For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I wrote a story once about a man, fresh out of prison, who jumped head first into a hole of fresh sewage to rescue a 3 year old from drowning. https://www.lifemeanssomuch.com/a-mouthful-of-raw-sewage…/

If you’ve never been rescued by someone, it’s hard to grasp its significance. But it changes you.

And as if the rescue wasn’t enough, in doing so to also forgive your past mistakes and move you to an entirely new kingdom in the process is an unfathomable act.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭21‬-‭22‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Just when you’re submerged in raw sewage drowning in a gruesome death as sin would predict, Jesus takes your hand and raises you up freed and without blemish to new life.

I’ve been there.

My story is not unlike yours or that of a helpless 3 year old little girl who lost her way.

It changes you.

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Some of us need to learn this ‘secret’ already available to us.

A secret is information known exclusively between one and another and at the exclusion of others.

My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God’s promise to provide for our needs means out of His discernment of what our needs are He will automatically dispense the right solution at the right amount at the right time and place and for the right reason.

He’s rich in everything and we are His children. To be content in all things is to know His provisions are generous and good, given to satisfy our lack out of His wealth.

That’s the secret solution unknown to those who fail to believe.

Be content and anxious for nothing.

Jehovah Jireh is my provider.

Gen 22 NIV

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬, ‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Of all human experiences, only one remains almost entirely unknown.

Despite hypotheses and relentless attempts at its description from every conceivable perspective, unhinged fantasy, limitless speculation and sordid detail, we still know nothing more beyond its cause except for the promise that we never will for as long as we live.

And then it will either be the nothing or the everything we ever dreamed of.

Paul had a goal.

His desire from prison was to die in order to gain the experience of being resurrected because his faith tells him it is, indeed, everything ever dreamed of.

To live is Christ. To die is gain.

As noble the thought may be, he also knows the world’s people won’t be saved by a bunch of dead Christians (contrary to popular belief of some.)

The more noble act is to remain here in faith and action, not to hasten our own demise just to experience the promise of the resurrection moment.

Paul was selfless to a fault, persevering in faith and action until one day in Rome when it caused his beheading and he finally gained the resurrection moment of which he had dreamed.

Of all human experiences only one remains entirely unknown except that it is a promised gift for keeping the faith and a job well done.

Be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If you’re at all like me, we’re both notorious for starting projects and losing interest before completing them.

Something more important or urgent steals away our finite attention until our best of intentions becomes just another piece of unfinished business we promise ourselves to complete someday.

Thank God—literally—your salvation is not something He loses interest in because of your lack of participation.

Once begun by your heartful profession of faith, it earns you a place in the center of God’s workbench where you are always worked on even when it doesn’t feel like it.

This fact usurps your feelings.

Jesus is the completer and finisher of our faith.

But when you reassume an active role, the progress is a lot more evident.

Be confident. He’s not finished with you yet.

From dope dealing to hope dealing. That’s how I roll now.

Everyone knows at least one still unrecovering addict of some sort.

Statistically, 12 is the number of addicts you’ll know closely in your lifetime, probably more.

Some will make it over the addiction hump and sadly, some will be buried under it.

But addiction isn’t going anywhere. There’s too much money to be made from it.

The real question is: who do you become when you’re around them?

That depends on a number of variables and your life experiences. So to bring the question closer to home: who are you called to be around them?

Is there any moral or spiritual imperative that supersedes the common and reflexive human emotions of hate, disgust, or mistrust?

I’ll be first to suggest against wholly trusting an addict.

Addiction 101 clearly teaches that manipulation and lies are the tools along their pathways that lead to using.

However, to maintain hope for all people, we have to believe that all people are redeemable and worthy redemption en route to getting clean.

That means we addicts need chances at becoming what once and one hundred times in our lives we always wanted to be: clean and sober.

Like “normal” folks, addicts struggle every single day to be better people, with some more successful than others. They are the fortunate few surrounded by people of compassion.

A people of compassion is our calling. The people of the Second Chance just as we, ourselves, were given.

#AddictionProfessionalsDay

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Why not greet one another with hope and joy? Prosperity and perseverance? Love and charity?

Paul always opens his letters from prison with pronouncements of grace and peace.

Grace is unmerited favor, something bestowed upon us that we cannot and did not earn apart from our salvation and life in Christ.

Peace is both a feeling and a condition. The feeling is confidence and assurance while under the condition of our absolute redemption, having made peace with God.

Paul’s greeting IS the gospel in its simplest and most elegant form.

These two are pronouncements from Paul to the believers, not wishes for them of something that will or might still come to pass. It’s his affirmation of identity of those who will hear his letter.

Grace and peace are what this world needs most and what we see at work in fellow Christians.

We should, ourselves, use it more often.