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Month: February 2020

How Far Would You Go to Change?

Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on. Luke 21:3-4 Most of us can identify with repeatedly trying – and failing – to change some self-destructive…
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Jerks for Jesus

You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. Luke 21:17 In my drug addiction, I wanted nothing to do with AA or those in recovery. The light of their truth burned my eyes, exposing that which I desperately wanted to keep hidden in the dark. I don’t want or need your stupid recovery.…
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When the Addiction Began

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. Luke 20:18 In medical school, I had to have my thyroid gland surgically removed, meaning that I no longer make the hormone thyroxine. Because I’d be dead without this hormone, I must take a…
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Sin or Disease?

He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Luke 20:16 Modern medicine teaches that addictive tendencies are roughly 50% genetic and 50% environment. We have this genetic predisposition that shapes our personal traits, but then our experiences in life further mold us into who we are today. I’ve heard Christians…
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When It’s OK to Walk Away

Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” Luke 20:8 Occasionally, in the clinic, I’ll meet someone who already knows what he needs and when I fail to agree, this individual becomes argumentative. He doesn’t want my opinion, but rather wants a specific prescription, which I feel…
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The Violent Clean-Up

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” Luke 19:45-46 In medical school, a classmate and I lived in a dumpy basement apartment which wasn’t very clean…
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Missing Out on Life

I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. Luke 19:40 I remember, as a teenager who was just beginning to wrestle with lust, pride, and selfishness, thinking that one day, I’d live as God wanted. I wasn’t doing anything terrible and I just assumed that eventually, I’d grow up and…
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Did God Make Me Sober?

I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Luke 19:26 As much as I’d like to say that I chose, of my own accord, to get help for my addiction, that would hardly be truthful. I…
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Mission from God

The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:10 Prior to finding recovery, I’d previously made a couple of half-hearted attempts, all ending in relapse. This last time though, something was radically different. God saved me from myself, and I finally realized that I must respond by daily making a…
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