Month: May 2011

A good reputation comes with responsibility

31st May 2011 aeboyle Living Life Recovery, Personal Growth, Strength, Testimony Comments Off on A good reputation comes with responsibility

In our lives as we go through the process of recovery people are watching us. At work, at home, in social circles we mix in, in small groups. Always on display! When we live our lives in obedience to God’s Word we don’t need to live in pretence. Knowing His Word gives us confidence and we can be comfortable being ourselves.

A good reputation comes with responsibility to serve God and others. In my own life I constantly find myself in God created situations. Situations where I must step up and do things that sometimes are uncomfortable, costly or painful. But, I would not change it for anything. Today because of the Holy Spirit in my life I am also not ashamed to admit what I don’t know or can’t do . God doesn’t want us to be perfect, just available.

Our elders deserve respect

30th May 2011 aeboyle Living Life Recovery, Personal Growth Comments Off on Our elders deserve respect

Stand up in the presence of the elderly, and show respect for the aged. Leviticus 19:32

People find it easy to dismiss the opinions of the elderly. But the fact that God commanded the Israelites to honour them show how seriously we should take our responsibility of respecting those older than we are. This includes those further along the recovery road in this new way of living. There is only one way to get life experience and that is live it. The same as there is only one way to get recovery experience and that is to walk th walk day after day.

None of us is getting any younger but many of us are getting more immature, living lives of lies and deception because we are too afraid to face the truth about our addictions and compulsions.

Realising God’s Purpose takes Time

29th May 2011 aeboyle Life Experience, Personal Growth, Prayers Comments Off on Realising God’s Purpose takes Time

God has a purpose for us all. The reality is none of us got here overnight and we are not going to realise God’s purpose overnight.

It has taken more that twenty years for God to bring me to where I am today. And, He is not finished yet.

Recovery requires we learn patience as we wait on God to reveal our life’s purpose.

Family responsibility

28th May 2011 aeboyle Life Experience, Parenting, Personal Growth Comments Off on Family responsibility

1 Timothy 3:5 For if someone is unable to handle his own affairs, how can he take care of God’s church?

Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking work and church come before our families and justify it. Spiritual leadership must begin at home. If we are not willing to care for and teach our children the realities of relationship with God, how do we expect to teach others?

Joy is a result of Worship

27th May 2011 aeboyle Joy, Living Life Recovery, Messages, Recovery Keys Comments Off on Joy is a result of Worship

The LORD spoke to Moses, “Tell the Israelites: These are the appointed festivals with the LORD, which you must announce as holy assemblies. Leviticus 23;1-2

Worship involves both celebration and confession. God encourages joy in recovery. He wants us to celebrate recovery. He also wants us to seriously reflect on our attitudes and actions and go to Him with immediate confession of sin when it is necessary. In recovery we all need a balance between celebrating who God is and what He has done in us.

Stop me running from the things that could save my life …

26th May 2011 aeboyle Life Experience, Living Life Recovery, Prayers Comments Off on Stop me running from the things that could save my life …

Normally I would not share what has occurred in my day at work. But today I felt God prompting me to do so. On the way to work this morning I received a call saying there was a client out the front who had been severely beaten. He was taken to hospital and discharged himself. He is a chronic alcoholic. Who from his hospital admission could have begun his recovery journey through referral to detox. Another guy, long-term homeless. Mother and sister secured a unit for him, offered accommodation at sisters for a couple of days whilst securing of the unit was finalised. He intentionally fell out with mum and sister in order to go back to the street (another chronic alcoholic). A woman who has almost killed herself three times through drug overdose by mistake. The last time admitted to hospital and offered opportunity to go into detox and then to programme. Her response  ‘I’m not ready to go today’ instead she moved back to the street.

Why am I sharing this? All of them ‘RAN’ because they were afraid of the unknown and were more comfortable in the ‘mess they know’.

The song ‘RUN’ by the Paul Colman Trio has such a powerful message in it. We do not know what is going to happen to us, but God does. If we put our faith and trust in Him He will hold on to us and won’t let us fall.

There is another line in the song. “Stop me running from the things that could save my life” . I don’t know what will happen with my three friends above but it is my prayer that each of them will learn this prayer and put their faith in the ‘One True Higher Power’

Living a life of purpose..

24th May 2011 aeboyle Life Experience, Obedience, Personal Growth, Recovery Keys Comments Off on Living a life of purpose..

Why do you do what you do? An important question for us all. One which I have been asked a number of times and only just this week. It took me a couple of minutes to think about the answer. Because I hadn’t considered ot for a while. The answer I gave is this “my life has a God-given purpose, it is present in my job, present in my ministry, present in my relationships, present in all I say and do” it is this. ‘To use my life experience to glorify God and encourage others to get to know Him’. Simple but not always easy.

