CASTIMONIA

Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group

Character Defects

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Moses – Unbelieving Leader

by applyingmybeliefs

Num 20:12-13 – And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”  These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.  ESV

Moses is the biggest figure found in the Jewish scriptures, which we know as the Old Testament.  He was the baby placed into the Nile, the Prince of Egypt, a murderer, a runaway and he was also the person chosen by God to lead the people out of slavery and into the promised-land.

In this passage (Num 20:2-13) the Israelites had arrived at Meribah, they had run out of water, and as there were likely over a million people, this was a significant problem.  Moses, who had witnessed God’s amazing power, seen His ability to rescue His people, and experienced His provision, got angry with Him, and fell into disrespect and unbelief.  Because of this God told Moses that he would not be allowed to bring the people into the promised-land.  Notice that God had no problem with Moses being angry.  The problem is that Moses, who had experienced so much with God, fell into internal unbelief with the outward result that he did not uphold God as the Holy One of Israel.

Isn’t that like us in Christian recovery?  We see God’s power working in our lives, and the lives of those who journey through a spiritual wilderness with us.  We come to our own Meribah, a place where we feel stuck and spiritually dry.  We might even get angry with God, and we might also slide into internal unbelief that God is working in us, and make ourselves vulnerable to disrespectful or even contemptuous outward behaviors toward God.

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Pastor outed on Ashley Madison commits suicide

Let’s pray for the family of John Gibson and for others that suffer through our problem.  This is why we have the empty chair in the middle of our circle.  Sometimes we lose hope if we don’t know there is a way out…

http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2015/09/08/gibson-family-interview.cnnmoney/

http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/08/technology/ashley-madison-suicide/

John Gibson was a pastor and seminary professor. When he wasn’t teaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, one of his favorite pastimes was fixing cars.

He was married with two children. His daughter, Callie, was teaching in front of 250 college students when she got the call. Her father had killed himself.

It was August 24, six days after hackers exposed the names of millions of people who had signed up for Ashley Madison, the notorious site for those seeking affairs. Gibson’s name was on the list.

His wife, Christi, discovered her husband’s body.

“It was a moment that life doesn’t prepare you for,” she told CNNMoney. “I had to call my kids. How do you tell your kids that their dad is gone and that he took his own life?”

In his suicide note, Gibson chronicled his demons. He also mentioned Ashley Madison.

“He talked about depression. He talked about having his name on there, and he said he was just very, very sorry,” Christi said. “What we know about him is that he poured his life into other people, and he offered grace and mercy and forgiveness to everyone else, but somehow he couldn’t extend that to himself.”

Ashley Madison was hacked in July, and hackers released users’ personal information in August. Since then, authorities in Toronto have said they’re investigating suicides that could be linked to the data dump. Hackers have also sent extortion emails to people who were on the list.

Gibson said her husband was likely worried he’d lose his job.

“It wasn’t so bad that we wouldn’t have forgiven it, and so many people have said that to us, but for John, it carried such a shame,” she said.

Gibson, 56, was known as a great teacher with a “quirky laugh,” but he had struggled with depression and addiction in the past, his family said.

In a statement, a spokesman for Avid Life Media, Ashley Madison’s parent company, expressed the firm’s condolences.

“Dr. Gibson’s passing is a stark, heart-wrenching reminder that the criminal hack against our company and our customers has had very real consequences for a great many innocent people.”

Since his death, his family has made a pact to be more transparent with one another about their struggles.

Christi Gibson has a message for the 32 million people exposed and their communities.

“These were real people with real families, real pain and real loss,” she says. But “don’t underestimate the power of love. Nothing is worth the loss of a father and a husband and a friend. It just didn’t merit it. It didn’t merit it at all.”

–Eric Marrapodi contributed reporting to this story.

 

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Hilton Hotel Chain Eliminates Porn from On-Demand Video Offerings

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/08/25/hilton-hotel-chain-eliminates-porn-from-on-demand-video-offerings/

by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.25 Aug 20150

The international Hilton Hotel chain has decided to eliminate all specifically adult films from its on-demand offerings, saying that adult entertainment “is not in keeping with our company’s vision.”

The hotel chain said in a statement:

We are making immediate changes to our global brand standards to eliminate adult video-on-demand entertainment in all our hotels worldwide. While the vast majority of our properties already do not offer this content today, this content will be phased out of all other hotels subject to the terms of their contracts. We believe in offering our guests a high degree of choice and control during their stays with us, including Wi-Fi on personal devices.

Hilton’s move has garnered kudos from industry watchers such as the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE). Dawn Hawkins, executive director of NCOSE, says she is grateful that the hotel chain will no longer be seeking profits from hardcore pornography, which inevitably leads to sexual exploitation.

