considerable grace

Just found out that the audio downloads from the CCEF Conference are now available (and at a very reasonable rate, too!):

2008 CCEF Conference - The Addict in Us All

I hope you’ll check them out–and NOT just to check the accuracy of my “transcriptions” during my CCEF LiveBlogs.

Hi again, friends!

Just a quick note to let you know that I’m working furiously to write some quick summaries from the CCEF Conference and then intersperse them back over the last five days in between the applicable Live Blogs.

So ... if these topics are of interest to you at all, please jump back to last Thursday (November 13) and look for the summaries (especially if you’ve been scared off a bit by my 60,000 word count on the actual Live Blogs! I assure you that my summaries are much shorter). You may need to click on the “archive” section of my blog to read all of them.

UPDATE - You can easily find all of the CCEF Conference Live Blog transcriptions and my summaries by clicking on my new blog subcategory:CCEF Conference Live Blogs and Summaries

Hope this is helpful to you! It’s very helpful to me because this is really the way I process material. I write. And then I think. (Or at least I think I think.) Fellow INTJ’s will relate, eh?

Oh–and once I get these done, I’m heading over the mountains to go and get my lovie-bug Sophia Grace and spend time with my bestest friend, Samara, and her family. And I’m even going to leave my laptop at HOME! 48 hours without technology. VERY VERY STRANGE for me. (That’s not a good thing.)

So please bear with me if it takes a smidgen longer for me to respond to any comments or emails.

Lilikoi is cuddled right here with me and sends you her Golden Retriever lovies too!

Happy Monday to you all!

Yours gratefully,
Tara B.

Fred and I are sitting on the floor of the Philadelphia International airport (because that is the only way we could plug in our laptops), just about to board our first flight home.

Fred is pulling off all of my live blog texts from the CCEF Conference so that, hopefully, I’ll be able to re-read through them (without a live internet connection) and possibly write some reflections on our flights home.

(Ummmm ... I just love being able to work on airplanes. Not only do I hope to get these posts written, I also have a bunch of actionable emails that I just haven’t been able to get to in the last week weeks. So hooray for long flights home and Bose earphones!)

UPDATE - You can easily find all of the CCEF Conference Live Blog transcriptions and my summaries by clicking on my new blog subcategory:CCEF Conference Live Blogs and Summaries

This was such an encouraging and refreshing time and I am just so grateful that we had the opportunity to go. Probably the most edifying aspect of the entire conference for me was getting to interact with such godly, passionate, interesting, and enjoyable people.

Hi Emily, Amy, Diane, Kim, Barbara, Tosha, Pastor Dave & your deacon brother (sorry! can’t remember his name), Tim-Bob's-son, Bob himself, Lynn, Kathy’s husband, Pastor & Mrs. Wells, and I could go on and on! I am just so grateful to have spent time with you all.



To paraphrase what Fred said over lunch ... this weekend has really emphasized just how much we need to pray for friends and take steps to work to develop friendships. Again. Boy! I think this is just an ongoing discipline and act of faith and obedience for a couple of ol' introverts like Fred and me.

But real change happens in community–in the local church. And so we must be faithful to do our best to build authentic, redemptive, gospel-infused relationships.

I have to run now, but I’ll close with my last three photos from the conference.

The first is a picture of the lovely family of Winston Smith (Hi Kim, Charlotte, Sydney & Gresham!) ...



The second is of a workshop that was held at the hotel this past weekend, but was NOT a part of the CCEF Conference ...



(The title made me chuckle every time I walked past it.)

And the final one is of the fearless leader of CCEF, Dr. Tim Lane:



(No, no, I’m just kidding. That’s not Tim Lane–but doesn’t it kind of look like him?? )

Hope you are enjoying a restful and worshipful Sabbath!

Yours gratefully,
Tara B.

PS
In case any of you are curious, I typed 58,987 words Live Blogging the CCEF Conference. Twelve sessions and 165 pages of notes (when copied into Word). Fun stuff!

Well ... it was very hard to see the CCEF Conference coming to an end. But it’s not hard for me to come to the end of typing these summaries! I am just chomping at the bit to get to my darling Sophia.

Before I go, however, please enjoy just a few notes from Dr. Tim Lane’s plenary, “Godly Intoxication”:

For the most part, we’ve been working within the context of our first part of our mission statement–restoring Christ to counseling. There has been this emphasis of trying to think of how the wisdom and breadth and depth and grace and redemptive message of the Bible intersect into this world of addictions, life dominating sins. We have, hopefully, not been reductionistic. We have acknowledged and spoken to the physiological and sociological aspects. But we have acknowledged the primary place of the heart and worship: addiction is a worship disorientation.

We have sought to strike a note that brings us back to that utterly unique message that is alone found in the Christian Scriptures—the gospel; the narrative, the Real Story of a God Who loves us and intervenes to save us.

We haven’t mentioned the gospel as a quick panacea; “just believe” and you’ll ratchet up to this level of victory and you won’t struggle any more. As Winston reminded us, God is with us in our relapse. We have a Redeemer Who oftentimes uses our relapses to remind us of our ongoing dependence on Him.

Today, I am as dependent on the grace of God as when I first put my faith in Christ 30 years ago. We have not weaned ourselves at all off of his grace, power, and presence.

So to close our time together, I would like to discuss how we restore the change process to the church.

Where can the addict go for help? Where can the addict find help? Find a place where they are going to be welcomed in, encouraged, and strengthened? Go to find the strength they need to grow in grace? Where can we as sinners find assistance on this journey we call growth in grace?

Is the church evidencing the reality of the gospel in such a way that it becomes the default place in the addict’s mind to go for help? Is that the place they go?

I’m friends with a lot of addicts; family members; a lot of friends. Oftentimes, the church has been the LAST place that the addict in my family, friendships, life ... the church is the last place he or she thinks about finding help.

Please turn with me to Ephesians 5. Our goal is to restore the change process to the church; not to the exclusion of other resources available to us–gifted professional counselors, medical care when needed. But where is the fundamental, primary community? The Church.

Ephesians 5:18-21

"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."

Look at the broader context of this passage. The first three chapters are all about this wonderful grace that has come to us. Then Paul turns a corner in Chapter 4; where this newfound power and grace and liberty begins to be worked out–the Body of Christ.

He begins to use several metaphors for understanding the Christian life within the context of the Christian life.

- New things replacing old things
- Truth and love replacing falsehood and bitterness
- Obedience replacing disobedience
- Light replacing darkness
- Wisdom replacing folly
- Sobriety replacing drunkenness

He is using this metaphor of drunkenness and sobriety–another way to look at what it looks like to live the Christian life.

Romans 1:25 ... something in creation morphs and becomes the “creator” in our life; we become intoxicated by something in creation (chemical, success, a relationship). We come under their influence and become intoxicated by them and it leads to a life of recklessness, darkness, drunkenness, folly.

