GLENN'S PODCASTS!

ADDICTION- OR NEW YEAR & NEW LIFE!

From time to time I think about my past. It was laced with drug abuse and small-time drug dealing.

One of the sorriest situations living that way was that on several occasions I didn't know where I was, how I’d gotten there or what I had done the day or the night before.

People could have accused me of murder and I would have had no defense.

When you’re loaded to the extent I was you just don’t know what’s going on and you may well have really hurt someone or done a terrible deed but have no memory of it and little control of yourself due to severe drug abuse.

On the street where we live I see a lot of sad people who are working. They don’t work good jobs, but they are certainly working and most probably think their job is a pretty cool one.

They have power, money and often a gun or two. They have extended familes. They have reputations. They live a life full of danger, trust, mistrust and sometimes paranoia. I'm sure they get off on the excitement of their "gig".

They're often extremely deluded by what they consider great gains and even the element of power that they have.

I’m talking about drug dealers and those they control to conduct “business”...

So many people are lovers of pleasure rather than loves of God, just as the Bible says it would be in the last days, so it is.

In many cases they truly have more of what they want, get it faster and some even survive though it can be a bloody mess. Of course this is not only due to what they face in the gang or on the street. Prisons and the horrible things that go on in them is a whole ‘nother topic, but gangs and other crazies in jails are part of the lifestyle.

The problem isn’t only that these people are ruled by the devil as well as their own lusts and fears… A deeper problem is that they pass pleasure in the form of powder, juice and smoke to people who are in an equally tragic state. The whole culture is toxic.

Pleasure, getting high, a rush, the sense of euphoria people get from drugs is real. It’s not merely a dream or a joke. I’ve done it and know exactly what it’s about.

Addiction is a mess. It’s a horrible sickness and it’s frankly demonic. Whether people are willing to deal with it or not, addiction is exactly what drug dealers and their runners are looking for. It assures profit, lots of profit. Whether addicts survive or not regardless of the pain and anguish inflicted on them or their spouse, kids or anyone else isn’t even on the radar for those who make a living by other’s destruction.

The closest thing to hell I’ll ever experience (thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ) is the incredible pain and suffering I lived through in my drug addiction days. I did every drug every way you can do them with two exceptions and the only reason I did very little cocaine or heroin is due to the fact that coke was hard to find and very expensive… and I was right on the edge of using needles with H right a the point I became a follower of Jesus Christ. I knew I'd o.d. as I'd already done so with other dope. The only thing left for me was death.

None of us can expect to put the devil out of business in this life, nor can we expect greed, money, power and lust-driven dealers and their sad pawns and puppets to move away from the crime, sin and death of drug peddling until and unless they as individuals repent and find real life in the only eternal Person it can be found.

But we can pray. We can pray for dealers and users. We can surrender our own lives and desires for quick pleasure or “pain relief” in the form of drugs, to God. We can and many of us will or already have!

I have often said that reality In Christ is FAR better than the hallucinations and lies as well as lower-case hell I lived in my own days of addiction. Walking down a street, noticing a tree and knowing if I walk up and touch it that it’s truly there is a rush I only experienced after several years of self-induced misery.

It’s a sick and hurting world. It’s a grief to me and countless others that some are still living in a sewer of their own creation, drugs the key element in their near-total lack of self-control.

Dope, alchohol, porn, whatever... same story, same lousy, tragic pain. There is only one continual, even eternal way out.

There is hope, one absolute and real hope. His Name is Jesus Christ.

None of us can serve two masters. Mine is Jesus Christ, and He has conquered hell and death. I have also, because of Him and His sacrifice!

Some folks make a “living” by sponsoring death. What a sad and eternal shock when hell is what they discover at the end of the road.

We reap what we sow. Or we repent, follow Jesus and reap His mercy. Those are the ONLY two options.

I write this on New Year’s Eve. 2005. God only knows how many people will overdose or otherwise bring horror, pain and misery upon themselves and those who love them this very night, world-wide. Yet God is present to all who call on Him.

There is no other Savior, no other Salvation, no other Lord but Jesus Christ. May you and yours know Him, love Him and follow Him. He is waiting with patience, love and grace for “whoever will”.

He is coming. Where are you going tonight?

NEW YEAR FOR "?"

What will you and I become in 2006? What will our most far-reaching choices produce this year?

Will we choose God's way- more in accord with His Word- or rather figure on getting His "rubber stamp" on our personal dreams and desires?

Will we personally cultivate and seek ways to nurture peace within ourselves and between our neighbors? Will growth in serenity become more of a target for us than it has been?

Will our ability as well as actual accomplishment of forgiveness become more a trait in our personality in 2006?

Will the truth AND compassion of Jesus loom larger than ever in you and I during the next twelve months?

If Christ IS "Christmas", "New" has everything to do with Life... and the only real, lasting Life we can know is found when our relationship to Jesus is direct, intimate and genuine.

May 2006 be what He desires it to be between Himself and each of us- direct, intimate, genuine.

May each of us share more of Him with those around us... may His love and truth be revealed more in and through us!

Happy New Year :)

Merry CHRISTmas to All!

No matter your troubles, Jesus Christ is the Joy, the Center and Reason for this Holiday Season.

God has blessed each of us in countless ways, regardless of difficulties. May you recongize this and also realize the best of His presence this Advent, throughout Christmas and in the coming new year.

Thank you SO much for your prayers, many kind emails and great chats at GKB and solo shows in '05. Here's looking forward to greater love and sweeter music in '06!

Love in Jesus -Glenn & Wendi, Ed, Roy