Overcome

When We are No Longer Invincible

My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26

The older I get, the more I become aware of my own frailties. When we’re young, particularly if we’ve been blessed with good health and strength, we fall into the trap of thinking we’re invincible: someone else may step into the street and get mowed down by a truck; someone else might get cancer and die before their thirtieth birthday; someone else may drop dead of a heart attack in the middle of shooting hoops with friends. But not us.

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A.A. – “Stick with the Winners” – Preparing the Newcomer

“Stick with the winners!” That’s one of those often heard, but little understood suggestions a newcomer hears both in his treatment program and in the recovery rooms of Twelve Step Fellowships. The problem is: Who are the winners! How do I find them! What do they do and say that is recognizable and profitable. And if the newcomer is not prepared to spot them, seek them, and follow them, he can’t reap the benefit of “sticking” with them. We believe the winners will subscribe to the following.

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Self-defeating Cycles

Is it possible that abundance is a self-created cycle?

The steps in this picture take the marchers perpetually uphill or downhill. Same steps—it’s all about which direction they choose to walk. I have a feeling the same sort of dynamic works for abundance and scarcity.

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Eyes On The Prize

Have you ever seen the sport of curling? Curling, like most games, incorporates complex strategies and techniques, but the basic idea is pretty simple. The object, like other similar games (Crokinole and Shuffleboard), is to score points by getting your team’s markers closer to the target. These games typically involve three main tactics: Slide your

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Stop Rescuing the Alcoholic and Start Rescuing You

Ask Angie: Dear Angie, I have been married to an alcoholic husband for eight years now and we have two young children together. We have taken marriage courses and I have been reading the Love Dare. I have tried the detach method but it is difficult since he starts drinking every day at around 9 or 10 in the morning (since he was laid off over six months ago) and drinks until he goes to bed which is usually midnight. If I don’t talk to him when he’s drinking he gets angry. How can I make the detachment work in this situation and how can I protect our children from his anger?

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Tremors

somewhere between physical reality and spiritual mentality
a chord was struck
and I resonated

tremors led to trephining truths
timeless tipped
targeting the center of my existence

midst all the quaking
my excuses became quiet
reacquainted with the ground of my being

when shaking ceased
I found a crease
and a Rock
where I stand amazed.

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Learning to Live as We are Commanded

John 13:35 NKJV
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Back in the 60’s, when worship choruses first began to become widely popular, a certain chorus made the rounds in the churches, “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love” (common tune, lyrics by Peter Scholtes). The words go like this:

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love

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How To Damage Your Relationship With God

I ran across a list the other day, one psychologist’s list of relationship killers. No groundbreaking information, but it got me thinking about my relationship with Jesus.

It’s clear that relationship is God’s primary intention. Jesus’ central mission was to restore open, transparent interactions with God, others, and self. So this simple list prompted me to wonder what attitudes or self-talk might be getting in the way.

I’m convinced that whenever I feel distant from Him, I’m the one who moved. So here’s a list of five ways I might damage my ability to maintain a close, authentic relationship with God.

CRITICIZING

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Reasons for Not Worrying

George MacDonald tells of a castle in which lived an old man and his son. Though they owned the castle, they were yet very poor. They could scarcely get enough bread to keep them from starving. Yet all the time there was great wealth, which, if they had known about it, would have supplied all their wants. Through long generations there had been concealed within the castle—very valuable jewels, which had been placed there by some remote ancestor, so that if he or any of his descendants should be in need, there would be something in reserve.

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