Familiar Patterns and Recovery System Failures – Self-Deception Series 34 – Purity 1123

Familiar Patterns and Recovery System Failures  – Self-Deception Series 34 – Purity 1123

Purity 1123 08/17/2023 Purity 1123 Podcast

Purity 1123 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a short wooden pathway (a dock, a
jetty?) to rippled blue waters reflecting the splendor of a blue sky with a
cumulus cloud bank on the horizon comes to us from Dave Baun Photography (https://www.facebook.com/DaveBaunPhotography) who shared this tranquil scene from a visit to
Cowell, South Australia Saturday on social media. 

Well, It’s Thursday and I share this pathway photo to encourage us all to keep
walking and talking with God on the path of Christian Discipleship because I
know all too well how our inconsistent progress can cause us to want to take a
long walk off a short pier.   Last night
after an awesome meeting of the Celebrate Freedom Growth Group at Starpoint
Church, I inexplicably indulged in some sweet treats and have come to realize
that my post-ministry celebratory eating is an old pattern that reared its ugly
head once again and it has caused me to make the decision to “go old school”
with my food addiction as I have already reached out to a brother in Christ,
letting them know that I am enlisting their help with accountability on this
issue, hopeful that the shame of accountability will scare me straight and
produce some fruit of repentance and victory.  

Last night at the group, there was a lot of
discussion about examining our experiences in order to learn what the
underlying issues are so that we could address, heal and cure  the root cause behind our hurts, habits, and
hang-ups.   Although “experience” can be
valuable to us, unevaluated experiences can prove to be worthless if we are
just gaining more experience in the same struggles we have always suffered
from. 

Part of my job as a field technician for a
communications company requires that I go into people’s basements and
experience has taught me that you have to be careful in those low places
because they can have all kinds of hazards. 
The most common hazard to a field tech who is 6 feet tall is low
ceilings and other hazards above like pipes and beams that can really give you
a headache when you walk into them.  Although
I have a fair amount of experience with hitting my head in basements,
occasionally I will forget to be careful and end up ringing my bell, sometimes
more than once, hitting the same hazard repeatedly if I am in a hurry. One
time, I was frustrated trying to fix a problem from the outside to the inside
of a customer’s home through trial and error near the end of the day and made
several trips in and out of the basement. The basement’s ceiling was high
enough not to be a problem but in one section of this basement a pipe made the
high bridge a low bridge and because of my haste in trying to “figure it out
and get ‘er done” I walked into the same pipe 3 or 4 times! As I said, I got
lots of experience in basements with which I have painfully learned the lesson
to look up and stay low, and if possible wear a helmet, because I have also
learned on the few occasions I had my helmet on, it made up for forgetting
lessons one and two. So, I know what to do, I just have to remember how to do
it and to do it all the time.  

Similarly, in examining my post-ministry binge (full
disclosure – of 3 bags of cracker jack from the church’s kitchen, no less), I
realized that in the past I would occasionally hit the drive-thru of McDonald’s
or Taco Bell after Celebrate Freedom nights in Hudson.  So I have to remember to not fall into this
pattern again.

I also realized that I should just confess my
slip-ups as soon as possible, and while you may think “the morning after” is
pretty good, I realize it is not good enough especially when you have an
opportunity to fess up sooner. After my binge of cracker jacks on the drive
home, I saw my wife for our evening Bible study via FB messenger. I could have
confessed my slip up to her then but I didn’t and because I didn’t the flesh
drove me to have another mini binge at home just before bed as I raided my
daughter’s rice crispy treats (4), Reese’s fast break mini chocolate bar, 3
berry-flavored Lindt chocolates, and a Nature Valley Cinnamon Almond Butter
Biscuit!). All of which most likely would have been avoided if I had confessed
the cracker Jack to TammyLyn.  