“We want to publicly thank Hilton for its decision to create a safe and positive environment for all of its customers,” Hawkins said. “Hilton has taken a stand against sexual exploitation. Pornography not only contributes to the demand for sex trafficking, which is a serious concern in hotels, but it also contributes to child exploitation, sexual violence and lifelong porn addictions.”

Hawkins said that thousands of supporters contacted Hilton through the organization’s website since 2013 to state their opposition to the availability of hotel porn.

“Earlier this year, Hilton Worldwide reached out to us explaining that they were looking at making these changes and to set up a meeting to talk about these issues in person,” Hawkins said. “At the meeting, we learned that Hilton Worldwide is committed to helping curb sexual exploitation and certainly open to changing policies they have that contribute to exploitation.”

The NCOSE has subsequently removed the hotel chain from its list of “leading contributors of sexual exploitation,” otherwise known as its “Dirty Dozen List.”

The list comprises the 12 primary contributors to sexual exploitation, including American Apparel, American Library Association, backpage.com, CKE Restaurants, Cosmopolitan magazine, Department of Justice, Facebook, Fifty Shades of Grey, Sex Week, Verizon, and YouTube.

In its statement, Hilton said that “Adult video-on-demand entertainment is not in keeping with our company’s vision and goals moving forward.”

Hilton’s decision is in keeping with a broader trend to remove on-demand porn from major hotel chains. In 2012, Catholic law professor Robert P. George of Princeton teamed up with the well-known Muslim intellectual Shaykh Hamza Yusuf to write letters to the CEOs of major hotel chains asking them to consider removing hotel room pornography, noting its “degrading, dehumanizing” and objectifying nature.

Omni Hotels and Resorts also stopped selling pornography in 1998, and Marriot has said it is “phasing out” pornography sales, while the Hilton chain had previously defended its continued sales.

In 2013, Nordic Hotels – a major Scandinavian hotel chain – announced that it was eliminating pay-per-view pornography channels from its 171 hotels.

Revenue from video-on-demand services has reportedly fallen in recent years as guests bring their own movies or stream content via hotel-provided Wi-Fi.

Robert Mandelbaum, director of research information services at PKF Hospitality research, said that the “decline over the past seven years has been really dramatic, profits from on demand services have dropped by half since 2007.”

“Between 2013 and 2014 demand for pay-per-view services fell by 12 per cent, and that’s while the hotel industry is achieving record profitability,” he said.

“It’s not like we’re in the middle of a recession. The hotels themselves are full, people just aren’t paying to use these services anymore,” he said.

Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter @tdwilliamsrome

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The Case of the Super Christian

1 Timothy 1:12–17 – “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might dis­play his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.”

Do you find yourself struggling to measure up to the way you think a Christian is supposed to behave? How would you feel if a great Christian leader admitted to a similar struggle? Many of us probably find Paul’s self­-disclosure above a great relief because we struggle with a perfectionist ideal of how a mature Christian should behave. We idealize others we know or see in leadership and compare ourselves to them, feeling we do not embody the love, grace, patience and wisdom a “good” Christian should.

As a result we feel inferior, guilty and discouraged; our growth path becomes hampered by these obstacles. However, knowing that someone like Paul, who served God passionately and accomplished so much in his life, can say that he is “the worst of sinners,” gives us hope. It helps us to not focus on trying to be a “super Christian” and instead accept where we are today.

The goal of spiritual growth is not perfection but maturity. Our growth in Jesus will bear fruit in a transformed life and character (see Galatians 5:22 – 23). But we will still have issues and struggles. The Apostle Paul also said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (see Philippians 3:12). We must press on and not let our imperfections get us down.

This devotional is drawn from Boundaries, by John Townsend and Henry Cloud.

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The Parable of the Prodigal Son……..with a different ending

The Parable of the Prodigal Son……..with a different ending

Luke 15:11-32

by Mike M.

This story is for those who feel that what they have done is so awful and so bad that there is no way God could still love them. It’s for those who think they are worthless, and not worthy of God’s love. There are also those who feel that God is so disappointed over what they have done that He can never look at them the same way again with love and compassion. This story is for them.

The Story            

                Our story begins with the prodigal son at the point he “came to his senses.” (vs. 17) In Alcoholics Anonymous and other recovery groups, they call it “finding your true bottom.” That’s the point at which he woke up and all the money was gone, his “friends” had left him, and he was broke and hungry. He got a job feeding pigs, and envied the pigs because they had food to eat. “Wow, I have really screwed up!” he thought. “This lifestyle doesn’t work. I have made a mess out of my life! I have sinned against heaven and against my father and my family. Look at me now — starving to death. Why, even the servants in my father’s house have food to eat! I’m going home.”

