Greetings and good morning brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we ponder our lives as we seek to understand the meaning of the story of one who became addicted to love.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Addiction of Love
No man has seen God but if we love one another, God dwells within us and his love is perfected in us. ” First John, Chapter 4, Verse 12.
Brother and sisters, in today broadcast, we tell the story of young man who had become addicted to drugs and how the power of love eventually turned him into an addict of love. The story unfolds this way.
A young man who has become weary of living a routine existence with its unceasing demands, and never ending drudgery, sought to find a life without demand and drudgery. Tired of climbing the hill of responsibility, he slid down the hill of irresponsibility as he rebelliously listened to the propaganda of evil, and the error of lies. He listened to those who promised a life of unearned ease, and continuous pleasure. They told him about a drug that opens the doors of heaven. They told him this drug would solve all of his problems.
Responding to a dare, he experimented with this drug, and experienced a small temporary elevation of his mood, and his spirits, and a large permanent increase in the problems of his life. As the stresses in his life continued to increase, he found that he resorted to the use of this drug more often, and found the temporary relief that he sought. As he continued to use this drug, he thought that he was indeed opening the doors of heaven more and more, never dreaming that in reality, he was opening the doors of hell wide. He deceived himself into believing that no harm was being done, that he could stop the use of these drugs anytime that he wished.
He continued to ignore the fact that while he was under the influence of these drugs, he was unable to carry out his duties. Even as he found himself increasing the frequency of this drug use, he continued to deceive himself, and to disregard his responsibilities. At last after one of his all time highs, he reached an all time low as he reached the point where all of his time was being spent in either seeking the means to acquire the drugs or actually taking the drugs.
Now he had dropped all of his responsibilities, even as he had dropped into hell. He was now forced to steal from anyone to maintain his habit. Almost without his knowing, he had become an addict, and his life was now far worst off than it was before he started the use of drugs as he awaken into the harsh reality of his own creating.
And now began the long sorrowful experience in the painful reality of disappointing error and evil. He came to truly understand the meaning of that saying, "the evil that I would not do, I do, and the good that I would do, I do not" as he vowed never to use the drugs over and over again only to realize failure. Finally he enrolled in a drug rehabilitation program to kick the habit. During his stay in this program, he finally got off the drug, but found that the desire for these drugs would not leave him. No matter what he did or tried, the desire was always present.
Somehow he could not seem to shake the desire for that temporary high with its permanent consequences. He found that the stresses of his life were even harder to bear now than ever before, and under the onslaught of an acute crisis, he succumbed to the desire in a moment of many moments of weakness, and found that once more he was back in the arms of the responsibility killer-drugs. Desperate he went back to the rehabilitation center where he finally got off the drugs again. This vicious cycle went on over and over again. He felt as if he were on a tread mill, going nowhere fast.
One night while in the depths of his despair, after almost killing himself from an overdose of drugs, an evangelist came around, and told him about God. The evangelist told him that God loved him, and that Satan was the reason for his difficulty. After casting out Satan in Jesus' name, the evangelist left, advising him to join a church as soon as he got out of the hospital, and to be sure to read his newly acquired bible. After getting out of the hospital, the drug addict went down, and joined a church that he had heard about from the evangelist that was full of the spirit.
He went to church religiously, read his bible daily, and had almost memorized the whole book in certain sections. But still the desire for drugs continued to increase in his mind, and it seemed that the more he read his bible, and went to church, the desire for drugs got even stronger. Even after the elders of the church prayed for him, he still could not get well as the desire for drugs remained even stronger than before. This was a hard case.
Finally one night during a revival at church, he sat down beside a little old lady. The old lady could not read or write. In fact she was blind. She understood very little of the sermon that was preached, but she did enjoy the singing and the fellowship. As a last resort, he began talking to this little old lady, telling her abut his troubles and his failures.
He was about to lose faith in God when he ran into this little old lady. He said that he had searched for God in the bible and the church, had in fact searched for Him everywhere, but could not find Him anywhere. He said that he felt sure that if he cold only find God, and tell Him about his difficulties, he was sure that God would deliver Him.
She said to him: "I do not understand all the philosophy and the explanation of God preached from the pulpit. I don't even know what is in the scripture, but I know what ought to be in there. My son, she said, God is spirit, and God is love. God is the spirit of divine love, unselfish love. To acquire the power of God, you must acquire the power of love. To find God you must become like Him. You have tried everything, but now, I dare you to try love, to love unselfishly. Your problem is not that you can’t find God, but that you don’t know him. The finding of God is simultaneous with the desire for the same."
After the church service the drug addict thought about his conversation with the little old lady long into the lonely pain filled hours of the night. Never having been one to back down from a dare, he boldly took her up on it. He dared to show loving kindness to someone in true need whom he knew could not return the favor. My, he said, after doing the good deed, "that really felt good," but after a little while, the effect soon wore off. So he said there is probably nothing to that. But whenever he felt bad, he noticed that if he helped someone truly in need that he always felt better, and the urge for the drugs would disappear.
Gradually, he began to participate in these loving acts of mercy more frequently, and gradually the desire for drugs returned more and more infrequently. As time passed by, and as he continued these loving acts, he noticed that it became harder and harder for him to ignore some struggling soul. When he did ignore some struggling soul, he felt terrible. He began to look forward with ever heightening eagerness and pleasurable anticipation to help some soul in distress.
Sometimes he could not wait until some struggling soul came across his path, and would often go on missions of merciful rescue to those caught in the jaws of darkness, and being eaten alive by the teeth of evil. The desire for drugs had been replaced by the desire to love, Finally he had awaken in the morning of truth's beautiful light. He had become a love addict, and he loved every true, beautiful, and good moment of it. He was hooked on love.
This concludes today’s message on understanding the addiction of love. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about while you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
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