The Speaker at our Pine Summit (Big Bear, CA) Men’s Retreat in May, 2008, was René Schlaepfer [Schlep-fer], a pastor from Twin Lakes Church in the Monterey Bay area.
René shared how when he came to Twin Lakes Church he inherited a 2 million dollar debt. By the end of his first year he had led the church out of the 2 million debt — and into one for 3 million! Soon he found himself stricken with severe panic/anxiety-attacks — and admitted himself into the hospital.
Turned out that the physician treating him was a Christian. To assist René in getting his body stabilized, some meds were prescribed, but this physician suggested that the only real, permanent cure was truth as revealed in the Bible.
So pastor René began to comb the Scriptures, looking for verses that spoke to the fears which had brought on his anxiety attacks.
As he came across God’s promises he wrote them down on 3×5 cards which he went over morning, noon, and night, 5 times a day. In 30 days he was transformed, healed of his anxiety disorder!
When we went to the chapel for our first session on Friday evening, there was a stack of verses on each chair, some of them being the very ones God had used to set René free.
Jesus was not kidding or exaggerating when He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” We find that truth in the Bible!