Recovered In Christ

The more “knowledgeable” a person seems to get about their addiction/disorder the less it seems they mention God. Like walking deeper and deeper into a cave – every step propels them further into the darkness and away from the light.

I use the term knowledgeable very loosely of course – because analyzing darkness has never produced light. It simply makes more darkness. And this is what I see so much of. Blind men and women groping in the dark carrying on like experts. But the only thing they are experts in is self deception and darkness. What a curse! Self satisfaction. Being wise in your own eyes. A curse I tell ya!

The most wonderful miracle is when that blind man walking in the dark cave suddenly cries out the truth – and gives up his degree in “darkness analytics” and allows the God Of Light to show him what he could never see by himself.

“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!” – Matthew 6:22-23

Darkness IS STILL darkness no matter how much your satanically corrupted mind has convinced you otherwise. No matter how many people join in with you to build those high places of worship to your false gods – they are STILL false gods. Truth is not relative, it isn’t subjective. It will never bend, change, erode or be impacted in any way regardless of your lifelong commitment to bury it, change it and live a full, productive damned life in rebellion to it. You cannot change Truth. But it can and does change you.

By the way Truth is not just a standard of what is right/wrong, good/bad, beautiful/ugly, acceptable/unacceptable to God – yes it is all those things, and yet more.  The # 1 point about Truth – is that it is not an “IT” – Truth is a Person. The fully human and fully God Person that is Jesus Christ – apart from whom – you will never know, live, have, be, anything good, right, true and beautiful.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5

Thursday, January 1, 2014

There is a vast difference between wanting the thoughts of Christ versus having the mind of Christ.

So many of my fellow believers want some kind of thought transplant from God, without having any real desire or understanding for having a renewed, regenerated, Self controlled, Christ centered mind. They want visions of the future (which they mistake for prophecy), they want unlimited wisdom, impeccable knowledge, they want all these things and more and yet have no real interest in sharing the plan, purpose and perspective of Jesus Christ…which is what it really means to have the mind of Christ.

They want the best new wine in the house poured into old wine skins.

It is not some church member telling you about a vision they had of some grandiose position that God is going to elevate you to. (And how comes no one at these churches ever has a “vision” or “word” for you that you’re going to be an usher? Or janitor? Why do these visions always seem to miraculously revolve around you becoming a preacher….set before a crowd of thousands….or a healer….or a prophet?? Or some other ridiculously ego pumping, spotlight whoring position?)

The Holy Spirt’s job is not to bring glory to you. Can you grasp that? Can you understand that He can see through your egotistical, love of self driven motives and ambitions for power and prestige? Can you understand that He will not support that. That He has a different purpose.

The Holy Spirit is not your personal divinator. He is not inspiring and influencing people to titliate you with clues and snippets of your future splendid debut! That my friends, is Satan’s plan not God’s. The Holy Spirit is to indwell and infuse you. He will transform and renew your mind that you may share in understanding and participating in God’s plan.

If you are not careful and continuously willing to be transformed and renewed you may not notice the subtle snare of your desire to “serve” God becoming an eclipse to the actual gospel of Jesus Christ!

“Having the mind of Christ means we understand God’s plan in the world—to bring glory to Himself, restore creation to its original splendor, and provide salvation for sinners. It means we identify with Christ’s purpose “to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). It means we share Jesus’ perspective of humility and obedience (Philippians 2:5-8), compassion (Matthew 9:36), and prayerful dependence on God (Luke 5:16).

In the verses leading up to 1 Corinthians 2:16, we note some truths concerning the mind of Christ:

1) The mind of Christ stands in sharp contrast to the wisdom of man (verses 5-6).

2) The mind of Christ involves wisdom from God, once hidden but now revealed (verse 7).

3) The mind of Christ is given to believers through the Spirit of God (verses 10-12).

4) The mind of Christ cannot be understood by those without the Spirit (verse 14).

5) The mind of Christ gives believers discernment in spiritual matters (verse 15).

In order to have the mind of Christ, one must first have saving faith in Christ (John 1:12; 1 John 5:12). After salvation, the believer lives a life under God’s influence. The Holy Spirit indwells and enlightens the believer, infusing him with wisdom—the mind of Christ. The believer bears a responsibility to yield to the Spirit’s leading (Ephesians 4:30) and to allow the Spirit to transform and renew his mind (Romans 12:1-2)” G.Q.Org

Monday, December 29th, 2014

I just love how these people who are the most obsessed with “open mindedness” and being inclusive are the first to start labelling people as dogmatic or judgmental if they say anything outside of the prepackaged liberal new Agey approved toolkit.

Here’s the thing…the reason why you think anyone who claims to know/have absolute truth is being dogmatic, the reason why you think no one, including yourselves can know absolute truth, isn’t because it is impossible, it’s just because you don’t have it. You have no spirit of truth in you nor a desire for truth in you – you actually think that anyone who claims Truth is a dangerous zealot promoting dogma. You actually think the safe route is to simply put your faith in “no truth” and that everyone’s truth is truth.

