Escaping Anxiety by Dr James Kilgore
Kevin : I’m Kevin White, CEO of Spirit Media and we are having an online celebration for new book. So, I hope you would put your hands together and help me welcome one of our authors at Spirit Media. We have Dr. James E. Kilgore.
Dr. James : My friends called Jim, so thank you.
Kevin : Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good morning, sir. How are you?
Dr. James : I’m doing well. Thank you. I got over COVID Recently, so now yeah, much better.
Kevin : Yeah, our prayers were with you, and sorry that you struggle with COVID A few weeks ago. So you may hear Jim coughing that during the show, and I assured him that that was okay. We’re just grateful that you are healthy and that you are with us today that we can celebrate your new book, Escaping Anxiety and I am thrilled and honored to be the publisher, and our team at Spirit media, to be allowed to partner with you to take this message of God to the nations. So in the next few minutes, we just want to get to know you, Jim. And so we’ll come back and talk specifically about the book but introduce us to yourself. I’m sure that there are people now watching. So if you’re watching, congratulate Jim by telling Jim where you’re at. And so we have Jaime from the Philippines saying good morning there. But please, take time to congratulate Jim and let him know where you’re watching from who you are and we’ll bring your comments up into the show during the show. So Jim, introduce us to yourself who is Dr. James D. Kilgore?
Dr. James : Well, I came to know Christ when I was 15 years of age through the Billy Graham television ministry, our of decision and when I heard that message that evening, I went and one of the back rooms of the house that we were visiting, and knelt down and received Christ as my savior. And that, of course, changed my life.
I was within the next couple of years, called to be helper in a local congregation. And while I was there, the pastor had a serious health issue and didn’t get to finish his sermon. And it was a small church. And the deacon said, you’re going to be our pastor. And until he gets back, well, it turned out that he didn’t come back. And I was there for a couple of years, commuting back and forth between my university setting and the church where I was serving.
And during that time, I wrote an article that I had published in a Baptist magazine as a youth. And that sort of started my interest and calling into the white writing career.
In 1968, I published my first book, which was more academic, pastoral care to the hospitalized child. And then I wrote one about Billy Graham, with whom I worked in the 1957, New York City Crusade at the old Madison Square Garden.
And from there, I’ve continued on with postdoctoral training and marriage and family and opening and practice and concurrently spending about 60 years in pastoral ministry.
Kevin : Wow. I just want to invite everyone watching, will you please just put your hands together and just say, bravo, God! I mean, think about that. 60 years. I wonder if there’s anyone watching that’s over 60 years old? I hope so. I assume so. God bless you if you are but can you imagine being in Gospel service for 60 years? What a what a great heritage and legacy you represent. Jim.
I want to just share this with you. Maybe you know Freddy. Northern gamma is sending his congratulation.
Dr. James : Yes, he is a good friend of mine. A missionary and Bible translator he is.
Kevin : He says he is reading your book daily and loving it. And I can see why this is the book we are celebrating it is Escaping Anxiety. And the graphic there, I want to just zoom in here,power ideas for positive living. And you can see there that this is an illustration of moving from the grip of worry, doubt, fear, anxiety, negative thoughts, and, and really climbing out of that by the grace of God by putting into your mind these power ideas for positive living.
Jim, anything else you want to share about yourself before we really dive into the book?
Dr. James : No, I’m, I’m pleased to be able to continue to work. I teach a Sunday School class of about 100 people on Sunday morning, and I have a men’s Bible study in our community here where we live. And so I’m still having the opportunity to share God’s Word with people every week a couple of times.
Kevin : That’s amazing. Yeah, good. Well, I want to follow in your footsteps, and live a long life and continue to serve the Lord to the very last breath. And I see that that’s your strategy as well. You know, the world and the American dream, talks about retirement. But when you have been saved and forgiven, and set free by the Lord Jesus Christ, you can’t. The love of Christ compels you to continue to serve and give there is no retirement in the family of God. Doesn’t mean we don’t slow down, doesn’t mean that we don’t need to sleep more and all of those things that come. But the mission never ends for the people of God. And you’re, you’re a great example of that.
Dr. James : Thank you.
