My buddy was telling me how he thinks he’s getting hooked to his laptop computer and/or the Internet….he was saying…”I don’t know, I use to go on to check some financial news and then surf the web for about 15 minutes, but now I’m stuck on facebook for hours at a time and then, still surfing for a couple more…before you know it, it’s like 4-5 hours on the computer”

Years ago I would have thought wow….but I actually find myself spending m0re and more time in cyberspace then I use to years ago…..

Where it starts to get sticky is when your “cyberspace” time….compromises other things in your life.  What I mean by that is let’s say that you’re married with kids, and it’s a weekend, and the family wants to do something together (that’s a good thing) but we blow them off saying I “just have to check a few thing on the web first”….next thing you know….you lost a coupe hours of good quality time…

The compromise could be in the way of spending less time with family and friends….neglecting school work…..isolating yourself from life’s pleasures…and the list goes on and on..

Remember…we are creatures of habit….and for some…habits form quite easily. Before you know it, your innocent web surfing from years ago has actually turned into a “cyberspace habit”  and possibly an “Internet addiction” in extreme cases…

Try to discipline yourself…set aside a set period of time each day or night that you will do your web thing…..and then walk away from the computer….if you find yourself struggling to walk away….you might need some professional intervention….

Life is short…and we don’t want to spend the majority of it in “cyberspace”  We should be spending time with people we enjoy….go for a walk…walk your neighbors dog….call a friend….read a few bible verses….

Just be careful you don’t fall into “another habit trap”….they really do develop quickly and before you know it….your struggling to break free…

Here at Christian Help For Addiction Online, we pray that your life is ever improving, and that you are getting closer to God by praying more and reading the bible. God can really make a difference in your life if you give him a try….stay Well

But out God knows out weaknesses and knows that we are not perfect.  He is quick to forgive, and help steer us back on the right path.

Here is a great excer[t from  Dr. Charles Stanley. He is on the television on Sundays.  Try to watch him this Sunday.

The church I grew up in could sum up much of its theology in one statement: “Thou shalt not . . .” I don’t recall hearing about a Father’s love or how to live the Christian life. What I learned was that a wrathful God would punish me if I didn’t follow all the rules. And there seemed to be rules for everything—including what I could read, what I could wear, and what I could do.

As a teenage boy, I spent a lot of time begging the Lord to forgive me for one foolish thing or another. And I carried a constant weight of guilt and worry around with me everywhere I went. I just couldn’t seem to be good enough. In truth, the rules were a burden to me, and since I thought God made them, He was a burden too.

In my young adult years, I learned that my perception of God was wrong. He is gracious and loving. The commandments that He gave were designed to keep us
safe and free from shame. But even when we do mess up, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Rom. 8:1). That means He forgives our sin and “wipes out . . . transgressions,” remembering them no more (Is. 43:25). We may have to live with consequences but never with the weight of guilt.

God is not a burden. He is the burden-bearer (Ps. 68:19), who placed our sins on Jesus Christ, thereby relieving us of that heaviness. Don’t keep staggering under the load of guilt. Lay it down before a loving, gracious Lord who offers a yoke that is easy and light (Matt. 11:30).

We hope you are moving forward with your walk with God, and we comtinue to pray for all our readers. God Bless.

Christiam Help For Addiction Online.

But then the storms of life hit us again, just like a 30 foot wave hitting a boat. These storms could come in the loss of a job or loss of a family member. We could be under stress in our relationships, and at turmoil with individuals that we call “friends”

Anyway you look at it, there will be good and bad times. It’s easy to turn to God and hit our knees when things are going bad. Sometimes there is nobody else there but him, as those so called “friends” are in the wind so to speak. We cry out for help and guidance, and it truly seems that God gives us only what we can bear.

But how about the good times,when things are going good? Do we take some time out to thank God for those quiet times, and give him credit for them. God desires to have fellowship with us (through prayer), in the good times and the bad.

So the next time there seems to be a pause in the “drama” in your life or the people around you, give thanks to God. My favorite prayer is…”thank you Lord for another day. I am walking in peace today thanks to you. I know there will be some tough times ahead, but if I stick by your side by continually praying and talking to you through prayer, I know we can get through anything together”….

