Deadman’s Turn – Remember Feeling Low – Purity 688
Purity 688 03/25/2022 Purity 688 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a snow covered landscape and a twisting road
underneath a morning sky comes to us from yours truly and the distant past of
March 0f 2015. The road is actually my former driveway, and because of the continuing
difficulties of life, in a way it still is my driveway as my name remains on
the mortgage of the house from which I took this photo, that my ex and I have mutually
agreed to sell in 2019, but remains unsold as her continually residing there
indicates her refusal to leave and to honor our agreement.
But I am not sharing this photo to gripe about an unresolved
issue in my life. Far from it, I was feeling restless this morning to find a photo,
so I decided to dial it back to the distant past to foster feelings of
gratitude and it worked because that driveway in this photo, that is a tenth of
a mile long, is no longer my responsibility. I don’t have to pay the hefty bill
of the plow guy each winter, anymore and I don’t have to fear sliding off of “Deadman’s
curve” and getting stuck in the snow anymore either.
That first bend in the driveway going towards the right is at
the bottom of a relatively steep incline and more then once my ex, myself, and
my kids were done in by Deadman’s Curve as we either slipped on the ice going
up or going down that steep incline and went off the road, requiring a push or
a tow to pull us out of the trap we found ourselves in.
But I haven’t been up or down that driveway since 2020, and just
like the blind beggar who threw his beggar’s cloak aside to desperately pursue
Christ and his healing, “I ain’t goin’ back.”
One of the benefits of having overcome a troubled past is the
fact that you can periodically look back and remember what you have overcome
and enjoy the fact that every day you
continue to follow the Lord you can know that those dark days are continually
getting smaller and smaller in your review mirror as you continue to walk in
your freedom and victory.
This particular photo was taken on March 8th 2015,
three days before I went to my first recovery meeting. I know this because I
took a photo of the “Celebrate Recovery Welcome Newcomers!” letter on March 11th. I had forgotten that I did that but the photo
is still on my phone and I discovered it this morning. But as my testimony reveals I don’t count
March 11th as my sober anniversary date.
No, shortly after I started recovery, I relapsed. But after
that slip and fall that demonstrated my powerlessness, I rose from the ashes of
my failure with the determination to completely surrender to the Lord’s leading
on March 21st, 2015 and have been following Him ever since.
I came to the Lord in 2010 but didn’t completely surrender my
alcoholism to Him until March 21st, 2015. Even though I was saved, I would say that was
my “Deadman’s Turn” really happened when I decided to follow the Lord into the
abundant life that He had for me, that required me to surrender what was one of,
if not the, biggest besetting sins that was keeping me from experiencing my
freedom in Christ.
I know, I know… drinking alcohol in and of itself is not a
sin, but drunkenness sure gets some negative press in the Bible and for me
while I didn’t get drunk every time I drank alcohol, I always wanted to push it
to that extreme. Alcohol and drugs were
something that I could not honestly live with in moderation and they were a
yoke of bondage that needed to be thrown off in order for me to enjoy a life of
peace and freedom in Christ.
I had tried at various times to cut back and quit drinking on
my own but always failed. In 2015, I gave my addiction to Jesus and He gave me
the strength, guidance, and love I needed to leave alcohol and drugs behind for
good.
While I often say that the path of Christian Discipleship is
one that looks forward to the upward call of God, it is good on occasion to
look back and remember the life of darkness that we have overcome.
One song I enjoyed back in my drinking days that spoke of the
hope to change that I didn’t quite know was Our Lady Peace’s “Innocent”. The song starts by saying:
“Oh, Johnny
wishes he was famous
Spends his time alone in the basement
With Lennon and Cobain and
A guitar and a stereo
While he wishes he could escape this
But it all seems so contagious
Not to be yourself and faceless
In a song that has no soul”
Those lyrics
hit close to home because I spent time alone in a basement, drinking, and
playing a guitar with my stereo. I was a fan of Lennon and Cobain and as much
as I wished to escape what I thought of as my mundane existence for riches and
fame, I felt that I was faceless and that
life was meaning less and it was all just so hopeless.
But Christ
showed me that there was hope in Him. He knew me personally. I wasn’t faceless.
I wasn’t alone. He had the power to cure my “disease”. He gave me the hope for a new life and it
was through Him that I got to experience it.
