Overcoming Addiction – A Multifaceted Christian Approach
June 2, 2009
Addictions: A Multifaceted Christian Approach
By: Mark R. Laaser & George Ohlschlager
…addicts can’t change their behaviors without help from God and wise counsel. None of us can find sufficient relief from pain without help. To expect something different from the… addict is to heap more shame on [them] and encourage Christians to respond to tough issues with simplistic solutions… We learn that we can make it if we just try harder and believe that those who haven’t made it didn’t try hard enough. But believing in ourselves and the fruit of our efforts works against the fact that we are sinful and can escape sinful behaviors only with God’s help. – Harry Schaumburg
Howard Hillman was a well-off executive consultant living with his second wife and her children in a tony suburb on the north Chicago shore. He was also an alcoholic who lived in denial of it due to his fairly competent functioning (which he grossly exaggerated).
His wholesome and successful veneer started to crack, however, after his second DUI in which he lost his license and had to hire his step-son to chauffer him around. He also had to engage in counseling in order to clear his record and get his license back, and was required to take a routine drug screen following his counseling intake. It was then that Howard’s even more secret addictions to oxycontin—which he had taken two years previous due to a severe back sprain—and to internet sexual pornography was discovered.
Now it all made sense to his wife. Howard had been cutting back on his drinking—she knew that as they had been fighting about it—but she didn’t understand why he slept in a stuporous state so much, had so many ‘minor’ accidents around the house, and no longer seemed to be interested in having sex with her. He was mixing alcohol with narcotics and internet sex! Worst of all, he had become a very accomplished liar.
Overcoming Addiction – Alcohol Use
June 1, 2009
An estimated 119 million Americans aged 12 or older were current drinkers of alcohol in 2003 (50.1 percent). About 54 million (22.6 percent) participated in binge drinking at least once in the 30 days prior to the survey, and 16.1 million (6.8 percent) were heavy drinkers. These 2003 numbers are all similar to the corresponding estimates for 2002. The highest prevalence of binge and heavy drinking in 2003 was for young adults aged 18 to 25, with the peak rate of both measures occurring at age 21. The rate of binge drinking was 41.6 percent for young adults aged 18 to 25 and 47.8 percent at age 21. Heavy alcohol use was reported by 15.1 percent of persons aged 18 to 25 and by 18.7 percent of persons aged 21.
About 10.9 million persons aged 12 to 20 reported drinking alcohol in the month prior to the survey interview in 2003 (29.0 percent of this age group). Nearly 7.2 million (19.2 percent) were binge drinkers and 2.3 million (6.1 percent) were heavy drinkers. These 2003 rates were essentially the same as those obtained from the 2002 survey. An estimated 13.6 percent of persons aged 12 or older (32.3 million) drove under the influence of alcohol at least once in the 12 months prior to the interview in 2003 (a decrease from 14.2 percent in 2002).
New Heart Place – A Place of Healing and Restoration
June 1, 2009
In 2006 Westgate Chapel opened a residential home for adult men located on five (5) acres in the beautiful Echo Lake area of Snohomish County: New Heart Place.
The passion and vision of the New Heart Place team is not to somehow get a man clean and sober.
The mission of New Heart Place is far more than recovery. It is simply a faith-investment in the promises of Jesus:
“I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
Suddenly, it’s not recovery of something lost. It’s about receiving that which is new: a new heart, new desires, a new spirit.
The staff and ministry team of New Heart Place believes every man welcomed into its warm, relational community is marked with destiny:
“I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11
New Heart Place
Healing – Wholeness – Freedom – Destiny
Addiction is lonely!
May 31, 2009
For 23 million Americans, drugs and alcohol are more than personal addictions, destroying the health and future of those held in its devastating grip.
Addiction is a family tragedy, sweeping spouses and children into the whirlpool of its physical, emotional, and spiritual desperation.
The light-hearted fun and friendships of the party lifestyle soon give way to the loneliness and despair; the dark bondage of addiction!
In the hopeless torment of addiction, everything changes…
As the insidious grip of addiction tightens around the addict, the once wide world of fun and friendships and parties narrows to a confined, restricted world controlled by a power so profound everyone and everything is valued only as a means to the “next hit,” the next drink, the next round in the casino.
Step 5 – Shake off all your fears!
May 20, 2009
- Fear is the demon that turned you into a drug addict to start with. When you turn your life over to God you never have to fear again. When Jesus comes to live in your heart, He drives away all fears and doubts.
- Don’t be afraid you will go back to the needle!! God guarantees a 100% cure! As long as you stay with God, He will stay with you. If you forsake God, you will go back. When God is with you—you need never fear.
- Don’t be afraid of your past! When God forgives your sins—He forgets them. He will not hold them against you and He will make society forget them too. Make restitution when you can—but when you can’t, leave it all in God’s hand.
- Don’t ever be afraid that God will drop you. He has never done that and He even promises to send an angel to watch over you in all your ways.
- Don’t ever be afraid of what people will say or think! Keep your eyes on Jesus and you will never be disappointed or confused.
One Way, by David Wilkerson, Regal Books, 1972