Honesty

There is a danger in what my grandmother used to call "backsliding." I don't hear the term much these days. In fact, to be honest, sin in the life of the Christians isn't addressed much these days. We talk about self esteem and relationships and getting our finances in order. I rarely hear a preacher talk from the pulpit about the things in our lives that we shouldn't be doing. And perhaps our preachers should begin to preach such things with boldness. There seems to be great weakness within the American Church today. We would benefit from such great preaching.

Hebrews 6:1-6 NASB

Like many of us on the path to recovery I was the ultimate party girl as a teenager. When I reached my late teens-early twenties friends started saying things like, "you're fun when you've had a few but not when you've had a few too many." Eventually, my friends stopped asking me out to the bars with them. Once in while a brave heart would invite me along and then proceed to "keep an eye on me" throughout the night. They feared I would do something atrocious to embarrass them or I would do something incredibly stupid to hurt myself. These people really loved me and genuinely wanted to enjoy my company. They were ever so hopeful this time would be different. It rarely, if ever, was. At the age of 21 I was introduced to crack cocaine and I incorporated that into my partying as well.

It is easy to go along in life thinking that we're okay. I know that there are times in my life when I deceive myself, thinking that I'm okay and following when the Lord when, if I were to be truly honest, I would know that isn't true. But the deception is so comfortable. It's much easier to convince myself that everything is okay between me and God then to come into His presence and ask His opinion.

Hebrews 4:12-13 NKJV

Have you ever said something brilliant or even stupid and wondered where on earth those words came from? Want to hear something amazing? Your heart is connected to your mouth. Thoughts and experiences stored in your heart come out of your mouth and directly impact your life and the life of others.

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart. Matthew 15:18 (The Message).

I am a fairly deceived and deceitful woman. Oh, it's not that I go about lying day after day. I do my best to be as honest as possible. But I think that I often deceive myself by lying about my own heart condition. Rather than spending time in prayer (who has time these days?) seeking God's will, I make my own decision, ask God to bless it, and then blissfully go on my way thinking that His "stamp of approval" (through my request) solves it all. And I think I'm not alone in this, but rather am surrounded by many. There are things that I think American Christians do, thinking we are doing the "right" thing, when what we are doing is actually rebellious and self-centered. We give . . . a little. We pray . . . a little. We respect . . . a little. We have compassion . . . a little.

"I'm not an Alcoholic, you are! Don't try to push your problem on me..." Sound familiar? This is what "they" call denial and I had it BAD. It wasn't until the good LORD broke me, that I faced up to the truth. I have a problem. Alcohol is NOT my friend.

I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior but my walk really began six months before that when I had only two choices... death or life. Since I chose life, I had to make major changes. STOP Drinking had top billing. It's amazing how the other changes began falling into place after that... only something was missing. I began going to church, but I was missing something... was it my attitude? I thought, if I can find young people like me, I'll be okay. HA HA

I grew up in a very small town of about 600 people. My parents are saved and we always had all kinds of missionaries, special speakers from around come and stay with us. Our home was never quiet :) From a very age I heard the Word of GOD preached and we always went to church every time the doors would open. At age 4 I thought that is how I would get into heaven by going to church, being a "good girl" and by doing works. I never really believed or accepted Christ as Savior until much later. Everybody in my hometown knew everybody's else's business.

I have been keeping a secret since I was 7, I'm 36 now. No one knows about this secret, except for the one person who was hosting the SSA Chat last night.

I feel as though the Holy Spirit came and held me and then whispered in my ears (and fingers) to share...to go ahead and get it off my quiet little mind.

I feel as though I experienced a miracle here at Christians in Recovery so that is why I want to share this with you... I think if I experienced a miracle in my life that I'm to share it with everyone here at cir.... because God has given me cir in my life to help me grow and heal. It's been a journey these past 3-4 years here.

Hi, my name is Rob.

I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I lived all my school years here and then went into the Army when I was 19. I gave my life to Christ when I was 14. Then began a long uphill battle. I was extremely shy in school and was always trying to find a place to fit in. I experimented with drugs, but they scared me too much. Then came alcohol. I went to a party when I was in the 12th grade. They had beer, I drank, I got drunk, I got sick.... I cooled it for awhile after that, and tried to stay on the straight and narrow with God. I got baptized and became a member of a church. I was happy with Jesus in my heart.