Kevin :We have people from the Philippines, congratulating you from India, congratulating you. Yeah. Omela says praise God for people like Jim, who continue to serve. Yeah. And I don’t know if you have ever had everyone in the audience have ever had a Sunday school teacher that really taught you and showed you the Word of God and their life and taught you. But I think most of us can probably look back and just see, see the seed planters of God that have just really sown into us spiritually. And to see that you are today continuing to teach over 100 people and your Sunday school class is just inspiring.
And we live, you know, in post COVID, a lot of talk about heroes, and rightfully so I have given on our on our time together lots of gratitude to health care workers, and military and firemen and all that. But I put Jim right up there and one of my top heroes, any, any gospel worker, Pastor, teacher, counselor, author, writer that has given their lives over to the Lord and continues to diligently serve as a hero. So continue to congratulate Jim during the show, we’re going to now transition over to just talking about the book. So Jim talk to us about this, and help me and everyone watching. Tell us about the book. I’ve given the cover details. But now you tell us what is this book? What does it mean to you?
Dr. James :Recently, in my writing career, I’ve become a columnist for a North Georgia newspaper. And each week, I write a column. Not necessarily a biblical column, I’m sort of a crossover author, but I try to take Scripture and apply it to situations and life. And so this book is really a compilation of the ideas in those columns.
And so it’s short pithy life stories and ideas that are developed when within one, two or three pages at the outside, so you can pick it up and read it, and then put it down. And many of my friends have said they use it for devotional readings or for daily study.
And that’s one of the things that this book does. It allows you to look at various situations. And in that process, to learn how to escape anxiety. One of the great Bible verses is, don’t be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be known to God. And when you do that, you can be free of the negatives that weigh you down and you struggle with and on a daily basis.
A couple of women come to mind when I think about this book. The first was a grandmother, whose experience was troubling her at the point because her granddaughter had come out and said that she was homosexual. And that became the major identification in her life. And so the grandmother said, “What do I do?” And so we talked about some techniques she could use in working with her grand daughter, and how she would allow her to be loved, and not necessarily to accept her behavior, but to accept her as a person, and to allow her to come to, to a better relationship with Jesus, her Lord.
Another story that’s in the book is one about a friend of mine, who had a child who was disabled. And she and her husband struggled a lot with the necessity of taking care of a child that was critically disabled in many ways. And she told me a story about her travel experience.
She said, I was planning to go to Italy. But she’s had when I got off the plane, I was in Holland. And she said, that was an example of what her life was like. She planned for Italy but she got a child. And that was like going to Holland, she had to learn to speak a new language, she had to learn to deal with new situations in her life.
So the book includes stories like that, and the adaptations that people make, to their lives, in order to cope with the struggles that they have. And there are no struggles in our lives that God can’t take care of, if we just trust Him, and allow him to bring about change in our lives. And that becomes the greatest assurance that the Christian has, if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creature. Old things have passed away, all things have become new.
Those kinds of examples come through, though I don’t necessarily, quote, a verse of Scripture in every chapter of the book. But the foundational truths are biblical, that I try to make people aware of, and speak to them in different ways, so that the message gets through.
Kevin : Yeah, I love that. I want everyone in the audience to know this is not a book of warm fuzzies. It’s not about just think differently, and your circumstances will change. It really does demonstrate how practical God is, and how God’s word applies to the nitty gritty areas of our life and 2023.
And I love how you Dr. Jim, really did hold true to the word escape and you just illustrated that and that story of how this book really does offer you the way to see through your problems, to see through your challenges and to escape from the negative self talk from the worry from the fear from the doubt, and really began to possess the mind of Christ over your circumstances. You know, that example you just shared about the grandchild with special needs. That reality did not change the child continued to have special needs, but it’s how we perceive it. Sometimes our perception can really cripple us.Because we’re looking through our broken eyes, and stead of the Creator’s eyes. And how do we get from, from our perspective over to God’s perspective, it’s not just an abracadabra, not that God can’t do it in an instant. But most of the time, it is a process.
And it is a process of refusing the lies, and accepting the truth. Jesus even said, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And we were talking about our ages before the show, but every day I am learning truth. It’s not like truth was a one time, one size fits all back in my 20s.
I continue to grow in intimacy with the Lord. And he continues to reveal truth. And that truth continues to bring freedom of Christ in my life. And I love the practical journey that your book takes people on why did you write this book? Now I understand the columns and how you repurpose that. But you could have just put articles out, and you didn’t have to package it into a book? Why did you put it into the covers of the book?
