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Ephesians 4:1,2 Walk… with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love… As is often the case, I read this passage yesterday, knowing it was important but not immediately seeing any issue there for me.  Though I do not always get it right, I generally treat people with kindness.  I kept…
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Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us… I once laughed bitterly at this verse.  In my addiction, I prayed for God to fix me and became cynical when He did not.  I grew hopeless…
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Ephesians 2:1-5 You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked… we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body… But God, being rich in mercy… even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Weekly, a buddy…
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Ephesians 1:18 …That you may know what is the hope to which he has called you… Before marriage, I lived on my own for the better part of a decade, during which time, unlaundered sheets and dirty bathrooms became normal.  I gradually became desensitized to living conditions that I look back on now with some…
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Ephesians 1:4,5 He chose us in him before the foundation of the world… He predestined us for adoption to himself… In my addiction and recovery, I became obsessed with the question of where God’s work meets my effort.  Am I responsible or is God?  If God is truly in control, then my sobriety is his…
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Gal 6:7,8 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Several years ago, during a long…
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Galatians 6:1,2 If anyone is caught in any transgression… restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens… Though we all struggle with something, we would much prefer to struggle in secrecy.  We desperately want to keep our garbage private.  Sure, if we have…
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Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. I must have been eight or ten years old when I found myself overweight the day before a wrestling weigh-in.  I hoped to be in one weight class, but I was a half-pound heavy with less than a…
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Galatians 5:22,23 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control… Methadone, a long acting pain (opioid) medication, is sometimes used for addiction maintenance therapy.  In this type of treatment for heroin addiction, the addict is prescribed this long acting pill, taken daily, in an attempt to curb the…
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Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Occasionally, I…
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