I then asked the person who posed the question this question. ‘Are you homeless because you are an addict or are you an addict because you are homeless?’ They couldn’t answer the question because they had never considered it. It is a question we all need to ask ourselves, regularly ‘What drives my life?’ Is it guilt? shame? anger and resentment? fear? materialism? the need or approval? or something else?

Knowing God’s purpose fo my life, makes my life simple. Everything I do is measured against it. When I was the State Manager of Family Stores in Adelaide I used to have a plaque on the wall of my office which read ‘Is what I am now doing or about to do in line with God’s purpose for my life?’  If it wasn’t then I didn’t get involved with it and I still try today to measure my actions against that question.

The answer to the question I asked the homeless person was important because it defines for them how they move forward. Are they dealing with homelessness or are they dealing with addiction? The way you resolve both is very different.

For each person reading this today I challenge you to ask yourself the question from the plaque on the wall of my office in Adelaide. When you get the answer  start looking at ways to apply your daily activity to Living God’s Purpose for you.

Are you washed in the blood?

24th May 2011 aeboyle Life Experience, Obedience, Personal Growth Comments Off on Are you washed in the blood?

Last night in Twitter I read this “If you get paid it’s not real ministry”. Never paid attention to wh0 said it but it did make me think. ‘How could anybody really believe that?’

In the dictionary ministry as defined as – the work of a minister. Minister is defined as – a person authorised to conduct religious worship – attend the wants and needs of others.

Ministry has nothing to do with whether you get paid or not. It is a calling by God to represent Him in the world. Jesus called His twelve disciples. He didn’t draft them, force them or ask them to volunteer and He didn’t offer to pay them He chose them to serve Him in a special way. And,  He calls us today. He doesn’t twist our arm to make us do something we don’t want to do. Ministry is a choice. He chooses us and we have to choose to follow Him.

God can use anyone, paid or unpaid in ministry, no matter what our circumstances are. He uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things and He wants to use YOU!

A pay cheque doesn’t affect the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us.

What do you want?

23rd May 2011 aeboyle Life Experience, Love, Obedience, Personal Growth, Prayers, Testimony Comments Off on What do you want?

We come to recovery with a list of what we want to achieve as a result of it. As we grow in faith our list changes and we realise that what we wanted was things that would make us comfortable, things that would make us feel good. Our priorities change in recovery. I remember when I started attending the Salvation Army meeting a lot of happy people. Happy because of their faith in God and fellowship with each other. I decided there and then what I wanted was to ‘be happy’.

John Calvin says “Complete happiness is knowing God”

I decided happiness was what I wanted and I heard people talking about, finding God’s purpose will make you happy. So I asked the questions ‘if God has a purpose for me, why am I so unfulfilled? What is His purpose for me? If I look back on my life, when was the last time I was truly happy? What do I need to do to accomplish God’s will in my life?” Taking a hard look at my life I realised happiness was much more than a feeling. Happiness was about hope, joy and being free from the things that had restricted my relationship with God in the past. So I set out to find happiness by consciously making a decision to get to know God! You can too…..

Our actions follow our affections

23rd May 2011 aeboyle Life Experience, Personal Growth, Recovery Keys Comments Off on Our actions follow our affections

I am not a hugger. Never have been, probably never will be. Not big on affection. Don’t get me wrong. I love my wife and children dearly but I am not into the huggy, huggy, kissy, kissy stuff. My mum is, my sister is. Every time you see them (which isn’t too often these days, the live in W.A. I live in Victoria) they give you a kiss. And it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable.

Any way back to ‘our actions follow our affections’. I was at Belgrave South Baptist Church a few weeks back and the guest speaker was Paul Colman. Before he had to speak was looking for a seat in the congregation an came to sit next to me. I put out my hand to greet him and Paul (a hugger) said ‘Give us a hug’. Again the old feeling of uncomfortable came upon me, but I never let on, I like Paul, he’s a good guy. I gave some thought to it later and began looking in the Bible to see what it says about hugging. What I found was the verse above, where Paul  suggests the way we should greet each other is with an embrace (a hug), a special affection usually reserved for family members or formal greetings.

I then went on to look at the subject of  Proverbs 4:23  says ‘Above all else guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life’.

Our heart – feelings of love and desire dictate to a large degree how we live, because we always find time to do what we enjoy. Solomon tells us to concentrate on the things that keep us on the right path, push us in the right direction. We all put personal boundaries around ourselves and keep them guarded. In recovery we need to let down our guard and allow others to get close to us. We need to learn to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Which may mean letting others hug us now and again as an expression of their affection towards us and to God.

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