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What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? 1 Corinthians 4:21 The addict often doesn’t understand why his life is so miserable. It often seems that bad things just keep happening to him for no reason. He can’t catch a break and everything…
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I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 1 Corinthians 4:19-20 In any gym, there are those of who talk a big game, running their…
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We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. 1 Corinthians 4:13 We all wear many different hats and we all play various roles in our lives, some more important than others. We’re spouses and parents. We’re employees or business owners. We’re on school boards or we…
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We are fools for Christ’s sake . . . 1 Corinthians 6:10 I grew up in a stoic, conservative church. We rarely clapped to the music and there wasn’t a lot of hand-raising. There was certainly no dancing or shouting. There was one lady who sat behind us every Sunday, speaking in tongues, but she…
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What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? 1 Corinthians 4:7 It was my pride and self-reliance – doing whatever I wanted – that led me to drug addiction. In the disastrous consequences of my addiction, I began…
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Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. 1 Corinthians 4:5 When interviewing a patient in addiction medicine, we often will ask about…
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It is required of stewards that they be found faithful. 1 Corinthians 4:2 The State, who bears the responsibility for licensing the practice of the physician, has an obligation to act in the best interest of the public, for whom the physician provides care. In the case of a physician who is impaired by an…
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Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 1 Corinthians 3:18 I imagine that whatever field a person is in, the more knowledge he or she has, the greater the temptation is to embrace arrogance. In…
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Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 When I worked in the ER, it wasn’t uncommon to take care of those patients who suffered…
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If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 1 Corinthians 3:15 It’s been a while since I’ve written about my favorite food/addiction metaphor and today’s passage got me thinking about donuts, so I thought I’d write about them today. It’s odd, when…
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