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Links
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- Operation Integrity - Operation Integrity is a community of men who have come to terms with our powerlessness over the sexual desires and practices that are a problem for us.
- Sex Additct.com - Are you struggling with pornography, masturbation, sexual fetishes, needing sex to feel normal, or simply having too much sex? Our sex addict resources can help you. We developed our treatment resources and intensive recovery programs to help you recover from sexual addiction and rebuild your relationships.
- Pure Life Ministries - Pure Life Ministries exists to serve Christian individuals and organizations dealing with sexual sin throughout the world by providing biblically based counseling, teaching materials and a public speaking ministry with the goal of leading Christians to victory over sexual sin and into a deeper life in God.
- Samson Society - The Samson Society is a fellowship of Christian men who are serious about authenticity, community, humility and recovery - serious, but not grave.
- Recovery Connection: Choosing a Quality Christian Alcohol and Drug Rehab - The guide explores some pertinent questions and provides answers to help you make an informed choice.
- TimeSnapper - TimeSnapper runs in the background of your computer, taking screenshots of your desktop every few seconds all week long.
- DrugRehab.com - Our mission is to equip patients and families with the best information, resources and tools to overcome addiction and lead a lifelong recovery.
- Vertava Health - At Vertava Health, we provide evidence-based and comprehensive behavioral health care to help people achieve long-term success in recovery and wellness.
With inpatient rehabs and outpatient wellness centers across the country as well as virtual behavioral health care options, we provide a full continuum of addiction treatment and co-occurring mental health care. We also offer a wide range of services including individual counseling, support groups, family therapy, medication management, and more to meet people's varying needs on their journey to heal.
- X3Watch - Online Accountability and Monitoring Software Unlock your potential with the key of accountability. By inviting someone else into your story, you give yourself an incredible motivational tool. With their encouragement, you will be inspired to dig deep and become the person you know you can be.
- Faith-Based Drug Rehab - Rehabs rooted in spiritual community can help many people find sobriety. Rehabs for many faiths and denominations offer guidance during treatment.
- Am I Addicted to Sex? - Do you want to find out if you struggle with pornography addiction? Do you exhibit sex addiction signs but need to find out if you are truly addicted? Take our easy and fast sex addiction test.
- Alcohol Rehab Guide - Alcohol Rehab Guide (ARG) is an organization that provides comprehensive, reliable information on the various aspects of alcohol abuse and addiction. We offer support and guidance for those who are struggling, as well as their parents, family members, friends, health workers and community members.
- American Addiction Centers - We take a big picture approach to addiction treatment ? by addressing each client as a whole person. We work to consider how factors such as your lifestyle, environment, health, and co-occurring mental health disorders may play a part in your addiction involving drugs or alcohol.
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Stages of Addiction - How an addiction develops...
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Click each tab to read more information about the four Stages of Addiction.
Predisposition to addiction
1. Examine the family history: look for patterns of addiction and past addicts. Addictions tend to run in families.
2. Look at the family tree: addictions are passed down from generation to generation although they will frequently skip a generation. The skip occurs as a following generation wrestles with the addictions of the previous one's. This does not necessarily break the chain of addictions. It takes two generations to break an addiction chain.
Exodus 20:5-6: 5You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god! I do not leave unpunished the sins of those who hate me, but I punish the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generations. 6But I lavish my love on those who love me and obey my commands, even for a thousand generations.
3. 25% of an addiction is based on my family's predisposition. While I do not have to follow the family pattern, I should be aware of its existence so I can break the chain of addiction. For example, if alcoholism runs in my family's history I am not doomed to become an alcoholic, but I should watch and be careful of my drinking because my potential of becoming an alcoholic is higher than someone with a non-alcoholic family history.
Preparation for addiction
1. From birth to age twelve I am a child. My experiences with my primary attachment figures will shape my faith, my belief systems, and my need for and understanding of love.
2. My attachment with my mother will shape my faith in God the Father. I will learn to see God as a loving and nurturing parent. He is a safe haven for me.
3. My attachment with my father will shape my trust in Jesus the Son. I will learn to see Jesus as someone I can count on daily to meet my needs and be available to keep me safe and loved.
4. The absence of either of the above through design, i.e. my father or mother is there but not emotionally available to me, or default, i.e. my father or mother cannot be present due to no fault of his or her own, produces neglect.
5. Neglect is the seedbed for addiction. It allows for the sowing of counterfeit seeds of love or love alternatives in the form of future addictions.
6. 25% of the potential to develop a future addiction lies in the experiences of emotional neglect at this stage in my development.
7. This is where my "need" for addiction comes. It is a need for love.
Classically conditioned experiences with potential addictions from 12-25.
1. Addictions are classically conditioned at this age when I have a positive or more accurately a pleasurable experience with a negative substance, i.e. I use drugs for the first time and I like them. I know this is wrong, but it feels good and it fills a void from Stage II with the combination of a predisposition or addiction potential from Stage I.
2. I am now in the process of creating "addiction memories". The brain is designed to repeat pleasurable experiences and avoid painful experiences. I am "hardwiring" into the brain through memory an addiction experience as pleasurable. I am watering the seeds of my addiction.
3. Repeated addiction experiences at this stage lead to increasing pleasurable addiction memories.
4. This is where my "urge" for addiction comes from. Later under stress or fatigue I want to return to those places, memories, in my life where I experienced a respite albeit temporary from the pain of the world, i.e. my addiction experiences of memories.
5. 25% of my addiction resides in my classical conditioning from this time period.
Each of us develop triggers, habits, or coping mechanisms to deal with the daily ness of the here and now or the pain of life.