That’s the dynamic and we are commanded to “not be drunk with wine.” Not to become intoxicated by anything in creation; but to become intoxicated by–to come under the influence of–the Spirit. To “let the Spirit fill us.” Passive. Humble ourselves and cry out for mercy. Continue to be filled with the Spirit; not once for all; present tense; ongoing; past experience that is to continue from past into the present and future. Continually be under the influence of the Spirit.

As you are continually under the influence of the Spirit, you become “wide awake.” Like U2’s song, “I’m Wide Awake!” I’m not drunken in darkness; I am living with eyes wide open.

“Don’t be drunk with wine which leads to reckless living; but continually let the Spirit fill you.”

This is what will encourage that kind of filling; he puts it within the Body of Christ. Look at the evidences of the Spirit’s work; and the way that he describes the life and pattern of what it looks like to be a part of the Body of Christ.

These four things ought to be marks of our individual local churches where we worship and grow. Four participle phrases that grow out of this command in vv 18-21:

1. Speaking (v19): Paul is calling for a speaking that goes beyond a superficial speaking. Bonhoeffer, “Life Together.” "Disillusionment and disappointment with my brother is a salutary moment ... the gospel has this wonderful opportunity to express itself in ways that far exceed the ways that the gospel expresses itself when things are going well."

How are we doing with regards to one another when disappointments come? Salutary moments? The gospel can shine? Winston reminded us that God is present with us in the relapse. How can we, as the Body of Christ, be with one another in the relapse? In that moment of discouragement, disillusionment?

2. Singing (v19): We are to have a vertical orientation as we assist one another to worship. How do we get reoriented vertically? Our tendency is to get disoriented; but worship reorients us. Worship is a vital component of what it means to grow in grace. Are we helping people to understand worship as a lifestyle? We don’t behave ourselves into sin; we worship into sin.

3. Giving thanks (v20): That means giving thanks for blessings and when tempted and it is difficult to obey. Blessing and prosperity tempt us to think that we don’t need God. We are like Israelites ... the temptation you will face when you enter the land is to think that we rightfully deserve this because we are a great and moral nation. God says, “No. It is because I am a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God Who gives it to you.”

Philippians 4:11-12 calls us to “Learn contentment ...” No matter what the blessing, difficulty, joy; no matter what the experience or circumstance. I’m not duped. I don’t think that the blessing is my life; I don’t think that the curse is my life. Giving thanks that God is conforming us into the image of Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

4. Submitting (v21): Paul actually brings us back to Ephesians 4:2. We are submitting to one another. One of the great marks of a vibrant church is this quality of submitting to one another. Ask yourself:

-Are we teachable?
- Are we listening?
- Are we willing to heed other people’s counsel?
- Are we willing not only to speak, but to listen and submit?
- Do we allow people to challenge and correct us?

You will find no greater evidence of the Spirit’s work than humility and submitting to one another.

“Father, we want to be individuals who reflect your transforming grace; but we are praying now that we would be part of communities of grace that speak, sing, give thanks, and submit. That those would be characteristic marks of the churches in which we worship ... that our churches would be an outpost of Your grace. Would you do that for Jesus' sake. Amen.”

The worship on this wonderful Sabbath morning was great. Please click through to the Live Blog to see the words of the hymns (and a few links to Getty videos that I was able to find too–wow! that is a great fiddler!).

But the highlight was, of course, the “Sunday School” lesson taught by Dr. David Powlison and the “sermon” given by Dr. Tim Lane. (I put those words in quotes to be clear that, of course, a session at a parachurch conference–as wonderful as it is–is not the same thing as a local church service.)

Here are just a few of my notes from Dr. Powlison’s teaching:

I’m going to work this morning off of a wonderful passage of Scripture; 1 Cor 10:13-14. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability; but with the temptation, he also will provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee idolatry.”

Over the last few days, we’ve unpacked the first few clauses.

- The nature of the problem, what’s at stake; the perfect storm that overtakes us when we are seduced.

- We are all in this together. We may be very different; some addictions are soft; some hard-core. But they all have a fundamental commonality.

- God is faithful; He invades this perfect storm; He is faithful, merciful, a very present help.

Where I want to go this morning is that there is also this promise that right in the temptation, when on our own we feel beyond our ability, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure.

Endure does not mean just gut it out; it means to continue to go forward.Therefore, my beloved, lest we should think that we’ve been accused; rather, we’ve been LOVED ... flee from idolatry.

What is the way of escape? The change process–the counseling process—is very hard to capture.

(Tara note: but then he went on and outlined 12 or 13 points that are SO profound and SO helpful–I hate to truncate them in this summary; but I find that a six-page-blog-entry is simply unwieldy and unhelpful. So here are just a FEW of his thoughts ...)

It’s a funny sort of call. We are defined as sleepwalkers, drunks, blind and deaf and the call is, “Wake up! Arise! Look, see, you who are blind! Listen, you who are deaf!” "Come to! You are drunk, wake up!" “You’ve been dreaming; you’re in a nightmare; but you’re dreaming.”

It’s like Jesus saying to a man whose arm is withered, “Stretch out your hand.” There is a funny mix of God commanding the wake up and that He is the One who wakes us up.

1. You wake up to who you are. You realize that you are in a dream. You have been lying to yourself. You are a blind fool. It is crucial; the starting point ... there is always some sort of wake up call.

2. You wake up to what is going on in your world. There is a wake up call to the real drama of life. Your life is about good and evil; love and hate; true and false. That’s what is playing in the theater every single day. In principal, there is no neutral ground. No middle ground. Purpose of your life is to go from darkness TO reality. You become a child of light. You wake up to the moral drama.

3. You wake up to the fact that you need exactly Who God is; Who Jesus Christ is. You need exactly the particular kind of things that God promises to give, be, and do. The key to your lock. Not some theory, but exactly the redemption of exactly the problem that you truly face. To be delivered from being a child of darkness, I need Who God is. I need God.

4. You realize that sin is serious and it is serious before GOD. This cuts through our tendency to see it only as bad for me, for my family, messing up my relationships and life. Sure. Fine. That’s a start. But it’s not just this has ruined my reputation and family. Sure. Fine. That’s true and it can be a little bit of a motive. But the actual change comes from realizing that it is serious before the One Who searches every heart and will recompense for what we’ve done.

5. Intercept the Death Spiral. There are all of these forces in us that go “in and down”. The incurving nature of the fallen human heart. We spiral in on ourselves: sin, guilt, suffering. There is a call to wake up and own up and start talking to someone other than yourself; start listening to someone other yourself. Make it out loud. There is so much goofiness that happens only in our head. Start talking, start listening; keep talking, keep listening. It seems like the weakest thing in the world; you’re in the grip of the human condition and God says, “Start talking.” God is there. He is listening. He bends his ear to us. Talk and LISTEN. A conversation happens that reverses that death spiral. God is listening. God speaks.

