As far back as we could remember, we felt different, damaged, and just plain wrong. We did not know exactly what was wrong with us. We only knew that we felt things more intensely than others and we processed our problems with great difficulty.
We obsessively examined ourselves, looking for clues to solve the mystery and to find a key which would unlock some invisible door into normalcy. We noticed people we admired and made feeble attempts to imitate their persona. We sought out damaged friends who would validate us in our dysfunction. We pursued money to prove our worth. We questioned and we blamed. We fought with ourselves and resented God. We learned how to act right, but we didn’t know how to feel right. Eventually it was our feelings which became our undoing.
The presence of unwanted feelings such as insecurity, inadequacy, fear, anger, and other social phobias, coupled with our inability to manage or control them, unleashed within us a desperation for relief at any cost. We soon learned of a temporary reprieve which occurred when our brain chemistry became altered. We didn’t care that the relief would be short lived or cause irreparable damage. The long-awaited relief of rightness, contrasted against the life-long agony of wrongness, offered such an enchanting embrace, we surrendered without a fight.
Based on their own personal experience, the authors openly share about their first stages of sobriety, when the clean and sober lifestyle felt awkward and overwhelming. Within the pages of this book, emotional and social dysfunctions are identified, analyzed, and resolved. Each chapter peels back a deeper layer of awareness, revealing a clear path to a New Normal where confidence and security are a way of life.
Tetelestai Recovery Volume 2: Our New Normal continues the journey of recovery, found in the words of Christ, “It is Finished.” Addiction is not a life sentence. There is hope and healing for all addicts and alcoholics, as well as for those who love them.
And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 1 Peter 5:10
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This came as a shock to those of us who grew up in the psycho-babble era, where therapists were gods who slung letter-label disorders at us like lightning bolts. Most of us had been zapped by at least one label or another which altered our identity. Sadly, that movement brought such a self-defeated attitude; many of us doubted the power of the cross over our disorders.
Thankfully, after receiving the message of Christ’s finished work, we concluded that our dysfunctional labels need not remain our identity.
We claimed the powerful promise from Romans 8:37 concerning our sense of powerlessness:
In all these things we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us.
We subjected our past trauma to the truth found in Romans 8:28:
We know that all things work together for the good of those who love Christ, who have been called according to His purpose.
Paul didn’t write ‘some things’ or ‘the good things’. No, he said that all things, even the least expected or most traumatic things, will work together for our good and for the Kingdom’s expansion project.
We realized that it wouldn’t benefit the Kingdom if its soldiers and ambassadors were traumatized, weak, and frail (either mentally or physically). No military unit would succeed with a platoon of disabled soldiers charging in to take a hill. Fighters in poor condition would be counter-productive to the cause. When charging into enemy territory, only the healthiest, strongest, and well-trained are called up to active duty.
Knowing that God has called us up to active duty, we also trust that He has given us health, strength, and solid training. We have discovered the spiritual law of the Kingdom where trauma turns to triumph and frailty turns to strength.
Then the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water and I will test them for you there. If I say, ‘This man will go with you,’ he will go. But if I say, ‘That one will not go with you,’ he will not go.”
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As you fulfill your mission and follow the call of God on your life, you sometimes encounter the loss of support upon which you had previously relied.
As you seek to fulfill the objectives God has set before you, a curious pattern seems to emerge. Many, who join you with passionate enthusiasm in the beginning, drop out before the project is completed.
While the world tells you that there is strength in numbers, your experience tells you otherwise. Time and time again, you have watched as friends and colleagues are called by God to other pursuits, while you are left to wonder how you will ever fulfill your mission without them.
You, like Gideon, are sometimes overwhelmed with the size of the battle in relation to the number of warriors in your company. However, you trust that God is the Commander of Angel Armies, so whatever you lack in human support, you receive in abundance from the spirit realm.
You understand that your journey is unique to your destiny and design. You realize that God has choreographed your life experiences to mesh with the talents and gifts you possess in order to fulfill the mission for which you were created.
While there are many who admire you, and hundreds who applaud you, only a few will actually go with you.
Little by little, God has removed your support system of humans so that your reliance remains on Him. When the battle is over and victory is won, you will not be tempted to give credit to other humans or take credit for yourself.
As you watch the number of workers decrease, you must fight against anxious thoughts which breed fear and worry.
You must dismiss feelings of rejection or abandonment, and choose rather to be grateful for the time of support you received.
When Gideon was first called, he struggled with a sense of inadequacy and cowardice. God brought many soldier volunteers to his side, to bolster his courage and boost his confidence. That was their only purpose, and once Gideon was on board and ready, God removed those props, one by one, until only a few remained.
Not every soldier was destined to go into battle with Gideon. In the same manner, not every person who joins your journey will be called to go the distance.