So this morning, during my morning workout, I was
convicted and played with the idea of just giving myself grace, and not telling
anyone. But I try to practice “brutal honesty” with myself and to be totally
transparent and have learned that when I report my slip-ups I am less likely to
make them again.  This is great, I have
become aware of how this has developed into a “periodic vicious cycle” of  “cheat days/weekends” and occasional weeknight
mini binges.  

So in looking at my experience even more, I have
realized that I have made some big-time blunders in how I have approached my
food addiction and attempted to reach my health goals.  

1.    I made my wife my “accountability partner”. 

TammyLyn is sweet kind and loving but we should
never make our significant other our accountability partner. It makes for a
recipe for disaster as our affections for one another will allow for “grace”
and the relationship dynamic can become one of secrets, lies, and enabling as
we lovingly accept one another and hold each other up while we are both falling
down.   TammyLyn is a mother and
dispenses unconditional love freely which is good for a mother, and a wife, I
suppose as long as it doesn’t turn into enablement, which it so often does and
their unconditional love because abused as we use it as an excuse to “really
test” it with bad behaviors.  And if your
significant other does hold you accountable, you run the risk of hiding things
from them and causing division in your relationship.   So although I will love my wife and speak
the truth to her, I am making myself accountable to someone else going
forward. 

2.    I stopped marking progress on my goal.  

Another mistake I made is that I stopped marking my
progress on what I wanted to accomplish. I want to lose weight to the point
that I don’t have to use a sleep apnea mask. So I figure 200 lbs. or less is
the magic number, I need to get to before I can consider doing a follow-up
sleep study.  But I will never get there
if I don’t stay the course by treating food as fuel rather than something to be
comforted by. Food is a substance and I abuse it! For a time I made great
progress toward my goal because I was treating food as fuel and because I was
making myself accountable to myself with weekly weigh-ins, taking a photo of
the scale reading to be able to have a record of my progress. Somewhere along
the line, I stopped doing that.  So today
I weighed in and it revealed I am 238.9 pounds which is probably about 8 pounds
more than I was before my vacation! – Wake up call, to get serious. 

So, I’m back at it – kicking it “old school
recovery” style – by enlisting a brother to receive my daily reports of victory
or compromise.  I am hopeful that this
will bear fruit and that I can actually make progress and get to where I want
to be.  

Anyway all this is to demonstrate that even when we
have areas of great freedom and victory in our lives (still clean and sober,
and sexually pure, praise the Lord), we can fail to learn from our experience
and be subject to self-deception. 

I took too long confessing all of this so we will
have to pick up with the material from the Steps to Freedom in Christ
tomorrow. 

I had learned all the lessons about accountability before
but forgot them and “hit my head” enough to realize I have to stop this “periodic
viscous cycle” by humbling myself and using the tools that I know will
work.  

 

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Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.

(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This
morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Affliction, Discipline,
Chastisement, & Trials.

2 Corinthians 1:10-11
(NIV2011)
¹⁰  He has delivered us from
such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope
that he will continue to deliver us,
¹¹  as you help us by your
prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor
granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

Today’s
verse fall under the twentieth point of our counseling reference guide
resource’s section on Affliction, Discipline, Chastisement, & Trials

 20. Paul says that God always has and
always will deliver him. 

 

Today’s verse encourages
us that God will deliver us when we set our hopes on Him.  

 

Paul learned from
experience that God was faithful to deliver Him and He knew that there was
power in prayer, which many have described as a conversation with God.  

 

That’s why I stress “walking
and talking with God” because when we keep Him in our presence, He will deliver
us. He can give us His strength. He can give us His wisdom. And He can give us
His love when we feel all alone.  

 

I’m short on time so,
believe that God will deliver you, because He is faithful to do so. But don’t forget
to pray and to ask others to pray for you. When you keep the conversation going
and set your hopes on the Lord, you will see just faithful God can be.    

