Peace And Acting Out Are Not Compatible

“And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:15-16 (NIV)

I miss my brothers in Christ in the men’s purity ministry, which I helped for many years until the spring of 2024. That was when the Becomelects ministry started and I had to focus on making disciples for our Lord Jesus Christ because time is short.

All these years, God has blessed me with great fellowship and friendship. Even though we don’t see each other now, I pray for them daily and look forward to spending eternity with these brothers and our Lord Jesus Christ when the time comes. Those weekly fellowship meetings were not just regular men getting together to chat. Those were discipleship meetings. People came and left, but some stayed and became disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s presence was tangible in every one of those meetings. He is faithful. He was always there when two or more gathered in His name. There were no sugarcoating sins for anyone to feel better about their sins. But there was indeed no judgment because we were all sinners, and our Lord is the only One who judges. We often followed the self-disciplines that we shared in Daily Cross. Those disciplines were not invented to look good for an article’s sake. We know the house built on sand will not stand when trials come. Learning to love and expecting nothing in return was always the mission for these meetings.        

I saw men confess to each other, pray for each other, and share each other’s burdens. There were many tears and joy. It was a safe place to be. Some confessions were very private, and sometimes, not even the families knew. The guys always said “We” with a capital letter because we were in life together. There were many miracles and healings. Men with hearts changed, broken relationships were restored with reconciliation and forgiveness, injuries were healed, and mostly, guys became humble and gentle by trusting and obeying our Lord Jesus Christ.   

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

But not all fellowship ministries are like that.

We have seen many Christian recovery gradually change to follow the world’s standard that is all about mental health. They talk about the brain, the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe and many other parts of the brain. They talk about something they do not understand. They want people to learn to move information from one lobe to another, control it and make it efficient to avoid glitches. They like to teach self-help to focus on the flesh. They say to avoid “HALT” (Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired) at all times so you don’t fall into the temptation to sin. Others said to avoid feeling shame at all times. Do you know that these are all human emotions and reactions of flesh given by God? Without them, we are no different than robots.

Celebrate Recovery and other 12 Steps programs force their participants not to mention “we,” “you,” or “us” because they can be triggers to others. Only “I” is allowed. Prayers to each other are prohibited in their meetings. I went to visit a local Celebrate Recovery group in my city and was called out twice because I used “us”, and “we” as I frequently do.

“You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” Matthew 15:7-9 (NIV)

When we talk about recovering from an injury, we often refer back to a healthy condition before the injury. If our hearts were not right before an addictive behaviour, where do we go back to? Back to the same deceitful heart? All those programs are designed to change behaviour, and the result cannot be permanent. Behaviour change does not equal heart change. Creation needs the Creator, and pottery needs the Potter. The only person who can change our hearts is our Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter how tired or hungry you are, or if you feel lonely or angry; He will give you the peace you need.

So you know, peace and acting out are not compatible.

Becomelects Ministry