CASTIMONIA

Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group

Affairs

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Set Free Summit – April 4 – 7, 2016 – Greensboro, NC

http://setfreesummit.org/

Set Free Conference

 

 

About the Set Free Summit

Pornography is pervasive in our culture—in TV shows and movies, on your neighbor’s magazine cover on the airplane, and especially on the Internet. Even Christian men and women can get caught up in this addictive behavior, and yet most church leaders don’t have a clue about how to broach the subject at all, let alone break free.

On April 4-7, 2016, Josh McDowell Ministry and Covenant Eyes are hosting the Set Free Summit, a global summit to equip church leaders with the facts and emotional realities of porn’s impact on families, the church, and culture at large. This event, held in Greensboro, NC, will feature the presentation of a brand new study by the Barna Group, as well as three full days of information presented by Christian leaders from across the country.

Fast Facts About the Event

  • April 4-7, 2016
  • 1,000 tickets available
  • Features all-new research about pornography across various denominations from the Barna Group
  • Nearly 30 speakers scheduled to give 23 talks

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Take Your Feelings As They Are

Feelings are an important part of you. In order to live fully and effectively, you need many sources of information (e.g., your senses, your thoughts, your perceptions) to guide you, motivate you, and help you make sense of things. Your emotions provide one such source. Often, there is a strong relationship between the events in your life and your feelings–for example, to feel sadness in response to loss, or to feel happiness in response to something desirable. Feelings may also be related to past events or even to expectations of the future. For example, sorrow about a recent loss may evoke sadness from past losses. These feelings can be an important source of information as well. Rather than ignore or exaggerate your feelings, it is helpful to be able to take your feelings as they are, accept them, think about them, and learn from them. When you are feeling something consider asking yourself the following kinds of questions:

What is this feeling?
What is this feeling telling me about this situation?
Why has this feeling come up right now?

http://www.counselingcenter.illinois.edu/self-help-brochures/self-awarenessself-care/experiencing-and-expressing-emotions/

Raise your words, not voice.
It is rain that grows
flowers not thunder.
Rumi

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Accurate Reflections

Your interpretations can be made so rapidly and so automatically that you may not realize they are happening. When your emotional reaction is disproportionate to the event, it is likely due to your rapid, undetected interpretation of that event, more than to the event itself. In effect, your emotions can be a valuable signal to you that you may need to re-examine your interpretation. Here are some common examples of self-defeating ways people think about and interpret the events of their lives:
Dichotomous thinking: interpreting events in extremes, in “all or nothing” ways (e.g., depicting events as wonderful or terrible, with no recognition of the grey areas in between).
Excessive personalization: automatically concluding that another’s behavior or mood is in direct response to you (e.g., “She’s in a bad mood. I must have done something wrong.”.
Over-generalization: seeing an event as having more impact, in more areas of your life, than it truly does.
Filtering: magnifying negative events in your life and discounting positive ones.
Emotional reasoning: concluding that what you feel must be the truth (e.g., if you feel stupid, you must be stupid).
Learn to recognize any tendencies you may have to distort events through interpretational styles like these, and then practice choosing and committing to more valid interpretations. The resulting emotions will be more accurate reflections of the events in your life.
http://www.counselingcenter.illinois.edu/self-help-brochures/self-awarenessself-care/experiencing-and-expressing-emotions/

I am, indeed, a king,
because I know how
to rule myself.
Pietro Aretino

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Confession to One Another

by applyingmybeliefs

James 5:16 – Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.  ESV

This is a familiar verse to those in recovery and it has many components to it.  First we see that we are instructed to confess to one another, this highlights the relational nature of healing in recovery.  We are to also pray for each other.  This scripture takes these two things, confession to and prayer for others, and tells us that it puts us in a position to be healed, not that we will be healed, just that we are in a place where we can be healed.  It then adds that the prayer of a righteous person has great power, other translations of scripture use the word “effective.”  The word translated as “working” (or effective) is a derivative of the Greek word “energeo”, meaning with energy, implying a deep fervency and sincerity of prayer.

Spend a little time today meditating on this subject and applying it to your own situation.  Use the following two guiding questions.  How are you doing with being open and honest about yourself with trusted and godly people?  Are you diligent in prayer for those who may have shared something difficult with you?

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CASTIMONIA Book – Revised Edition

https://www.createspace.com/5554305

I am humbled to announce the “official” publishing of our ministry’s resource book:

CASTIMONIA

THUMBNAIL_IMAGE

Authored by Servants of Christ
Edition: First Edition (Revised)

I want to thank everyone that sent feedback to the Castimonia Literature Committee (or me) on the First Edition of the book, or the “First 50” copies.  Bill W. of Alcoholics Anonymous had the privilege of having the “First 40” of the Big Book of AA reviewed and thus Castimonia was fortunate enough to have the “First 50” reviewed.  All feedback was appreciated and changes were made to the original First Edition in order to better help men who struggle with Sexual Purity.

Castimonia is Latin for “moral purity” something every man should strive for.

Castimonia is a Christ-centered 12-Step Support and Recovery program for sexual impurity or sexual addiction with the goal to achieve a Biblically-based sexual purity. We share our experience, strength, and hope with each other so that we may achieve sexual purity and help others overcome sexual impurity or compulsive sexual behaviors.

This book is used for working the 12-step Castimonia program and should be used with the guidance of a Sponsor only.  The revised first edition includes text on a proper sexual purity recovery program, a thorough working of the 12 Steps, stories from men in the group, and a work book for working the 12-Steps.

Many thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous and Sex Addicts Anonymous for paving the way in the 12-Step world as well as the countless men in recovery and the therapists that have helped facilitate God’s healing of their wounds.  Most importantly, thank you to the patient spouses who have put up with our issues long enough to make this ministry and book possible.

Original Publication Date: August 22, 2015
Revised Edition Publication Date: January 20, 2016

ISBN/EAN13: 151531023X / 978-1515310235
Page Count: 454
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6″ x 9″
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Related Categories: Self-Help / Twelve-Step Programs

The book can be purchased at any Castimonia meeting  or via the Create Space store. 

If you are a man struggling with Sexual Purity and would like to purchase a copy of the book for the same amount as sold at Castimonia meetings ($20) please contact the publisher, Armaturam, LLC for a discount rate: Jorge@Armaturam.org

https://www.createspace.com/5554305