But you are so wrong friend. Deceived. And wrong. And actually really annoying. Because out of all the “zealots” that I meet you are the worst kind. Because at least the J.W’s, Mormons, Muslims, fanatical tongue speakers and atheists have the balls to actually have a belief. But your dogma is to pretend that you don’t have any.

You aren’t defending “open mindedness” or promoting “many paths to God”…you are actually an enemy of God, a prostitute trying to teach us about marriage.

And I’m sick of it! Quoting early AA history and Bill Wilson quotes and random shabby chic Bhuddist sayings to support an “inclusive” recovery philosophy. It’s bullshit. Bill Wilson spent 20 years struggling with suicidal depression and untreated sex addiction and spearheaded a demonic cult that oppresses and destroys the spirits of people more than alcohol ever did, because he walked away from the biblical truth that saved him and exchanged it for an angel of light and all that it offered.

But there IS still a way out. One way. God’s way.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

The reason why some of you get into so much trouble for what you say is not because the words you use are all that different from the words that “conflict free” Christians use – it’s because you actually mean them.

Monday, December 15, 2014

How many times have I heard my buddy believers quote this verse? They love to!

Joel 2:25—“I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten”

They love to quote this – partly because they have an infatuation with sounding cryptically prophetic – and partly because they really want to believe that God will restore to them what has been lost. And He does. But what they rarely, if ever think about or ask is…why did HE send the locusts to begin with?

See everybody and their uncle likes the God of restoration, of renewal, of mercy and forgiveness – they push to the front of that line to hop on His wagon – but it never ceases to amaze me how their pride and arrogance blinds them from seeing the rest of who He is.

The God that you want restoration from is the SAME God who sent those locusts. The God of mercy is also the God of justice. The God that you are asking forgiveness from is also the One who has a major problem with sin.

The truth is – there can be no renewal, restoration, return of what the “locusts” have eaten without repentance.

If you think that makes what I am proposing “legalistic” or hard or mean…then you seriously need to revisit the Bible that you love to regurgitate, because you are so busy spitting out selective scriptures, that you have never taken the time to digest it to begin with.

You are so busy overlooking the fact that it is God who sent his judgment into your life – a very real consequence to the evil that you love. Even if you do recognize that, you are so quick to jump into sermonizing on receiving what the locusts have taken – that you completely miss the whole repentance thing. Again – why did He send the locusts to begin with?

Have you intimately come to know what God really thinks of you? Do you agree with him? Do you agree with His opinion on sin? On your sin?

You are not being asked to remove all sin and evil and hardness of heart from your own life, you are not being asked to manufacture sorrow for sin, but what I am asking, is that you stop defending your sin. Stop feeding your fat, insatiable pride with all the excuses we’re all familiar with. Stop focusing on what God needs to restore and instead focus on admitting and addressing what attracted the locusts to begin with. THAT is your real work to do.

My mission in life is not to comfort you as you sin – it isn’t to go to meetings and church groups with you so you can show off what you know about the Bible all the while you are living like a devil – and have no conscience about it. My mission is to call you to repentance. Even if you stop liking me.

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
for the Lord your God? Joel 2:12-15

“The conclusion of this section of Joel summarizes God’s intention for the restoration: “And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame” (Joel 2:26-27). God must deal with sin, but when His people repent, they find abundant blessing that more than compensates for what was lost in the judgment. His grace abounds.” – GQ

http://biblia.com/books/esv/Joe

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Someone mentioned to me that my posts are being plagiarized…lol…I’m flattered!!

Rewind Wednesdays:

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

There are some who really think they are doing God’s work as “peacemakers” – ambassadors of Mr. Let’s get along with everybody. But the truth is, you are actually aiding and abetting those who breathe out spiritual violence against the Christ you claim to Love. You think that makes you a peacemaker? It doesn’t. The fact that you are able to fellowship with people who harass and slander those of us for bringing the Bible back into recovery meetings makes you worse than weak, or double minded. It makes you worse than the persecutors themselves. Being friends with someone who hates my brother would make me share in the condemnation that hatred brings.

Preferring the company of those who live in darkness, and who attack those in the light you claim to be a part of, doesn’t make you a “bringer” of the light – it makes you deceived about the standing you think you have with Him – who IS The Light.

“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them…

…Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.” 1 John 2:9-20

Pinned from: Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Speaking freely about your sins and “mistakes” and confessing them to others doesn’t make you a spiritual giant. Being able to admit when you’re wrong and humbly owning your weaknesses is not enough! The real work is in the quiet commitment to change and be changed. It is in the persistent pursuit of God’s grace to be different – and then actually becoming different.

I am daily inundated with images, quotes and platitudes of others talking about “not being perfect….don’t judge me…it’s so hard for me to get humble…I’m only human….I’m a “real” addict and this is why I behave this way”…blah blah blah. What they are really saying through all the posts, long winded shares and cheesy praise music is that they are not really willing to change.

Real change does not occur when you’ve stopped feeling guilty for your mistakes or because you have finally decided to humble yourself and accept that you have “pride”. How big of you! Umm no sorry! REAL change occurs when you become willing to change. Simple as that.