1. As the stress of my life increases through responsibility and loss I look for ways or outlets that allow me to continue to function with increasing pain or stress.
2. By nature I return to those positive memories in my life or things that gave my pleasure. If I love to walk I walk. If I love to eat I eat. If I have an addiction experience that created an addiction memory I return to that experience with the proviso that addictions are progressive. I need more of yesterday's experience to accomplish the same result, i.e. "high" today.
3. I need to examine and look for the triggers in my life, i.e. the cup of coffee that tells me it is time to smoke or the action that tells me it is time for a "nightcap". The triggers are not wrong, they are just triggers. The ensuing behavior may or may not be wrong unless it controls me rather than I it.
1 Corinthians 6:9ff 9Don't you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, 10thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers?none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. 11There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away,£ and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you.
12You may say, "I am allowed to do anything." But I reply, "Not everything is good for you." And even though "I am allowed to do anything," I must not become a slave to anything. 13You say, "Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food." This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them. But our bodies were not made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14And God will raise our bodies from the dead by his marvelous power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. 15Don't you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which belongs to Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16And don't you know that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, "The two are united into one."£ 17But the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
18Run away from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19Or don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
4. 25% of addictions are based in those things in my life that "trigger" me to return to my pleasurable memories or experiences of the past that brought me relief albeit temporarily from the pain of my current life and that are based in my need for love due to neglect and predisposed due to my family addiction history.
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Dealing With Temptation
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James 1:12-16; Mark 7:14-23
Temptation originates not in the mind of God but within the heart of man.
James 1:2
Although God does not send temptation, he does delight in helping us grow stronger through it.
Genesis 3:1-6
Satan's favorite strategy is to make that which is sinful appear to be desirable and good.
1 Kings 11:1-3
Often temptation begins in seemingly harmless pleasure, soon gets out of control, and progresses to full-blown idolatry.
Genesis 39:6-12
The best strategy is to flee the situation.
Proverbs 1:10-14
Sometimes our greatest tempters are those we think are our friends.
Matthew 6:13
We should make our temptations a constant focus of prayer.
Titus 2:11-12
Christian growth brings an increased awareness and sensitivity to temptation in our lives.
@Promise from God: 1 Corinthians 10:13
Warnings against Idolatry
1 Corinthians 10
1I don't want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters,£ what happened to our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. God guided all of them by sending a cloud that moved along ahead of them, and he brought them all safely through the waters of the sea on dry ground. 2As followers of Moses, they were all baptized in the cloud and the sea. 3And all of them ate the same miraculous£ food, 4and all of them drank the same miraculous water. For they all drank from the miraculous rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. 5Yet after all this, God was not pleased with most of them, and he destroyed them in the wilderness.
6These events happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did 7or worship idols as some of them did. For the Scriptures say, "The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged themselves in pagan revelry."£ 8And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. 9Nor should we put Christ£ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. 10And don't grumble as some of them did, for that is why God sent his angel of death to destroy them. 11All these events happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us, who live at the time when this age is drawing to a close.
12If you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you, too, may fall into the same sin. 13But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.
14So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. 15You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am about to say is true. 16When we bless the cup at the Lord's Table, aren't we sharing in the benefits of the blood of Christ? And when we break the loaf of bread, aren't we sharing in the benefits of the body of Christ? 17And we all eat from one loaf, showing that we are one body. 18And think about the nation of Israel; all who eat the sacrifices are united by that act.
19What am I trying to say? Am I saying that the idols to whom the pagans bring sacrifices are real gods and that these sacrifices are of some value? 20No, not at all. What I am saying is that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don't want any of you to be partners with demons. 21You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord's Table and at the table of demons, too. 22What? Do you dare to rouse the Lord's jealousy as Israel did? Do you think we are stronger than he is?
23You say, "I am allowed to do anything"?but not everything is helpful. You say, "I am allowed to do anything"?but not everything is beneficial. 24Don't think only of your own good. Think of other Christians and what is best for them.
25Here's what you should do. You may eat any meat that is sold in the marketplace. Don't ask whether or not it was offered to idols, and then your conscience won't be bothered. 26For "the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."£
27If someone who isn't a Christian asks you home for dinner, go ahead; accept the invitation if you want to. Eat whatever is offered to you and don't ask any questions about it. Your conscience should not be bothered by this. 28But suppose someone warns you that this meat has been offered to an idol. Don't eat it, out of consideration for the conscience of the one who told you. 29It might not be a matter of conscience for you, but it is for the other person.
Now, why should my freedom be limited by what someone else thinks? 30If I can thank God for the food and enjoy it, why should I be condemned for eating it? 31Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God. 32Don't give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. 33That is the plan I follow, too. I try to please everyone in everything I do. I don't just do what I like or what is best for me, but what is best for them so they may be saved.
All of us make hundreds of choices every day. Most choices have no right or wrong attached to them?like what you wear or what you eat. But we always face decisions that carry a little more weight. We don't want to do wrong, and we don't want to cause others to do wrong, so how can we make such decisions?
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If I choose one course of action: |
.does it help my witness for Christ? (9:19-22) |
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.am I motivated by a desire to help others know Christ? (9:23; 10:33) |
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.does it help me do my best? (9:25) |
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.is it against a specific command in Scripture and would thus cause me to sin? (10:12) |
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.is it the best and most beneficial course of action? (10:23, 33) |
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.am I thinking only of myself, or do I truly care about the other person? (10:24) |
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.am I acting lovingly or selfishly? (10:28-31) |
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.does it glorify God? (10:31) |
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.will it cause someone else to sin? (10:32) |
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