Recovery Step 4 Exam Prep 3

Introduction

The past two months have been particularly challenging since everyone knows the worst thing that someone struggling with any addiction can do is isolate themselves. Isolation fuels anxiety, selfishness and fear; it also tempts and enables us to do things we wouldn’t normally do. I will admit that there have been a few times in my life when short periods of isolation were helpful, but only if I purposefully sought rest and only for a short time at most. Many doctors are now saying that two months of stay-at-home orders have proven dangerous. Stress and anxiety increased significantly while access to supportive people and coping resources were restricted. The Washington Post released an article saying, “three months into the coronavirus pandemic, the country is on the verge of another health crisis, with daily doses of death, isolation and fear generating widespread psychological trauma.” The current research will reveal much over the coming weeks and months, but it is safe to say that an increase in suicides, substance abuse, physical abuse, depression, and overdose deaths have increased due to the months of isolation.

Due to this second crisis, our Celebrate Recovery meetings are once again open. We will meet every Tuesday at 7pm as before. That said, let’s get some recovery and encouragement going.

Exam Prep 3

We’ve moved through the first 3 Recovery Steps.

Step one is basically understanding that you cannot deal with your hurt or habit on your own. Isolation is the worst thing you can do.

Step two is basically understanding that God cares about you and He has the power and desire to help you deal with your issues. God does that by changing you with the Truth, truth about Himself, about yourself, and about your situation.

Step three is choosing to commit all of your life and will to Christ’s care and control. He loves you, not with the superficial, come-and-go kind of love so common today, but with a deep and lasting love.

I’ve recently challenged you to start doing a couple things as Step 4 inventory preparation: 1) read 1 John, Deuteronomy and Romans, 2) pray often as 1 Thessalonians says, “pray without ceasing,” and 3) spend as much time as possible interacting with other members of the Body of Christ, the Church, especially those who understand Biblical addiction recovery.

I’ve talked about God leading Israel through spiritual inventory as He led them from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. The Book of Deuteronomy is that spiritual inventory. For starters, God reminds them of how He freed them from their slavery. Along the way they sometimes wanted to go back, especially if things got hard. It was familiar, terrible but familiar. By contrast, their recovery was uncharted territory for them. Also, in Deuteronomy God reminded them of the ups and downs of the recovery journey and all they had learned so far. Sometimes they assumed that once committed to their recovery and with God in control, they would experience no more pain and suffering, only joy and happiness. That is not the case. We still live in a fallen world were mankind creates much hostility, hatred, resentment, abuse, neglect, etc against itself. Besides that, there are consequences to our past addictions. For instance, if I nearly destroy my body with drugs, alcohol, violence and/or sex, my recovery may very well not include physical restoration to my pre-addiction condition. Another example is that if in my addiction I have hurt other people around me, addiction does that, they may not find healing. My recovery may have on-going consequences for someone else, even if I make amends. God will work through such consequences in my life and the lives of those around me as part of the process of recovering our minds and desires.

As I pointed out last week, In Deuteronomy 9:1-2 God said through Moses, “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’” In recovery, troubles, temptations and trials will come, consequences of the addiction may also, but all of those help us learn to trust God all the more. In trusting Him, God breaks the power of addiction and does the hardest work, but you have to cooperate with Him. You have to yield to His will and to do that you need to have some understanding of what His will is. That only comes by studying the Bible and interacting with His people, the Church.

However, it you keep trying to recover on your own you will be doing so with an addicted mind, twisted desires, faulty information and the kind of wisdom that led you into addiction in the first place. That is why so many addicts move from one addiction to another. If alcohol becomes an undeniable problem, the addict works hard to stop but simply switches to some other addictive substance or practice, leading to two or more primary addictions. Think ahead to Joshua and the Conquest, which came just after the inventory of Deuteronomy. Jericho was the first city Israel came upon and it had a huge double wall and was well fortified. How did Israel take it?  By marching around once per day for 6 days, then seven times on the seventh day. They then shouted and the walls fell. Totally a God thing! He did the hard work and He supplied the victory. All Israel had to do was follow His instructions, as strange as they seemed. Ai was the next city. Do you remember what happened there?  Read Joshua 7:1-12.

