CASTIMONIA

Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group

sex addict

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The Birth of Crave

originally posted at: http://www.bythelightofgrace.com/2013/12/the-birth-of-crave.html

Ever wonder why we crave our addiction?
Neuro-transmitters, or chemicals, are released by our brains when we act out.  The more we act out the more these chemicals are released in unhealthy massive amounts.

Epinephrin 
Ohhh something exciting is coming and I can’t wait till it gets here!
Dopamine
This feels sooooo goooood!
Seratonin 
It feels so good that I’m going to brand how good it feels into my memory.
Oxytocine
… and nurture it, this euphoria that I’m feeling; take care of it, keep it warm, love it.
Resistance is futile
Recovery is fruitful

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New Castimonia Meeting in Cypress, TX (Northwest Houston)!

I am humbled to announce that we will officially be starting a new Castimonia meeting on Thursday nights at Fairfield Baptist Church in Cypress, TX on June 4th!  This is our second meeting located in Northwest Houston.
Location information is written below.
Beginning June 4, 2015
Thursday Nights
Time: 8:00PM – 9:30PM
Location: Fairfield Baptist Church
Room 206/208
27240 Highway 290
Cypress, TX 77433
281.373.5446
This meeting should help those that live in far Northwest Houston who may not have the opportunity to travel down to Katy or Lifepath Church to a Castimonia meeting.
Praise be to God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for all He has done to grow His ministry!

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More Intimacy

Stop missing out on enjoying time with your partner, by worrying about something that hasn’t happened, with people that aren’t part of your relationship. …stop focusing on that which you DON’T want to happen, and spend more time creating what you DO want. The universe doesn’t understand that what you are thinking about all the time is something undesirable. It takes any thought you create as a request and conspires to manifest those requests. So, if you constantly focus on the negative thoughts around your relationship, chances are you will keep inadvertently creating negative situations between you and your partner. Changing your thoughts, and letting go of the fear, makes room for more thoughts about what you really want to create in your relationship. It’s a much better way to use your energy and if you focus on how to give more love, how to strengthen your bond and create more intimacy, you’ll find you easily manifest the good loving you really desire. All of this is not to say that you should be ignorant of any intuition or signs of infidelity. If you have a feeling things have gone astray, or there are obvious signs that your partner’s focus may have shifted, then you should trust your own intuition and be willing to address your concerns. Having an honest, adult, and somewhat vulnerable conversation with your partner about what you’re worried about can be the difference between realizing you had the wrong end of stick and getting on with loving each other, or letting your mind run away with the worst case scenario and having that fear ruin your relationship. Open, mature conversation about boundaries and expectations is the only way to really approach the fear of being cheated on and a much more promising way to build a lifetime of love. From an article by Rachael Lay http://www.rachaellay.com/why-worrying-about-cheating-is-pointless/

“For a marriage relationship to flourish, there must be intimacy. It takes an enormous amount of courage to say to your spouse, ‘This is me. I’m not proud of it — in fact, I’m a little embarrassed by it — but this is who I am.’ “-   Bill Hybels

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Courage and Hope

http://purehope.net/courage-hope/

by Noel Bouché

A few years ago, I was sitting in a coffee shop on the west coast with a man who was stuck.  He had recently confronted his sexual addiction by courageously confessing his years of porn use and promiscuous sex, and had begun to work with a Christian counselor and sexual addiction recovery group.  This had lifted a massive, secret burden from his shoulders and brought him to a new place of authenticity in his life.

Yet, there was a lingering doubt hanging over him like a dark rain cloud in an otherwise sunny sky.  Halfway through his cup of dark roast coffee, as he shared how difficult the journey was and how constantly the temptations flowed over him, he looked at me and asked, “When does it end?”

It struck me at that moment that this man had experienced the first thing that is necessary in overcoming sexual addiction: courage. But, he hadn’t yet fully experienced and embraced what is necessary to sustain perseverance and growth: hope.

Scripture is clear that courage and hope are fundamental to the Christian life. Over and over, the Holy Spirit exhorts us in the pages of the Bible to be of good courage, not to be afraid, not to be discouraged or anxious. This is a matter of the will that He empowers us to achieve.  Likewise, we are to hope and not despair.

The book of Romans develops this theme perhaps more than any other, teaching us that hope does not put us to shame (Romans 5:5), we are saved in hope (Romans 8:24), we can rejoice in hope (Romans 12:12), and that the God of hope fills us with joy that we may abound in hope (Romans 15:13).

There is hope for this battle.  We will one day see Him as He is and be like Him in perfect glory.  All those who have this hope purify themselves as He is pure.

“Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the LORD.” Psalm 31:24

**This is an excerpt from the introduction to our Recovery resource.

Noel is the President of pureHOPE. His name is pronounced Noel like pole, not like noël.  But for this season you can pretend that’s the case because noël means “day of the Messiah’s birth”… which is pretty hopeful.

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Rigorous Honesty – VIDEO

I love recovery movies.  These movies typically include plots involving alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction, support groups, honesty, selfishness, selflessness, redemption, etc… that are the main theme in the movie. 

I finally watched the movie Flight which came out a few years ago. Below is a synopsis of the movie.

Commercial airline pilot Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) has a problem with drugs and alcohol, though so far he’s managed to complete his flights safely. His luck runs out when a disastrous mechanical malfunction sends his plane hurtling toward the ground. Whip pulls off a miraculous crash-landing… More that results in only six lives lost. Shaken to the core, Whip vows to get sober — but when the crash investigation exposes his addiction, he finds himself in an even worse situation.
What I saw in this movie was the healing power of finally stepping out of denial and practicing rigorous honesty with ourselves and with others.  This is exactly what we do in Castimonia in our program.  We stop lying and start being honest, even when we have a slip or relapse.  We have come to understand that rigorous honesty is more important that our sobriety in the program.  If we are not honest, we are not sober, even if we haven’t slipped or relapsed.  If we are not honest, then we are simply a “dry drunk” white-knuckling through recovery.  Rigorous honesty is tough, something that I personally have to practice on a daily basis.  For the man in this film, when he finally became honest, he gave everything up in doing so.  THIS is the level of rigorous honesty we must achieve, to be honest even when it means we may lose everything! 

I hope you enjoy watching this video as much as I enjoyed creating it.  As always, take what you like and leave the rest.

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