CASTIMONIA

Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group

Recovery Articles

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Jacob – Defective Inheritor

by applyingmybeliefs

Gen 49:1-2 – Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come.  Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to Israel your father.”  ESV

There is so much material on Jacob in the Bible, that we can make a really good assessment of his character.  He was deceitful, shrewd in business, fearful, compulsively lustful, angry, self-centered, argumentative and more.  He was a very flawed individual and yet God chose him to bring forth the twelve tribes of Israel from whom sprang the beginning of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 12:1-3) and ultimately the Messiah, Jesus.  It is easy to wonder why God would choose such an imperfect character to be the seed of the promise.

In our focus verses we see Jacob on his death bed about to bless every one of his sons.  (Gen 49:1-33)  Here we see a man that has changed.  He is no longer the disobedient trickster of his youth and early manhood.  He has matured to the point where God has trusted him with prophetic words for his sons.  He has ceased to walk in his own ways and is walking in God’s ways.

For us in Christian recovery Jacob personifies hope and the never ending pursuit that God has for our hearts.  Hope because he was like the worst of us, lying, thieving, murdering, sexually immoral, envious and highly dysfunctional, and yet he was able to overcome all of these things to become a godly man.  Pursuit because God took him and transformed him day by day into the man God designed and planned for.  What is true about Jacob is true for us.  God will work with us to develop godly character, and will pursue us until the day we die in His quest to fulfill His plans for us.

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Not Just Feeling Good

To experience spiritual intimacy, take time being naked. I don’t just mean taking your clothes off to make love. I mean actually be naked together. Hold each other. Take a bath together. Even pray naked together! Redo that exercise where you just take time touching each others’ bodies. Really feel as if you completely know the other person. It’s actually more vulnerable to be naked while someone touches you than just to be naked while you “have sex”. And so take that time to explore! Take time to be spiritually naked. This may sound weird, but trust me on it: pray before sex. When we unite together spiritually first, it’s as if our souls are drawn together. And when our souls are drawn together, we want to draw together in a deeper way. If you’re uncomfortable with free-form prayer, buy a book of prayers… The words don’t matter; the heart does. When you mean it, and you bow before God together, you really are drawn towards each other in a much more intense way. Look into each others’ eyes. The eyes are windows, and yet how often do we close our eyes, as if we’re trying to shut the other person out, and concentrate on ourselves? I know sometimes you have to close your eyes to feel everything, but sometimes open up and look into his eyes. To actually see him–and to let him see into you–is very intimate, especially at the height of passion. Say “I love you”. It’s such a little thing, but while you’re making love–or even when you orgasm, say “I love you”. Make sex about not just feeling good, but expressing love.
http://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/2012/02/29-days-to-great-sex-day-27-experiencing-spiritual-intimacy-while-you-make-love/

There are only two
guidelines in good sex.
Don’t do anything
you don’t really enjoy
and find out what
are your partner needs
and don’t balk them
if you can help it.
Alex Comfort

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Monday Night Meeting at The Fellowship Cancelled, 12/28

Due to The Fellowship being closed the week of December 28th, we are cancelling the Monday night meeting on 12/28.  The meeting will resume on January 4, 2016.  Please visit our other Monday meetings if you would like to keep a Monday meeting in your rotation.

 

Monday Mornings
Time: 6:00AM – 7:30AM
Location: First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX  78934
979.732.6261
http://www.fbccolumbustx.org

Monday Nights
 Time: 7:00PM – 8:30PM
Location: Lifepath Church – Room 108
17703 W Little York Rd
Houston, TX 77084
281.855.0222
Other Meeting times and locations can be found by following the link below.

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Experiencing Spiritual Intimacy While You Make Love

Spiritual intimacy in marriage is a beautiful thing. When we have it, we can truly make love, not just have sex. I think that’s actually part of God’s plan for sex. Think about it: in sex we bare ourselves physically. But for sex to really work well, we also have to bare ourselves emotionally. We have to be able to be vulnerable. We have to be willing to “let go”. God created people with first and foremost a desperate longing for relationship. We long to know and be known, and in that knowing to be accepted. It’s our deepest need. When we focus only on the physical, sex too often can seem shallow. When we combine the physical with the emotional and the spiritual, sex is stupendous, because it encompasses all that we are. One of the reasons that our culture has become more pornographic–and why things that were once considered sexually taboo are now pretty much mainstream–is that our culture has made sex into something only physical because they don’t have anything else. And yet they know they’re missing something, so they try more and more extreme things. We have the ingredients for an amazing sexual relationship, because it’s real intimacy, not just orgasm. (And, by the way, that makes orgasm even greater!). Excerpts form an article found at http://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/2012/02/29-days-to-great-sex-day-27-experiencing-spiritual-intimacy-while-you-make-love/

Sex is always about emotions.
Good sex is about free emotions;
bad sex is about blocked emotions.
Deepak Chopra

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Give Up Your Old Negative Identities

If you are in a relationship, and you recognize that it is heading toward the same negative outcome as past relationships, you can stop the momentum and avoid another tragic ending. You and your partner are most likely collaborating in creating the negative dynamics in your relationship. Not only is he/she the same kind of person you always end up with, it is most likely that you are the same kind of person he/she ends up with, too. Even though there are real qualities we love and admire in the people we choose to become romantically involved with, we must consider that each of us is also making sure that the negative baggage we each carry fits nicely into one another’s undeveloped emotional compartments. Talk with your partner about how your patterns of relating fit together and about how you may be playing out dynamics from your pasts with each other. As you discuss how they play out in your relationship, you will each have ideas of behaviors you can challenge and recognize that your relationship is not doomed. Remember that, in any relationship, you are going to face your own limitations as well as those of another human being. The better you know yourself and your partner knows him/herself, the stronger you will both be in dealing with these limitations. You can both evolve and grow in the relationship. As you each challenge yourselves and give up your old negative identities, you will discover new aspects of yourself and of your partner. Taken from an article by Lisa Firestone http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-firestone/wrong-relationship-choices_b_830989.html

Most people are other people.
Their thoughts are
someone else’s opinions,
their lives a mimicry,
their passions a quotation.
  Oscar Wilde