So that’s it. Keep praying and thanking.  God knows you’re there, he created you in his image. Do you really think that he doesn’t love you? Never!….Until next time….stay well and God Bless….

Christian Help For Addiction Online-Addiction Help Online

Start running with the winners a friend of mine had told me…how true that was….having healthy and sober friends that are navigating this life in a meaningful way is probably one of the best means of staying sober and drug free there is.  Jump on their ships and enjoy the ride.

When I talk with some of the most successful people in the world and question them as to what helped them become a success..the most dominant factor was the associates they had, and if lucky enough, a winning mentor that showed them the ropes….

Start running with the winners…find some healthy successful friends that you can feed off of and it will turn your life around!!!

Here at christian help for addiction online we offer information for those that are struggling with an addiction be it an alcohol addiction, painkiller addiction, sex addiction or whatever.  An addiction is an addiction, it manipulates our lives away from God and into despair.   Stay well and God Bless

These beautiful words hold us to a high standard. That is why it has been said that before marriage one ought to open our eyes wide, but afterwards keep them half closed. In order to hold up this standard, so necessary for a marriage to work, we need to choose wisely. To decide if you are ready for marriage, you need to choose someone you can trust, because distrust erodes a relationship, and so does undeserved trust. You also need to know what your responsibilities to the marriage partner are so that you can evaluate yourself realistically. These two things can be done with the help of pre-marital therapy.

Why do you need Christian pre-marital therapy? The quote above is from the Bible. The greatest book of love is the Bible. The book of Luke is considered by many to be the most beautiful book ever written. The book of Luke, as well as the gospels of Mathew, Mark, and John, tells how Jesus died to save us – the believers and now the church- from our sins. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, giving himself up for it” (Ephesians 5:25). God is the expert, par excellence, on love.

There is nothing wrong with going to a psychologist, a social worker, a professional counselor, or a psychiatrist for pre-marital and marital therapy. In fact I would encourage you because churches sometimes give only six sessions of pre-marital couple therapy, or group pre-marital therapy with non professional married couples as group leaders and this is barely just enough. Many couples who have received pre-marital therapy say that it helped them but that they wish they had received more therapy. There is so much need in the church for marital, family, addiction, and other kinds of counseling, that there is not enough pre-marital therapy. I would recommend supplementing the church’s pre-marital therapy with other pre-marital counseling.

However, Christian pre-marital counseling adds a dimension that secular therapies do not usually have. For example, the Christian counselor advises couples not to have sex before marriage. In his book on dating, Boy Meets Girl, Pastor Joshua Harris explains how a manager of a hotel for honeymooners would run out of activities for the newly married to do. This was because the now bored couples had pre-marital sex. Whereas, Joshua and his wife, who did not have sex prior to marriage, hardly left their room!

In the city where I live there is a saying among the non-believers. They say that marriage kills sex. But it is not marriage that kills sex, but pre-marital sex that kills marriage. I knew of one couple that lived together and had sex everyday before to marriage. After marriage, the wife confided, they had sex once a month. It is not worth it to ruin twenty five or more years of marital sex for one year or even less of pre-marital sex.

If you are contemplating marriage and you are living together, you must move apart and stop having sex for a time until you get married under the guidance of the pastor or Christian counselor. Physical intimacy is like a battery. It becomes charged with non sexual activities and gives off energy with sex. Do not skip that pre-marriage charging time.

When thinking about what pre-marital therapy is, people have different points of view. One woman tells how she was looking forward to marital therapy thirty years ago. “I thought that we would receive counseling courses about marital responsibility, but the entire time, the courses, which were called ‘marital counseling’, were about catechism.” She was disappointed as were many people in the course.

Decades later, now divorced, she expects that marital counseling should be about what marriage is, what people expect it to be, and what it will really be like. Dr. Wayne Mack makes a point that partners differ in expectations and should not wait until marriage to discuss these differences.