6. Ask for Help. We were never meant to change alone. Being honest to people can help to clarify; tell people what’s going on; tell someone your troubles; your sorrows. Francis Bacon’s essay on friends: “Those who lack friends to open themselves to become cannibals of themselves … This communicating of a man to his friends redoubles joys and cuts griefs in half.” Friends can’t make it all better or take it all away. But God has wired us such that change is an interpersonal process. You do not change on your own. You do not change on your own. You do not change on your own. James 5 says confess your sins to one another. Lay it out there.

The pastor who nurtured me for the first 15 years of my Christian life was passionate for people to act on the Word. Jack Miller: “If you have been convicted of something this morning, go tell someone.” Get it on the table. I need help. It’s a real thing. Would you pray for me?

7. Ask for Forgiveness. You have hurt people. Every single addiction; even the mildest people-pleaser who wants an easy life; views people as objects; you’ve lied to people; you’ve used people. Ask for forgiveness. That is part of our fleeing to light. Truly ask for forgiveness–the words you use matter. Not:

"I’m sorry it bothered you so much."

“I’m sorry if I hurt you; I didn’t mean to hurt you.” ("You hypersensitive so and so.")

“I’m sorry for using pornography because you were such a witch.”

Really asking for forgiveness: Name what you did. Name what it did. Express sorrow. Ask: Please forgive me.

"I was wrong to do this. It hurt you and broke trust. I am so sorry! Please forgive me."

8. You Must Forgive. It’s a brutal world; everyone has their story; people let you down; you’ve let people down. You MUST forgive. You must seek forgiveness and you must grant forgiveness. Jesus is unrelenting. Even if they are dead, still your enemy, you MUST forgive in a vertical, attitudinal manner even if there is never a transactional forgiveness. The Lord’s Prayer says that you must forgive. Mark 11:25 “forgive.” Anything against anyone, forgive. You have to do it. Every alternative to forgiveness is evil.

9. Rethink the Problem of Pain. You have been, you are, and you will be faced with pain, hardship, trouble, disappointment, hurt. You have been and will be faced with seductions, lies, hurts. We live in a hard world. If you don’t think accurately about the problem of pain, you’ll never get it together. Man is born for trouble. All our addictions are attempts to make that not be so.

Where will you turn in the midst of trouble? If you rethink the problem of pain, it makes you rethink the solution of refuge. You take refuge from the pain of the world in your addiction; you take refuge in the Living God when you wake up. Psalm 46 “God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble ...” God is our refuge stands against every alternative refuge. What is your refuge? If you take refuge in yourself, you will die. Rethink the problem of pain and where you take refuge.

10. Rethink Pleasure. People get pleasure wrong. And whenever you get pleasure wrong (rest, happiness), you get your work wrong; your task wrong; why you are actually here on the planet. Consider reading my CCEF Booklet: “Pleasure.” It’s on the Sabbath commandment; how God designed us for labor and rest. But we do exhaustive over-work and then destructive escapism. We have to rethink pleasure.

(Tara side note: This is the BEST ccef booklet EVER. Ever! I couldn’t recommend any other resource more that his booklet, “Pleasure.” In fact, I think I have 5 or 10 (or maybe more!) copies in my office right now. If any of you would like a copy, please just leave a comment on this post and drop me an email with your mailing address and I’ll send out as many copies as I can. It is SO gospel-proclaiming AND convicting AND helpful. Absolutely my FAVORITE ccef booklet—and I’m not even sure they are producing it any more which is a TRAGEDY if it’s true. Oh–and don’t be afraid about SPAM. I would never give your contact information to ANYONE.)

11. Get Right Expectations of the Struggle / of the Change Process. Even if they stop sinning with “the biggie” sin, people will fail. There will be ongoing failure. He finally stops drinking, but there is always something us – temper, not attentive to needs of others. There is always something. The change process is an increment of growth, and failure. Growth, and failure. Failure I didn’t even know I’d have. Growth growth growth. And then failure. We are always aware of the darkness and fight. And we celebrate evidences of growth like these:

- A decrease in how often you lose your temper. You still lose it. But you’ve gone from 60 to 5. Is that good or bad? It’s really good! But you really were awful. That’s really bad. But there’s a decrease in frequency, hooray!

A decrease in the intensity. No more foul words; but still an edge of hostility. Really good! And really bad.

A decrease in the duration. Before it was anger to anger; anger to anger. Now after 20 minutes, you start to regain your bearings. Is that really good? Really good! And ... really bad.

An increase in your awareness that the promises of God truly are for the needy. For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity for it is very great. When you remember my sin, remember your mercy.

This was a profound and wonderful workshop. I heartily encourage you to read the Live Blog transcript and anything you can get your hands on by Pastor Jeffrey S. Black.

Having the opportunity to learn from people like this? People with such keen minds, filled with the Spirit, lovers of God’s Word, lovers of Christ, churchmen with so much life experience living the gospel out in real life? And then to have these men be filled with such humility?

Well. Let me just say that I am a Pastor Jeffrey S. Black fan and I am looking forward to reviewing all of my CCEF Journal of Biblical Counseling articles by him in the coming weeks and months.

Hope you enjoy the notes. But please note again that they don’t even come close to capturing 1/100th of the depth of his teaching and his heart.

We’ve been talking about addictions and counseling for two days–but I’m going to talk to you about it through the lens of being a pastor.

I am a pastor of a large church. 8,000 adults. Addictions ministry meets weekly with 150 people. We have a trailer at the church manned every day and night; people with addictions issues come looking for help, discipleship, etc. We place people into in-patient residential care locations almost every week.

As an aside ... I don’t know how you think about this stuff; some find it controversial; I really don’t. Seems very practical to me. If you work with addicts, these are people who can be very unsafe–to themselves, people around them. Sometimes it is a way to keep them alive. In the last year, we’ve had six people die from overdoses.

I did a funeral of a guy, heartbreaking to me, I married him and his wife four years ago. Then I got a call from his wife that he had been murdered on Christmas Eve trying to make a drug buy.

Different kind of ministry, eh? Not that many have such imminent life and death implications.

I also teach and I’m a psychologist. I’ve done these things; but in my heart of hearts, I am a pastor. And I would like to make the argument today that for as many kinds of rehabs and 12-step programs and Christian 12-step programs ... all of those are excellent in some ways. But it is my opinion that the church is the place where addicts need to be ministered to. In fact, I would argue that the church is THE place.

I am going to argue that b/c there are a lot of things you can help people with and they live in isolation; but you can’t help an addict without them becoming a part of a community.

I don’t have an infomercial for people; I don’t have bullet points. Ministries don’t operate that way. But a couple of key ingredients define effective ministry in working with this particular ministry.

