You Don’t Have To Be An Alcoholic To Seek Recovery

January 17, 2012 by  
Filed under Tough Issues


Christians With Issues Need Recovery…

10 Reasons Why A Christian Might Need Recovery

Christian Anger Management

October 4, 2011 by  
Filed under Tough Issues


Anger Management

Image via Wikipedia

What Is Anger Management

 

Anger management is the process of managing anger. Anger is an emotion experienced by youngsters and grownups alike. When one thing or someone interferes with an individual in a destructive manner, it might probably trigger them to turn into angry. Anger is a traditional response to such a situation.

Nonetheless anger will be classed as a light or intense irritation. Depending on the person, the circumstance and their emotions, anger could trigger a person to develop into enraged or even furious.

People who become angry behave in numerous ways. Some lash out or grow to be extremely defensive.

Different individuals are likely to keep their anger to themselves, bottling up their negative emotions and hurt. Whereas some people change into reckless and even abusive. Anger is usually a terribly dangerous emotion if it is not controlled.

Controlling anger is considered anger management

The first step to controlling anger issues it to confess there’s a problem. Some individuals have main anger issues but can not see it. Naturally something happens to set a person off making them angry. People, who have hassle admitting to their anger and accepting responsibility for their actions, typically play the blame game.

They have problem seeing the scenario as being their fault. There’s all the time one thing or someone to blame. Their fits of anger are at all times blamed on something else. These individuals might actually use a couple of classes in anger management. However they need to settle for their actions and reactions for what they’re, anger.

Many people who’ve anger issues find it demeaning when anger management is suggested. Unable to simply accept their problem prevents them from in search of the assistance they require. If a person continues down a path where they’re consistently angry and acting out, it would ultimately trigger major problems. With out anger administration this individual will likely experience loss, loss of their family, loss of their job and lack of their very own identity.

Anger Management Is Not a Punishment

It’s essential to convince the individual with anger issues, anger management is just not meant to be a punishment but rather to help them have a greater high quality of life. Anger Management is designed to help the individual work out their issues, assist them figure out why they grow to be so angry. It also teaches the person to not be enslaved by their feelings, their anger. Anger administration is meant to show the person methods which forestall them from getting angry as often or for very long.

There are all sorts of anger administration strategies. There are packages created specifically to help those with anger issues. These packages are damaged down to address completely different people, children, teenagers, adults, couples and families. These anger management applications are in place to teach or assist people to work on their anger. Teaching people strategies for figuring out their issues and controlling their anger are important in anger management.

Anger may be a wholesome, normal emotion however when the anger takes over an individual’s life making them damaging and violent, it is a huge problem. Not only does the anger destroy the individual nevertheless it additionally impacts everyone and every thing around them. Anger administration could change this particular person and ensure a wholesome, normal life.

Christians and Addiction: How To Recognize Addictive Behaviors

September 3, 2011 by  
Filed under Tough Issues


Prevalent Features Associated with Addiction

addiction

Christians are not immune to the ravages of addictions or addictive behavior. Although salvation promises that we become “new creations”; it is still likely that most of us will bring our old baggage into our new Christian experience.

Often Christians with addiction issues avoid counseling or other treatment options to avoid perceived stigmas associated with such addiction(s) as substance abuse, alcoholism, sexual additions, and eating disorders.

In this short article, I will briefly touch on some of the tale-tell signs of addictive behavior. If you recognize these symptoms in yourself, a family member or friend, remember that help is available.

As reported by W. R. Miller, inside the Addictive Behaviors, a person might turn out to be reliant, hooked, or even compulsively enthusiastic about just about any action, chemical substance, thing, or even action which gives him / her fulfillment.

Exactly what are obsessive (addictive) habits?

There are actually parallels relating to actual physical dependence on liquor and also other substances, plus a subconscious dependancy occurring together with many of these actions like uncontrollable gaming, sexual activity, along with over eating conditions.

Lots of individuals along with addicting conditions record some sort of blackout in the point in time these folks were performing the actual routine and even don’t recall the quantity of or even exactly what these people paid for, etcetera.

Addiction Gives a False Sense of Euphoria

Endorphins are actually discharged inside the chemistry of the brain in the course of a addictive adventure as well as a sense connected with well-being and also excitement outcomes, which commonly trigger lots of people starting a particular hard to kick pattern.

The actual conduct for the hooked man or woman can develop directly into undesirable wellness and/or community repercussions since particular person has become addicted and will eventually try to get any element as well as action in the detriment associated with job or even ethical family relationships.

