Harm Reduction and Negotiating with Terrorists - Purity 1329

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of the sun casting light and shadows along an emerald path through the woods comes to us from yours truly as I captured this pathway scene while out taking a walk along the Blue Trail of Skodak Lake— Skodak Island Park State— Island State Park. Yeah, Tuesday morning, Skodak Island State Park, Tuesday morning. Well, it's Thursday and I share another photo of a pathway today as a visual reminder or encouragement to get on or to stay on the path of Christian discipleship, and if you need it, the road to recovery. Last night I sat in on another session of the Celebrate Freedom Recovery discipleship support group, and I was once again reminded of how deep a river denial can be, and how the practical philosophies of harm reduction initiatives have caused those of us who lead Christian recovery ministries to become hostage negotiators, in a sense. While the practical aspects of "easy does it" in dealing with one problem at a time were mentioned in the first edition of AA's Big Book, uh, the fact that the principles of harm reduction have clearly stated that they have surrendered to a Neville Chamberlain-like peace in our time rather than a war on drugs by selling success in recovery as well-being and not necessarily cessation of all drug use. Yeah, I'm in recovery. I'm a success. That's great. So you're completely clean and sober? Praise the Lord. Well, I haven't quite quit drinking or smoking pot, but I am 6 days sober from heroin. I don't get paid until Friday, and I will try— and I'll try to start another 6-day cycle after some safe use of it on Saturday. The above illustration may be ridiculous to those who think of clean and sober as clean and sober, but pragmatism and harm reduction principles have changed the landscape of those of those judgmental standards. This brave new world of compromised principles— I've seen the deception and denial of these compassionate responses cause, uh, and how they cause people to flounder and fall repeatedly in their recoveries. In my experience, I've seen or heard a person declare themselves 6 months sober while binge drinking periodically. The same person wondered why a friend who suffered a relapse didn't reach out to them for help when they were thinking about drinking. Maybe because they wanted to drink alone. Shots fired. I've also seen a person wonder why they no longer have the peace and joy of their recovery after defeating their addiction to hard drugs almost a decade ago, but who also admitted to the need of regular, quote unquote, self-care of drinking alcohol. And I've also seen a person who was actively going to recovery meetings and achieved 30 days or more of sobriety only to triumphantly declare putting their significant other, quote-unquote, "in their place" with a 2-day bender because they, quote-unquote, "pushed too hard." They also proclaimed their love for their significant other and family that they were using relapse to punish and control. While I applaud every progressive victory in recovery, these examples show us that when we leave the door open to quote-unquote "some drugs and alcohol," we deceive ourselves and suffer the consequences for not declaring war on our addictions and putting the measure of success as anything less than total cessation of all drugs. And alcohol, I think I need to qualify, I clarify that alcohol is a drug too, and so is quote-unquote medical marijuana, which I found really easy to quit, just sayin'. Anyway, when we lead recovery ministries, we want to be encouraging and not try to fix anyone, but in light of these experiences, I saw that in many ways we are negotiating with terrorists, either in terms of the drugs themselves or the toxic behaviors that surround addiction. Just because you have put down the bomb of heroin, meth, crack, or cocaine doesn't mean we feel safe around you because you're still carrying the AK-47 of alcohol and the 9mm of marijuana, and you don't hesitate from squeezing off a few rounds every once in a while. Whether it's a single shot, a few drinks or joints with no harmful effects, a short burst, a drinking or smooch— smoking session that definitely fell into drunkenness or getting high with some negative consequences such as hangovers, missed work, irritability, mild arguments and tensions, or embarrassment, or a full-on "this is beautiful, man," Tom Cruise in the movie "Taps," all-out M60 shooting spree, an extended bender or bake session that led to legal charges, intense arguments or fights, abuse, neglect, or broken relationships, You have to realize that you will never have "peace in our time" until you stop negotiating with terrorists. You as your own worst enemy who demands some drugs and alcohol "on occasion" and lay down the weapons of your warfare, all drugs and alcohol. So that's me dealing with terrorists. Okay, that's great, you put down the bomb. Now How about you put down— how about you putting that gun down and letting these nice people, your significant others, your family and friends, go? We care about you and we don't want you to get hurt or to hurt anybody, but we can't guarantee your safety until you put that gun down. You don't have to do that just yet. I just want to keep— want you to keep talking to me and And, you know, consider what it would be like to put it down. I assure you that things will be okay, but we really have to think about what's best for you and everyone else involved. I know you don't want to hurt anybody, so let's think about how we can walk away from this. When we hold on to the substances and behaviors of addiction, we take ourselves and our loved ones hostage. Whether it's a bomb or a gun, true peace won't come until we surrender to the highest authority, the Lord God Almighty, make peace with him through faith in Jesus Christ, and lay down the things we're holding on to that keep us in chains and very well— and very may one day cause us great pain, cause us to suffer loss, and may take our lives. Maybe you're not ready to come out with your hands up just yet, but let's keep talking and walking with God until he shows you that you don't need those things in your life and you can trust in him to protect you and guide you into the ways of peace. