Blog

Step One: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable. I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate . . . Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Romans 7:15,24 For a long time, like most…
Read more

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23 During my first attempt at recovery, I encountered several well-meaning Christians who informed me that I didn’t need AA or treatment. All you need is the church and Jesus. I certainly didn’t want to argue…
Read more

I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. Micah 4:5 The addict’s life, singularly focused on the drug, is eventually consumed with obtaining and using that which he craves above all. As the disease progresses, he will sacrifice loved ones, possessions, career, integrity, and faith, in pursuit…
Read more

You shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. Malachi 3:18 A few weeks back, while out hiking in the mountains, I came across the historical marker of an old cemetery with two gravestones. Buried in the snow and barely legible, one…
Read more

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. Malachi 3:8 When our kids were young, I would take them to the card aisle at a local store and let them pick out a card for their mother’s birthday. Because they couldn’t read,…
Read more

My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. Malachi 2:5 I’ve lived in turmoil and misery, and I’ve lived in peace and contentment. From the outside, the circumstances between the two conditions probably didn’t look all that different. Both lives involved being a husband/dad, practicing as a…
Read more

When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Malachi 1:8 Our dog has learned to stick close to the table at dinner time as when we are done, he usually gets the leftovers. Like us, he seems to love steak.…
Read more

“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” Malachi 1:2 Years ago, while halfway through a marathon for which I was poorly prepared, a runner ahead of me veered off course and collapsed. I’m ashamed to admit that I was a little thrilled. I realized that I’d get…
Read more

In the whole land, declares the Lord, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver . . . Zechariah 13:8-9 I have come to very much appreciate the life and joy to be…
Read more

Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9 When I was a child, long before the days of online shopping, we had toy catalogues. Once, I found the exact thing I had always wanted and…
Read more