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I am the LORD who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD. Leviticus 22:32-33 If you’ve ever tried and failed repeatedly to change your eating habits, you know something about the hopelessness of drug addiction. In my own addiction, I vowed a thousand…
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You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. Leviticus 20:26 I’ve been to recovery meetings where an attendee has shown up intoxicated or high, claiming to be sober. It’s a painful experience as everyone can see what’s happening, but…
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Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. Leviticus 20:2 Apparently, when my kids were quite young, my wife and I wouldn’t let them watch a certain cartoon on TV. We don’t really remember…
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You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Leviticus 19:35-36 I don’t generally think of greed as one of…
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You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 19:34 When I first went to an inner-city inpatient treatment center, it was quite a jarring experience. I…
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You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:28 When I work out, I take off my wedding band because it catches on my barbell. Long ago then, my wife bought me a silicone wedding band, hoping I’d wear that at the gym.…
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You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:18 Like most of us, I’m inherently self-centered. It’s simply natural for me to put my wants and needs ahead of others. In my addiction, this was amplified as my appetite for drugs consumed my decision making. In the end, I sacrificed everything…
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When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for…
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And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion. Leviticus 18:23 While addicted to opioids, I hated who I was and what I was doing. Even then though, I could find some comfort…
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You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I…
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