In the quiet stillness you make a powerful, quiet – committed, no fanfare decision to be willing to go to any length to change. And you know what happens? You don’t keep posting things on Facebook that try to manipulate people to not “judge” you. You don’t keep taking 1 step forward and then 5 steps back. You don’t run away when people challenge you. You stop hiding in retreats/conventions/speaker tapes. You stop being satisfied in what you think is spiritual and begin to actively put into practice what you are taught. You actually change.

I know that a lot of you won’t want to hear this. You want to blame it on being emotionally immature, or on not knowing “how” to change. You want to drag the people who are actually able to walk in righteousness down and make them your equals. You want to spend hours upon hours soaking in your self pity and talking endlessly about how God loves you just the way you are.

One of the best things anyone ever said to me was that yes God loved me exactly as I was…but that He refused to let me stay that way!

Make no mistake about it. The reason why you haven’t changed much is simply because you are not really willing to change. You think you are. But if you were – trust me, you’d be different. But you’re not. And some part of you knows it.

Quietly committing to change, quietly staying humble and taking direction without a weekly rebellious uprising is genuine willingness.

You are free to stay sick, to wallow in your self-indulgent emotionalism that you try to peddle as religious experience, you are more than welcome to stay in the maze of your ego – but I won’t ever co-sign your suicide pact. Because that’s what it is. All of your games, your double mindedness, your attempts to take our inventory (lol), they are all easily seen through as feeble attempts to distance yourself from your own inability to be honest with yourself. Because if you were honest with yourself you would see that you don’t really want to change and that you are the author of most of your confusion and futility. That would be a very scary and terrible place to be so I understand the great lengths you go to try and avoid it – but the great news is that God will meet you there. I guarantee you this – He will not meet you anywhere else, and no real solid, Holy Spirit powered change will ever occur in you without it.

By the way, if you think this is about you  – then it probably is. Who else would it be about?

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. So when you have repented and turned back to me again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32)

‘How unbecoming to the character of a follower of Jesus, is the worldly ambition of being the greatest. Jesus, who took upon himself the form of a servant, and humbled himself to the death of the cross! In the way to eternal happiness, we must expect to be assaulted and sifted by Satan. If he cannot destroy, he will try to disgrace or distress us. Nothing more certainly forebodes a fall, in a professed follower of Christ, than self-confidence, with disregard to warnings, and contempt of danger. Unless we watch and pray always, we may be drawn in the course of the day into those sins which we were in the morning most resolved against.

If believers were left to themselves, they would fall; but they are kept by the power of God, and the prayer of Christ. Our Lord gave notice of a very great change of circumstances now approaching. The disciples must not expect that their friends would be kind to them as they had been. Therefore, he that has a purse, let him take it, for he may need it. They must now expect that their enemies would be more fierce than they had been, and they would need weapons. At the time the apostles understood Christ to mean real weapons, but he spoke only of the weapons of the spiritual warfare. The sword of the Spirit is the sword with which the disciples of Christ must furnish themselves.

Satan in his temptations strikes principally at the faith of God’s people; that being a grace which gives much glory to God, and in the exercise of which believers have much peace, joy, and comfort; both which he envies and grudges; and it is also a shield which keeps off, and quenches his fiery darts, and is a piece of armor he is sadly harassed with, and therefore endeavors all he can to weaken and destroy it, or wrest it out of their hands.

But though, through the power of sin, and the force of temptation, it may fail as to some degree of the steadfastness of it, as to the acting and exercise of it, and as to the sense believers may have of it; yet never as to its principle, it being an irrevocable gift of God’s grace; a work of his almighty power; a solid and substantial grace, even the substance of things hoped for; an immortal and incorruptible seed, and of which Christ is the author and finisher; and to nothing more is its security owing, than to the prayers of Christ, which are always heard, and to his powerful mediation, and prevalent intercession; Christ is the advocate of his people; he prays that they might have faith, and then he prays, that it may not fail; and it shall not, notwithstanding all the opposition of hell, and earth, unto it.

“And when you have turned back to me (converted), strengthen your  brothers” Peter was now an already converted man, and had been for some years; but whereas he would fall by temptation into a very great sin of denying his Lord, and which was attended with such circumstances as made him look like an unconverted, and an unregenerate man; his recovery by the fresh exercise of faith in Christ, and repentance for his sins, is called conversion: and which was not his own act, but owing to the power and efficacy of divine grace. Peter, after his recovery strengthened the faith of his brothers and sisters in the Messiah, and on the day of “Pentecost” preached a most excellent sermon, which as it was made useful for the conversion of three thousand sinners, was, doubtless, a means of confirming the minds of the disciples; and he has left exceedingly useful epistles for the strengthening of his brethren in all ages of time; the design of which is to establish the saints in faith and holiness, that they may not be drawn aside, and fall from the steadfastness of their faith, either by the lusts of the flesh, or by the persecutions of men, or by the error of the wicked.’

Today’s word of meditation: “strengthen”: Make use of your bitter experience for the fortifying of your tempted brethren.

To read the whole chapter and commentary see: http://biblehub.com/nlt/luke/22.htm