Category: With Audio

Why waste time reading, when someone else can read for you? I’m happy to announce that the daily blog can now be listened to as a podcast. On the website – www.faithinthestruggle.com – under each individual entry, you should see the option to listen to the audio for that entry. Just click and . .…
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Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” John 2:7 One of the online news sources I view daily allows readers to respond to the articles. I’m not sure why I ever scroll down to read them, because usually, they are just vile comments, meant to inflame and agitate. One caught my eye…
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Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” John 1:46 As a kid, I had tremendous pride in my school, which meant that I thought the Watchdogs – yes, Watchdogs – were better than everyone else. I just knew that those who lived in the next town over were buffoons. Then, as…
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Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” John 1:38 I have certain goals at the gym, but I’m not there yet. My problem isn’t that I don’t know what to do. I know I should get up every day and go, but some days, I want to sleep…
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For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17 I sat across from him over a cup of coffee a while back. He was a heroin addict who was facing significant impending consequences due to his addiction. Remorseful, but still not quite yet willing to give up chemicals,…
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In him was life, and the life was the light of men. John 1:4 Modern medicine sees addiction as a disease and step one of AA teaches that I’m powerless over my disease. I objected to these concepts initially, because I needed to believe that I wasn’t simply a hopeless victim and that I had…
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 When first compelled to address my chemical dependency problem, I was instructed by some in the church that I didn’t need treatment or AA. All you need is Jesus. I was told that any attempt to…
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Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations . . . Luke 24:47 Whenever I meet someone in clinic who has successfully quit smoking, I ask how they did it. Most have tried several times, failing repeatedly, and then committed to some significant change in behavior before finding…
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We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Luke 24:21 Ever since I was a child, if I’ve ever had anything to worry about, it’s always been worse at night. If my mind is troubled, it’s that quiet time before sleep comes, during which my problems seem to grow. The light of…
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Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Luke 24:5-6 It’s difficult to describe the soul-crushing hopelessness of addiction to the non-addict. I wanted to stop using, but because I’d engaged in the behavior so many times, I was enslaved. I hated what I was doing, and…
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