Dr. Nancy Alvarez, secular psychologist and sexologist says that some men want marriage with weekends off. That means they spend weekends drinking with their male friends as if they were single, instead of being with their wife. Obviously, that does not work out. Couples should also discuss why they are in love with one another. It has been observed that some people become happy when they hear why their betrothed wants to marry them, others become angry.

It is certainly natural for a marital counselor to talk about spiritual intimacy. In the book, “The Five Love Needs of Men and Women”, Christian marital experts Dr. Gary and Barbara Rosberg explain how there are two kinds of intimacy in marriage, physical and spiritual. Differences in religion could lead to a lack of understanding and different values. But not everything is religion.

Counselor Grisel López of El Sendero de la Cruz Christian Church in Puerto Rico explains that even in the case that the couple is of the same religion, some couples do not have compatibility of ministries. For example, if both are church leaders, and one sings in the altar and the other preaches, they are compatible. But if one is training to be a foreign missionary and the other is a pastor of a local church, then one of the two will have to give up his or her dreams for the success of the other, because they can not make both dreams come true and live together happily at the same time.

She adds that even church leaders, who know the Bible in general, still need pre-marital counseling. Some churches do not require pre-marital counseling for church leaders because the leaders know Christianity well, yet the divorce rate for Christians is about the same as for non-Christian marriages.

According to Dr. Wayne A. Mack, some of the things covered in pre-marital counseling are relations with in-laws, making a budget together, comparing differences in the way each one expresses love, good communication (a factor in most marital problems), and conflict resolution. It is important to plan ahead how you will approach problem solving, not waiting for the problems to begin and then start by seeking marital therapy. This is because there will be problems anyway so reducing their volatility will prevent bad memories that are hard to forget later.

Dr. Mack’s workbook, “Preparing for Marriage God’s Way”, can be used both in addition to marital therapy, (or independently, for those persons who live in areas where there is little availability of Christian pre-marital therapy). Two copies of the workbook are used. Each member of the couple reads and fills out the answers individually. Then the couple meet and discus their answers together. Mack suggests they can make note of significant differences and seek therapy for those issues as well.

Pre-marital counseling can be fun also. You get to take personality tests with your betrothed, learning more about each other in the process. Or it could lead to more deeper and interesting conversations to talk with your loved one. Some people think they already know each other well. But even people who have been married twenty years face surprises.

You should also find out some of your betrothed’s faults in the process. There may be faults that you understand about, this is called unconditional love. But there could also be faults that you do not tolerate. Some things are not negotiable like giving little importance to fidelity. Others might not matter to one husband, for example, that his future wife likes a relaxed style of housekeeping, as long as she is a business woman, but it could matter a lot to another man.

Counselor Grisel López teaches that the best way to find your ideal love is to tell the truth about how you are so you can find someone who will be happy with you instead of turned off. If you do not reveal your faults you will not know if it is safe to relax your guard with your betrothed and find the joy of being loved as you are.

There will be some differences, however, in philosophy and treatment approaches. Christian drug treatment will integrate traditional Christian values like forgiveness, humility, and dedication. Self-reliance will be minimized and reliance on God will be emphasized. Traditional Christianity emphasizes Jesus as the path to salvation and forgiveness, and that theme will continue throughout Christian drug treatment.

For the person who values Christian principles and the Christian faith, Christian drug treatment is a terrific option because it surrounds the recovering addict with like-minded people. This can be tremendously supportive in keeping a person focused on their goals and making the right choices during and after treatment. Dependence on God also relieves a lot of the self-imposed pressure and self-reliance that recovering addicts are prone to.

Christian drug treatment is not for everyone, but can provide a lot of advantages for those who wish to pursue it. It can help a person discover Christianity for the first time, or renew their commitment to the faith. Ultimately, commitment to that faith can help a person stay on track longer and experience a more successful recovery and a healthier, happier life.

Additionally, the intensive Self-Discovery and Inventory part of our Christian Drug Treatment helps the client uncover, and discover, which has become an obstacle in the path of their spiritual walk.  When the program is successful, these obstacles have been discarded while their faith has been strengthened.  Therefore the client has a means to remain clean and sober after recovery has been completed.

