Denial Cuts Both Ways

My current occupation is program coordinator of a residential, substance abuse, treatment program for men. As you might imagine, I am confronted with some form of denial at least a few times a week. The most common of those, of course, is that the addict is not addicted. They are not addicted to street drugs, prescription drugs, or alcohol. I am currently working with one man who unabashadely tells me the only addiction he has is to women. Of course he uses a different term. Our larger organization inplemented a tobacco free policy for all our facilities and program participants effective January 1, 2010. When that policy was announced around December 1, 2009, there were very few complaints. Maybe it is the addictive mentality, I do not know, but not a one of our smokers seemed to even consider quitting before January 1. Then a few of them hurried to find nicotine substitutes to help them quit or just went underground, so to speak, with their addictions. Yes, that word is carefully chosen. The primary way one can tell if he or she is addicted is to turn away from the addiction and see what happens. In an addiction, the addictive substance will be constantly in the forefront of the mind.


We do not talk too much about addiction in our program. It is our belief that the only way to really overcome an addiction is to have our minds renewed toward addictions. It is not really an oversimplification to say God can take away any addictions we have. We generally have no problem identifying some addictions as bad. The aforementioned drugs and alcohol are considered to be bad things to do. Of course, we have just lumped illegal substances together with one which the law considers legal until it is abused and/or causes the person using it to perform illegal acts, such as driving a car while intoxicated.


There is, however, a totally different sort of denial we can fall victim too. Again, we are choosing our words carefully here. A person who becomes addicted to any substance is not a victim. He or she is a willing participant in the addiction, at least in the beginning. We do have a propensity as human beings, to inadvertently fall into the other sort of denial. This one occurs when the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is watered down or diluted. One of my former pastors, Jack Hayford, wrote, "A diluted gospel, produces deluded Christians." A deluded Christian is one who is in denial about how the Christian life is to be lived. (I think I just heard a few people get smacked in the forehead with that one.)


There is absolutely no way to justify being unloving toward anyone. Period. My current pastor, Rob Litzinger, often says, "We have to move from the idea that it is all about me to the idea that it is not about me at all." Is there anything more selfish than spending God's resources on substances to abuse? We are simply trying to broad-brush stroke the idea that we are permitted to do anything we think we would like to do. That concept does not apply if we have made Jesus Lord of our lives. Lordship means He is the boss and we do what He says.

I have mentioned the opposite of love is selfishness (or self-centeredness if you like) have I not? It is still amazing to me how many Christians do not understand that concept. When asked what the opposite of love is, the almost universal answer is "hate". That would be true if love were an emotion. (Incidentally we once heard the pastor of a large, local church say exactly that.) Hate is an emotion. Love is a fruit of the spirit. They cannot be opposites. To be sure, there are forms of love that are emotional. Is it any wonder that we are in denial about being able to walk in love when we do not even know what love is? Wait! What did I just say? We are in denial about being able to walk in love. You may remember that one of the symptoms of a religious spirit is that people have a form of godliness, but deny its power. (2 Timothy 3:5)

I cannot is simply not acceptable, but it is a place to start because it is true. At least we are being honest. We cannot. God can. Is it not amazing how those two, two word sentences clear away the fog? Knowing we cannot is the place to start to leave that denial behind.

I know people who are in denial about being able to walk in freedom from addictive substances. Frequently I see hope start to grow in some of them, as in, I hope I never go back to abusing (fill in the blank). We all have to start somewhere. Any spark of hope will help us at least see the right direction to go. The way to start loving is to act lovingly. The door to acting lovingly is to quit acting selfishly. That is probably enough of that for now.

The Workings of a Religious Spirit, Part 7

So I was making the bed a couple days ago (yes, Judi was out of town) and the Holy Spirit spoke into my spirit, "It is time to get back on task." There was obviously nothing I could say to that except, "Ok." I had no more than said that when I was aware that something I had been turning over and over in my mind for months (call it meditation if you like) is a working of a religious spirit we had not previously discussed here. The reason we have not is this is something we are inclined to take for granted.

You may remember me saying there was a period in my life when I could offend people simply by walking into a room. I never did understand how that happened. I had even asked a older, wiser brother in the faith about that once. His explanation was that I exuded an air of confidence most people did not have. I never really understood that either. Shortly after we returned to Santa Maria, we had the opportunity to do some ministry in a local church. We discovered that in simply reporting facts of experiences we had with God, people twisted and distorted our reports into some kind of braggadocio about what amazing people we are. To set the record straight for those of you who do not know us very well, we are not extraordinary people. There really is nothing remarkable about us. The prophet Micah asks, "He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8) I am not sure we have ever tried to do much other than that. Sometimes it feels as though we have not accomplished much at all to this point in life. However, God is true to His promises and He has given us some favor with men recently.

I am not sure exactly where that last paragraph came from, but it serves to introduce the fact that a vast portion of The Church does not understand the power given by Jesus as he ascended back into heaven. You may remember the term is "all power". Do not be misled by those who would say that applies only to Jesus because He said "all power has been given to me." The next words are, "therefore go." You can look that up in Matthew 28 if you are not willing to take my word for it. The power given to Him is our authority to go. God is a trinity. We cannot understand exactly how that works. What we do know is that it means God grants the power to Jesus who operated through the power of the Holy Spirit just as we are to operate. The "all power" definitely does apply to us.

This problem in the The Church can actually be answered with a principle from psychology. I know some people are going to object to me even saying that, but bear with me. If you still think I have it wrong after your careful consideration, make a comment. I post them all. The psychological term is "self-actualized". If one were to look at a self-actualized person from the perspective of Biblical knowledge, that person would look very much like someone who lives Romans 12:1-2. Specifically, that person would be seen to have had his mind transformed by the Holy Spirit so that he understands his calling in life is to prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God in his life. A truly self-actualized person does that on a daily basis. He or she knows where their strength and ability lies--in God. Unfortunately, often all it takes to get into a leadership position in any kind of ministry organization is one's ability to impress or please someone a little farther up the food chain. We see today, many insecure leaders perpetuating insecure leadership by disallowing anyone who is more self-actualized than themselves to be in leadership.

I do not often quote my father in these pages, mostly because he is not a Christian and so he lives, works, and thinks from a different perspective. However, despite a lack of formal education, he became one of the elite managers in our little corner of the aerospace industry, often advising Air Force Generals on how to organize and facilitate projects. One thing he told me about his management style is that he never wanted people on his team who were not smarter and better at their jobs than he was. He said he would assemble the best people he could find, organize them into a team, and give them the tools they needed to accomplish their task. When he left them alone to do that, he was perceived as a brilliant manager because his team produced the desired results.

A religious spirit has to keep the cream from rising to the top. It depends on poor to mediocre leadership to keep a lid on those who are passionate about seeing the Kingdom of God come in all its power and glory. The leaders in place have to be less dangerous to the enemy than the rank and file members.

I told the men at the mission during devotions a few days ago, they were led into substance abuse because it was one way the devil had of neutralizing them and keeping them from becoming the men they should be. It was a new concept to many of them. If I can encourage you to do any one thing here, please seek the Lord about what is keeping you from doing great things in and for the Kingdom of God. Then change that. Be one of those people who are not held back by anyone or anything. "...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13)

By the way, if you feel there is any value in being more self-actualized than you are, you might enjoy a trip to http://www.selfcounseling.com/help/personalsuccess/selfactualization.html