Author: Scott

Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. Matthew 19:8 I grew up in a time and place where tattoos were taboo, being worn only by military personnel and bad boys. I was neither. Tattoos are much more common now, but it’s…
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What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. Matthew 19:6 In my addiction, I put the drug above everything: faith, career, and marriage. The repetitive lying, hiding, and destructive behavior eventually took its terrible toll on my relationship with my wife, who, in the third relapse, simply wanted nothing to do with me. In…
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“You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” Matthew 18:32-33 I don’t generally think of myself as bitter, resentful, or unforgiving. If I’m honest though, there are those whom I struggle to forgive.…
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Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Matthew 18:21-22 Those of us who have recurrently engaged in destructive behavior really like today’s passage.…
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Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Matthew 18:20 In recovery, I’m finding that I must do a lot of things that are the exact opposite of my addictive behavior. In my addiction, I isolated. I know a lot of addicts use with friends, but that wasn’t me. In…
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If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. Matthew 18:15 Being an addict in recovery myself, and working with other addicts, I’ve had opportunity to be on both sides of an intervention. It’s a painful undertaking and is generally something everyone wishes to avoid. Unfortunately, though, it’s…
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If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? Matthew 18:10-12 It’s easy to write off the addict who has failed and let you down a hundred times. I’ve been there. Or…
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If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. Matthew 18:8 I’ve wrestled with more than a few flaws. I’ve engaged in self-destructive…
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Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6 So, this happened again recently. After speaking at a chemical dependency treatment center, one of…
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The disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Matthew 18:1 A few years ago, while running a distance race, I got passed by a woman who was quite pregnant. I’m not going to lie. That stung. I certainly didn’t have any expectations of winning the race – I’m…
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