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What does it mean to be addicted to... -Alcohol -Drugs -Loneliness and Depression -Pornography - Gambling -Smoking -Food -Video Games and Electronics -Too Much Television & Movies Some HELPFUL truths! Dealing with addictive patterns in your life Overcoming Marriage Difficulties Fed-up with religious dead-ends and frauds? Confusion About God?  An addiction is usually associated with words "flesh" and with “lust” in
the Bible.Romans 13:14 - "make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" Galatians 5:24 - "crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" Ephesians 2:3 - "in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature…” 1st Peter 2:11 - "abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul" James 1:13-15 - "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. " They are described as "besetting sins" in the Bible that pull of away from life and destroy us. Hebrews 12:1 - "the sin that so easily besets us" The Bible also plainly describes all addiction as "idolatry." Philippians 3:19 - "whose god is their belly (appetite),...set mind on earthly things" Someone once said, "addictions make idolaters of us all" and "what the Old Testament called idolatry, Europeans call 'addictions'." |
What is an Addiction? |
| In simple words, An addiction is a “life-dominating and
life-devastating sin problem.” It is when someone is enslaved to a sinful desire, act, or attitude that they know they should be able to stop doing. It is is when a person is unable to stop doing what especially God says is wrong. There are many things that are clearly wrong for a person to do. And, those are sins. We are all dependant upon companionship, our spouse, food, sleep. Those are normal and nature dependancies. But when we are dependant upon anything sinful, or anyone more than God, then that is an addiction. So, addictions are when a person sins, and cannot stop that doing sin - no matter how hard they try, and no matter what the sin is. A physical addiction occurs when you repeatedly satisfy a natural appetite and desire with a sinful pleasure until you become the servant of that desire instead of its master. Addictions are not uncontrolled “compulsions”, but rather “persistent, habitually wrong choices” that lead to bondage. It includes being “obsessed” (constantly thinking of and loving something other than God supremely) with anything other than God: i.e., sports, sex, work, shopping and/or acquiring “stuff,” even family or children. We are to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5), which is, according to Jesus, the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38). We can conclude, then, that an addiction to anything other than God Himself is wrong. God is the only thing we can (and should) occupy ourselves with habitually. Any addiction brings a person into bondage to that addiction. Every addiction leaves scars and disasterous consequences. But all addictions are treateable, and cureable. Specialised drugs and counselling can help, but cannot change a person. That's why we treat all addictions with repentance and spiritual conversion by faith in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. For more information on how Jesus can free you from sin, contact us at biblebc@gmail.com Or phone our office in Cork at 087-9556224 |
Twelve Weeks to
Freedom, of Cork
We meet Fridays, from 7pm-9pm at:
Unit B, Enterprise Business Park,
Innismore, Ballincollig, Cork - Just behind Lidl'sFor more information, please
contact:
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