They sent a very small company to take Ai and got their butts kicked! Frankly, they’d have been defeated if they’d taken the whole army. Why? Because before all of this, God told Israel to take nothing from Jericho once it fell, calling it “accursed” (see Joshua 6:18). But one guy disobeyed and took some of the accursed stuff and buried it in his tent. They didn’t obey and so when the next battle came (Ai), they were trying to take it in their own strength. They utterly failed. God then addressed the problem and the accursed things were destroyed. God will do all the hard work…like taking Jericho. We just need to diligently follow His instructions, be faithful and don’t hold onto any of the “accursed” things.

Deuteronomy 9:4 goes on to tell Israel not to get prideful in their recovery. This is also good instruction for you and me; don’t take credit for what God has done, is doing, or will do. Don’t be so arrogant to think you deserve the credit that belongs to God. Don’t enjoy some success against your enemy, your addiction, hurt, habit, and assume or convince yourself that you’ve got it licked. Doing so only hardens your heart against God and sets you up for serious relapse because you are again trusting yourself instead of Him. Give God the praise which further unites your mind and heart to Him.

Conclusion

Is God leading you into spiritual inventory? Remember where you were so that you can appreciate how He leads you out. It builds your trust in Him and love for Him. The Spiritual Inventory is a not a divine beat-down. It is a healthy reminder not to repeat past rebellion and to be thankful for His rescue. Along the way, God is changing your mind and desires for your good and His glory.

Hope to see you on Tuesday.

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Mark

Recovery Step 4 Inventory Prep II

Introduction
When I was in high school, I hated tests. I usually didn’t study, or I didn’t study much, so I was always unprepared. The exams simply reminded me of what I didn’t know which made me feel guilty and a little dumb for not studying. You’d think that would eventually motivate me to study for the next exam, but it didn’t. The night before the next test I would do the same old thing: come up with every excuse not to study, make some pathetic attempt to study, or just refuse to even try. I actually graduated from high school somehow and went to the Navy submarine service. Before being assigned to a ship, however, I had to successfully complete two years of Navy schooling. Failure became unacceptable and if I had any hope of getting the job I really wanted, I needed to do well. I soon learned that studying (with effective study methods), practice, and hard work pays off. Oh, there were a couple of non-studying relapses…but I got up and moved on and eventually got my Navy “dream job.”

My desire to study grew and carried over to college and eventually seminary. Now I don’t want to bore you with my story any longer, but let me just say that I now love to study and learn, and that includes almost any topic. Some of my favorites are history, language, math, geology, and biology. Along the way, I’ve actually come to enjoy taking exams, because I enjoy studying. My favorite area of study is the Bible. That God recorded all of that information about Himself and what He has done, or will do, through human history amazes me. Studying the Bible is not about learning facts, however. Studying the Bible is about getting to know, trust and love God and allowing Him to change who I am.

We’ve recently been moving through the first 3 Recovery Steps.

Step one is basically understanding that I cannot deal with my hurt or habit on my own.
Step two is basically understanding that God cares about me and He has the power and desire to help me deal with them by changing me with the Truth.
Step three is choosing to commit all of my life and will to Christ’s care and control.

Exam Prep 2

Studying God’s Word is kind of like an exam in itself. When we read we are looking into the perfection of God and our character defects and sins become blatantly obvious. That is the very reason so many people don’t like to read the Bible. When we read Scripture, the Holy Spirit examines us, but He also encourages and comforts us. After all, even though we were dead in trespasses and sin, God loved you and me so much that He sent Jesus to take our place on the Cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Jesus rose again three days later to give us new life now and eternal life to come. So, even if/when our sin is rebuked when we read the Bible, there is also the encouragement of His grace.

If you and I learn to love studying the Scriptures, we’ll find that through them God teaches us truth about Himself, ourselves and our life situations. In the process He shows us what needs to change about us and gives the wisdom, strength and stamina necessary to accomplish those changes. If we ignore or refuse Him because we don’t like the truth or believe it is easier to ignore the truth, we will continue bumbling around life like the person who refused to study for the big test. We will remain addicted to something. If I deny or ignore the symptoms of a heart attack…I’m going to die. If I deny or ignore anger, resentment, pride, relationship problems, lust, codependency, or any other addictive problems…I’m headed for disaster. If I learn to trust God through reading His Word, He will guide me into truth and begin making the necessary changes.

