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Month: October 2021

Toxic People

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?  Galatians 5:7 When I think of toxic people, I think of those who are profoundly difficult in every interaction, creating conflict wherever they go. When I’m forced to spend time with them, I don’t enjoy it and if I can avoid them, I will.…
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Useless God

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. Galatians 5:2 The twelve steps of AA teach that we must turn our will over to God if we want our lives and sanity restored. In the disastrous consequences of our addiction, many of us have…
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Christians Can’t Be Addicts, Right?

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 I grew up in an Evangelical Christian tradition which taught that we’re transformed when we come to Christ. I’m sure that I was never taught that we’re instantly made perfect in our faith,…
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Leading a Double Life

So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. Galatians 4:31 I remember once reading about a man who had two families in different cities, neither or which knew anything about the other. It amazed me that someone could lead such a double life. In the end of course, his…
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I’m Not Your Enemy

Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? Galatians 4:16 “We’re trying to get you the help you obviously need.” Those are the words that someone spoke to me in the throes of my addiction. It was true and it needed to be said . . . but I hated the one…
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When I Get a Cold

You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. Galatians 4:13-14 I had a sore throat and cough last…
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Does Your Failure Mean I’m a Failure?

I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. Galatians 4:11 I spend a fair amount of time and effort trying to help those who struggle with chemicals. Because I’ve been there, knowing the misery of addiction, and because of my own recovery, I want to help others find recovery. The sad fact…
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Why Do I Keep Eating the Junk Food?

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? Galatians 4:9 Eating right is one of those continual struggles for me. I know what’s…
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Maybe I Don’t Want My Inheritance

So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:7 Ever since we had the birds and the bees talk, my children have been a little wary of my desire to talk about anything too serious. Whenever I want to discuss something important, they…
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When It’s Not Cute Anymore

In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. Galatians 4:3 Working in Urgent Care, I see many pediatric patients, witnessing a lot of behavior that should be specific to that population. Refusal to cooperate, tantrums, and noisy bodily functions are all normal activities for…
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