1. Effective ministry to addicts depends on redefining the concept of “addiction”.

Addicts and non-addicts have distorted views on addiction. I don’t think it’s possible for the church to minister to people with addictions until everyone gets on the same page as to what addiction is and is not. Both addicts and non-addicts have to be de-mythologized. They have myths about addiction that aren’t biblical and often aren’t even factual.

2. Effective ministry depends on first understanding the centrality and necessity of a redeeming community and then facilitating the creation of that community.

The people doing the ministry and the people coming for the ministry understand that participating in this community is essential/necessary. It’s my Hillary quote – takes a village to raise a child. Don’t know if that’s true; but I know that addicts who don’t participate in community relapse. Addicts who don’t become a part of Body Life have little chance of transformation.

3. Effective ministry to addicts depends on recognizing the profound systemic effects of chronic addictive behavior and relapse and creating mechanisms to heal and restore, replace and repair these effects.

James talks about the relationship between faith and works. We don’t want to get too messy; get involved ... but we’ll talk to them for 50 minutes. But chronically addicted people mess up. They are not just broken on the inside, their whole world is broken. In a very practical sense, their addiction creates problems; those create problems; and the problems drive them to their addiction; affects all of their life and families and relationships. If you counsel and addict, you’re going to counsel their family. If you’re not prepared to go there as a church, you are not going to have an effective ministry. Counseling piece; mercy piece; helps piece ... “wrap-around services.”

4. Effective ministry to addicts depends on recognizing the power of an addiction and making the right intervention at the right time.

The short word for this is timeliness. The crises that addicts have are always at just the wrong time. (laughter) 2AM. State of crises. You don’t say, “Call me in the morning.” You have to be willing to be timely with them. Window opens in the life of the addict and you climb in before it shuts. That’s what happens when a person has a thing in their life that constantly creates a crises-laden environment.

In a healing community, everybody recognizes what bondage is like; everyone is willing to come into the light; what they come into the light to receive is grace. In a community where we all understand who we are, grace abounds. A whole bunch of publicans beating their chests, “God have mercy.”

I want to talk about this other thing because it’s very important. I’m happy to live in my brain; I can drive for hours with only my thoughts. I’m not saying this because I’m a big advocate of community. I’m a community of one (laughter).

But God intends for the Body of Christ to be the Body of Christ. God intended that some things only occur in the context of community. I think addictions certainly falls into that category.

Biblical community is one of authenticity. People who see their need for grace are people who are open.

A second feature is accountability. In a normal relationship, if you are close to someone, if they tell you something, you presume that they want you to ask them about it. But if I share with my wife that I’m struggling with something, she’ll assume I want accountability/help. I can’t just get away from the accountability by saying, “Nah. I was just sharing.” They care enough to hold you accountable for what your heart is doing.

We are to have purposeful facilitation of interdependence: God intends for us to live day to day in interdependence with other people. That’s the norm in a biblical community, not the exception.

Lastly, I think churches that are generous with their resources–I don’t mean generous in the budget, but people in the community–they are the most effective in helping addicts because even if a person pursues sobriety and even as they are being transformed, there are all sorts of parts of their lives that have to be glued back together. Helping them to reconstruct some of the brokenness of their life."

Mike Emlet started off by showing us one of his prized possessions: a mug. No ordinary mug. It’s a pessimist’s mug; bought for him by a formal intern at www.despair.com. (I kid you not.)



What makes this a pessimist’s mug? Half way up, there is a line and the words, "This mug is now half empty."

And with that, Dr. Emlet began his plenary session ...

Can you resonate with despair.com? Pessimism? I now know Mark Driscoll does. Do you? Or are you a cup half full kind of person?

More specifically, when it comes to the battle with life-altering sins, what should have? How much change can we really expect in this life?

We want to believe in a cup half full, or at least a “quarter full” mentality. But so often our experience is otherwise.

- A craving leads to weeks of drunkenness.

- Defensiveness springs to life immediately when someone criticizes us.

- One last indulgence in pornography nails shut the coffin on your marriage.

What sins of the flesh are you dealing with now, perhaps years after coming to Christ? Do you ever wonder, “Does anything ever change in my life?” I do.

No matter how you understand what Paul says in Romans 7:18-19, there is an acute tension. “What I do is not the good I want to do; the evil? This I keep on doing.”

On the other hand, there are moments in the Christian life when His power and glory are so real, we can almost taste it. And we think, “Maybe this sin is gone! Victory is ours!” And then we fail.

So were we foolish to hope? Wrong to hope?

With any besetting sin, whether we are in it ourselves or helping someone who is caught in it, our tendency is to go between heights and depths. But the Bible offers something different from extreme pessimism or breezy optimism. The Bible shows us, when it comes to progressive change, we are to have a hopeful and hope-filled realism because:

- Our Hero, Christ, has arrived!

- The enemies (sin and death) have been defeated.

- Our thirst is quenched by Jesus, Who is Himself living water.

- We know where we are headed; and God gives us a taste of that now in the Spirit.

But we don’t feel the full benefits of that restoration now.

So we look at our lives and the world around us and we cry out, “This is not the way it’s supposed to be!” We can’t help but live in that tension because of the way that God brings that redemption to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is both a present and future manifestation of God’s redemption in our lives. This has profound implications for how we live. “The already and not yet.”

Hopeful realism celebrates the coming of God’s redemption that is to come.

Hope is an experience in the present that is rooted in the surety of the future.

Hope is rooted in the fact that God the Father has acted decisively to renew creation and that He has given us His Spirit.

Watch out for subtle signs that your hope may not be in keeping with the reality of God’s Kingdom:

-A quiet, creeping cynicism that begins to scale back what God can and will do in your life and the lives of those you love

- A quiet, cup half-empty mentality that quenches joy and your prayer life

The Scripture gives us lenses of hope. We gain perspective. Hope is stirred. Today’s failure or success is not the end of the story. We need to become caught up in a story that is bigger than ourselves.

Scripture calls us to live out hope-filled realism.

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. We live in the tension between Christ’s resurrection and return. We live in the groan and we press forward to taste that certain future.”

(I am writing these little summaries in between the live blog entries to let you know how Fred and I experienced the conference–and to give you just a flavor of the live blogs in case you were scared off by the 60,000 word count. )

We were SO tired Saturday morning–that east coast time zone thing is a killer. Plus, I was happily exhausted after spending time with three of the PeaceGals moderators (and Sarah Joy’s family!) at a real-Philly-cheese-steak-yummy restaurant:



(Hi Sarah Joy, Ruth, and Emily!)

But of course Fred and I were so excited for the day’s sessions that we jumped right out of bed and headed to devotionals and worship. We could wait to hear Winston Smith’s plenary–and it did not disappoint.

Please do consider reading the entire Live Blog transcript–I really think you’ll be edified and encouraged by it! Here are just a few notes from what he shared ...

