There are countless people who have used drugs, alcohol and other forms of personal abuse to help them cope and ‘escape’ from the severe storms of life. And, we find ourselves often celebrating those who have climbed out of the abyss of personal abuse successfully…as we should. Doing so is a great accomplishment.

Disappointment…

Depression…

Betrayal…

Loneliness…

Chronic Pain…

Abuse…

There are countless factors that have led people to turn to drugs and alcohol to both confront and avoid the demons that are attacking them emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

This piece is not meant to belittle or diminish those who have conquered their drug and alcohol demons, but to ALSO celebrate those who have gone through life’s darkest days without turning to drugs or alcohol.

Do you know anyone like that? Has it been you? Is that you now?

Rather than turning to drugs or alcohol, many have turned to the therapy of…

Good memories…

Good music…

Creativity…

Family…

Friends…

And of course their faith in God through Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ).

It’s easy to say, “Just give it to God”, but how do you do that?

1 Peter 5:7 (NKJV)

⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Part of growing in relationship with God is learning to…

1. First tell Him, “I can’t handle this alone, please help me!”

2. Pray for the strength to carry the emotional, physical and spiritual load that God has assigned to you.

3. Realize that you may never truly have ‘closure’. Accept that you will have to deal with the physical and emotional pain for the rest of your life.

4. Accept that some thoughts will never stop making you feel horrible, even decades in the future.

5. And most of all realize that your real battle isn’t physical. It’s bigger than the disappointments, depression, betrayal, loneliness, abuse, and sometimes chronic pain. Those demons aren’t just figurative, but literal…

Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV)

¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of ^[a]the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

2 Corinthians 10:4 (NKJV)

⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not ^[a]carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,

Sometimes we find ourselves trying to have closure… trying to get past ‘it’… trying to erase the memories and pain…

When we should be asking God for the strength to deal with those dark moments.

Is it easy? No!

Has everyone mastered it? Of course not. Even many of the ‘spiritually mature’ haven’t.

But, to those who have decided that they would not succumb to the temptation of drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, or other forms of personal abuse to deal with their personal ‘hell’…

You lay awake at night…

You cried tears that no one saw…

You went to work…

You cooked dinner…

You smiled through your pain…

You ignored phone calls…

You put one foot in front of the other…

You prayed…

You studied His word…

You cried out to Him…

You trusted Him more than yourself…

You discovered what, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” really means.

If that’s you…

WE CELEBRATE YOU!

Please share this with someone you know who has overcome their dark days without turning to darkness.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

• 

As a child, did you ever play with a top? If so, when you spun the top it fun to watch it move around the top of a table. You allowed the top to spin on its own. If it got close to the edge of the table, you had the choice to intervene and stop it from falling, or you could allow it to fall. Now imagine if that top had its own consciousness and will.

Many people, even believers, ask how can a good, loving God allow evil to exist in the world. This is one of the spiritual realities that is difficult for our human intellect, not matter how sophisticated, to understand…

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NASB)

⁸ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

God created us for relationship. Real relationship. He doesn’t want robots, He wants to be loved. That’s why we want love and affirmation because we were created in His image. If God forced us to love Him, or if He forced us to believe, that love would not be genuine. If our actions were forced, they would not be from our hearts.

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One spiritual reality is that you can’t have good without evil. In order to have the reality of good, there must be also the reality of it’s absence. Another spiritual reality is that if good always exists, then evil must also always exist, otherwise how would we know that ‘good’ is ‘good’. The good thing is that God has the power over both.

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There must be a means for both good and evil to manifest for be displayed and exist. There must be a place for both to ‘reside’,

So, God gives us FREE WILL to come and go… to think for ourselves… to believe…to love… to reject…and to choose evil.

1. FREE WILL

Look at us, people, as that top spinning on the table. As we spin, if we have our on consciousness and will, we have a choice to choose where we spin on that table. We have the choice to choose good, and we have the choice to choose evil. If God forced us to choose good it would not be free will. God reserves the right to STOP us from falling off the table…to catch us if we fall…or to put us back on the table if we fall. Notice that when the end of time comes, God is not DESTROYING evil, He will SEPARATE good from evil…

Revelation 20:10-15 (NKJV)

¹⁰ The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where^[a] the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before ^[b]God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second ^[c]death. ¹⁵ And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

It was the devil’s, who was originally an angel, choice to choose evil. That choice thus made him the personification of evil. He was the first to choose it, and it is in Him it resides.

John 8:44  (NKJV)

⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Any ‘villain’ in biblical history wasn’t cursed by God to be evil. Their heart made them an ideal place for evil to reside. From Pharaoh to Ahab to Jezabel to Judas to Herod…to Hitler, they chose evil. They were not ‘victims’ of God doomed to evil. Their hearts made their ‘house’ a comfortable home for evil.

