Emotional Freedom

May 3rd
BETA
Chapter 8 - Emotional Freedom. … Illustration:

Once I held in my tightly clenched fist ashes, ashes from a burn that flickered upon my
Ten-year-old body, ashes I didn’t as for. The scar was forced on me and for seventeen years the fire smoldered. I kept my fist closed in secret, hating those ashes, yet unwilling to release them, not sure if I should, not convinced that it was worth it, marring the things that I touched and leaving black marks everywhere or so it seemed. I tried to undo it all but the ashes were always there to remind me that I couldn’t. I really could not, but God could. His sweet Holy Spirit spoke to my heart one night in tearful desperation.

He whispered “I want to give you beauty for your ashes, oil of joy for your mourning, a garment of praise for your spirit of heaviness.” I had never heard of such a trade as this-beauty for ashes, my sadly stained memory for the healing in His Word, my soot like dreams for His songs in the night, my helpless and hurting emotions for His ever constant peace. How could I be so stubborn as to refuse an offer such as this? So willingly yet in slow motion and yes sobbing, I opened my bent fingers and let the ashes drop to the ground. In silence, I heard the wind blow them away, away from me forever, I am now able to place my open hands gently round the fist of another hurting soul and say with confidence, “Let them go.” There really is beauty beyond your comprehension. Go ahead; trust Him, His beauty for your ashes.


CELEBRATE RECOVERY
Principle 5 - Voluntarily submit to any and all changes God wants to make in my life.Step 6: We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. (James 4:10)Step 7: We humbly asked him to remove all our shortcomings. I John 1:9)Scripture: James 4:10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” I John 1:9“ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

The Battle for the Mind

April 26th
BETA
Chapter 7 – The Battle for the Mind – Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Ephesians 6: 11 -13.

Illustration:
Imagine that your mind is like a coffeepot filled with coffee. What you really desire is for the pot to have nothing but clear, clean water. The problem is that there’s no place to empty the pot. Sitting beside the coffeepot is a huge bowl of crystal clear ice, which represents the Word of God. Because you are only able to add one or two cubes of ice per day, the process of clearing up the water may seem a little futile at first. If you continue to add ice each day, however you will begin to see the color of the water turning a lighter color as the coffee becomes more diluted. As long as you continue the process, the contents of the coffeepot will become more like water and less like coffee-provided, of course, that you don’t add more coffee.

Pause for thought:
How can you stand up against deception if you don’t know you are being deceived?

If Satan can convince us to believe a lie, he will keep us in bondage emotionally, mentally and spiritually, and we will lose at least some degree of control over our lives. His primary strategy is to distort the truth about our identity and position in Christ and also our understanding of God. We need to understand what Scripture says about this battle for our minds in order to protect our walk with God.

CELEBRATE RECOVERY Principle 4 - Openly examine and confess my faults to God, to myself and to another person whom I trust.Step 4: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. (Lamentations 3:40)Step 5: We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. (James 5:16)Lamentations 3:40 “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.

Beatnik Poetry

Caught up in the Spirit
I close my eyes to see
Listening for the Word
Whispering in the wind
……………………………………………………………………

Weeping & wailing for mercy
My heart crushed beyond repair
Losses too many overwhelm my soul
Fear darkens my vision
…………………………………………………………………….

Freedom invites me
Healing persuades me
Faith inspires grace received
Love seduces me into obedience
…………………………………………………………………….

My heart strives for purity
Humbleness strikes me to my knees
Peace envelopes my soul
& I see God face to face

Renewing the Mind

April 19th
BETA
Chapters 4, 5, & 6
Chapter 4 – Reshaping Our World View. Do you se the world through rose-colored glasses, looking for opportunity in every risk? Or do you look at reality in an overly pessimistic way, seeing the risk in every opportunity? No one is born with a well-defined worldview, and we have all learned to look at the world from a personal perspective. Our present understanding of this world was assimilated from the environment in which we were raised and developed through numerous learning experiences, most of which were informal. It has been said that attitudes are more than taught.

There is no society in which all people hold exactly the same worldview. In North America it is politically correct to have tolerance for different opinions and beliefs. The question is, How does our worldview differ from a biblical worldview? To start with, let’s put on a different pair of glasses that will allow us to see in broad strokes how people interpret this world from different perspectives.