In last week’s post I challenged you to start doing a couple things as Exam prep: 1) read 1 John, 2) pray often as 1 Thessalonians says, “pray without ceasing,” and 3) spend as much time as possible interacting with other members of the Body of Christ, the Church.

That post also talked about God leading Israel through spiritual inventory as He led them from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. That journey lasted forty years because they had some setbacks; they rebelled many times and even wanted to return to their slavery on a few occasions! Eventually the time arrived to enter the Promised Land and they again stood at the border. Through Moses, God led them through a spiritual inventory we call Deuteronomy. God reminded them of the ups and downs of the journey and all they had learned, all the ways that God provided for them, cared for them and loved them. They had been enslaved, but God freed them and entered into a Covenant with them. The Covenant was that He would be their God and they would be His people (Lev 26:12). He instructed them to keep His Word, reading, memorizing, posting it over their house, teaching their kids, and speaking it to those around them. He reminded them of their hard-heartedness, not as a guilt-ridden beat-down, but so they would not continue to harden their hearts against Him.

Then He told them of the trials to come. In Deuteronomy 9:1-2 He said, “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’” I don’t know what giants you’ve faced, are facing, or will face. Maybe they include alcohol, lust, anger, resentment, unforgiveness, emotional hurts, lying, codependency, grumbling, etc. They seem impossible to overcome, and they are in your own strength, but they are like dust to God. Deuteronomy 9:3 says, “Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you.”

In overcoming your giants, God will do the hard work but you have to cooperate with Him; you have to yield to His will and to do that you need to have some understanding of what His will is. That only comes by studying the Bible and interacting with His people, the Church.

Conclusion

The Holy Spirit leads us through spiritual inventory, particularly as we study the Bible. In Deuteronomy God reminded Israel of past failures as a warning about future ones. I understand not wanting to be reminded of past hurts and wrong-doing, not wanting to face the Truth that where you came from got you where you are now. But remember this, it’s not about heaping up guilt, it’s about understanding God’s grace and remembering that God has rescued us. Then we learn to trust Him our recovery and for whatever lays ahead.

Be thankful for His intervention. Learn to love studying His Word. This week I challenge you to read through Deuteronomy. It is the fifth Book in the Bible and understanding it is important for understanding much about the rest of the Old Testament and about God’s grace and leading as He takes us from slavery to the promised land.

Grace & Peace
Pastor Mark

Step 4 Inventory Prep

Introduction
I have had some addictions and some idols that I’ve worshipped. My desire is to tear them down, forsake the worship of them, and worship God alone. When you consider the Bible’s teaching you’ve got to understand that victory over hurts, habits, addictions, and idols is completely dependent upon a relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is only through His grace, mercy, power, wisdom and endurance that lasting victory comes. Also understand that your relationship with God is inseparably connected to your relationship with others who also have a relationship with God; through faith in Him we are placed into the Body of Christ, the Church, with a particular role and part in that Body. We need each other. It is commonly said in any recovery that we cannot do this alone. That is what Step one clearly states. More importantly, God’s Word says the same thing.

That is the biggest reason we have Celebrate Recovery here at First Baptist. Your relationship with God and my relationship with Him moves us to follow His leading out of the hurts and habits, compels us to forsake the addictions, resentments, and idols and replaces those worthless and destructive things with a deep desire to know, love and serve Him as part of the Body.

I’m glad you’re here reading this post and hope you’ll continue, finding peace and hope along the way. Recovery is not a switch that can be turned on and off, it is a process of learning to yield to the loving God who wants something far better for you than the pain and isolation of addiction; He wants you to know Him and the blessings He lavishes upon His faithful children.

Tonight we begin working toward the start of Step 4, spiritual inventory. If you’ve been with us before during this Step you know that I believe this Step is one to look forward to doing. I encourage you to put away any difficulties you’ve ever had or heard of relating to Step 4 and consider for a moment that it may be the most freeing thing you’ve ever done.

