Month: September 2019

Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? Mark 4:21 Ashamed and afraid of discovery, I did everything I could to keep my drug use secret. I lied. I used in the dark. I isolated. I certainly didn’t share my struggle with anyone. In…
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Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? Mark 4:21 Time in the car is good thinking time for me, so yesterday, as I was driving into the cities, I found myself meditating on today’s passage about being a light to the world.…
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Other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. Mark 4:8 Some of those in treatment for chemical dependency will experience what is called a treatment high. Newly sober and having made it through withdrawal symptoms, their brain is coming back to life.…
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They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. Mark 4:18 I had a day off yesterday, which means I got up early and ran from one thing to another…
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When his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” Mark 3:21 Today’s passage makes me wonder how much misery my concern for the opinion of others has caused me. In my addiction, I was terrified of what everyone would think if they knew,…
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When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. Mark 3:8 Alcoholics Anonymous has no marketing plan. Rather, they purposefully adhere to the concept of Attraction, not Promotion. AA doesn’t advertise, they just do the work of helping the alcoholic find recovery. Those who find it are their own advertisement to…
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He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” Mark 3:5 I got mad at work recently. I was justified though. Someone mixed up two charts, creating a lot more work for me. In my frustration, I harshly let the culprit know…
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The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27 I remember once thinking that God made a lot of rules against things that I really wanted to do. I assumed at the time that he just made these rules arbitrarily so that we would have boundaries – like drawing a line…
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Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Mark 2:17 One of the most common questions I get from addicts is, “Do you still struggle?” I know why they’re asking. I’ve been there – knowing I needed to quit, but…
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The scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Mark 2:16 I can clearly remember a time in life when I read this passage and realized something might be wrong with my life. I believed…
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