, and Dr. Viktor Frankl, whom I love and admire. He is a devoted believer in God and in the Bible. They are psychiatrists who have been able to have a profound impact on the whole movement.

But there are also the psychiatrists and psychologists who are atheists and I want to say to you that psychiatry is an uncertain, infantile and dubious science. Very true! Medical doctors are scientists, but psychologists and psychiatrists deal primarily, from subjective and not objective research. An enormous power in this country for the past 100 years has come from psychiatrists and psychologists who do not believe in God and who do not believe in the Bible.

They have been behind the movement to create secular humanism in an effort to replace the emotional strength that traditionally has come through faith in God. But secular humanism has failed, and it is time we admit it.

The current issue of US News and World Report, includes the article, "In Your Face." The article asks the question: Whatever happened to good manners? It goes on to say that we already know that there is more drug addiction, more crime, more rudeness, more brutality, emotionally as well as physically, today than ever before in the history of the United States of America. And, the same is true in Europe.

Secular humanism has failed because secular humanism makes the mistake of thinking that you and I are humans, and not human beings. As my son said on the "Hour of Power" a few weeks ago, "You are not a human being. You are a spiritual being on a human journey."

Yes, secular humanism fails.

Probably Sigmund Freud, more than any one person, promoted the sweeping power of psychiatry as a sociological movement in this country. He made his first visit here in 1903, and when he went back to Vienna, he was asked, "Dr. Freud, how is Freudism going to go over in America?" I'll never forget the answer I wasn't there, I'll have you know, but it was one of those anecdotes I learned back in college that I've never forgotten. He responded to their question, "How well is Freudism going to go over in America? It depends," he said, "on whether it can survive its supporters."

Sigmund Freud was an atheist. Sigmund Freud was a man who rejected his Judaism. Now he knew that everybody needs an emotional support system. If religion is going to be discarded, and it would be discarded, according to Freud, in the 20th century, we would finally become intelligent and throw out the superstitions. Then we would have to create an emotional system to replace that traditional religion, powerfully put into human consciousness and human personality.

Now take a quick leap with me. It's 1989, and I'm invited by Gorbachev to Moscow, and they listen to my request to be the first preacher to preach about God on atheist television. At the close of a three hour meeting, Valentin Lazutkin, the head of communications in Russia, stood up and said,

"Dr. Schuller, we are atheists. This is an atheist television network. We use it to try to cure people of their superstitions. How can we ask you to preach a sermon about God?" He took a deep drag from his cigarette, blew it out, and said, "I don't believe in God, but after 70 years of official atheism indoctrinated in the most scientific way we see that something is missing in human beings that only seems to come through religion. We will let you have the honor of being the first preacher in history to preach a sermon about God in Russia on Channel One.'

And that happened on December 25, 1989.

Atheism has failed. Secular humanism has failed! Where can we go? We go back to the Holy Bible. This Book is the tap root of my emotional support system. I've learned a lot of therapeutic techniques from psychiatrists and psychologists who believe in God, but my tap root is the Bible.

The Bible is God's emotional power for all of us.

No Freudian will ever invent anything that has the power of the Book of books.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind' (2nd Timothy 1:7)

The philosophy and the psychology that comes from secular humanism cannot feed us. It cannot sustain us. We find strength and power in the Holy Bible because it connects us with our Creator who created us to be spiritual beings on a human journey. "God does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power.'

Yes, I keep reading the journals, and I keep going to the International Conferences of Psychology and Psychiatry. But I get my emotional power from the Holy Bible.

The Holy Bible gives the emotional power of encouragement!

It is the most encouraging book I can find. Jesus says, "You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth." This Book takes simple human beings and empowers them to try to do the impossible. That's the spirit from this Book. It doesn't flatter you or me when you read it, we know it's telling the truth! It says we are sinners, but it says, "I love you anyway!'

A friend is someone who loves you when they know you at your worst. No psychological therapeutic system can do more for healing the human emotional spirit than that. It's the power of encouragement! It tells us that God loves us. He will give us power to believe in ourselves and to believe in our dreams and to make the impossible happen!

The Holy Bible gives the emotional power of optimism!

Turning people into optimists is a big, big thing in contemporary, psychological and psychiatric thinking. Some of my dear friends, Martin E. Seligman to name one, are specialists in it.