Not everyone can go where you are going. Each has their own call to follow. God brings many wonderful people into your life, to bolster your courage and strengthen your resolve.
You are grateful for their support and you remain gracious when the time comes for them to move on.
This book is dedicated to the members of Tetelestai Recovery who meet every Friday evening in the Lansing Correctional Facility.
The profound insights and personal experiences shared between inmates and volunteers in this lively discussion group have been the inspiration for this sequel to the original Tetelestai Recovery text published in 2019: Tetelestai Recovery Finding Total Recovery in the Words of Christ, “It is Finished!”
You have invested your most valuable assets into the Kingdom of Christ. Contributions of trust and loyalty are given freely to God and His returns never disappoint.
Unflinching faith comes to you like a divine download and you are often amazed by a sudden level of confidence which seems to appear out of nowhere.
You actively seek help from God and as a reward for your humble request, the Holy Spirit infuses you with the wisdom to discover solutions which you know are beyond your natural level of comprehension.
You prove yourself to be a trustworthy protector of what is sacred. You give honor to God and show respect to His creation.
As you place your trust in God, He places His trust in you.
Have you ever wished for a personal message from God that would answer the questions you have about yourself and tell you why you are here at this precise moment in history? Perhaps you have wondered why you have certain personality quirks and traits.
Inside this fun, easy-to-read birthday book, you will find hidden messages especially for you from your Creator. You will discover clues to the exciting adventure God has for you by using the date of your birth like coordinates on a map. Some of the ideas will surprise you. Others will confirm what you have always known.
This personal message from God is aligned with your birthday, because the day you were born was truly a Date with Destiny!
Listen to every individual’s prayer concerning their private sorrow.
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The Lord cares deeply about you and surrounds you with compassion whenever you are in pain.
God sees that some of the things you go through are difficult. You know that His help is required if you are going to be able to withstand the pressure.
With the calm reassurance that God is at your side, listening to your thoughts, you find comfort and strength.
As it turns out, these struggles do not leave you weakened. Instead, you emerge from your prayers of private sorrow with gratitude for this emotional reprieve and a newfound awareness of your position of power in Christ.
You sense His presence with greater intensity during times when your burden seems too heavy to carry alone. Because of this, you are grateful for your struggles, because they generate a new level of intimacy between you and your Creator.
Knowing that God does what is right, you have come to rely on His help and are not afraid to ask for it.
Because He is there to carry the heaviness you feel after having been wronged, you are able to move freely into forgiveness where healing can be found.
You are assured that the Creator of the Universe is interested in your emotional well-being and is willing to listen as your pour out your heart. Therefore, you are able to experience hope and healing that is beyond human comprehension.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27
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Jesus gave us this promise of peace, translated from the original word shalom, meaning: wholeness; nothing missing; nothing broken. Therefore, if we failed to experience it, we needed to know why.
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Was He a liar? Did He tease us with hope and then pull it away like Lucy holding the football in the Charlie Brown cartoon?
We developed resentment toward this Higher Power who seemingly yanked away our hope, time after time. If He controlled the universe, why didn’t He just snap His fingers and make all our misery disappear?
We questioned Him and His ways. We saw other people receive deliverance and healing from their dysfunctions and we were jealous. We finally concluded that the odds of a miracle landing on us were about the same as a rose petal falling from the sky and landing on our heads.
We knew we couldn’t raise our hopes for a miracle of our own if it was simply a cosmic lottery. We were driven to figure out what we could do to make it happen. We had been taught all our lives that a person gets what they deserve. We feared our relapses and failures had deemed us unworthy.
We knew how to work in the natural realm to get what we wanted. We worked hard. We had built personal empires and seen our own efforts succeed in other areas of life. This made it extremely difficult to understand why we couldn’t succeed in our efforts to maintain consistent sobriety.
We wanted to work for recovery and thus, control the results. We wanted to work for it, so we could own it. We wanted to know we had earned our sobriety. We wanted to receive accolades for how courageous we had been. We wanted to know it had come to us honestly, through hard work and perseverance.
Tragically, we discovered that our work just didn’t work.
We’ve all had experiences of being connected with a skeptic. Whether a close friend, a home group, or a well-meaning family member, we found our faith walk more difficult and exhausting when walking it with them at our side.
As believers, we must believe that God’s power of good is more reliable than anything we see, hear, feel, or think. Being a believer is a process which begins at the cross with the words, “It is finished!” The believer’s journey continues beyond the cross, through the waiting period of zero sensory perception, and finally to the resurrection.
In alignment with Jesus’ declaration, “It is finished!” we disconnect from the skeptics – those that live in our world and those that live in our heads.
We take a leap of faith and go all in. We shout, “Tetelestai,” to our skepticism and fling ourselves recklessly into hope springs.
