And The Winner Is----

Saturday....
Saturday at Rapha....
Looks like it is going to be a beautiful day, weather wise and that means a lot of outdoor activity.
Guy's at the camp will be outside taking in the rays.
If you were to be here this afternoon, it wouldn't look much different from any park in any city in the U.S.
Laughter...
Running...
Fishing....
People talking and sharing thoughts.
Swings rocking to and fro in a gentle motion as others look on all the activity.
Yet each man here has a story.
That story usually involves a lot of pain and destruction and guilt.
Not to mention tons of shame and depression.

One thing that is usually in short supply when a man first gets here to Rapha is hope.
Oh the family has hope. Hope that this time is different than the other times he went to rehab.
Hope is a precious commodity when a person first arrives.
As his time progresses here, he begins to see that he doesn't have a drug and/or alcohol problem. He has a living problem. He has a broken relationship with Jesus Christ. This broken relationship is caused by the sin nature that exists in every human being. A nature that was born in a garden centuries before when a couple made a decision that would affect every human being born.

This "living" problem causes us to make some really bad choices.
These choices we make are part of the rebellious nature that comes with sin. "Don't tell me what to do! It's my life and I'll live it the way I want to." The want too usually includes rejection of God and anything to do with God. The more we exercise this sin nature, the more it screams out to us to "give it what it wants".
What does it want?
Maybe drugs...
Maybe alcohol...
Sex? Yes.
Money and greed, power and position? Sure.
To create a false image of ourselves so others will think that we are more than we truly are? You bet. In other words, we become the center of our own little universe and we can't understand why others can't see this.
Our needs supersede anyone else's.
It is a vicious downward spiral that ends in destruction.
But God........(aren't those the most incredible words you've ever heard?)
But God.....so loved this world and everyone who lives here, that he gave his one and only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Gave him to be a sacrifice. Gave him to pay a price for sin that I could never pay, so that I might have life. Real life. Eternal life.

There is the defeat of addiciton.
The needle was destroyed by the cross.
The power of the pipe was decimated at the cross.
The lie of the pill was uncovered and washed away at the cross.
The lies, the pain and the hopelessness was revealed and defeated at the cross.
And there in the aftermath, God places his Holy Spirit within the hearts of those who surrender and give themselves, spirit-body-soul- to Him. To be made a part of His family.
This is Hope.
That there is a better way.
That there is a POWER greater than myself that can restore me to sanity.
At cross we come to believe that God is, in fact, who he claims to be and can do what he claims he can do.
This is called being born again.
Being saved.
Being filled with his Holy Spirit.
It is from this place that life begins to sprout and a person begins a new way of living.
Today can be that day for you.....
I pray that you are filled with the hope of God today.
That no matter what you are facing...
No matter what the voices that scream in your mind are saying, you will hear the voice of God and the life he is wanting to give you.

God bless you on this day....
mb