I’m a sex addict, using and abusing women and pornography since I was 8. It is my sin of choice. This is what I turn to when I want to self-medicate and not face my feelings or the situation I find myself in. Having tried and failed at several different types of treatment, I had conceded that there was no hope, so I gave in to it fully.

A brother close to me suggested that I try attending Chemical Recovery meetings. Even though it is a drug and alcohol recovery group, it is open to anyone and simply sitting there and listening could help me.

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self medicate   sex addict   alcohol recovery   recovery meetings   drug and alcohol

You are moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into
The Twilight Zone.
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man made catastrophes   group philosophy   shadow and substance   twilight zone   substance of things

Jesus told the apostles that just as they were able to observe the time of year from the obvious and predictable cycles of nature  (Matt 24), we also will be able to recognize the coming end to this age.  That is, the attitudes of men, and the way they choose to live will clearly indicate our proximity to the end (Matt 24 ).
 
In Mark 13:17-31 Jesus warns the apostles that in only a short time they would not only abandon Him, but as in Peters case deny that they even knew Him. These men, Jesus' closest friends, on the night before His crucifixion, still couldn't grasp what was about to take place.  Even Jesus' own prophetic words pointing them towards His death, the event for which He was born, were met with an self-assured, rejection that such a thing could never happen.  As we look back to those events we might ask "How could they not see what is now so clear to us?"

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prophetic words   mark 13   apostles   crucifixion   time of year

As participants in recovery programs the world over can attest, blame shifting continues to be a firm favorite with the unopen, the disingenuous and those who are generally unwilling to change. Shifting the blame however, isn't peculiar to substance abuse treatment. Five minutes watching any of what currently passes for news programing unveils a smorgasbord of blame shifting served up nightly under the guise of objectivity. In American newsrooms stories are routinely filtered through a politically correct prism designed to rearrange rather than reflect the news of the day. The final result being repackaged news stories that somehow manage to turn real life victims into villains, and even convicted criminals into sympathetic figures.

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sinful choices   substance abuse treatment   apostle paul   god god   negative consequences

An unusual event occurred recently and it is causing quite a storm. It is not unique; however, it is also not frequent. The event I refer to is that someone spoke their godly convictions on national television without caving into the "mob". Not unusual is that, for speaking sound doctrine, she suffered the consequences.
The event took place on April 19, 2009 at the Miss USA Pageant. Carrie Prejean, Miss California, was a front runner for the title of Miss USA when Perez Hilton, one of the judges posed the following question: "Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage; do you think every state should follow suit?"
Miss Prejean answered the question with honesty and with the deep Christian convictions with which she was raised when she stated that her belief that "a marriage should be between a man and a woman" as we know Scripture clearly dictates, and the storm began. (The video can be seen here.)CNN made fun of her, Perez Hilton launched a YouTube attack on her calling her names, not fit for printing, "Hannah Montana" actress Miley Cyrus sided with Hilton as did Britney Spears. Miss Prejean later stated in an interview "With that question specifically, it's not about being politically correct. For me it was being biblically correct."

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miss usa pageant   miley cyrus   perez hilton   same sex marriage   christian convictions

As we pass the end of March and on into April, it might be a good time to check in on the resolutions we made earlier in the year. In the unlikely event that such self assessment doesn't confirm the same steely resolve you started out with in January, a moment of clarity may now be at hand. In Mark 4:5 we learn that it's possible to respond to God's word with an enthusiasm that on one hand appears genuine, but on the other, leads only to a short lived spiritual surge that lacks a meaningfull long term change. Unfortunately this kind of immature faith yields unrealistic expectations which will ultimately produce discouragement. In 1 Sam 17 we see a young man named David gather for himself five smooth stones from the stream as he prepared to face down and ultimately kill the giant Goliath. What was it about David's faith that allowed him to expect such an unlikely and audacious victory? David's expectation wasn't pegged to a vague hope or generally hopeful feeling that something good was going to happen. Instead he knew that when he took a stand, his God would be there with him.

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five smooth stones   giant goliath   moment of clarity   vague hope   line in the sand