We’re going to be talking this morning about groaning in slavery. We’re going to hang out in the Old Testament and let the slavery and groanings of addicts ring out so that we can truly appreciate what happens when Jesus appears. And so that we can see how the hope and grace of God is there throughout the Old Testament as well. This helps us to celebrate the hope and grace that Jesus brings to us when He comes.

One of the most important ways that the Old Testament gives us hope and helps us to see grace is that it puts us all on common ground right from the beginning. We are all on common ground with the addict.

(Reads from Genesis 3.)

We are tempted. We begin to listen to the lie ("Did God really say?"). There is enticement. We begin to hold before our eyes the thing that we delight in. Our heart skips a bit. It is forbidden. It must be done in secret. Our desire builds. We indulge. We experience misery and sin; immediately there is covering, hiding, blame-shifting. And we are tempted. Again.

But there is a surprising display of hope and grace right there in Genesis 3. Yes, it is loaded down with painful consequences. But even in the consequences there is grace and hope.

God could’ve ended the Bible at Genesis 3. But even in the middle of Genesis 3 (15), there is the promise that God will bring the Deliverer to crush the head of Satan. Anything that you ever put the weight of your hope on will crumble beneath you and disappoint you–this is God’s grace! So we keep looking for the Savior.

Not to say that there are not different forms of slavery ... there are. Prescription pain meds and sneaking to fridge? Different. Yes, common ground. But different flavor. Impact is different. Recovery looks slightly different, but it is the same path.

(Read from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Psalm 88.)

We all live in a world where we are sinned against and we suffer. We live in a fallen world and we are afflicted. And yes, we also suffer because we make horrible choices. But we ALL make horrible choices and we have to live in the consequences of that. That doesn’t make the addict different from us. We don’t have to do religious calculus and try to calculate how much is your fault, fallen world, etc. At some point, we are all the same as the addict.

So, hear the hope in Psalm 88. There is real hope in groaning itself. Scripture is giving us a license to speak out when we are suffering. Life in a fallen world really does hurt. You get to say, “Ouch!” I don’t understand this, God. I don’t know why I do what I do. This really hurts. I don’t like it.

The psalmist doesn’t have a clue what God is up to – but he IS directing his words to God. The conversation with God implies some level of faith. That’s a good thing.

Another reason for hope? God himself wrote Psalm 88. Yes, human author; but carried along by the Spirit of Christ. God gets it. He knows you. He knows you in your darkest moment when you think only darkness is your friend. He is with you in the groaning; groaning on your behalf.

When you think you are alone and you have no other friend? God is with you.

(I am writing these little summaries in between the live blog entries to let you know how Fred and I experienced the conference–and to give you just a flavor of the live blogs in case you were scared off by the 60,000 word count. )

The last session Friday night was a roundtable discussion by CCEF Faculty of the case study about “Robbie” who has been "laid low and his family destroyed by two addictions: gambling and prescription pain meds.”

There were so many great nuggets in this session that I had a very hard time picking out just a few for you to review. Please do consider reading the entire Live Blog transcript—I really think that you will enjoy it.

In the interim, here are just a few snippets:

DAVID POWLISON: As I think about this man, the image that comes to my mind is that he is wandering around in a very dark wood at night and he has two predators after him. But rather than responding wisely, he is whistling in the dark, just hoping they will go away … I would take Robbie to Psalm 25 because it puts feet on both predators and it points Robbie to the Savior … This will not be an easy sell. It is not one of those, “here’s a Bible verse, hope this helps” kind of things. No. We need to persevere with Robbie to help him to see that God is intervening in his life. God is helping to lead Robbie from darkness into light.

JULIE SMITH-LOWE: I would try to figure out, “What would hope look like for Robbie?” Here is a man who has tried so many things and failed at them. What gives him hope right now? Why is he coming into counseling? How do I talk about hope? How do I talk about the gospel in a way that gives him fresh hope?

MIKE EMLET: I was struck by this sense of impending death. 2 Corinthians 1:8 … “This happened so that we would not rely on ourselves but on God Who raises the dead.” Robbie really needs a resurrection. He’s thinking too small about what really needs to happen. When he’s at the end himself, he can see and taste the resurrection power of Christ Himself. This is not automatic. It takes time.

WINSTON SMITH: He’s talked to everybody. So I’d like to ask some responsibility-generating questions. “So, Robbie, how is it that I can help you? Why me? What do you hope to hear from me that is different?” If I see him at the CCEF, more than likely I’ll hear something like, “People say that God is the answer. So I’m talking to you.” One of the things that struck me is that the way he talks about God is the way you think about a drug/medication. “I call out to Jesus and nothing happens.” So I’d draw him out to understand what he means. I’d ask about what Scripture he reads; Serenity Prayer; the “Our Father.” Has a “magic formula feel” to it. “But one thing you need to realize, Robbie, is that God is a Person. He chooses to respond in the way He chooses to respond. He’s not a thing, a pill, an experience. He’s a real Person. So let’s pray for something different. Let’s not pray for an experience. Let’s pray for wisdom and discernment.”

TIM LANE: One thing I have found helpful is finding out when someone’s life-dominating sins started. Age 11 or 25? That’s when their maturation stopped. If someone started using at 14 and they are now 40, you’re probably still dealing with a 14 year old. So I want to know when Robbie started this addictive lifestyle. Another thing that strikes me: This is a guy who vacillates between despair/failure and renewed sense to do moral reform. Whole motivation is driven by guilt. Guilt is a terrible long-term motivator for permanent change. Works short-term, but not long-term. The message of the gospel is what brings permanent change. I want to help Robbie to become shocked by grace.

WINSTON SMITH: How does the church approach someone like this?

(Oooooh! Can you believe I’m stopping there? Don’t you want to read on in the Live Blog transcript?

Hope these notes are helpful to you.

Blessings and joy,
Tara B.)

Dr. Monroe has graciously provided his powerpoints for this workshop on his blog: (http://wisecounsel.wordpress.com/) and I don’t think I have anything much to add to them from this workshop.

If the topic interests you, I encourage you to consider reading at least the end of the Live Blog transcription because I did capture the Q&A he did at the very end of his workshop.

(I am writing these little summaries in between the live blog entries to let you know how Fred and I experienced the conference–and to give you just a flavor of the live blogs in case you were scared off by the 60,000 word count. )

Back to last Friday afternoon (November 14) ...

Fred and I were tremendously blessed to get to meet Dr. Emlet at the devotional breakfast and I have to say that I was looking very forward to his workshop.

It was more “technical” than the other workshops and the plenary addresses—but I just loved it. Made me miss my cognitive psych classes (nature/nurture; brain functioning/chemical vs. behavioral/training, etc etc.)

