Ephesians 5:1-7
As we walk through the desert toward God’s promises, we are vulnerable to idols that call out to us. Every culture has them and they come in all shapes and sizes – as Tim Keller says, “Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, from which you seek to get something that only God can give.” Money and sex, both good things, when coveted become idols. But there are so many more good things that can become idols…and an idol is really, really close to what we mean by addiction.
Resources Recommended and Used by Pastor Mark:
- Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in Healing Addictions, Gerald May … He sees all humans as struggling with addiction and all in need of grace.
- Addiction Nation: What the Opioid Crisis Reveals About Us, Timothy McMahan King… Goes deep into causes of opioid addiction and how addiction is part of everyone’s life.
- Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, Richard Rohr … Brings the gospel to the 12-step program in a way that is applicable to everyone.
- The Recovering: Intoxication and It’s Aftermath, Leslie Jamison … Not a Christian, she is very raw about her struggle with alcohol as a writer, very insightful as to how alcohol functions as an addiction.
- A Prayer for Orion: A Son’s Addiction and a Mother’s Love, Katherine James … Very personal story about her son’s heroin addiction and how it affected her.
- Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary on Sin, Cornelius Plantinga … The whole book is very insightful on how sin works but chapter 8 explores the relationship between sin and addiction.
- Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, Tim Keller … Explores the biblical category of idolatry, the closest term in the bible for addiction.
- Addiction: The Invisible Dragon, Chip Dodd … A 5-page piece on addictions from a Christian perspective, very enlightening.