Perseverence

Do You Feel God is Failing You?

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9

Some years ago I served on a pastoral care team at a large Southern California church, where one of my primary responsibilities was biblical counseling. I never ceased to be amazed at the number of Christians who came into my office to complain of God’s unfaithfulness and unfair treatment in their lives. Financial problems? God’s provision wasn’t sufficient. Wayward children? God hadn’t led them properly. Broken marriage? God had failed to intervene.

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Stand Firm when Emotionally and Physically Exhausted

Our pastor shared this scripture with us yesterday. It was God’s timing (which is always amazing to me) because this year I have felt burdened excessively. It’s been one of those years when there wasn’t one burden, one tragedy, one suffering, but rather one after another after another after another until I’ve felt that I could barely breathe. I certainly have become rather gun shy, wondering what possibly could happen next and knowing that, in all likelihood, what will happen next will be painful, unpleasant at best.

2 Corinthians 1:8-10 NASB

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The Role of Hope in Counseling Eating Disorders

In the biblical counseling course I am currently taking, the point is made that counselees will often say that they have prayed about the problem (read: sin), but that is all they have done. Their general hopelessness comes from the fact that nothing in their situation has changed; they are still enslaved; from all appearances, God has not moved. Does He not see or care? From their vantage point, prayer must be ineffectual. This often leads to hopelessness.

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Patience: God isn’t McDonald’s

Hebrews 6:13-15 NKJV
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

God isn’t McDonald’s.

Have you ever thought about how impatient we are as a society? We want what we want when we want it, thinking that if we don’t get it now, then what’s the point? Everything is a fast food mentality.

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Porn Cost Me Everything

The following testimony was presented before a House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, May 23, 2000. The hearing focused on obscene material available via the Internet. The overall thrust was to probe why the Justice Department is not enforcing laws already on the books that would effectively hinder the impact of online pornography. The goal of the 5-member panel testimony was to urge the Justice Department to prosecute more obscenity cases.

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I am Freed from Being a Lesbian

Some of you, my friends, have asked me, “How did God or what circumstances did He use to free me from being a bi-sexual/lesbian?”

When I first came on the Internet, I didn’t really tell anyone right away about my problem of being a lesbian. All my life I had wanted to change this part of me. I couldn’t stand being a lesbian, with all those perverted thoughts and images and (yes doing the act with a woman) going on in my head. I knew there had to be a way to be free from it, but didn’t know how to be set free. I couldn’t talk about it to anyone for fear of being rejected, unloved, and even neglected especially by GOD.

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I have been keeping a secret since I was 7, I’m 36 now…

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 Same Sex Attraction (SSA) Meeting 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 Christians in Recovery (CIR) in my life to help me grow and heal. It’s been a journey these past 3-4 years here.

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I was Drowning

To tell what CIR has meant to me is to tell a story of survival – a life saved – spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

I do not consider it a mere coincidence or stroke of luck as to how I came to find Christians in Recovery. I have no doubts whatsoever that God led me directly to this wonderful place. I was literally losing my life, drowning in a sea of addictions, SSA, depression, and drugs… all the effects of past sexual abuse.

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Fulfilling God’s Purpose Rather than Our Own

“Prepare to meet your God…” Amos 4:12

The recent movie “Bucket List” was a smash hit at theaters, and not surprisingly so. The storyline was about two men who discover they have little time left to live, so they draw up lists of what they want to accomplish before they “kick the bucket.” The theme is appealing because nearly everyone has such a bucket list, though most despair of ever checking off anything on the list, let alone covering the entire thing.

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