If this topic is of interest to you, please read the entire Live Blog transcript. But here are just a few highlights:

Dr. Emlet started with that old video of, “This is your brain on drugs” (showing an egg frying). Then he asked, “Is that true from a scientific perspective? If we use drugs, do we fry the brain? Do changes happen over time? Do these changes lead to a true chemical dependence? Does the brain change in some way as to make it harder for someone struggling with addiction to say, “No”?

Leading scholars on addiction say that drug addiction is a brain disease; “the brain of someone addicted to drugs is qualitatively different from a normal brain in fundamental ways.”

As Christians, we are tempted to go into two extremes:

1. Allow the medical establishment to totally overshadow; a disease; Scriptures are functionally irrelevant.

2. Bury our head in the sand about the research being done about addictions and conclude that addictions are only spiritual problems and all that is needed is repentance and faith. (“Just say no in the power of the Spirit!”)

But both extremes are to be avoided because we are both body and spirit. We are to take both aspects of our personhood into account.

Addiction is a heart issue–a disorder of worship.
And it is a brain-based issue.

Not all patterns of sin affect the brain in the same way.
How many of you have gotten a high from gossiping? (None? Good.)

So some sin patterns have bodily components and some don’t.

You’ll hear plenty in this conference about the heart-based aspects of addiction; and how the playing field is level—“the addict in us all.” Yes. This is true. And if we don’t see the roots of addiction as misplaced worship, we will effectively truncate the ministry of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life. But we must also address the physical, brain-based areas of addiction too.

The goals for this workshop are to:

1. Gain exposure to the biological and brain-based research in addictions.

2. Understand how drugs hijack the normal brain pathways that underlie the experience of desire, pleasure, and reward.

3. Discuss the implications of this knowledge for ministry to those struggling with addictions, including the role of detoxification and medical maintenance therapies.

(Tara here again ... )

Doesn’t that make you want to read the entire Live Blog entry? I hope you will! And I look so forward to learning from Dr. Emlet in the coming years as he continues to minister through CCEF.

I’ll leave Dr. Emlet with the last word …

The experience of an addict suggests a bodily component and it can be hard to sort out nature versus nurture. As Christians, we should consider genetic predispositions (especially remembering that, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”) and we should consider the physiological changes that take place with drug use.

That doesn’t mean that there is no hope. Of course there is hope!

I do not agree with the medical model that drug addiction is an incurable illness. Drugs change the brain, yes. But so does abstinence. So does embracing gospel-centered counsel.

We do need to take these bodily issues into account, though. For example, if you have a first degree relative who has struggled with alcohol, it may be wise for you to consider abstaining yourself. Even if you feel like scripturally you have liberty to engage in this, it may be wise to refrain.

Christ-centered help has that goal to turn people to God away from their idolatrous addiction. We don’t minister to disembodied souls. Some people can stop their drug use and there is not as much push-back from the body. True. But many people do experience the bodily effect of their addiction.

Let’s not neglect the role of the body in dealing with these desires. Let us not overly spiritualizing and not over-medicalizing this complex problem.

(I am writing these little summaries in between the live blog entries to let you know how Fred and I experienced the conference–and to give you just a flavor of the live blogs in case you were scared off by the 60,000 word count. )

Here are just a few of my notes from Pastor Mark Driscoll’s plenary:

In dealing with addiction, people are oftentimes aware of their own sin. It shows up in their life, health, relationships. They have some cognizant awareness of how it is affecting their family members: tears, begging, desiring them to change.

But oftentimes there is an inability (with sin in general and addictions in particular) to see how their sin connects them or disconnects them to God. The psalmist says, “Against You and You only, God, have I sinned.”

I’ve been repeatedly reading 1 Corinthians as I have studied on this topic of addiction.

(Then Pastor Driscoll went on to give an overview of 1 Corinthians.)

Addiction is not isolated. You won’t meet an addict who only struggles in one area of life.

Addicts are not isolated. If you open the door to help broken, disconnected, addicted people, you will have more than one.

(Tara note here: In one WEEK, Pastor Driscoll’s church saw 2,000 people come to saving faith! Many of them were addicts.)

Paul says, “I give thanks to my God always for you.”

Paul says that he had HOPE for these people. Why? Because of Jesus Christ. Paul has hope for them because he rightly understands that he is as ill-deserving of the grace of God as they are.

If we open the doors of our churches to hurting people, they will come with their friends; they will be proud, caught up in sin, immature ... and we will see that we are like them.

Our hope for them is that God will sustain them; God is good to the end with every single one of His children.

God anchors his hope in God; in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Jesus' death is our substitutionary atonement: The Second Member of the Trinity came, lived life, died–not for HIS sin, but FOR our sin. We can’t help anyone until we explain to them the Cross. Remind them of the Cross because we are prone to forget it and move on.

Jesus is our Christus Victor: People addicted to elicit sexual sin, drugs and alcohol ... they are opening themselves up to the demonic. Satan and demons really are at war with us. It’s not just the addict and Jesus; Satan and demons must be factored in. When Jesus died in our place on the Cross, He disarmed our enemies. He took away their rightful claim to us. If you understand how Satan works, you won’t be outwitted by his schemes.

Jesus is our Redemption: Jesus is our great Liberator! Most of our slaveries are self-imposed. Addiction is willful slavery. We give ourselves to something or someone; something “masters us”. If something or someone other than Jesus MASTERS us, then we are enslaved. But through Jesus? Satan is defeated. False gods are off the throne. A way of new life is made, miraculously, through Jesus.

Jesus is not only our propitiation, He is our expiation: When we are sinned against, the biblical counsel includes words of our being unclean/defiled when we are sinned against. The first thing rape victims do is take a shower. There’s my gospel hook. “So you want to be clean?” Water doesn’t go to the soul. Jesus talks about Living Water. A woman who has been raped needs a total cleansing because her body has been defiled. It is the expiating, the cleaning work of Jesus that is needed.

(I am writing these little summaries in between the live blog entries to let you know how Fred and I experienced the conference–and to give you just a flavor of the live blogs in case you were scared off by the 60,000 word count. )

Back to Friday morning (November 14) …

It was so great to gather as a group of almost 2,000! The worship was fantastic—I urge you to get to know the Getty’s if you don’t already know them.



And the genuine love and respect shown by the CCEF staff members as they introduced one another added a degree of credibility to everything they did and said (especially because they have such long relationships).

The Executive Director of CCEF, Tim Lane, set the tone for the entire conference when he said:

"Hi, my name is Tim Lane, and I’m an addict."

Many of us in the crowd did respond, “Hi, Tim.” (We know our 12-step programs, eh?!)

And then Dr. Lane went on to say …

I am addicted to many things–self-love, personal comfort. I am an addict. And this conference is for all of us. We all struggle with sin—and sin can become dominating.

The issue of addictions touches us all. We all have a deep sense of our neediness; a deep desire to grow in grace; to fight against sin and the work of the evil one. We come into this room with hopefully a deep sense of our humility, gratitude, and confidence in the work of God and the Spirit.