Dr. James : Well, because collecting those 12 Power ideas, was a framework for the truth that was covered. And now articles, one of the great lessons that all of us have to learn, Kevin, is that we have a tendency to react to life, rather than to respond to life. Our reactions, usually our anger, anxiety, fear, distrust, things that we wear masks to protect ourselves. And the more we wear those masks, the less people know us. But all of us have a much deeper need in our lives. And that’s to let somebody know us as we really are. And that’s a deeper fear, the fear that I’ll live my whole life, and nobody will ever know me.
So this becomes a way of saying, I choose to respond to life. In that way. I allow God and someone else to interact with me, and I respond to them. And that becomes often a way that we discover our relationship with God, as other people speak to us, and we speak to them. And we discover the relationship. In fact, the New Testament says, We know that were the children of God, because we share witness with others that are the children of God. That becomes the movement through which we develop intimacy. And ultimately, intimacy is to be with God and heaven. Isolation is to be without God in hell. So we don’t want to make that choice. And we want to escape that bondage in our lives every day.
Kevin : Yeah, yeah, that is so good. That’s so good. I want to invite everyone in the audience, tell us what God has delivered you from.
It says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so and right. Here’s an opportunity. We’re talking about God delivering people from worry, have you been delivered from worry, say, so put it into the chat? Have you been delivered from fear? You know, just put fear and praise emoji. It can be that simple. But leave a message in the chat of how you have experienced the Holy Spirit lead you out of anxiety and fear and doubt and worry. I want to just show I’m going to zoom in here. While people are, are leaving some comments in the chat. And I just want to show the Table of Contents here. And Jim mentioned the 12 areas there. So the first area is exploring the power of ideas for escaping anxiety, and then discovering positive wholeness.
Then seasonal lessons for living and positive living and family and marriage. Transforming the mundane to the magnificent. I mean, these sections and the titles, I mean, just look at the chapters and you’ll see here, each chapter is only two or three pages. So it’s literally something Freddy was talking about how he’s reading it daily, it could become part of your daily time along with God your daily devotional to just set your mind, in the things of God, we are called to think, and focus on these things. And this book can definitely be a tool, but lessons from grandparents, the family value table, the face of the future, and on and on.
So please, continue to just share what you’ve been delivered from everyone in the audience. And then the last thing, I just want to ask everyone listening to the celebration, what questions would you have about the book. Please continue your congratulations, Chris is saying that she has been delivered from worry and anger and bitterness. Life is hard when you are born poor.
And maybe Jim speak of that, because, you know, there ou mentioned it in the family with the special needs child. But sometimes we are handed a broken world we’re born in all of us are born into a broken world. But sometimes we’re handed limitations. And I know one of your visions is to live without limits. Talk about that just for a minute, how do we get beyond the brokenness of our world and get you know, Jesus said, Pray that thy kingdom come on earth as it is and heaven. Talk to us about Living without limits.
Dr. James : Well, what happens when you apply these power ideas, as we call them in the book
is that you not only discover freedom from anxiety, which you discover positive steps that you can take to improve your living.
I know a lot of people who have been born into families that weren’t very wealthy, or who have been born into families that really didn’t care for them and nurture them, like most parents should. But we live in a world in which people are afraid to be parents, I was watching a girl on television yesterday in an interview, and she was talking about how you have to protect your child from any negative in life, and you have to strengthen that child’s self image. And all sorts of things that we’ve been taught in schools have increased there. But she never talked about being a good parent. And the Bible says if you spare the rod, you spoil the child, you need to learn to set up limits, and directions for your child. Many of the power ideas begin to be applied, when you listen to the restrictions and the guidance that the Scripture gives you.
Some people say, well, the Old Testament and the commandments are very negative. But in fact, God’s plan in the 10 commandments was to teach us how to live positively. So there are four commandments about God’s relationship, but six commandments about our relationships to others. And when we follow those principles in our life, your life becomes great. Your experience is not just redeemed to use a theological term, but your life becomes a gratitude, a thanksgiving for each day.
Sometimes when you get to my age in life, you don’t sleep as well at night, but that’s a wonderful time to be awakened to talk to the Lord about the needs of friends and family and others. And I guarantee you if you decide to pray for your friends, Satan will help you to go to sleep.
You’ll see that’s it like it when Christians pray, right?
