Jesus – like Aaron was established by God as the High Priest for His people. God said – Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee, and also it is said – Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

Christ also, as the priestly function dictates – in the days of His flesh offered prayers and intercession for our sins and suffering – He offered strong crying and tears unto God – mighty to save from the bondage of death…

Through Adam’s silence, his compromising with sin – his disobedience – we find that the knowledge of evil has become so integrated into who we are that it is at the very core of human nature. Depravity is a part of who we are, and we are dead because of it.

Christ however – being born of the Spirit, a virgin birth, was free from the bondage of sin and depravity, for the sin is in the blood, and the seed of man had not been present in His conception (the conception of the flesh He had made His tabernacle, not the conception of God).

We find thus that Christ, being the Word, is the Creator, and if that is true, it must mean that He is God, that He is the Most High! This is important, because it plays an important role in our salvation – the salvation that Christ bought for us on the cross.

In Hebrews 1:4-14: we see Jesus, the exalted Messiah,as higher, or better, than the angels.

Hebrews 2:5-9: describes Jesus, the Son of Man, as lower as the angels.

The author of Hebrews uses the angels as a sort of teaching tool by which a basic Christology can be shared to the Jewish people specifically. As gentiles, though, and modern readers (although we were not the intended target audience), we can still glean very important insight if we read these passages intentionally and in context…

There once was a little boy who built a ship, and a fine ship it was! The boy built this ship, and probably with great excitement, took it to the nearest possible place to watch it sail. As it was on the water, a great wind came and blew it away, and the little boy couldn’t find it again…

By healing the masses He showed them God’s love, by casting out demons He showed them His power, by teaching the crowds He showed them God’s heart. Through His parables He explained His kingdom to all who would listen.

By enduring the cross, through His tortures and torment, through His perseverance, He has freed us, giving us the freedom to choose between life and death. He gave us the option to choose that which He has shown us to be good – life in the kingdom of God – or to stay where we are, immersed in death.

Up until the death of the Lord Jesus upon the cross, it was merely the execution of a death sentence – much as the electric chair or a lethal injection. Being sentenced to the cross was an activity reserved for criminals – bandits and hooligans, thieves and murderers, libertines – yet our Liberator, the one who liberated us from death and sin, hung upon the cross, bearing the curse for us.

For the government it was an instrument through which justice, in human terms, was measured out, but when Christ was nailed to it, it became the instrument through which we were justified, our sins washed away by the fount of joy and love – the redemption of our wayward souls.

Revelations Abounding I am a firm believer in the fact that there is one question that all individuals, at one point or another, ask and that is: Who am I? I once read that it is the most asked question in the world. We are caught in a constant struggle for identity,...

The reason for His redemptive work was the fact that we were lost, that we had been swallowed by death and depravity. We had been created as children, but had grown into wickedness and iniquity, thus we had lost our inheritance, and what a great inheritance it had been – God saying – rule over the earth, subdue it and reign it!

Historical Survey – What Happened? In Exodus we read about a man called Moses. He is noted as one of Israel’s greatest leaders – a prophet – a man of God. When he was still an infant, the pharaoh (afraid of a possible uprising/rebellion) ordered all the male children...

Death brings loneliness. It leaves you with a certain coldness, a certain numbness – it leaves you In a place where you don’t feel anything. You feel tired, you feel alone. You keep on thinking about how different things would be if he/she was still here. Death brings...

The fact I would like to illustrate here is that our endurance is not merely a matter of faith. And sometimes life is too much for us to handle.

This is where we as Christians need to be vigilant.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the twelve step fellowships – my recovery from drug and alcohol abuse was a process of healing – and I learned a lot as a church leader by going through and taking others through this process.

I would have never been able to conquer my active addiction without the support found in these rooms.

And we as Christians can learn a lot from this approach – rather than just saying “God will never give you more than you can handle”, we can journey with our brothers and sisters. We can lend a helping hand. We can sit and listen. We can join in prayer. We can be there. We can be present. Presence over preaching. Practical Christianity rather than feel-good catchphrases.

We realize that in all these situations we are directed Godward.

When counselling a client we need to realize that change does not happen over night. Therapy of any kind is a process.

Developed by Prochaska, Di Clemente and colleagues first proposed the Transtheoretical model in the late 1970’s and drew from various theories and schools of psychotherapy. It evolved as they studied and compared the experiences of smokers who quit on their own and those who required further treatment. It was an attempt to understand why certain individuals were capable of quitting on their own.

In the end it was established that people quit smoking when they are ready to do so.

The Transtheoretical Model focuses on the processes and stages involved in the decision making of the individual. It can be seen as a model of intentional change.

The processes of change, conceptualized and developed by Prochaska et al, describes the overt and covert activities that the individual engages in when trying to change a negative behaviour, unlearn a bad habit or facilitate change in their lives.

These processes can be seen as broad categories of action and can consist of various interventions, techniques and methods to get where you are going.

Categorizing these substances also helps us understand the health risks and impact of these substances as drugs of a similar chemical composition will often, but not always, have similar side-effects, symptoms and risks. The approaches to treatment is often also impacted by these categories. The stimulant addict’s program will differ from the opiate addict or alcoholic.

In this post we will have a look at the different categories used to classify drugs of abuse.

Regardless of how the addiction may present itself, it almost certainly looks the same – whether the addiction is a chemical dependence such as drugs or alcohol, or a behaviour such as masturbation, shopping, cybersex or gaming – it almost always has the following characteristics, also known as the three C’s…

I was a preacher and worship pastor and at the same time I was a drug addict and alcoholic – until 7 years ago – when the love of God brought me back into the fold in the most unlikely way.

Jesus says: come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. (Matt 11:28-30)

If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, if you are broken and weary, if you are still suffering in silence – know that you are not alone.