SELF run rampant

Continuing on with yesterday's posting from II Timothy.

II Timothy 3
Verse 1 - But know this
( Paul is saying, let this sink down inside. Let it move beyond your brain and become a part of your heart.)  Paul is going to give us a view of how the state of mankind is going to sink into deeper and deeper levels of depravity as we draw nearer to the end of the age, the time of Jesus' return. How can I say these things? Look around you. Look at the state of mankind in our country alone. When I graduated High School, back in 1969, out of my class of 276 people, I didn't know anyone who was an addict. Rehabs and treatment centers were not a part of the culture. The biggest thing most parents had to fear back then, was that their children would drive to Anniston and buy beer (Etowah county was dry back then.)

In the last days perilous (or stressful) time will come.
Isn't it strange how the human mind can discount such words. The very first thing that comes up when I teach from this chapter, is that someone will say, "well humanity has always been lovers of themselves....lovers of money....boasters....etc." While human nature has and does continue to exhibit such behavior....we haven't seen such in this nation on the scale of what we are experiencing today. 

Now, lets drop down to verse 4.
.....lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
Have you ever seen such a time and day as we are going through where pleasure is the golden apple that every is chasing. Pleasure......a feeling.....an experience that feeds my flesh. Wait a minute! Isn't God pleasurable? He sure is. But the pleasure He gives to me doesn't feed my sinful appetite. It doesn't drive me to run into the darkness for more and more. His pleasure doesn't cause me to destroy every thing around me just so I can experience the high. To be lovers of pleasure, mentioned in the verse, is to become driven by our selfishness. To seek out the ultimate high. To be drunk like we've never been drunk before. To discard all care and responsibility so we make take selfishness to a new level....so we can "feel" something. We are so miserable in our addiction that we will do anything to get our drug of choice. In other words, we have bought into the biggest lie ever perpetrated on the human race. Reject God....Do what feels good.

Now before you go and pile on me and accuse me of being hateful and pointing a finger at those who are still in their addiction, let me say this....
I know...
I am fully aware that as someone progresses in addiction, there comes a point where it isn't a matter of will....
You simply cannot quit.
What began with a "choice" has now evolved into a lifestyle where the choice to stop has been removed. How so? Because the nature of the chemicals ingested alters the body's metabolism and brain chemistry. That is why families and friends don't understand that it's more than you simply quitting. IF the truth be known, the majority of men I work with want to quit. They simply can't. Here's where it gets tricky and some may disagree with me. Someone in addiction doesn't have a drug or alcohol problem....those are the outwards signs of an inward problem. They have a "living" problem. That living problem is a broken relationship with Jesus. 

Without the balance of Christ in my life, I will try to run things. Rather than driven or led by the goodness of God, who created me, I am led by my own appetites. I want what I want and I want it now. The deeper we go in this kind of lifestyle, we slowly cast aside all moral anchors until we are adrift on a sea of sin. Slowly and surely, we lay aside the restraints and, at the same time, try to moderate our usage. We draw lines in the sand of our addiction creating points that we said we would never cross. Usually the last of such lines is found in those immortal words spoken by addicts every where...."I'll never use a needle." Eventually that will fall away and we fine ourselves in a new level of hell. 

It's really simple....
I must admit to myself that life isn't working. The faster I go, the behinder I get. The harder I try, the more I destroy. And in the midst of it all, claiming to never use again, I do. I AM POWERLESS over my addiction. It has me, I don't have it.

I don't know if you come here to the GREENE STREET LETTERS much or not. If you have been a reader of this blog, then you know that for me there is a HIGHER POWER who can restore me from this insanity of addiction into a new level of living. My higher POWER has a name........it would be Jesus. Not the religious Jesus. Not the church Jesus. Not a Jesus who has a denominational affiliation.But the real, deal, promise-a-real-promise, Jesus of the Bible.

It is to Jesus that I turn will and life over to His care. I am no longer going to run (or at least give the appearance of being able to run) my life. I am going to grow and mature in this Jesus through the study of scripture. I am going to learn to talk to Him and, whats more important, I am going to learn to listen for Him. Then, I will take the Nike approach to life...."Just do it!".

My prayer is that you run into this Jesus today.
God on you....
mb