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on death and eternal life, and today's verses are 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 from the New Living Translation. The Word of God says, then when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this scripture will be fulfilled: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death. And the law gives sin its power. But thank God, he gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. Today's verses fall under the 11th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on death and eternal life. That 11th point is: The perishable will put on the imperishable. Death will be swallowed up in victory. Today's verses proclaims the victory we have over sin and death when we put our faith in Jesus. I, I would hope to think that all Christians would believe that they have eternal life when they put their faith in Jesus. The focus of most gospel messages is the assurance of the forgiveness of sins and the avoidance of God's wrath that would send us to hell, after all. So while some Christians may wonder about what heaven will be like, or may doubt whether or not they will make it there because they fear they have committed the unpardonable sin, If you worry about that, you probably haven't. Not believing the gospel— disbelief is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. They will tend to believe that— they will tend to believe heaven or the kingdom of God is a thing that the faithful will receive when they die. That's where Christians are supposed to go, after all, to be with Jesus. And it is. That's the good news. We won't die. We will live forever. Uh, with Jesus, and we'll have our bodies transformed, which is pretty crazy. But these verses also tell us we are set free from sin, but somehow that is not believed just half as much as the doctrine of heaven or eternal life. The idea that we are given the power to say no to sin is harder to swallow, apparently, than heaven, Jesus coming to rule for a thousand years, or new heaven and new earth. What great faith! And, "Oh, ye of little faith." We can believe for eternal life. Shouldn't we also trust God when he tells us we can turn from our sins? We should, and we can do that, say no to sin progressively and continuously when we surrender to God and lay down those weapons, our sin that does damage to ourselves and others. So believe for heaven, but let's also believe for freedom and victory Let's demonstrate that the gospel is true. We can be set free by saying no to sin today. 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 According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Allford. And, uh, in his devotional, Allford directs us to read a chapter of the New Testament And today's chapter is the last chapter of John, which is John 21. And from John 21, Alford shares a portion of verse 16— or actually verse 6, my bad— which says, 'Cast the net on the right side of the boat.' And Stephen Alford writes, 'Months and years have come and gone, yes, gone forever. If I dare take stock of how I spend my time, what answers Would or could I sincerely give to such questions as: What progress have I made spiritually over the last year? What have I done to help extend the Kingdom of God? How many souls have I won for Him? What fruit is apparent as a result of my ministry among God's people? To such questions I have to confess by way of answer that I have toiled all night and, generally speaking, have caught nothing. And Alford prays, give me grace, Lord, to obey your message to my heart. Cast the net on the right side of the boat. Amen. Amen. Um, you know what, you know, okay, I love Stephen Alford. I really don't know much about him. Uh, his devotional is one of many that I have in my Bible resource software, so I've used it without really knowing much about him, but I have to say this use of John 21:6 and where he went with it, I can see it. I can see where he went with it, but man, that's out of context. You know, I gotta call, you know, 5 offsides on this one. You know, cast the boat, the net on the right side of the boat. In that section of scripture, that's the words of Jesus to the disciples who don't know it's Jesus, who are fishing, have caught nothing, and then they throw, you know, they listen to this man on the beach, he throws in the net, and you come up with a miraculous catch. And when that happens, you know, the Apostle John's like, hey, that's Jesus! And Peter jumps in the boat and they swim, and he swims to meet him. And they have breakfast of fish on the seashore. That's the story. That's the context. For Alfred to take this and say, wow, I, you know, I need to make disciples and whatnot, that's really a mis— you know, I would say a misapplication of scripture and condemnation on oneself. Now, granted, I like the fact that the Lord used it, I guess, to convict him of, you know, a lack of progress in his walk of faith. But I won't put those shackles on you. There's enough other verses in the Bible to tell you to go and make disciples, like Matthew 28, the end of the Gospel of Matthew. He tells us to go therefore and make disciples. You can cast your nets with that one, okay? You don't necessarily have to misappropriate John 21:6 to do that. You know, it's out of context. But I get it, and I sort of like the heart he has there that, you know, he really wants to cast his, you know, his net on the right side of the boat. You know, I've seen other people take that, that passage, uh, that throw the net on the right side of the boat to, you know, uh, they misappropriate for religious or for political reasons and say we've got to be on the right side, you know, in terms of conservatism or whatever. I'm like, really? That's really, you know, you know, oh, the right rather than the left. Yeah, that's what Jesus was thinking about when he was on the seashore. You know, I'm going to say it this way, tell them to throw it on the right side so people align themselves with the Republicans someday. Uh, no, no, uh, that's Christian nationalism and insanity, um, all wrapped up in one. And I would like to point out that the government of Jesus Christ will be the government that saves, not the government of Donald Trump or Joe Biden or anybody else. Um, yeah, yeah. And the last time I checked, sovereign God means no one steals an election, one side or the other. It's for God's purposes that these people are elected, you know. So let's not, let's not, let's not, let's not twist the scripture. Um, You know, there's enough there that we don't have to do that. There's enough Scripture that will convict us to do the right thing, as in terms of righteous thing, not necessarily the politically correct thing of one side or the other, or to