Spiritual Inventory Prep

Have you ever crammed for a test? I’ve done that on several occasions but I learned something be doing so. What I learned was not the material I studied for the exam, but I learned how to get a good grade without learning anything about the subject! If you just want a passing grade just to move on with no more understanding about the subject, then cram. However, if you want to really learn something, you need to study so that you remember, understand and incorporate what you are learning into your way of thinking.

You cannot cram for Step 4’s Spiritual Inventory. Well, you can but nothing will change about how you think or what you do; you’re addictive patterns will continue. If you take Step 4 lightly or you ignore it completely, you will continue down the path of addiction with greater commitment to it believing that Step 4 doesn’t work. In actuality, you failed Inventory it didn’t fail you. If you don’t take your recovery seriously and commit to cooperating with the Lord, you are blinding yourself to truth and binding yourself to slavery.

Consider Isaiah 29:13-16

“The Lord said, ‘Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden. Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord, and their works are in the dark; they say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?” Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, “He did not make me”? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?”’”

As we head into Step 4, I will remind you often of Steps 1-3. Step one is understanding that I cannot deal with my hurt or habit on my own. Step two is understanding that God cares about me and He has the power and desire to help me deal with my hurts and habits, to change me. Step three is choosing to commit all of my life and will to Christ’s care and control. Only with this understanding and decision can we head into Step 4 and expect something good to happen. Step 4 is a searching and fearless examination of myself, led by the Holy Spirit. The leading of the Spirit is critical because as an addict, no, as a human being, I tend to greatly exaggerate myself and shift blame for my character and situations to anyone and anything else. The Holy Spirit gives us truth and if there’s one thing I need about myself it is truth.

Think of Step 4 as a road map, or GPS. In order to get to your destination you have to first know where you are starting and then you follow the necessary path. If you don’t know where you are to start or anywhere along the way, you are lost! It’s the same with recovery, you have to first know where you are. You need the truth about yourself and your situation. I assure you that without the guidance of all-knowing God, you do not have a true understanding of yourself. You either falsely elevate your self-understanding (called pride) or you falsely diminish yourself (called abasement). You can become so prideful that you destroy yourself, believing you are invincible, and destroying your relationships also. Conversely, self-abasement can lead to self-destruction also, believing you are worthless and hopeless; this will destroy your relationships too. What you and I need is truth, and only God knows the totally and absolute Truth about you, your situation and everyone else also. He knows everything you and others do, say and think.

That’s why you need to do Step 4’s Inventory as a Spirit-led inventory, a Spiritual Inventory. So how do we start? First, you need know the truth about your relationship with the Holy Spirit. The only way to have that relationship is through faith in Jesus Christ as your Saviour, Redeemer and Lord. Jesus died on the Cross to pay the penalty for the sin you and I commit. That payment is made in our behalf only when you and I believe that we cannot pay it ourselves (Step 1), that God loved us enough to make Redemption available (Step 2), and when you and I commit ourselves to loving Jesus and living for Him (Step 3). With that understanding and commitment, God gives us His Holy Spirit who immediately begins to give us truth about ourselves and situations. Now, He doesn’t change everything at once, it is a process.

Thus, in preparing for Step 4, I urge you to read First John (not the Gospel of John but the short letter between 2 Peter and 2 John). Read it several times over the coming week. I also encourage you to do as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “pray without ceasing.” Pray often, asking God to help you and reveal truth to you. If you don’t know how to pray, there is no “magic” prayer. Just talk to Him; you can use Matthew 6:9-13 as a pattern. The pattern in that prayer is Adoration of God, Confession of sin to God, giving Thanks to God, making requests/Supplications (ACTS). One other thing, spend as much time as possible with other members of the Body of Christ; I know that is challenging right now with the covid19 shutdowns, but at least use your phone and reach out to other believers. May the Lord watch over you and reveal truth to you.

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Mark

Recovery Step 3: Trust

If you’ve been in recovery for more than a week you’ve probably heard a common definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. There is no shortage of insanity these days; the news is full of it. Conspiracy theories are flying from all sides and who knows, some of them may have some truth. That’s just the thing, who really knows the truth about any of this jumbled up mess interwoven with major political, social, and economic implications. Everyone’s got an agenda, an angle, and is trying to get their way because everyone is convinced their way is best.