Ed Welch’s plenary address continued this theme and I encourage you to get the audio CD and listen yourself—or at least read the entire Live Blog entry. (It’s not that long! )

Here are just a few highlights …

We gather as kindred spirits who share a similar mission–we are persuaded that Scripture is alive and deep and we desire to bring it to the problems in living. We want to bring Christ and Him crucified to the problems of living. As we do that, we hope to encourage the Church with loving encouragement and wise counsel.

(After describing a disturbing case study from his early years as a counselor …)

In the moment we begin to see the addict as “abnormal,” Scripture seems to drop below a whisper; it seems to go silent. And often we respond by putting addicts, “over there,” in one category or sub-class. We buy into the AMA diagnosis of addiction being a “medical disease.” We send people to AA—and they furiously underline and memorize passages in the AA Big Book because it just seems to relevant to their lives! But their Bibles remain pristine because it seems to be for “normal people” and they are not feeling very normal.

So there I was with my biblical worldview and then I met Mr. Gray (the case study) …

Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have people to confuse the clarity of our own minds?

(As a Tara-aside here … I think that was absolutely one of THE BEST LINES of the entire weekend. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have people to confuse the clarity of our own minds?” So true! So true. But back to Dr. Welch …)

So you go back to Mr. Gray and you walk along with him. He says, “I wake up in the morning. I want to do the right thing and I don’t do it.” And you remember your argument with your wife that morning. You wanted to do the right thing; but before you stopped yourself, the wrong thing came out.

Before we can even say, “Romans 7!” Scripture swings us around “AND YOU.”

Romans 1 & 2, Paul does the same thing ... “AND YOU.”

The sufficiency of Scripture is at stake with the “and you.”

If somehow addiction is abnormal, Scripture is silent. But the “and you” means that Scripture DELUGES us as we walk with Mr. Gray …

“I have good news for you, Mr. Gray! We are sinners and we are committed to our sin.” In response, Mr. Gray goes blank. He seems unresponsive. Scripture includes both of you, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. He is not necessarily hard-hearted; Mr. Gray simply doesn’t understand.

But how does Scripture speak to someone who feels abnormal? How can he be brought in?

Isaiah 44. Mr Gray? What’s in your hand? Bottle of alcohol? Aqua Velva? No. It is a LIE. That’s what Isaiah says to us. “It is a LIE.”

Scripture begins to whisper to us. “I guess you’re right. It IS a lie.”

I’ve made commitments to this lie. I’ve said to this lie, “I am yours and you are mine.” This object has made promises to me. “Betroth yourself to me and you will find satisfaction; you will receive the things that you want; the things you truly desire.”

But it hasn’t given me the desires of my heart.

The lie says, “I will never leave you or forsake you. Just commit yourself to this.” Seems true! But the fine print is that it is committed to your death.

Scripture begins to speak to Mr. Gray.

God is your creator. Your creator, Mr. Gray. He is yours and you are His. You belong to Him.

But, you have looked to another place for salvation, refuge. You have turned away from your creator. He is doing a “Gotcha!” He is pursuing you as a wandering child. He is coming after you; pulling you into his arms and breathing life into you.

He is showering you with words that describe where you came from; how you got here; where you are going. It describes a new universe for you.

God does not forgive us because we deserve it. He forgives because this is the way that He brings glory to Himself.

God doesn’t forgive you because you are forgivable but because God is the Forgiver.

God calls you to speak out in your pain to Him. And HE HEARS. God will shower you with comfort. Have you ever known comfort, Mr. Gray? Let me tell you, it is coming! It will be another time where you have a Father who takes you into His arms and says, “Gotcha!”

That’s speaking to Mr. Gray.

(And to Tara too.)

How I thank God for the ministry of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation.

Hope these notes are helpful to you!

Yours,
Tara B.

(I am writing these little summaries in between the live blog entries to let you know how Fred and I experienced the conference–and to give you just a flavor of the live blogs in case you were scared off by the 60,000 word count. )

Fred came during the lunch break and stole me away for some (delicious!) Chik-Fil-A and nice conversation too. It’s so strange to be out together without Sophia—but good too, of course. We are both convicted that some of the struggles in our marriage in the last year or so have been increased by our not prioritizing time “as a couple” (i.e., uninterrupted, adult conversation time).

So it was particularly fun that in one of our two registration bags for this conference, we received the new CCEF booklet, “Restoring Marital Intimacy.” Sweet! Oh, and that the other booklet was on ADOPTION. Too funny, eh? Out of 2,000 bags, “randomly” picked, our two booklets hit the two most salient issues we are currently talking about. (“The lots is cast into the lap—but the Lord knows it.”)

Back from our lunch break, Dr. Powlison began and oh oh oh! Was I a blessed woman to be under his teaching for the rest of the day. Yes, it’s great to read his journal articles and books. (If you haven’t yet purchased and devoured his, “Seeing with New Eyes,” please do so right away! It is such a profound book.) But it’s another thing to get to listen to his gentle, humble, Christ-exalting brilliance in person. What an honor.

Again, I mention just how insufficient this little summary is to capture the 10,000 words I typed in the Live Blog for this session … but if it encourages you to read the Live Blog or even better—take a CCEF course or read Dr. Powlison’s books!—then my goal has been met.

So here is a brief summary of just a few thoughts that Dr. Powlison made during his sessions:

We started by singing, “How Firm a Foundation.” And then Dr. Powlison began to teach …

Biblical counseling sings well and prays well. Biblical counseling is, by definition, the only worldview that has as same worldview as evangelism, preaching, discipling. Counseling is a practical aspect of discipling; it is theology in real life. Not theories and abstractions stuck in a systematic theology book. This is Living! We are meant to listen and hear the voice of Someone Who is promising–a Person Who invades, cares, touches, mixes it in. The immediacy of an Unseen God. We can ask God for wisdom and He gives without reproach. He knows what we need. “His grace is sufficient for you.”

Not a set of "biblical counseling principles”; but walking alongside of this Living God. Emmanuel.

You already ARE a counselor ... every time you open your mouth (and even when you’re quiet). Are you attitudes, words, and actions wise? Every time we speak, we proclaim our loyalties. Every word. Every attitude. Even small talk has a message:

Who are you? Where are you from? Do you have brothers and sisters?

This could mean–"I really don’t want to know who you are. I just want to keep this light and get out of here!"

Or it could mean–"I want to build relationship with you. Build familiarity with you."

Even small talk can be an agent of hatred or an agent of love.

(And when discussing the case study …)

Truth in the Bible is always God engaging with people; where they are; what they are going through. The truth is always an engaging truth. The Bible is redemptive words. Redemptive conversation. Not just a theology book. John Frame: “The Bible is not just the normative (this is Who God is) …” You hear the normative and the experiential and existential (God engaging people in particular circumstances with weather and false gods and enemies).

