Month: November 2019

Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. Luke 10:41-42 I sometimes joke that I had kids simply so that I’d have someone to play in the snow with me. They’re growing up though, which means…
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But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. Luke 10:33 My family moved to Minnesota in 2002, less than a year after the 9/11 attacks. During the next few years, a wave of immigrants and refugees – mostly Muslim – from East Africa arrived in…
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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10:27 I can know something to be true while at the same time, wanting something very different. I know that I’m supposed to…
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The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Luke 10:2 If you had asked me a few weeks before I went to chemical dependency treatment if I was willing to help those who were addicted, I would have supported the effort financially. Maybe out of guilt or obligation, I would have given money, and…
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I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Luke 9:61 I put on quite a bit of weight during residency and suddenly found that most of my old clothes didn’t fit anymore. Not giving up on the hope of losing that weight though, I put the skinny…
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Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them? Luke 9:54 I’ve been guilty of picking fights in the name of my faith. Believing I was right, I’ve condescended, belittled, and just plain been a jerk to those who’ve disagreed with me. Because I felt I was on…
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Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? Luke 9:24-25 Every time I picked up a bottle of pills, I promised myself it was the last…
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If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23 As a Christian who has struggled with my own chemical dependency, I’ve wrestled with two seemingly opposite viewpoints. At one extreme, attributed – whether fairly or not – to the faith I’ve grown up…
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He said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” Luke 9:13 In my addiction, I had a lot of excuses. I knew what was right, but I wanted what was wrong,…
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Wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. Luke 9:5 I can, on occasion, be more than a little argumentative. Particularly when it comes to faith and recovery, I’m convinced I’m right and I want everyone to agree with me.…
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