 

——————————————————————–

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  The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3) 

A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit

20 – The Spirit Cleansing

The
Duty to Mortify Sin

Let us now consider the duty which is here
enjoined—“do mortify the deeds of the body.” In this clause, “the body” is the
same as “the flesh” in the previous one, they are equivalent terms for the
corruption of nature. The emphasis is here placed upon the body because it is
the tendency of in-dwelling sin to pamper and please our baser part. The soul
of the unregenerate acts for no higher end than does the soul of a beast—to
gratify his carnal appetites. The “deeds of the body,” then, have reference not
only to the outward actions, but also the springs from which they proceed.
Thus, the task which is here assigned the Christian is to “mortify” or put to
death the solicitations to evil within him. The life of sin and the life of
grace are utterly inconsistent and repellent: we must die to sin in order to
live unto God.

Now there is a
threefold power in sin unto which we must die. First, its damning or condemning power, whereby it brings the soul
under the wrath of God. This power it has from the Law, for “the strength of
sin is the law” (1 Cor. 15:56). But, blessed be God, the sentence of the Divine
Law is no longer in force against the believer, for that was executed and
exhausted upon the head of his Surety: consequently, “we are delivered from the
law” (Rom. 7:6). Though sin may still hale Christians before God, accuse them
before Him, terrify the conscience and make them acknowledge their guilt, yet
it cannot drag them to Hell or adjudge them to eternal wrath. Thus, by faith in
Christ sin is “mortified” or put to death as to its condemning power (John
5:24).

Second, sin has a ruling and reigning power,
whereby it keeps the soul under wretched slavery and continual bondage. This
reign of sin consists not in the multitude, greatness, or prevalence of sin,
for all those are consistent with a state of grace, and may be in a child of
God, in whom sin does not and cannot reign. The reign of sin consists
in the in-being of sin unopposed by a
principle of grace. Thus, sin is effectually “mortified” in its reigning at
the first moment of regeneration, for at the new birth a principle of spiritual
life is implanted, and this lusts against the flesh, opposing its
solicitations, so that sin is unable to dominate as it would (Gal. 5:17); and
this breaks it tyranny. Our conscious enjoyment of this is dependent, mainly,
upon our obedience to Romans 6:11.

Third, sin has an indwelling and captivating power, whereby it
continually assaults the principle of spiritual life, beating down the
Christian’s defenses, battering his armor, routing his graces, wasting his
conscience, destroying his peace, and at last bringing him into a woeful
captivity unless it be mortified. Corruption does not lie
dormant in the Christian: though it reigns not supreme (because of a principle
of grace to oppose it) yet it molests and often prevails to a very considerable
extent. Because of this the Christian is called upon to wage a constant warfare
against it: to “mortify” it, to struggle against its inclinations and deny its
solicitations, to make no provision for it, to walk in the Spirit so that he
fulfill not the lusts of the flesh.

Unless the Christian
devotes all his powers to a definite, uncompromising, earnest, constant warfare
upon indwelling sin: unless he diligently seeks to weaken its roots, suppress
its motions, restrain its outward eruptions and actions, and seeks to put to
death the enemy within his soul, he is guilty of the basest ingratitude to
Christ. Unless he does so, he is a complete failure in the Christian life, for
it is impossible that both sin and grace should be healthy and vigorous in the
soul at the same time. If a garden is overrun with weeds, they choke and starve
the profitable plants, absorbing the moisture and nourishment they should feed
upon. So, if the lusts of the flesh absorb the soul, the graces of the Spirit
cannot develop. If the mind is filled with worldly or filthy things, then
meditation on holy things is crowded out. Occupation with sin deadens the mind
for holy duties.

But who is sufficient
for such a task? Who can expect to gain the victory over such a powerful enemy
as indwelling sin? Who can hope to put to death that which defies every effort
the strongest can make against it? Ah, were the Christian left entirely to
himself the outlook would be hopeless, and the attempt useless. But, thank God,
such is not the case. The Christian is provided with an efficient Helper:
“greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). It
is only “through the Spirit” we can,
in any measure, successfully “mortify the deeds of the body.”^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available
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These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ),  her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge     

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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship