Month: January 2020

If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, “I repent,” you must forgive him. Luke 17:3-4 A repeat offender, like the addict who has relapsed over and over, loves Christ’s message of forgiveness.…
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If your brother sins, rebuke him . . . Luke 17:3 Upon moving to Minnesota several years ago, I learned about Minnesota Nice, an apparent regional tendency of being kind, respectful, and courteous. I hadn’t moved far to get to Minnesota, so I was probably already Minnesota Nice without really knowing it. For me though,…
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Pay attention to yourselves! Luke 17:3 When I first went to college, I apparently had a habit of being a “one-upper”. Whenever anyone told a story, I had a bigger, better story that I needed to tell. I remained blissfully unaware of this annoying habit, until one of the guys I hung out with, started…
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The rich man also died and was buried . . . Luke 16:22 The addict quickly learns behavioral patterns that work out to the benefit of his drug use. In my own addiction, I learned that people were pretty forgiving if I made a show at attempting recovery. In my first two relapses, there were…
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Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. Luke 16:18 At a wedding last weekend, I had cause to look back over my own twenty years of marriage. Our wedding was a beautiful day on which we took vows to love and…
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No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Luke 16:13 It is the nature of addiction to consume the addict’s life. As the obsession with getting, using, and…
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We got more snow last winter than I recall ever getting before. At one point, late in the winter, we felt compelled to remove some of the snow piling up on the roof of our house. As I huffed and puffed shoveling, my resourceful son simply started with a small snowball at the peak of…
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“Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.” But he was angry and refused to go in. Luke 15:27-28 Self-righteousness is one of those attributes that’s easy to see in others. In my own addiction, I was acutely sensitive to those whom…
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“My son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” And they began to celebrate. Luke 15:24 Frustrated by being overweight, many times I’ve decided to eat differently. Then, after a miserable day of doing so, I’ve wanted immediate results. When I could see no change in the mirror or on…
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I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” Luke 15:18-19 I wrote yesterday of being at rock bottom. I remember thinking –…
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