Life Issues recently completed its first quarter of ministering to the addicted in our community. Addiction has been defined as “something that you continue to do, even though you know that it is bad for you.” Although only a fraction of our society may be labeled as “addicted”; this definition could also be used to describe “sin” in general, which includes every one of us!
One of our students is quoted as saying, “At the first meeting, I was just trying to emotionally survive, but before long, I found myself trying to survive until the next meeting.” Another student said that they don’t know where they would be if Life Issues hadn’t been there to meet their spiritual needs at a crucial time in their life; now that person is going through our sponsor led discipleship course!
We usually have 6 or more students in attendance at our meetings (both men and women), in addition to the 10-12 people on our leadership team. One of our counselors recently told me that he believes that our approach to dealing with addiction / sin is successful, because Bible truths are beneficial to all of us!
Each week, I reiterate that, “…the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32), but as you might suspect, it is only the truth that you know and apply, that is able to free you! So it behooves us to learn and study the truth, and hide it in our heart that we might not sin against God. This truth is found in the living Word (Jesus), the written word (the Bible), and the Spirit of truth (God’s Spirit).
So if truth makes us free, we can also assume that lies serve to bind us and bring us back into bondage to sin/s, and John 8:44 tells us that the devil “…is a liar, and the father of it!” So sin is a lie-trap that the devil uses to ensnare people; but the Lord has servants in the Life Issues ministry who can instruct them in the truth, and help them to “...recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (2 Timothy 2:26).
After only attending a couple of our meetings, yet another one of our students went forward at a church, and called upon the name of the Lord and was saved! Life Issues is not a 10 or 12 step program, it is a 1 step-of-faith program (salvation), followed by many Biblical principles, and this young person took that 1 step-of-faith, for which we rejoice with the angels of God in heaven (Luke 15:10)!
Life Issues ministry leader, Steve Fleshman…
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