Jesus forgives us

Through thinking we are above the laws of God we spend too much time away from our families, and in places and with people where Jesus Christ, who walks with us always, should never be forced to endure. Yet even after we have subjected our Savior to our misdeeds our willfulness and our abandonment of His Message, He will always take us back in, show us the way forward, and give us the strength of a better life of sobriety; all we have to do is ask.

Although addiction comes from a worldly conceit, we can only better our abuses through turning our eyes upwards and seeking the guidance of Jesus Christ, and we do this best through prayer, through a study of the scriptures and through an honest, meditative and soul searching admission of our faults.

We cannot do it without His help, this much we have proven all too well, and we must open our hearts to his message and seek His will to direct our lives away from harmful drinking or drug taking, and back towards the bosom of the church, to family love and to a life of service for God, and by extension for self.

Ask for His guidance

You need no other person, no place, and even no Church to hear God’s message and feel his love, but because we value the fellowship of other Christians, appreciate the insights they can bring to our understanding of the Lord and the path we must walk for Him; we benefit greatly through a shared process of recovery within the fellowship of a Christian recovery organization.

Working the Christian 12 steps in group meetings or in a residential Christian rehab, we pray as individuals but also collectively, and feel God’s power as a group, asking His help in recovery from addiction and abuse. We study the bible together, learning the messages of the scripture as they pertain to the problems of the flesh, and we understand that Jesus Christ understands our weaknesses, forgives us for them, and has already given us a powerful book of recovery advice in the bible.

Because we are weak and we are flawed; we must admit to our shortcomings and plead with our God to remove these shortcomings so we can better serve Him in His purpose for us. But because we are imperfect, it can be very difficult to know how we can best live our lives for God. Working together with a Christian therapist, we dissect those feelings that lead us away from the teachings of the Lord, and talk about better ways to live our lives as God wishes. Although we pray for strength we also suffer temptation, and so we also discuss together how best to walk away from harmful behaviors, and into righteous acts.

Christians need a spiritual solution to problems of the flesh, and although we create the problems in our lives, only God can show us how to fix them. Listen to His word; He has the answers for your pain. If you need help with addiction, find a place offering the Christian 12 steps to recovery, and open your heart and mind to God’s will; and start getting better.

Yet Jesus, although we abandon Him in our selfish pursuits of artificial pleasures, never forsakes us, and when we are ready, when we see the folly of our ways and when we can take no more spiritual despair; He will take us in and show us again what’s needed for a better and Christian life.

We create our own problems, and we do so as we stray from God’s message, and as we walk a different path than He wishes for us. Jesus Christ does not wish us the pain of addiction, and if we listen to the message of His word in the bible, we would never need suffer the tragedy of pill abuse. Even when we ignore His will, He forgives us and when we are ready, and when we ask him to show us a better way again, Jesus Christ can guide us out of despair and once again into happy and righteous Christian Living.

We do not need anyone or anyplace to feel God’s love, and the bible has all we need to know about His wishes for our lives, but there is something powerful in a shared and honest prayer, and as such there is something very powerful about a Christian rehab, and working the Christian 12 steps to recovery in the fellowship of the faithful.

Christian Rehab

In a Christian rehab, what has proven effective in a conventional rehab is combined with what only prayer and faith can bring to our lives. God gave us medicines and doctors for a reason, and we would exhibit yet more spiritual conceit if we did not use those things in our power towards our recovery.

But even the best of secular rehabs, employing the finest treatments and professionals and offering the most luxurious of facilities, cannot offer much hope for long term sobriety; and relapse statistics show us this is so, and show us that the path out of addiction and despair must include Christian teachings, and prayer for a better life.

The Power of Prayer

In addition to secular therapies and medicines, a Christian rehab combines the power of prayer, a communal study of the bible, self reflection on God’s will for us and private religious and addictions therapy.

Through opening our hearts and our minds to God’s love and His will, we gain strength from temptation; and through the messages inherent in the bible, we take solace that our struggles are as old as mankind, and that God has always had the answer to our despairs.

We get ourselves into trouble, and Jesus pulls us out. Jesus forgives us, and He will help us, and all we need to do is ask.

