Wednesday, February 18th

The Oxford Dictionary defines addiction as the condition of being unable to stop using or doing something as a habit, especially something harmful. It is characterized by a physical or psychological dependency, often involving compulsive, habitual behavior despite negative consequences.

I think many of us can read this definition and discard it because we so often think addiction is just for people with drug and drinking addictions or we read this definition and we read "doing something as a habit, especially something harmful" or "habitual behavior despite negative consequences" and we think this doesn't fit where I am at.

First, I want to say slow your roll, don't discard, God is trying to get your attention!  You see, our brothers and sisters that are in the battle of drug and alcohol addiction they are on a fast track to death.  For everyone who's not addicted to drugs and alcohol we are choosing a slower death, death none the less, you see the addiction you and I chose is more accepted of our culture and the world.  In fact, many of us don't even know we are enslaved by the addiction.  

Jesus makes it very clear on the sermon on the mount.

Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Anything outside of worshiping, serving, being obedient to God is sin, and when we serve the master of sin we are addicted or enslaved to him.  This can literally be anything we do in this life, lets take a quick look at how the deceiver hooks us in:
John warns us in 1 John 2:15-16
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

This is how satan tempted Adam and Eve in the garden as well as tempted Jesus as He came out of his 40 day fast and started His ministry.  Hey tempts us in our minds in three areas, desires of physical temptations, desires of greed, envy, coveting, and desires of pride.

You see, while we're here on earth the devil will be messing with us, but as Christ modeled in the desert as he was being tempted He cast satan away with the truth of scripture which is sharper than any double edge sword!  We to get to combat the lies of the enemy with the truths of God which are his words in the Bible.

So take time and read and pray through these truths Paul shares in Ephesians 2:1-10

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

My encouragement for you today is for you to sit with God and seek his company, ask Him where you are seeking the desires of the world in your life.  Where are you distracted?  In what ways are you addicted to the desires of the world and not of God.

May each and everyone of us live in the fullness of Christs love today!
Pastor Sam