Why optimism? If you want to have emotional power, you have to believe that the problems you had last week, last month or last year are not going to control your future. That's optimism. You can look at tragedies, and you can turn the horrific tragedy into a positive possibility. Scars can be turned into stars. Wow! It is this Book that teaches me to be an optimist.

A few weeks ago I shared with you that there are two things you can be sure of in life: The sun will rise tomorrow morning and the sun will set tomorrow night. And today will be history. So you have a bad week, you have a bad day, how can you be happy? Because tomorrow morning is coming and you can start by talking to God. The bad problems, that's yesterday that's history. This Book encourages you to know that God loves you to know Jesus Christ is your Savior. The Holy Bible makes you an optimist.

The leading psychiatrists of the world today have come to recognize the power of optimism as a healing force in the human personality. There isn't a book that gives the basis for optimism like the Bible does because the Bible deals ultimately with your dying. How can you be an optimist when you are a terminal case? Because the Bible teaches that there is life after death!

The Holy Bibles gives the Power of Eternal Salvation!

God has told us this. Major faiths believe it. They may have differences, if you are a Jew or a Christian or a Muslim, you are all taught there is life beyond death. Yes! All religions have their own concepts of heaven and hell.

I believe in a God. I believe He came to this earth in Jesus. I believe He died on the cross for us. I believe He arose from the dead, and that He is alive, today.

What can make you a bigger optimist than the Gospel of Jesus Christ? You may be dying of cancer. You may be on your death bed, but you can be an optimist about tomorrow. That's the Good News that the Holy Bible gives you. Jesus Christ came to be our Savior. All we need to do is accept Him. Yes! "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.'

I invite you, today, to accept the Holy Bible as God's Word. I invite you to accept Jesus Christ, as your Savior.

You say, "But I don't know much about Him.'

I don't either, but I know enough. I know that He lived. That's a fact. I know that He died. That's a fact. I know that His best friends were so scared when He was dying they didn't want to admit they even knew Him. The cock crowed, and Peter denied for the third time that he had anything to do with this Jesus. But when He died, something happened. They saw Him after He arose from the grave. He communicated with them. That's history, not religion.

Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ. He is the heart of the Bible. Meet Jesus Christ and put your hands out to Him. You will be in touch with the tap root of emotional power, encouragement, optimism, enthusiasm and motivation!

Our daughter Carol, and her husband Tim, went off this weekend alone celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. They asked Mrs. Schuller, "Would you and Dad take care of two of our four children? Four will be too much, but would you take care of Judah Grace?'

Judah Grace is our youngest grandchild, 14-months old. So they brought her over yesterday and little Judah Grace doesn't know me very well. I tried to win her over, to let her know that I'm a nice guy, but she is pretty shy. This morning, her older sister put the light on in her room and it woke her up too early so she was really crying. Her grandmother whom she loves, reached out to pick her up, but Judah Grace just cried louder. Since I'm incurably addicted to possibility thinking, I went to her and said,

"Come, Judah Grace.'

And, believe it or not, she put out her little hands, and she came to me and she hugged me!

Then the problem was I had to get dressed and get here to church. And I hadn't shaved yet. So I said, "Okay, Arvella, she's quieted down, now you take her so I can get dressed." And I started handing Judah Grace to her grandmother, but she said, "No! No! No!' She cried. I took her again. I spent about 20 minutes holding my little granddaughter. Today that's why I got to church late!

It was the most wonderful feeling. She put her little cheek against mine, and her little hands on my shoulders. Arvella said, "I'll put some Cheerios in a bowl. She likes Cheerios.' And that did the trick!

But I can still feel that love. I said to Arvella as we were having our breakfast just a little later, "Honey, it makes you feel so good when somebody loves you and trusts you even when they don't know you. 'Judah Grace doesn't know who I am. She doesn't know what kind of a guy I am. She is only 14-months-old. She has no idea.

There are people who are sitting in this church this morning, who met me 40 years ago. That was when I was 28-years-old and said, "I have a dream, I want to build a church." They loved me and trusted me before I had proven that I was worthy of their trust.

I am asking you to do this with God this morning. I am asking you to do that with the Bible this morning. I am asking you to do that with Jesus Christ this morning. Talk to Him. Open your heart and say, "Jesus Christ, I don't know much about You. But, I'm going to trust You and I'm going to love You."

Prayer: Lord, it is happening here, now. People are becoming Christians. They are being born again. O God, what new life they will have! Filled with encouragement, optimism, enthusiasm and life everlasting! Amen.