The affected individual is going to compulsively do the game whether or not there isn’t a need to do this, you should definitely carrying out the game drawback problems will regularly show up, including depression, wanting, plus uneasyness.

The person will not feel like a situation exist as a result of addicting habits, not to mention refute that it must be impinging on him or her and additionally his or her living, no matter if faced with interested loved ones people.

The affected individual may well feel like it’s simply a unhealthy routine, they have got 100 % manage of this state of affairs, and they are able to deal with precisely how regularly these people participate in the actual conduct, that’s within immediate resistance of this phrase compulsion.

Sadness is usually normal within people that have addicting actions, because is actually lower self-worth, plus they commonly result from emotionally or even actually violent family’s.

How To Tell Who Is Right About Addiction

Based on specialist document, there isn’t any typical agreement regarding the etiology, prohibition, as well as treatment solution associated with addicting problems. Lots of people take into consideration these types of habits disorders while some think about these to end up being actions caused by blending genetics as well as the environmental components.

Many people differ which addicting actions tend to be illnesses mainly because there isn’t any clear trigger as well as treatment course employed by virtually all experts. The insufficient understanding between investigators as well as medical care experts leads to complications with avoidance as well as medication solutions, simply because no-one methodology works out for each abuser as well as their dependancy.

All of this apart, there are many sorts of counseling that succeed, as well as remain to be an excellent addiction recovery tools with regard to remedy associated with addicting actions.

Keep in mind, the addiction or behaviors associated with addiction are merely the symptoms of more severe underlying causes beneath the surface.

An alcoholic does not drink simply to get drunk. Most often he/she is anesthetizing themselves from deeper pain or issues they choose not to face. Alcohol is their “drug” of choice.

For a deeper look into how issues can plague our lives and subvert our productivity and relationship with God and others, I recommend you grab a copy of the Issue Driven Life. – Click here to review.

The Christian Right is Wrong

July 26, 2011 by  
Filed under Tough Issues


Why the Christian Right Is Wrong…

Christian Right

Does the Christian Right really represent values of the Bible or some narrow view used to leverage their political agenda?

Let me say from the beginning I am a committed Christian. I believe the scriptures in the Bible to be the only inspired Word of God.  Convinced by the Constitution, I hold that an American has the right of individual expressions. But I believe the Christian Right has missed the mark!

However I also believe that hoisting insentive signs, waving disparaging placards and making vitriolic speeches attacking the so-called “sinful” behaviors of others is a waste of time; especially for Christians.

You see, the political arena is not the effective venue for the changing peoples core values and beliefs.

Indignation is a waste of time and energy.  Do you remember the “moral majority” ? They were a group of Christians led by the late Jerry Farwell. They hated abortion and a few other pet sins.

Having ideals is one thing, but idealistic pontificating is totally something else. If one is not careful, he or she will become self-righteous; a person who is their own bottom line, using the bible to validate their own predisposition.

Sharing the good news is the mandated responsibility of Christians. Our duty is not to create some distorted version of a utopian society. We (Christians) cannot reshape this culture into some sort of Christian Shangri-La.  Greed, selfishness, and lust will always win out until a person is changed first on the inside.

The statement, “Politics make strange bedfellows” is uncomfortably true for the Christian Right.  For years the “Christian Right” fought against abortion yet remained silent about Apartheid in South Africa, and social change in America.

Has God given us the right to espouse ethnocentric idioms? Did God validate the crusades?

As a pastor, I understand sin to be “celestial treason”.  It is no small thing to me. However, I expect sinners to sin. I am not shocked at the rebellion of the spiritually rebellious.

As I read the bible, I never get the notion that righteousness can be legislated or that holy living can be achieved through the ballot or by an act of Congress.

When will the Christian Right Learn that “Right standing with God” is a matter of personal choice… not political pressure!

Has God called us to devote our time and spend our money in an attempt to manipulate change through political maneuvering?  I challenge you to look closely at the spiritual production of the Christian right.

Don’t look at their church attendance or their membership rolls or even their various charitable contributions. Check instead on the number of souls they win –  if any, for the Kingdom of God.

The Christian Right so proudly declares that “they are Christian” not fully understanding nor appreciating that being a Christian means to “be like Christ”.

Christ is the savior of souls, not a politician.

I believe in the separation of church and state. If I chose to run for office (and I never will) I would be elected or not by people who heard an honest rendering of my heart’s perceptions.  I would not recite some defused, and watered down version of a belief system politically corrected and redacted so as not to upset sensitivities.

Having a career in politics in neither wrong nor a sin. It is however, unacceptable to be a committed Servant of Christ and to make deals with evil.