The transformation He has brought makes me forever indebted to Him and I
will forever speak of the wonders of His love and the power of His name.
My change
echoes the lyrics of the chorus of that old song that spoke of the hope to
change. The lyrics say:
“I remember feeling low
I remember losing hope
And I remember all the feelings
And the day they stopped”
Those feelings
of being low, those feelings of losing hope, stopped the day that I put my
faith in Jesus and accepted the new and eternal life He has for all who put
their trust in Him. The lyrics of that
song continue to say:
“We are we are all innocent
We are all innocent
We are we are”
That’s where
the song gets it wrong. We are not
innocent. We are guilty. But in Christ we can be forgiven. In Christ we
are made brand new creations. In Christ
we are declared innocent. So I would amend
those lyrics to say:
“We are we are all innocent, IN CHRIST
We are all innocent
IN CHRIST ALONE, We are we are”
Today’s Friday,
and I wanted to be thankful. So I looked back to remember the reason why I can
always be thankful. I can always be thankful on Fridays or any other day of the
week because of the new life I have in Christ.
So Thank God it’s
Friday. The workday is only so long and there is freedom on the other side of
it but ,man , that pales in comparison to the freedom we have in Christ.
So keep walking
and talking with God, and rejoice that in Christ we never have to feel low for
long and we never have to lose our hope. In Christ, we are all innocent. In Christ alone, we are, we are.
______________________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________________
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book
for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is :
Romans 3:23 (NLT2)
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s
glorious standard.
Today’s Bible
verse reminds us that we all fall short of the glory of God because we have all
sinned.
Bad news. Everyone sins. Everyone falls short of God’s standard. Even worse news, all the good deeds we do can’t
make up for our failures and sins.
But the good
news is that we are forgiven when we place our faith in Jesus. In Christ we overcome sin and death. All our sins are forgiven, and Christ gives
us the power to say no to our besetting sins and live a new life that is
defined by goodness, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, patience, self-control, peace, love, and joy.
When we turn to
Jesus and make Him the Lord and Savior of our lives, we are set free. There is no condemnation for those in Christ and
when we decided to walk in the Spirit we will experience the fruit of the Spirit
in our lives.
So give
yourself a break, all sin and fall short of the glory of God but in Christ we
receive the forgiveness of all our sins, our past, present, and future sins. But
we also receive a new and eternal life that we can live here and now.
So accept the
forgiveness and new life that we have in Christ and walk into the peace that
the Lord has given us.
As always, I
invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent
Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in
Christ with their walk.
Today we
continue sharing from June Hunt’s Overeating: Freedom from Food
Fixation.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own private
study and to support his work. This resource is available on many
websites for less than $5.00.
D. How to Identify and Satisfy Your Unmet
Inner Needs
Every
human being is born with three God-given inner needs: the needs for
unconditional love, significance, and security. God designed the family to be
the avenue through which He would populate the world and through which He would
initially provide us with these needs. The family was to reflect His
everlasting love, give us a sense of purpose, and provide us with emotional
security. The family was intended to point children to God as the eternal,
ultimate Need-Meeter. He alone is able to provide all that we need not only for
living life but for living a life pleasing to Him, a godly life.…
“His divine power has
given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who
called us by his own glory and goodness.”
(2 Peter 1:3)
Have
you tried to fill the emptiness of your soul by filling yourself with food? You
need to understand that your destructive behavior is a result of trying to meet
legitimate needs in an illegitimate fashion. Ask yourself …
• Did
my overeating begin in response to a childhood experience or situation?
— Was
I loved unconditionally, or was my acceptance based only on my performance?
— Was
my family a “safe place” for me to express myself?
— Was
I truly valued for myself and treated with respect?
• Am
I continuing to overeat as a way to escape?
— Am
I trying to mute the pain of my past?
— Am
I trying to flee responsibility?
— Am
I trying to break away from another’s control over me?
• What
inner needs am I trying to satisfy on my own rather than relying on God to meet
them?
— Do
I understand the depth of God’s love for me?
— Do
I believe that I am valuable to God?
— Do
I trust that God can and will take care of me?
The
Bible tells us …
“If God is for us, who
can be against us?… For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8:31, 38–39)[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
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Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
June Hunt, Biblical Counseling
Keys on Overeating: Freedom from Food Fixation (Dallas, TX: Hope
For The Heart, 2008), 23.
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