beat ourselves up. There's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. And guess what? We don't win anyone to Jesus. Jesus does. He might use us to share the gospel, but we don't do it. So, so have, you know, some, some, some gentleness with yourself. How many souls have I won for him? I don't want to— I don't even think about it. Um, I don't— how many souls have I won? None. Zero. If anyone was encouraged by my message to follow the Lord and put their faith in Jesus, that's on Jesus, that's on the Holy Spirit, that's not on me. What fruit is apparent as a result of my ministry among God's people? The change of my character, that's about it. Anything else, you know, basically the fruit of, you know, like I said, any words I speak were basically drawn from the Word of God, and if they impact anyone's life, that's awesome, I am thankful, but I would say to God goes the glory. I don't change people, I don't set them free, I don't, yeah, that's it. I don't, all I do is encouragement. That's why my ministry is a ministry of encouragement. All I can do is speak the truth in love and, you know, sometimes people take offense because of what the Word says, not because of what I say. Now maybe, you know, the way I said it screws up the Word like Stephen Alford did here today. What we do is we forgive, and I forgive him, and I see where his heart is. He really wants to do something for the kingdom. So we forgive Stephen Alford for casting the net on the right side of the boat in the evangelistic way. Oh boy, there's so many fishermen, yeah, and so many, you know, there's so many people to reap the harvest. Why do we have to go to this verse, Stephen, to try to encourage people to work towards the kingdom? Wow, there's so much in John 21 that I'm really disappointed, you know. Read John 21. You don't need to sit on verse 6. There's so much in there, particularly the dialogue between Peter and Jesus. But I guess a lot of people go there and few go to the casting the net on the right side of the boat verse. So, so that's my Bible commentary today. And so we'll we should learn not to take the Scripture out of context too much because I think it becomes a work of ourselves. Just like we think we can save someone or change someone. We can't. I was just speaking last night about how in the past recovery ministries have, you know, people wanted to start a recovery ministry would come to my recovery ministry and sit in and watch us teach or encourage people and then And then they would ask, so how do you make people come? Like, how do you make people get clean and sober? How do you make— I don't— you don't make anyone clean and sober. They have to choose recovery for themselves. And we have to, you know, encourage them to do the right thing and not settle for some less-than-free recovery where you're on some drugs and alcohol. Um, the Lord doesn't really allow for that. Now granted, medications might be a thing, but you know, everyone's situation is different. But I'm gonna advocate for total freedom because I was on medication at one time in my life and it helped me for a time, but I didn't need to stay on it. And now maybe some other people don't, but maybe it— but or is it just hard to come off of some medications. You know, I was just— had someone's testimony recently who said they wanted to come off their medication, but they basically admitted that they were strung out on it and they couldn't get off of it because when they tried to wean themselves off of it, they suffered. Here's the thing, you know, we were called to suffer too. Believe me, I suffered greatly when I gave up alcohol and drugs and sexual addiction. There was a measure of suffering there, but I pressed in, pressed through, and came out free on the other side. And when we play nice with our addictions, you know, we're not doing ourselves any favors. I've had people tell me they can't fast. Like, really? You know, and they didn't have diabetes, okay? They didn't have any underlying health issues other than those obesity that I could see. But yeah, their heart and their mind and their, you know, their body, and they would just go out of sorts if they tried to fast for too long, which is like 3 days. And so yeah, but that's where we press in. We have to test and approve and try harder and whatever. But don't get me wrong, you know, go with God, go with grace. If you lose your peace, you gotta ease back. Try a little harder next time. You know, it's progressively— that's progressive and continuous repentance. That's what we do. And, uh, and grace. So there's a fine balance there. That's why we connect with the Lord relationally to figure out exactly what it is he wants us to do. And, uh, in my walk, I didn't have the Lord say, it's okay, continue in your drinking ways, ignore all the drunken verses in the Bible, and just get get drunk on occasion. No, it said drunkards have no part in the kingdom. That's scary to me. And not that I thought I'd lose my salvation, but it really pointed to the fact that I shouldn't be living this way. I should be living in the spirit, which doesn't include drunkenness, instead of living in the flesh, which does. So that's all I got to say, and I've said so much. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so Thank you so much for all that you do for us, Lord. We pray for anyone who's listening today to be encouraged that they can actually be set free from sin and death, and they have been, and if they put their faith in Jesus, and all they got to do is walk and talk with you until they realize it in their lives. So we pray for you to come alongside them today, encourage them in the way they should go, and bless them in their faith walk. Uh, come alongside their prayer request and help them, Lord. And Lord, while you're at it, you can come alongside me and help me, because I need help. And I wander and flounder with this food addiction thing on occasion, and when I do, I feel the pain of the flesh, Lord, and I want that pain to stop. And so help me to just say no to the things that make me sick. Help me say no to the behaviors that make me feel, you know, fleshly. Move me further along the path to to where you want me to be, Lord. And help me and give me strength and guide me on that path today. Open my eyes to the things you want me to see and guide me in the way I should go. Because, Lord, we all need your help, and I'm asking for it today. And we want to represent your kingdom the best we can. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.