Corridor to Freedom



1. Become Whole-istically Mindful of Yourself

·         Human beings are God-designed pneuma-psycho-socio-somatic creatures

o   The spiritual, psychological, social, somatic elements make up the whole person

o   When a person is affected by anything, the whole person is affected in every aspect of the whole being. Therefore, addressing every aspect of the person is necessary to healthy living.

·         Admit that you have (or are headed toward) a problem.

·         If you do not recognize your need and want to change, the problem will deepen.

o   How is ________ affecting your life?

o   What would you like your life to be like?

2. Christ-Centered Soul Care

·         Truth gives the best opportunity to make the healthiest possible choices.

·         CCSC will help you recognize the truth and mold your perspective accordingly.

·         Change can be difficult, complex, and scary.

·         When you realize that you actually need and want to change, it becomes easier to make a commitment to a plan.

·         Decide to Change.

3. Medical Help

·         Your body may have adapted and developed strong tolerance and/or dependence. A thorough physical exam and consultation may be indicated.

·         Sudden abstinence may result in life-threatening symptoms. A doctor should be consulted to determine if medically supervised detoxification (detox) withdrawal symptoms need to be carefully monitored.

4. Realize Pneuma-Psycho-Socio-Somatic Obstacles

·         Advantages of healthy living are great. Meanwhile, spiritual strongholds, emotional pain, self-deception, social environment, cultural pressures, neurobiological factors, and physical pain can present extended challenges.

o   We all need help. Not only is there no shame in admitting it, it is a blessing to pursue participation.

5. Plan and Take Action

·         The best plans come to nothing if not followed through.

·         Plans should be specific, detailing the old behaviors that need to be extinguished and the new behaviors to adopt.

·         CCSC will help you establish obtainable goals, develop a plan for change, and you navigate the path in a productive way.

·         Your SCP will help you implement the plan and assist you in taking each step toward change.

·         Since, old habits and behaviors take strategy and effort to change, your SCP will also help you review and address the plan as necessary.

6. Sticking to the Plan

·         Perspectives founded in the truth must be developed and pursued to implement new behaviors.

·         Each new action is important—investigation, implementation, and practice.

·         Consistency—healthy choices with follow-through over time—reinforces healthy perspective and sustains healthy growth.

7. Accountability

·         Change is a process, and old habits die hard.

·         Day to day personal accountability in supportive healthy loving relationships will help sustain your growth.

o   God created human beings strong enough to adapt, yet fragile enough to need Him and one another to implement and sustain healthy living

 



PT

Progressional Transformation

Elements

 

This is a diagram of laminin, the agent that holds the structures of the physical body together so that is does not slump to the ground like wet concrete. Below are the elements that make us whole.

I.                   Recognize and admit that your own strength is insufficient for healthy living

II.                Internalize the truth—you need help that exceeds human capacities, yet Jesus exceeds your needs

III.             Commit to and keep choosing to follow Jesus loving God—Growing Healthy—Living it out well toward others

IV.            Pray to God to help you find a trustworthy Christian Mentor to help on your journey

V.               Make a searching, fearless inventory of yourself

VI.            Become ready to progress by confessing to God, to yourself, and at least to that one other person the exact nature and root of your wrongs

VII.         Humbly continue the process of progress with study, prayer, and contemplation with God in His Word, solitarily and with others, to live it out

VIII.      Prayerfully make a list of all the people you have harmed and prepare your heart to ask forgiveness from and make amends to each one as possible

IX.            Schedule dates & times and meet with every person

X.               Continue the process of progress in elements III, VI & VII, repeat elements VIII& IX as necessary, and never lose sight of the others

 

Life can be hard Because...

Life can be hard because:

1.     None of us is perfect

2.     The world we live in is corrupt

3.     Unseen enemies of our souls work to gain leverage over our lives

Healthy loving relationship is the essence of life. However, corrupt human nature and the ungodly predominate world culture entice us toward greed and death. Additionally, the enemies of our souls strive to initiate, augment and perpetuate wreckage to healthy loving relationships and their potentials. If allowed, this “unholy-triad” will infect you to think that you’re more heavily burdened and harshly attacked than most, and that God is apathetically watching your struggles from afar. It seeks to steal genuine peace and joy, murder compassion towards others, and destroy vibrant passion for healthy community. Its infection is purposed to cultivate and multiply deceptions, misunderstandings, frustrations, rage, anxiety, and unforgiveness; creating unhealthy divisions; blinding eyes to the truth of God’s grace. Infected persons, families, and communities direct their hearts to idolatrous lust after comfort and the “quick fix” creating gods of entertainment to “love” and “serve”. The full course of the infection culminates in a miserable wreckage of existence. If you think it can't happen to you, you're definitely, already infected.