Consider a Christian Rehab if you struggle with an addiction to prescription pills. The answers are waiting for you; God has the power to cure you. Don’t wait another day before starting down the road to a better Christian life, free from the pains of abuse.

Yet even after we do terrible things in midst of an addiction, even after we abandon His love and His message, He forgives us, and when we can take no more of the pain of a life far from Jesus, He is ready for us, and He will show us how to get better.

An addiction is a disease of both the spirit and of the body. A disease of the spirit that occurs as we show spiritual conceit, thinking we know better for our lives than Christ. Yet it is also a disease of the body, and it must also receive physical tending. When recovering from addiction, we cannot ignore either parts of our whole, and if we do, we cannot hope for lasting recovery.

Conventional rehab doesn’t offer enough

A lot of very smart people work diligently on the science of recovery, and even those well off people who recover in the finest of treatment centers, receiving the finest of medical and clinical care, don’t often get better. It is important to treat the physical side of addiction, but conventional rehab relapse rates show us quite clearly that we ignore God at our peril.

We get ourselves into trouble thinking we can live our lives far from Jesus, but He forgives us, and we cannot solve our spiritual despair without His help.

Why Christian recovery

In Christian recovery, we get better holistically; we take what’s great and proven effective from secular rehabs and incorporate them into a program that also tends to our spiritual needs. We do need medications and therapy, but we also need prayer and bible study, and not one without the other.

We share our stories with other Christians also in recovery, and we study and pray together for a better understanding of God’s will, and for the strength to overcome our worldly conceits, and live a life as Jesus wishes.

Working together with Christian counselors, we dig deep into the self deceptions that take us farther from Christ and learn how we can use the power of prayer, the message of the bible, and God’s love and strength to keep us from temptation always.

A small price to pay

Recovery from addiction is never easy, but with the help of Jesus you never need to take another drink, and you never again need to feel the lows of a separation from Christ.

Jesus wants you to be happy, and all He asks is that you live a Christian life. A small price to pay for a rewarding life…and a heavenly reward!

Only through Christian living can we find peace and happiness, and only through Christian service to others and for God can we fall asleep easy every night, knowing we do all we can for ourselves and for our Lord. Yet even when we lose our way, and even when we commit terrible sins, Jesus forgives us, His help and His power is only a prayer away.

It’s easy to start to feel that we are not worthy of God’s eternal compassion, and when we sink ever lower into the despair of addiction we too often start to feel worthless, worthless to ourselves, to our families, and even worthless to our God.

Spiritual conceit gets us into wrong behaviors, and even wrong thoughts; spiritual conceit takes us into pain and addiction, and it also fools us into thinking we are no longer worthy of God’s help and compassion.

But who are we to question God’s word. Jesus says he will forgive us, He will help us, and He does love us; always. Spiritual conceit gets us into trouble, and only through better living by the words of the bible can we get past our internal deception and turmoil, and again realize that Jesus has always been there for us, and that He has a plan for our lives; if we will only accept His Love and His strength into our hearts.

Christian Drug rehab

We do not need a church or minister to feel God’s love and live for him, and all that needs to be said was written in the only book of real worth; but there is something incredibly therapeutic and soul salving about the communal power of prayer. As Christians in despair we look to other Christians for assistance, and through the help of other Christians we again come to understand God’s plan and wish for our lives, and once again emerge from spiritual conceit and into a better living for God.

If you have a drug or alcohol abuse problem or addiction, you cannot get better on your own, and to think that you can is simply more of the same spiritual conceit that got you into trouble in the first place.

You need to pray, you need to pray to the Lord to help you overcome your weaknesses. You need to ask for the strength to overcome those bad habits that pull at you, and plead for a better understanding of his message towards a better Christian life.

If you have a drug problem, consider a Christian Rehab. All you need to know about recovery is contained within the bible, and through group study, group prayer, and even private Christian counseling, you can come to a better understanding of what led you into pain, and the steps you need to take to ensure you never again walk that path back to despair.

You can get better, Jesus forgives you, you are worthy of help. Work the Christian 12 steps to sobriety today, and start enjoying a better Christian life tomorrow.