Christians in Recovery Knowledge Base article
Give me understanding according to Your word. Psalm 119:169
When the psalmist prayed, “Give me understanding according to Your word,” he obviously knew something that we too often forget: True wisdom and understanding are found ONLY through the eternal perspective of the holy Scriptures.
Trying to achieve true wisdom any other way is
Do You Need Wisdom and Understanding? Read More »
Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. Deuteronomy 18:13
The artist, Salvador Dali is famous for stating one of my favorite quotes:
“Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it.”
Indeed, if you look at his art, there was a challenging of the perfect, of the “normal,” of the expected. Surreal images were not about depicting something as it occurred in life. Stretched out clocks and manipulated human bodies captured that artistic representation.
If one cannot find his depiction of perfection in his work, the same, however, cannot be said about the existence of excellence there. It is pervasive. Imagination, bravery and human imperfections are all there. And, I believe, that’s part of why we identify so strongly with his art. We can relate to
Reaching Perfection? Read More »
“…Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”
Luke 21:28
I’ve recently taken on a newer kind of exercise routine – and it has nothing to do with weight loss.
After years of mysterious flares of right side pain, I have been diagnosed with a bulging disc. This was, in addition, to the mild form of Scoliosis which was never completely resolved when I was twelve years old. So, in between those two realities, I’ve had bouts of intense, radiating pain which now require physical therapy. Hence, the exercises. And the star of those exercise are the press ups.
Are You Doing Your Spiritual Press Ups? Read More »
I love Winston Churchill’s sentiment: 
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
Life is tough. Sooner or later, we’ll experience a trying situation which feels like hell. It isn’t actual hell, thank God. Nevertheless, the power of that notorious situation/trauma makes us feel tortured with pain, despair and hopeless evidence. Eating disorders, addictions, compulsions, loss and grief are just a few examples of things which can feel like hell, if, indeed, torture is its calling card.
It’s painful and almost impossible to see future, life, possibility or God. We can, instead, much more easily see ourselves as failures, weak, forgotten and ruined. It’s, therefore, inevitable we come to a screeching halt; we stop in the mire and can only feel ourselves sinking…down to where? Greater depths of hell and torture?
But that’s not God’s truth about us. Even in the middle of hopelessness, God is there… living… loving… working…
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” Jeremiah 32:27
It can be tempting to believe that
Keep Going (While Going Through Hell) Read More »
I am one of the tens of thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) of Christians who deeply appreciate the recovery from alcoholism and addiction that Alcoholics Anonymous made possible in our lives. Many of us have been criticized for mentioning Jesus Christ and the Bible in our talks at meetings. But most of us know that God is our sufficiency. We pray to Him in the name of Jesus Christ. And we recover.
Alcoholics Anonymous History and Its Christian Roots Read More »
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.Ephesians 4:29
“Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am?” by John Powell (Niles, IL: Argus Communications, 1969) is one of my favorite books.
Powell suggests that people are afraid to tell you who they REALLY are because you may not like them, thus, we reveal ourselves in “levels” or stages: According to him.
The lowest level is cliché.
“Hi, how are you?” “Whazzup?” When you met that special someone, did you really care who he or she was or was it because you had a hidden agenda and maybe did not even know it? Did that first conversation sound something like this? Do you come here often? So you’re a whiskey sour lady, let me buy you a drink. ‘I thought you was somebody else’.
This level is safe. There is no sharing of the human experience. You do not know anything about me and I don’t know anything about you. What you don’t know is she might be going through a heated divorce. He could have just got out of prison for armed robbery.
The second level is
Talking about Healing: Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am? Read More »
worksheet at bottom of article
There are two ways we can love our spouse. We can love under our own understanding of what we think love is, or we can love the way God has directed us to love. I think we all know how to love, but doing it is a whole different matter. 
What is the difference between the two? The first way of loving is a condition and learned way to love, which is selfish and self-seeking. We don’t know we are behaving selfishly because we do not know any other way to love. It is a slow conditioning process where we learn to love for our own purpose. But marriage is designed for God’s purpose. God wants you to be happy in your marriage and the best way for you to be happy is by loving in the way God has directed us to love.
The second way of loving is what comes naturally because we have loved and accepted God into our lives first. The reason it’s so natural is because we have recognized and utilized the spiritual Christ in our lives, which makes loving a natural process of who we are.
It is very difficult to love another if we are only thinking about ourselves. Some examples of how we love our spouse selfishly are
Loving Your Spouse With Wisdom Read More »
Worksheet at bottom of article
Don’t Think You Can Change Your Spouse
A popular misnomer in society is people think that after they’re married they can change the things they don’t like about their spouse. But this is incorrect thinking to begin with. We cannot change anyone other than ourselves, and to try causes numerous problems within the marriage. If you cannot accept who you are going to marry, don’t get married!
It is possible though, to influence an unbelieving spouse through your virtuous actions and then they may change on their own free will. But a person needs to accept God on their own time frame.
Don’t Get Discouraged
Married to an Unbelieving Spouse: Shine Your Light Read More »
This article is about unhappy people – not depressed people.
True happiness is within self. Unhappy people are usually unhappy because they have not mastered the ability to be happy within themselves. Therefore, they may try and gain happiness/pleasure through others no matter what that entails. Don’t get confused with my usage of unhappiness and then compare it to depression because they are two different things.
An unhappy person often uses others to get what they need out of life. At first this may work, but after a while the relationship begins to experience problems because their partner cannot tolerate the life getting literally sucked out of them. This kind of needy and spongy behavior is what the medical and psychiatric establishments like to call, “codependency”.
There is nothing really wrong with these kinds of people, except for the fact they need to come out of their selfishness, grow up, be accountable and take responsibility for their own happiness. Unfortunately when certain establishments coin codependency as some life long emotional problem, people don’t take responsibility for their behavior. For them it’s always someone else’s fault why they drink, why they look at porn, why they do drugs, why they have an anger management problem, why they feel like the whole world owes them
Why Are Unhappy People Unhappy? Read More »
His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.2 Peter 1:3-4
What do I need from life? Depending on the day (or time), it’s likely I would give a number of answers. I might need calm or quiet or money or acceptance. I might be looking for someone to care about me or someone to listen to me. What’s interesting is
Do I Choose My Way or God’s Way? Read More »