Every one of us struggles with some combination of character flaws, social environment, economic status, and interpersonal dynamics in the work place or at home. This fact does not minimize the significance of personal struggles. However, God does see our struggles. He is not apathetic; He cares deeply, stretches out His hand to the afflicted and draws near to us when we draw near to Him.



God said, “It is not good that man should be alone.” Meanwhile, loneliness is a modern epidemic. God’s original design for humankind—God-given purpose—is to enter healthy loving relationship with Him, grow in it a healthy love for self, and live it out toward one another. Our society, as a whole, is far from His original design. In order to recover from and resist “infection”, we must exercise ourselves toward transformation with Jesus Christ and pursue God-given purpose on purpose within the family of faith as each member does its share to add to the health and strength of relationships qualitatively and quantitatively. From that center of support and strength we must fight against the “unholy triad” with the grace and knowledge in which we grow and reach out with Jesus, to deliver our communities from the sepsis.

God created us strong enough to make necessary changes, yet weak enough to need communion with Him and one another. We all need help to live healthy. Jesus meets all our needs in healthy loving relationships. Healthy loving relationship grows in the cultivation of trust and hope, and brings healing to infected wounds that would otherwise keep us from the necessary vulnerability of honesty.



Jesus calls us, in struggles and triumphs, to band together in healthy loving relationships with brothers and sisters in Him. Together we learn to follow His lead more closely. Within the family of faith, we grow and are strengthened by loving, interpersonal interaction in spirit and in truth, in Him. Together, we overcome and resist ungodly perspectives of the unholy triad, and from that center of strength and confidence we reach out effectively, loving others.

Life Recovery

Unhealthy choices tear our relationships and, thereby, our lives apart.  

...all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

The harm caused to relationships by others and by ourselves can created wounds, pain, and suffering.

The damage can exceed our ability to recover on our own.

We need the Lord's help always. Sometimes God's guidance is to seek His assistance through one of His children.

 Our God-given purpose is to enter and grow in healthy loving relationship with God, which produces healthy love for ourselves, wherewith we increase and multiply healthy loving relationship with others (see Mark 12:29-31).
...I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life...”(Deuteronomy 30:19)
Healthy loving relationship is never automatic, but requires healthy choices that are followed through with loving efforts. Genuine love mutually shared in healthy loving relationship is the essence of life.

 Honest perspective earnestly founded in the truth brings us to healthy repentace and forgiveness whereby healing permits growth and carries the best potential for reconciliation.

 The health and strength grown in Christ multiplies among the members of the family fo faith in their loving, personal interaction.

 CCSC's Life Recovery is guidance towards increasing strength through transforming your perspective according to the truth and help clarify a process of making the healthiest possible choices for your active progress.

In that healthy condition, giving and receiving loving support in the family of faith brings a multiplication of peace and joy that may be passed on to others outside that center of strength and confidence, even when the tribulations press in.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Discipleship Care

see Ephesians 4:11-12

A pastor is a child of God who the Lord equips to listen well with brothers and sisters in the family of faith; to lend assistance along this journey of life in Christ.  

 see Matthew 28:19-20

 

The elemental definition of disciple:

DISCIPLE Someone who follows another person or another way of life and who submits himself to the discipline (teaching) of that leader or way. ^[1]

Jesus Christ is the leader. Growth in Him is the only way of true life; anything less is a decaying existence.

see Mark 12:29-31

 

Pastoral Care in Discipleship is the work of a pastor coming alongside his or her brothers and sisters in Christ assisting them to identify the most important questions that need to be asked in their circumstances, then listening together to the Lord's guidance for the health, growth, strength, and multiplication of healthy loving relationships.

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^[1] Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (384). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.