Guidance

The 3 Dimensional Word! Feasting on the Scriptures

There is no more delightful fellowship than among empty, hungry, willing believers who seek one another out for no other purpose than to eat Jesus together. This Divine privilege belongs only to the Corporate Body of Christ!

They do not talk about themselves or commiserate in self-help programs or discuss what they want to do or build in corporate self-actualization, but they simply come to give themselves together to Him and to “seek first” His corporate expression!

Their passion is to exegete Jesus (to make the Son of God known), as “Word” made flesh, and the “Word-Son” lifted from the very pages of Scripture and applied by Holy Spirit to the believer’s heart! And then to take Him to the world!

Jesus is Father’s living, ingestible Word – your nutritious Life. The Spirit will feed you the Word-Son by revealing Him to you primarily through the Scriptures but also by many other creative means, which enable you to recognize and eat Jesus in your study of the Scriptures. Come with me as we are invited by Jesus himself to the ‘mysterious’ table of God; both, individually and corporately!

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Hitting Bottom – A Neely O’Hara Moment: “God-d-d-d-d!!!”

I recently watched the cult classic, “Valley of the Dolls,” the chick film based on Jacqueline Suzanne’s legendary book. The film took the 1960’s by storm for its dish-y look at starlets in Hollywood as they deal with fame, sex and drugs.

One of its lead characters, Neely O’Hara, played by Patty Duke, indeed, travels down a rocky, highly dramatic and addicted road of stardom and self-destruction. It’s drama queen chick film at its epic best!

And, at the end of the wild ride, Neely suffers the damage done to her acting career, via her drug addiction. She is reduced to being in an alley, at night, screaming, “God-d-d-d-d!”

Yeah. I believe one calls this “hitting bottom.”

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Never Give Up! (Part 2)

(see: Part 1)

15 The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it. 16But the LORD God gave him this warning: “You may freely eat any fruit in the garden 17 except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely “die” (forfeit a living/intimate relationship with God). Genesis 2:15-17, NLT

Now, although Adam and his wife were both naked, neither of them felt any shame. Genesis 2:25, NLT

Shame was born in dis-obedience. And so was mankind’s propensity to lean upon flawed understanding and call it “wisdom or knowledge”. These are the result of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! Their/our eyes were opened to what they weren’t equipped to understand or process.

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Alice in Wonderland Solutions vs. Biblical Solutions

Recently, I watched the Disney animated version of the classic story, “Alice In Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll. The story has gotten many years of pop culture attention and references. The rock band, Jefferson Airplane notoriously captured the drug aspect of it in their song, “White Rabbit.”

And, as I watched the film, yes, I was struck by the “drink me” and “eat me” scenes. Alice, bored with her current existence, encounters a utopia of Wonderland, but is faced with the obstacle of a locked door.

And her “solution” was to partake of these provided substances to alter her size. She believed she could, indeed, be “just the right size” and obtain her perfect life of this magical world.

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Learning to Live From Your New Heart

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:7, 12, 13, The Message


One thing is for sure for the follower of Jesus — God gives us a new heart! The significance of this gift is immeasurable. Our heart of birth had been broken, bruised, battered, used, diseased, rejected, hardened, and corrupted. In short; it is unfixable. That’s why we are candidates for nothing less than a ‘heart transplant’. Anything else would fall woefully short. Prior to the new birth our old heart is as the Prophet Jeremiah proclaimed: “sick, desperately wicked…Who can know it?”

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Self-image: The Bagel Forehead

I don’t know if you’ve heard about this recent beauty trend: the bagel forehead. That’s right. I said the bagel forehead. Apparently, according to “National Geographic Taboo,” people in Japan are getting injected with 400 cc of saline in their foreheads to create a bagel-like shape. It looks a little alien to me, but really, what have we done to ourselves, all on the name of beauty, appearance and trends? How much of that has been freakish?

For instance, let’s take a hobbled stroll down foot binding lane, shall we? In 19th century China, young girls believed the beauty standard to be the tiny feet, inspired by the female dancers of that era. It then, like most beauty standards, became a sign of social class structure. In the name of being a “lady,” a young girl’s feet were wrapped, early on, to reshape the appearance. The goal was to even have toes fall off, all to acquire this specific look. The tiny narrow feet of the “ladies” were considered beautiful and a goal was to make a woman’s movements more feminine and dainty. Hence, the hobbling. And that, of course, made it attractive to the men, taking on oppressive, sexist tones. The men could better control their wives if they could not literally run away, right?

Ah, yes, beauty is pain, huh?

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What dynamic transforms us into the image of Christ?

I think not! God forbid! May it never be!

    “I suggest that there is no other conclusion which can be drawn from those who teach versions of legalism? They say if you can make sin look grotesque enough, believers will stop sinning. How is that working for you? I have a Greek word for that philosophy — baloney!” (Clark Whitten)


Either we choose to rest in the dynamic of Christ’s finished work, or we will foolishly seek ways to finish it ourselves and continue in a hopeless journey of defeat after defeat! The following passages from Galatians could not be clearer as to what Our Father in Christ is offering to us!

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What Keeps People in Recovery?

As I have mentioned in an earlier article, I am firmly convinced that we must help people in residential programs to be come integrated into two vital communities — the Church and the recovery community. There is life after the residential recovery pro­gram and if we don’t spend enough time and energy preparing our clients for it, we have done them a great injustice.

If we are truly successful, the program graduate leaves the mission as a newly so­ber, struggling baby Christian. We must be sure that this new be­liever knows where to find help when he/she experiences struggles, even 2, 5, 10 years and more in the future, no matter where they live.

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What is Addiction?

What is Addiction?

A state of addiction is reached when people habitually or obsessively surrender themselves to a substance or behavior. A person with an addiction uses a substance or behavior to escape from pain or reality. Yet by the nature of addiction, they only hurt themselves or others, and continue to deepen their addiction.

There is much debate over whether addiction is a disease or a compulsive habit. The body can certainly become highly dependent on various substances like drugs and alcohol. It seems hard believe that someone can validly claim to be addicted to shopping or the internet.

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Casting off the Burden of Self-Indulgence

Proverbs 18:1 NRSV
The one who lives alone is self-indulgent,
showing contempt for all who have sound judgment.

“Prayer opens a whole planet to a man’s activities. I can as really be touching hearts for God in far away India or China through prayer, as though I were there. Prayer puts us into direct dynamic touch with a world. A man may go aside today, and shut his door, and as really spend a half-hour in India — I am thinking of my words as I say them, it seems so much to say, and yet it is true — as really spend a half hour of his life in India for God as though he were there in person. Is that true ? If it be true, surely you and I must get more half-hours for this secret service. No matter where you are you do more through your praying than through your personality.” ~ S. D. Gordon

There is living and then there is living. In other words, there is existing, having our physical bodies be in a certain space and time, and then there is the purpose and focus for our living where our thoughts and priorities dwell. One can live alone physically and be in touch with the world at large through prayer and focus and concern. And one can live in the midst of the largest metropolis and be solely centered on her own agenda and concerns.

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