Consider the following analogy…

If God were to embrace the human form and run for President of the United States he would lose.

His values and principles would be labeled insensitive and bigoted. His rejection of the philosophy of duality would be a deal breaker.

Because of His inherent nature He cannot take away free will. He would not use his power as God to fix the election. Thus, human nature would select a leader consistent with their wishes and wants. The election would not even be close.

Neither God, nor his ways is not the choice of men.

Maybe the Christian Right can address this question.

What is it that the Christian right sees as their mandated duty and how does it relate to the “Christ of the Bible? And, who are they other than representatives of their narrow ideology and political agenda?

Does Being An Orthodox Christian Make Me Homophobic?

July 19, 2011 by  
Filed under Tough Issues


Am I Homophobic Because I Believe In The Bible?

Being labeled homophobic is as painful to many Christians as being called the “N-Word” is to many African Americans or the “F-word” is to gays.

Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian and gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behaviour although these are usually covered under biphobia and transphobia. Intersex and asexual people are also sometimes included. Definitions refer variably to antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, and irrational fear. [Wikipedia]

At the outset, let me be clear that the purpose of this article is not to bash gay, lesbians or transgender people but to address the general notion promulgated by many on both sides of the argument that orthodox Christians are homophobic.

My orthodoxy does not teach me to hate homosexuals, or Muslims, or people of other faiths or ethnicity’s. In my belief system as a Christian, I cannot please God and hate His creatures or His creation.

I believe in Jesus Christ and hold him to be the Messiah. And although many of my Jewish friends believe otherwise, I do not hate them for having a belief system different than my own. If fact, the Christain tradition evolved out of the  Jewish tradition.

I believe in the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible. It teaches many moral & ethical principles and by faith I hold these to be true, accurate and consistent with God’s wishes.

Religion(s) are designed by men to keep rules. These so-called rules may not always honor God but they do validate the religious; who are bent on keeping them.

As a believer in the Christian ethic I practice the maintenance of a relationship with Christ, not the celebration of some man-made or human contrived rules.

I am okay with those who say that the Bible or Christianity or going to church is archaic and out of touch with modern society. My faith in God and the choices I make as a Christian are not motivated by political correctness.

The Holy Scriptures are sacred to me and I worship the God conveyed in its writings. This same Bible challenges me every day in so many ways and at the same time encourages me to love and not hate. That’s right! I do not hate those people who hate the Bible or who do not believe in it or God.

Fear and Hate Define the Homophobic

I do not hate or fear people whose life-styles are in direct contradiction to the Bible’s principles and precepts. Why? Because the overarching theme of scripture is that God is love.

However, God’s love does not contradict His Holiness or His justness.

The Bible teaches us not to steal or lie. It teaches that it is wrong to have sexual intercourse with a woman other than my wife. Likewise, the scriptures are clear when it comes to the subject of homosexuality.  The following passages clearly teach that a man should not be with a man as a man is with a woman (1 Corinthians 6:9, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, 1Timothy 1:10, Genesis 19, Judges 9: 22-30).

The fact that there are those who choose to violate these biblical principles is not a reason to hate them.

If I am around a thief, it will not tempt me to steal. If I am in the presence of an adulterer, it will not inspire me to cheat on my wife.

Engaging in social discourse with gay or lesbian persons and maintaining my belief in the biblical mandate regarding homosexuality does not make me  homophobic!

Homophobia is routed in fear and bigotry; both of which are sins against a God. This fear and bigotry is often expressed in overt insensitivity, discrimination and regrettably even violence.

I have no pet sin with which to mark people with a “Scarlet Letter”.  I hate my own sin but I love myself as a person. I may hate your sin, as it is sin; but not you the sinner, and certainly not because of homosexuality.

I will love all of God’s creation.  I pray that all come to the universal truth of God.

As Americans, we believe in duality. We are fortunate to live in a nation where the rule of law is esteemed. As an American I am thankful for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States.

However, I do not worship either of these esteemed documents as my religion.

My freedom of religious practice is guaranteed under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as are the guarantee to all citizens of equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. Gays, lesbians, trans-genders, atheists and as well as the homophobic have the right to disagree with my beliefs as a Christian as well I have the right to disagree with their lifestyle and practice as homosexuals.

However, labeling never accomplishes anything positive, but only proves to be divisive.

Any discussion of homosexuality and Christianity together is bound to create sparks. As there is no chance that either is going away, it is only pragmatic that Christians are prepared to engage in intelligent discourse with gays, lesbians and trans-gender people in their families, churches, places of employment and the community at large.