Different worldviews include: Animism, Eastern Religions, or Philosophies such as Hinduism, Ayurveda, Taoism. Modern Western world views including Rationalism, and Naturalism, and Postmodernism.

Chapter 5 – Living By The Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides us through the maze of life much like the air- traffic controller in our story. The controller’s guidance was based on the assumption that the pilot had an understanding of the instructions in his flight manual. Such is the case with the Holy Spirit-His guidance is dependent on our having the knowledge of God’s Word established in our heart.

But say walk by the spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law (Galatians 5: 16-18.)

As believers, we are new creations in Christ. The Holy Spirit has taken up residence in our lives, and we have become partakers of God’s divine nature-we have been given a new heart and a new spirit. Paul wrote in Galatians 5:17 that the flesh and the Spirit are in opposition to each other. As Christians living in this fallen world, we can choose to walk either according to the Spirit or according to the flesh. Our countenance and behavior will reflect our choice.

Chapter 6 – Renewing the Mind. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ 2 Corinthians 10 3-5.

Our good news has not been kept from us. We are no longer slaves to sin because we are bond savants of Christ. So then, if this is true-and it is-why don’t we feel much different from the way we felt before we received Christ, and why are we still struggling with the same issues we struggled with before we became Christians?

Let’s take a look at the bigger picture: In session 1 of this course, we discovered that it was because of the Fall that we are all born physically alive but spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins. During our early formative years-before we knew the truth about Jesus Christ-we learned how to live our lives independently of God. Once we accepted Jesus into our hearts, we were born again-new creations in Christ. This is wonderful; however, everything that was previously programmed into our memory banks is still there. That is why Paul wrote, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good ad acceptable and perfect“ (Romans 12:2).

Share Neil Anderson’s naval experience:

It is customary in the United States Navy to refer to the captain of the ship as the “old man”. The first captain I had was a lousy old man. He belittles his officers and drank excessively with the senior enlisted men. If I was going to survive on board that ship, I had to learn how to cope and defend myself under his authority. One day he got transferred off the ship; he was gone forever, and I wasn’t under his authority anymore. We got a new captain, and he was a good one. But how do you think I continued to live on board that ship? I lived the way I was trained under the previous captain until I got to know the new one. I began to slowly realize that my old means of coping weren’t necessary any more-just as when I became a Christian. I had to learn a new way to live under the authority of many new captains, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are no longer under the authority of the god of this world. We are children of God. Our greatest priority is to get to know this new captain of our souls. The apostle Paul wrote, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

CELEBRATE RECOVERY
Principle 4 - Openly examine and confess my faults to God, to myself and to another person whom I trust.Step 4: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. (Lamentations 3:40) Step 5: We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. (James 5:16) Lamentations 3:40 “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.

Living by Faith

April 12th
BETA
Chapter 3 – Living By Faith. I felt the ingratitude, the danger, the sin of not living nearer to God. I prayed, agonized, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for meditation – but without avail. Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me.

I knew that if only I could abide in Christ all would be well, but I could not…each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack of power. To will was indeed present within me, but how to perform I found not… Then came the question is there no rescue? Must it be thus to the end- constant conflict, and too often defeat? I hated myself, my sin, yet gained no strength against it.... I felt I was a child of God;… but to rise to my privileges as a child, I was utterly powerless.

All the time I felt assured that there was in Christ all I needed, but the practical question was – how to get it out…I strove for faith, a but it would not come: I tried to exercise it, but in vain…I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do?

When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before. (I quote from memory). “But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the faithful One.”

As I read I saw it all? “If we believe not, He abided faithful?” I looked to Jesus and saw, (and when I saw, oh, how the joy flowed!) that He had said, “I will never leave thee.” I thought, “I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I’ll strive no more”

I am no better than before. In a sense I do not wish to be. But I am dead, buried with Christ – aye, and risen too! And now Christ lives in me and “the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me>” Do not let us consider Him as far off, when God has made us one with Him, members of His body, Nor should we look upon this experience, these truths, as for a few. They are the birthright of every child of God…the only power of deliverance from sin or for true service.

CELEBRATE RECOVERY
Principle 3 - Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.Step 3 - We made a decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God. Scripture: Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship.”