                So he gets up and starts walking back home. It’s a long journey, for he had gone to a distant country.

Finally, one day he climbs to the top of a hill and there, in the distance, he can see his home!

Fond memories of childhood growing up there, and of safety and security quicken his step. But then he remembers his fall from grace, and the shame and guilt of it weighs him down until he is barely trudging along the road.

Alternative Ending

(This is where we depart from the narrative as told by Jesus – vs. 20)

                His father is sitting on the porch looking out toward the road and sees him coming, but does not get up. When the young man arrives he falls forward on his knees and bows his head.

“I knew you would come back, starving, penniless, and groveling,” the father says in a tone of disgust.

“Father…” the boy begins.

“Just a minute! It’s my turn to tell you some things. You wouldn’t listen before. Just turned your back and stormed off. You just had to get out of here after I gave you all of that money — my money! I’m sure you wasted it all on prostitutes, drinking and carousing, too.”

“Father, I…”

“I told your mother when you were little, I said, ‘He’ll never amount to anything. He’s worthless. Look at him, he can’t do anything right!’ She protested and fought with me about it, but I knew I was right. Guess I should be grateful she’s not around anymore to see your failure. Your brother and I had a good chuckle about it the other day, though. We were sure you would come crawling back when the money ran out.”

The boy looks up at his father’s face entreatingly. The father waves his hand dismissively.

“Oh, go ahead, say what you came to say.”

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make

me like one of your hired servants.”

The father considers this for a moment, then blurts out,

“You think that makes everything all right?”

He rises from the chair in anger, pointing a finger at his son, and yelling.

“You actually thought you could demand your inheritance, flit off to a distant country, squander all of my money in riotous living, then come waltzing back here, ask for forgiveness, and all would be well?”

The boy just stares at the ground. The father sits back down, furious. He tries to compose himself, and in a voice still seething with anger, but not as loud, says,

“Get up. That’s right — stand up!”

After the boy rises, the father continues.

“Foolish boy! You never learn, do you? It doesn’t work like that. You’re going to pay for what you’ve done! And you bet you’ll work like a servant of this house! Why, I’ve had servants more faithful and loyal than you!”

With that the father shakes his head in disbelief, rises and turns to go into the house. Then he abruptly stops, turns around and walks down the steps to where his son is standing, who is biting his lip in fear. Pointing a finger directly in his son’s face, in a measured, angry tone he says,

“And don’t forget. I’m keeping my eye on you! One little slip and Boom! You’re out of here! In fact,

I’m going to have your brother check on you. That’s right — your brother. Now, there’s loyalty for you.

Works hard, always does what he’s told. Never asks for anything special.”

The son walks away after his father leaves, knowing he did the right thing by coming home, but in a state of

utter hopelessness and despair.

Application

Friends, God could be the God of the alternative ending! He would have every right to be. But how fortunate we are that He is not!

Of course we know this is not how the story ended as told by Jesus. This ending is 180 degrees from the impression of God’s love and concern for us He was teaching. In the previous parables here in Luke 15 — the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin — Jesus talks about how the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents!

But we get down on ourselves and think we’re not worthy, or that He loves others, but not us. When we do this, we’re not paying attention! Somehow it is easier to check out of “hope” and check into “self-doubt.”

Listen to David, the sweet singer of Israel, talk about His attitude toward us.

Psalm 25:6, 7

Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,

    for they are from of old.

Do not remember the sins of my youth

    and my rebellious ways;

according to your love remember me,

    for you, Lord, are good.

Psalm 25:11

For the sake of your name, Lord,

    forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

Psalm 51:1, 2

Have mercy on me, O God,

    according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

    blot out my transgressions.

Wash away all my iniquity

    and cleanse me from my sin.

Psalm 51:9

Hide your face from my sins

    and blot out all my iniquity.

Psalm 51:17

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;

    a broken and contrite heart

    you, God, will not despise.

 

Now, what about the prodigal son?   Did he have a broken and contrite heart? Of course.

But his father took that heart and crushed it (in the alternative ending). Our Father will not do that.

Remember, when He forgives, He forgets.

Hebrews 8:12

For I will forgive their wickedness

    and will remember their sins no more.

“But, He’s God! How can he forget?”

I don’t know. Maybe He chooses to not remember. Think about your own children. Do you remember everything they did wrong 10 years ago?

 

Conclusion

Perhaps some of us experienced abuse from our earthly father, and consequently we have molded this into

our perception of our Heavenly Father. Even if this isn’t the case, our view of God is heavily influenced by our relationship with our earthly father. Let us remember that when we repent and come back from sin, our Heavenly father welcomes us with open arms.