Formerly, the woman in this case study felt that God hated her. But you surprise her by:

- Giving her insights into herself that are different from her current view

- Showing her that the God of grace comes on the scene in her life (people are surprised when the real God shows up)

- Helping her find small, practical obediences

- Showing her that there is a patient process (The Christian life is a direction, not an achievement. We live in the “already but not yet.”)

- No more “quick tips” but a realism that is going somewhere.

(I am writing these little summaries in between the live blog entries to let you know how Fred and I experienced the conference–and to give you just a flavor of the live blogs in case you were scared off by the 60,000 word count. )

Back to our arrival (Wednesday, November 12) ...

I was so happy when Fred and I (finally!) made it to our hotel room. Strangely, the carpets were WET even though we were on the highest/concierge level—but it was obvious that they were wet because they had just been CLEANED. So it was strange but not too gross.

(Well, except when I asked myself the question, “WHY were they just cleaned?” I have to admit that THAT was a little icky to me.) But I just did my standard, “What if I were a missionary in AFRICA” mental game (remember the COCKROACH on my PILLOW at that one women’s retreat I did?!?) … told myself, “This is no biggie” and went to sleep.)

Waking up early was hard in one way (east coast trips are HARD on Montana-time-zone bodies) and easy in another because I was so eager to get to the training event. Plus I was excited to try my hand at live blogging.

We got to the room very early because I knew the courtesy (which I tell Sophia is just another way that we love God and love our neighbor) would require me to be there early if I was going to secure a seat toward the back, by an outlet, on the end of a row—which is what I really needed in order to transcribe the entire day. We found just the spot, Fred set me up, and we were off live blogging the CCEF Conference. Hooray!

Highlights for me were meeting Pastor Dave and his deacon-brother-Mark and laughing as hard as I’ve laughed in a long time—well, not counting our 30 minutes of hysteria reading through the CakeWrecks blog (“When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously WRONG”). Seriously? Just our few little interactions reminded me so sweetly of how fun friendship can be and what an “innocent pleasure”—to use David Powlison’s term of art—relationship can be. So hooray for Pastor Dave & Deacon Mark!

And hooray for a warm welcome from the CCEF staff and volunteers. I just can’t tell you how sweet it is to be greeted not only by professional signage, an organized registration/check-in process, and a hospitable/conducive-to-learning environment … but also by warm and gracious and welcoming PEOPLE (Hi Tosha!).



Right on time, the session began and I was simply thrilled. I really am an Ed Welch junkie. I read and re-read his books because they always draw me to Christ and Scripture as they also show me more clearly my own heart and my desperate need for the Savior.

I was, I will admit, a little nervous about transcribing him, however, because I had heard “through the grapevine” that he is, ummmm, how shall I say this?? … that he is not so good with the LINEAR progression of thoughts when teaching. (Hooray for good book editors!)

I wondered how I’d do if he wandered—but I shouldn’t have worried. I found it a snap to track exactly with him and every moment was edifying. Seriously. At no time was I tempted to “zone out”—too many rich truths; too many reminders. I just drank it all in.

Let me give you just a tiny amount of the highlights and then strongly urge you to get every single Ed Welch book you can, including his new addictions curriculum for use in small groups. Really. A few bullet points just can’t reflect the depth of this wonderful session. Even the 32 pages of notes that I took in the Live Blog miss the mark terribly.

But let me tempt you with just a few highlights …

Dr. Welch organized his teaching around three main points:

1. The inner world of addiction

2. For a fractured life, a coherent story: Trials, tests, and temptations in the wilderness

3. Gospel methods

He reminded us that the inner world of addiction is: foreign, hidden, complicated, insane, shame-filled, hopeless, immature, and God-suppressing. The fog of addiction is so messy and unclear that it is hard to find words to express it.

The words, “STOP IT” are not enough.

It is appropriate to feel overwhelmed when you begin to consider addiction.

Addiction hurts a lot of people. One person Dr. Welch knows calls himself, “The Ruiner of Lives.” Spouse, family, friends–he identifies himself as "The Ruiner."

How are you going to help a “Ruiner”? They are reluctant to say, “Will you forgive me?” because they have said that over and over again. It feels more and more hollow. It feels like they will never be any person other than a Ruiner.

Deuteronomy 28 speaks of the darkness and how darkness is a horrible curse. The experience of darkness is the experience of fear and vulnerability; the language of lies.

The experience of addiction is complicated. You will see kindness, contrition, hardness of heart, openness, lies, arrogance ("my way!") and SHAME (the person is persuaded they have no right to even be alive). You find the desire for change–they don’t want to do it again. But there is also sabotage. Mark 7. Young man aimlessly wandering around, putting the banana peel right in front of him, almost intentional about it, almost a commitment to sabotage change.

You see the complexity. How do they coexist in one heart? Hatred for the addictive object; love for the addictive object. You find death and you find life. Warring themes; kingdoms in conflict. Chaos and insanity. Hopelessness. Immaturity.

So how do you start? “Lord, have mercy!”

The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of change.

The threat of consequences will not change us.

Jesus is our Hero. All change goes through Him.

We are ushered into the throne room of God—Isaiah 6!—and we are changed.

OK. Tara here again. I’m going to stop there because seriously? This is already too long of a blog and I haven’t even gotten us out of the INTRODUCTION!

Oh, dear blog friends! Please do consider setting aside some time and reading the entire LiveBlog. It’s really that good. And please be sure that your church knows that there is now a biblical, Christ-centered, GOSPEL curriculum available for use in your church because I KNOW that your church has addicts. We are all addicts, yes. To be sure. Fear of Man and laziness; overeating, etc. But in your church, some of your brothers and sisters are struggling right now with the “harder” addictions (street drugs, prescription drugs, pornography, gambling)—and they need help. Please get to know CCEF and pray about how you can help your church to bring biblical and practical help to not only the addicts, but the people affected by the addicts too.

I’ll leave Dr. Welch with the last word …

We sin because we love it. That’s why saying, “No” is not effective. We say “no” when the thing is far away. But when it gets close? We love it.

That’s why when talking to the addict, we quickly begin saying, “we” instead of “you.”

Remember the Pharisee and the tax collector? This is a wonderful beginning every day treatment for the addictive heart.

We come to the temple and don’t feel worthy to lift our heads. “Lord have mercy toward me a sinner.”

We have a God Who delights in showering an abundance of mercy on those who ask for mercy. Those who ask for mercy receive an abundance of mercy.

I’m here in Philadelphia and I have an internet connection (at least for today’s pre-conference sessions), so I’m excited to try my hand at my first Live Blog.

I hope you’ll click in below and join in the fun! You can post questions or just say hello. (Please do! Because Fred and I would be blessed to know that even one other person is participating in this little adventure.)

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I love you!

See you on the LiveBlog–

Happily,
Tara B.