Kevin : Yeah. That’s great. Well, talk to us about just what God’s given you. We’re gonna in just a minute in the show by letting everyone know about how they can go buy this book, but you have other books that God has written through you.
What number is this book?
Dr. James : Sixteen.
Kevin : Yeah, wow. Wow, I want everyone to just put their hands together for that. 16 books.That’s incredible. I want to I want to follow you in that, by the grace of God and I hope other authors and writers. So if you’ve written one book, you know, you know how to congratulate Jim on 16 books. Jim talked to us about one of your books really took off back in the 80s. Try Marriage Before Divorce.Tell us about that.
Dr. James : Now, I was full time in marriage and family therapy in Atlanta at the time, and had a, a two or three year stint on a program called Good morning Atlanta. And people were exposed to that book. And that was also speaking in churches and conferences around. And fortunately, when you are speaking as a guest speaker, people will pick up the book and, and buy it. So Try Marriage Before Divorce became my best seller. And it’s probably somewhere over 200,000 copies. And we’ve, I’ve been blessed in that way. And friend of mine, came to Atlanta one time and visited with me and he had a publishing house, his name was Bob Hawkins. And it was Harvest House Publishing on the West Coast. And Bob was kind enough to pick up four other titles of my books and, and they all sold very well, partly because of exposure to television, and newspapers and conferences and that sort of thing. But one of the joys of writing is that you never run out of ideas. There’s always something that is happening in your mind and the Holy Spirit’s guiding you, that you can find some sense and want to share that with others that are around you. And I’ve been fortunate to be able to share some of those ideas with people and find them to be life changing for them as well as for me.
Kevin : Yeah. Great. Well, let me pull this up here. And we can just continue to talk here. But as you can see here, this is Dr. Jim’s book on Amazon, and this is available around the world now. You can get the e book for as little as $1.99 cent and the audio book, you can even get free if you start that subscription on Amazon through audible. But his ebook is available worldwide, not just on Amazon.
So if you’re watching in Asia, and the other side of the world, and you cannot easily get orders from amazon.com You can go to the local Amazon in your area, even Amazon India has Dr. Jim’s book there. And you can order it there. It is available in all four formats ebook for your e readers, your audio book, your paperback and your hardback. And I really want to encourage everyone to take advantage of this ebook special. And get that and and honor Dr. Jim, with a five star review on Amazon. Obviously, we both want you to be honest. But I think you’re gonna find that this is worthy of five stars. But part of what now you in the audience can do and those of you who watch this for months and years to come.As an author as a writer, you help Dr. Jim speak to people that he has never met face to face. Obviously, authors can influence the people in their circles. And at any given time. Research shows that we can influence 125 people or more. On average 125 people but you could you can extend that with your five star review. 93% of people today say that they read reviews before they make a purchase.
So to 8 billion people on planet Earth, they don’t know Jim, and so you can be a part of helping them know why they need to read this book. We did have some questions, but we’re out of time where we’re going to say goodbye in just a minute. But I want you to see these questions and just see the benefit of this book. What inspired you to write the book on anxiety he did talk about that and what are some effective ways to cope with anxiety? We talked about that as well. But the good news is it’s it’s available in the book and so I just encourage you to purchase the book and to get your own copy of it. I think you’re going to find that it is worthy to be given as a gift. We have Mother’s Day coming up, Father’s Day, Easter, graduations coming up. Just imagine God using you to help many of the loved ones in life be free and escape anxiety. Jim any final words as we say goodbye and, end our celebration here online?
Dr. James : Thank you. I hoping folks in India will tell others about the book and my friend Billy Kim who is the Billy Graham of Korea who has been a lifelong friend uh more than almost 70 years. We’ve been friends and I know that a lot of folks in Korea including military folks that are stationed there have been influenced by Billy and some have read my book and I appreciate that very much.
Kevin : Yeah well Dr Jim thank you for your time. Thank you everyone in the audience for helping us to celebrate and let’s just give one final hand clap and applause to the glory of God.
Jin thank you for sharing this. We wish you all the best and on behalf of the team at Spirit media we are very honored to partner with you to see this go to the nations and now we are um partnering with you and believing God that this book would bear fruit in all 195 Nations.
Dr. James : Thank you so much Kevin. God bless your publishing industry too.
Kevin : Yeah thank you so much. Well,God bless you everyone and we will say goodbye for now but we will be back with another new book release very soon thank you Jim.
Thank you.
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