2. HE USES BOTH GOOD AND EVIL FOR HIS PURPOSE

God uses everyone and everything He creates for His purpose. Sometimes He has to discipline those whom He loves, and those who choose Him. Sometimes He allows bad things to happen as judgment and as a consequence of people choosing evil to prove He is sovereign. Sometimes this is done through a natural disaster, but sometimes He does it through people. It was prophesied that the Lord would be betrayed. God was not going to use anyone who ‘chose’ good to do this, so Judas made himself that choice because of his heart…

John 17:12 (NKJV)

¹² While I was with them ^[a]in the world, I kept them in ^[b]Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is ^[c]lost except the son of ^[d]perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

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There were several occasions God used those who chose evil to fulfill His purpose…

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Exodus 14:4  (NKJV)

⁴ Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.

Isaiah 10:5-12  (NKJV)

⁵ “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger
And the staff in whose hand is My indignation.
⁶ I will send him against an ungodly nation,
And against the people of My wrath
I will give him charge,
To seize the spoil, to take the prey,
And to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
⁷ Yet he does not mean so,
Nor does his heart think so;
But it is in his heart to destroy,
And cut off not a few nations.
⁸ For he says,
‘Are not my princes altogether kings?
⁹ Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
¹⁰ As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols,
Whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
¹¹ As I have done to Samaria and her idols,
Shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols?’ ”

¹² Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has ^[a]performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.”

3. GOD HAS AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE

I love the way that the Complete Jewish Bible translation refers to eternity as eternity past to eternity future…

Psalm 90:2  (CJB)

² Before the mountains were born,
before you had formed the earth and the world,
from eternity past to eternity future
you are God.

God exists outside of time. He has not beginning or end. WHY GOD DOES NOT NEED AN ORIGIN STORY… So, everything God does is from an eternal perspective. No matter how ‘bad’ things may be for us now whether it be war, sickness, disease or disaster, He uses it for His purpose because He knows that even 1000 years from now, when we are experiencing eternal joy with Him, that the temporary ‘ugly things’ of life and time will not even matter. His eternal perspective can see that top spinning on the table, and He already knows that if it falls He will pick it up, or when the table is no more, He will hold the top in His hand.

Romans 8:18 (NKJV)

¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

1 Corinthians 2:9  (NKJV)

⁹ But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

So, when we see the extreme evils in the world… When we see the tragedy of children with horrible illnesses… When we see those who are evil doing what they please with what appears to be impunity… We must still trust God and know that He is working what is sometimes difficult for us to understand for His eternal purpose…

Ecclesiastes 5:8 (NKJV)

⁸ If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent ^[a]perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them.

Remember, that as we spin on the table, God’s eyes are always on us (El Roi: The God Who Sees Me). Choose Him. Trust Him. Love Him, Work for His purpose and He will work all things out for our good…even when we don’t understand.

Romans 8:28  (NKJV)

²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Many Americans are afraid of losing their freedoms, and point their fingers at the ‘blatant, overt sinners’ in the land.

However, if you study the bible carefully, Israel lost their freedom and were oppressed and exiled not because of the ‘non-believers’ or heathens, (we are all sinners saved by grace) but because of the idolatry, hypocrisy, compromise and pride of believers.

God rebuked them for refusing to reject the ‘sins of their fathers’.

Leviticus 26:40-42 (NKJV)

⁴⁰ ‘But ^(A)if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,

⁴¹ and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies;

if their ^(B)uncircumcised hearts are ^(C)humbled, and they ^(D)accept their guilt—

⁴² then I will ^(E)remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember;

I will ^(F)remember the land.

Too many ‘Christians’ are pointing their fingers at unbelievers and those they consider to be ‘worse sinners than them’ instead of repenting of their pride, arrogance and self righteousness, much like the Pharisee in the parable of The Pharisee and The Publican …

Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)

⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness^(A) and looked down on everyone else,^(B) Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray,^(C) one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself^(D) and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast^(E)twice a week and give a tenth^(F) of all I get.’

¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast^(G) and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’^(H)

¹⁴ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”^(I)

Remember, God Himself said national restoration wouldn’t take place through the repentance of ‘sinners’, but the repentance of those who consider themselves to be His.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV)

¹⁴ if My people who are ^(A)called by My name will ^(B)humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, ^(C)then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Remember, PRIDE is the first mentioned among the 7 deadly sins and the ‘parent’ sin to countless others.

If you’re afraid of losing your freedom, maybe you should put your pride in check.

BE BLESSTIFIED!