It seems that the entire world is in need of Step 1, “We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.” I’ve learned just enough in this life to know that if everything ran my way, things would still be messed up because I do not know what is best and I don’t always do the right thing. That’s why I make every attempt to yield to God’s way because He actually does know what is best and He always does the right thing. God’s Word says in 1 Corinthians 3:19, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness,’ and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’” That the wisdom of mankind is foolishness is unquestionably on display right now. Who do you believe and who do you trust when every expert has “evidence” contradicting some other expert? You trust God.

The Bible has been studied, examined, critically cross-examined, mocked, ridiculed, and proven able to withstand the onslaught of attacks while giving life, peace and hope to those who believe. Trusting God is where Step 2 begins, “We came to believe that God could restore us to sanity.” We face situations and battles that are out of our control. Many of them are actually spiritual battles that involve misplaced worship. Worship is something we will do in one way or another. Some people worship alcohol, drugs, and/or sex. Many others worship gambling, sports, leisure, codependency and/or work. Many people, however, worship self. A characteristic of self-worship is constantly trying to find self-satisfaction, even when it is destructive or hurtful to self and others. Let’s consider an easy example: if someone is a workaholic, work and things related to it take priority in the person’s mind. Relationships with family and friends become minor by comparison, to the point of neglect. Oh, there are times of moderation, but thoughts remain constant and bingeing occurs often also. If God is ever even thought of, He is usually treated as a good luck charm or last hope if things go bad. That does not qualify as trusting God.

Trusting God means giving Him full control of your life. Step 3 says, “We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.” In Step 3 you don’t really know how to turn your life and will over to God and quite frankly, whatever it is you worship will fight hard against that process. It will take time to learn to trust Him, not because He is in any way insufficient, but because our old habits and desires get in the way. Step 3 is a decision to turn our life and will over to God. Learning to let go of our will and follow His is a life-long endeavor that needs to happen every day.

In our church’s Bible reading plan we’ve recently been reading Old Testament passages about God working in the life of David. Back in mid-March we came to the account of David’s home being attacked in 1 Samuel 30. David and his men returned home only to find everything burned with fire and their wives and children gone. Imagine everything and everyone in your home destroyed and/or missing. Did David fall into destructive practices, take his own life, loose faith in God, or even accuse God?  He did not. The first thing he did was weep bitterly, “until he had no more power to weep” (1 Samuel 30:4). Then, according to 30:6, “David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” Then David sought from the Lord what to do next. David knew the situation was beyond his power to do anything, so he yielded his life and will to God’s care and control as he usually did. David then sought to know what the Lord wanted him to do

Let me ask you a question at this point: if you’ve been ignoring God all along or even just for a while, how will you know if your answer is from Him? People talk themselves into all kinds of foolishness, especially when they still have an ear tuned to some addictive habit or some resentment. Here is the first clue, what God tells you will never contradict what the Bible says…His word to you cannot contradict His written Word! Of course you need to be reading His Word to know what it says. David trusted in God alone, and the vast majority of the time, his life and actions proved it. David did exactly what God said, and God restored everything.

The enemy is after you too. Your enemy’s weapons include alcohol, drugs, lust, resentment, anger, materialism, greed, and a variety of others. His arsenal is full and he knows exactly which ones are most effective on you because he has used them before and they work. By the way, if you do manage to avoid attacks in one area, the attacks will come in other areas. The enemy is relentless, filled with lies, deceit, hate and murder. Your spiritual enemy not only attacks you, but attacks your family also (sometimes through you) and he may even take some of them captive. Your addiction, your worship of anything other than God, will damage and even destroy your life and your relationships. By the way, the enemy’s weapons are much more effective when you are isolated.

But like Step 3 tells us, you and I can decide to trust God and turn our lives over to Him. One of the hardest parts is deciding to do so (we really like worshipping ourselves and we deny how destructive it becomes). In Jesus Christ you are never alone…although you can isolated yourself from Him too. I would encourage you to take a moment and read Ephesians 1 just to remind yourself of how much God has lavished you with His grace, mercy, kindness, patience, provision and love.

Trust God. Turn your life and will over to Him. You’ll be glad you did because He will start to bring peace, joy, and sanity to your life and the lives of those around you.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Mark