CASTIMONIA

Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group

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Is America in Danger of Becoming Sodom and Gomorrah?

Awesome video of this past Sunday’s (June 3, 2012) message by Pastor Tim Pepper from The Fellowship at Cinco Ranch, Castimonia’s home church.  He does an amazing job at bringing our sexual impurity to light and explains why Sodom & Gomorrah were really destroyed.  He gives eye-opening statistics on sexual purity issues and even goes on to rebuke Christian anti-gay, anti-sexual impurity rhetoric that has plagued the church.  The church should be the safest place a person struggling with sexual purity should go for help!  His passion on this subject is awesome!  It is the best 45 minutes I have spent in listening to a sermon in church!

“Sex has become bigger than God in our society”
“We are all broken, we are all sexually broken”
– Pastor Tim Pepper

Download the Sermon Notes here: Life Change Sheet PDF

Download the MP3 podcast here: Sodom and Gomorrah Podcast

You may need to right-click on the link above and “save as” to your computer.

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Phone Muscles

Phone Muscles

I received a phone call one Friday afternoon from a friend in my recovery program whom I met at the Journey of Hope Retreat #16.  With his permission, I am able to use his first name, Mike and discuss what we discussed over the phone.  Thanks to him, I was able to come up with this particular blog topic I titled “Phone Muscles.” 

During our conversation, Mike mentioned he was making the call, not because he was in danger of acting out or in a bad place, but because he needed to get back to making daily recovery-related phone calls and strengthen what he called his “phone muscles.”  What an awesome yet simple term to use.  I have always commented to my sponsees that they need to make at least one recovery-related phone call every day and if they cannot actually speak to someone, then at a minimum they need to leave three detailed check-in voicemails with their accountability partners.  However, until my conversation with Mike, I didn’t have a good term for the practice of making daily phone calls.  Now, I do!

As a former professional athlete (I jest) I am accustomed to a daily workout regimen to maintain my performance.  If I don’t train my muscles daily, then I won’t get stronger and my overall performance will drop.  Furthermore, there is no way I could just get into the gym and bench 405-lb without having trained on a daily basis, I would get crushed!  I have to start slowly, one work out at a time, one day at a time and build up to that amount of weight!  Such is the case with recovery.  If we don’t practice our recovery tools on a daily basis, we will not benefit from those tools.  We will not train ourselves to use the tools when the time comes; when we most desperately need it!

It begins with small increments in recovery; to try to do everything all at once can seem like a monumental task.  Make one phone call a day when you are healthy, the odds are, if you have been doing this regularly and establishing good friendships in recovery, you will be able to make that phone call when you are struggling!  Although the phone may seem like it weighs 1,000 pounds, your “phone muscles” will have trained well enough to be able to lift that weight without hesitation or strain.  However, if you neglect “phone muscles” then the 1,000-lb telephone will crush you.  You won’t be able to make that phone call you desperately need to make.  Then, you can begin incorporating more tools in your daily recovery regimen.  The phone is only one tool of many that can be implemented on a daily basis.  Other tools such as journaling, prayer and meditation, recovery reading, internet filters, and such will be discussed in later blogs, but it is possible to get to a point where you are incorporating all of these tools on a daily basis, one day at a time!

Take what you like a leave the rest.

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Castimonia Saturday Morning Meeting Topic 05-26-2012

This morning’s topic is a “Musical Topic” where I hand out the lyrics to a “recovery-related” song and we all share. This also relates to our work in Step 5. Below are the lyrics and my discussion on the subject:

Born Again
Third Day

Today I found myself
After searching all these years
And the man that I saw, he wasn’t at all who I thought he’d be
I was lost when you found me here
And I was broken beyond repair
Then you came along and you sang your song over me

(Chorus)
It feels like I’m born again
It feels like I’m living
For the very first time
For the very first time
In my life

Make a promise to me now
Reassure my heart somehow
That the love that I feel is so much more real than anything
I’ve a feeling in my soul
And I pray that I’m not wrong
That the life I have now, it is only the beginning

(Chorus)
It feels like I’m breathing
It feels like I’m moving
For the very first time
For the very first time

I wasn’t looking for something that was more
Than what I had yesterday
Then you came to me and you gave to me
Life and a love that I’ve never known
That I’ve never felt before

(Chorus)
It feels like I’m breathing
It feels like I’m moving
For the very first time
I’m living for the first time
In my life

Topic:

The topic for this meeting is to listen to, read, and share about the lyrics to this song.  To me, this song has special meaning.  This album was released in July 2008 and the music from this album became widely popular in late 2008 and early 2009.  Until 2009, I rarely listened to Christian music, as a matter of fact, I had resentment against the genre thinking all these “Christian” artists were just singing to make money and not for God’s glory, but their own.  Funny how things change when one hits rock bottom.  As I entered recovery early in 2009, I recall listening to various songs from Third Day.  I had heard some music from Third Day during my years of addiction, but never paid much attention to the music or the lyrics until Jesus opened my eyes, my heart, and my mind.

After entering recovery, all of a sudden, all these Christian songs made sense!  We all had one thing in common, we all needed God at the center of our lives, I needed God, not my addiction, at the center of my life.  When I heard the song “Born Again” I recall the tears coming from deep within.  The lyrics spoke to me.  After searching all these years, I finally saw the man who I was, in my addiction, and I wasn’t at all who I thought I was.  When I hit rock bottom, that is when Jesus found me, completely and totally broken beyond repair, or so I thought!  And after entering recovery, and trying to live a life of honesty, my life was beginning to feel like I was really living it for the very first time.  Such a huge burden was lifted off of me when I entered recovery.

Then, as the female vocalist sings, the meaning for me was twofold.  First, it is me asking God to help me believe that this feeling of love I have is real and true and that it is only the beginning.  Secondly, as the female sings, I can picture my wife saying these same words, that I promise her that this new love she feels from me and for me is real and true, and that it is just the beginning of something wonderful.

Living a life of recovery, especially after doing a disclosure, is truly liberating and basically a “do-over” in life, not only with our spouses but with all of our loved ones regardless if the marriage, family, or friendship stays intact.  God gives us second (and third, and fourth, and fifth, etc…) chances, so let’s make the best of it.  When we enter a life of recovery, we truly are Born Again!

Take what you like and leave the rest.

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The Disconnect

Another great video by pureHOPE.

The Disconnect.

pureHOPE’s Noel Bouché shares a brief thought about opposing sex trafficking, and why understanding the “seamless fabric” of sexual exploitation is so important to an effective, just response to this evil.

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Castimonia Thursday Night Meeting

Just a reminder to everyone that we are starting a third weekly Castimonia meeting on Thursday nights!  The meeting will be held “off campus” at another church who was gracious enough to donate one of their rooms for this Men’s Sexual Purity Support & Recovery group!

I look forward to seeing you this Thursday night!

Castimonia Men’s Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group
Time: Thursday Nights, 7:00PM – 8:30PM
Location: Grace Fellowship United Methodist Church – Epicentre Youth Building, Room 213
2655 South Mason Road
Katy, TX  77450
281.646.1903

  
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