Freedom from Addictions for Life - Reformers Unanimous

Freedom from Addictions for Life - Reformers Unanimous

Prescription Drugs and Teenagers

This is the latest from Dr. Crabbs blog.  It is a must read for all teens, parents, and those working with the addicted.

Prescription Drugs and Teenagers

by drcrabb on January 2, 2012

Prescription Drugs and Teenagers

A Dangerous New High

When Amanda was 14 years of age she had the last of four sinus surgeries. The best part of the whole process, according to Amanda, was that she received hydrocodone or a common pain pill called Vicodin, Lortab, Norco, etc, every time. She took some of the pills for her pain and brought the rest, along with some medications she’d stolen from her mom, to parties at her friends’ houses. There, she and her friends would get high on those and other prescription drugs. Forget BYOB. For some teenagers, parties today are of the bring-your-own-pills variety.

Teenagers today will bring whatever they can get their hands on: Vicodin, Percocet, Percodan, Oxycontin and other pain killers; antianxiety medications like Xanax, Valium, Klonopin, Ativan; stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin; and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Then they begin the dangerous game of prescription drug and OTC roulette.

These gatherings are called “pharming parties”, and they can be destructive and deadly. These parties are taking place in living rooms and basements across the country. At some parties, the teenagers toss their pharmaceutical offerings into a communal bowl, called the “salad bowl”, grab an assortment as if the pills were M&M’s and knock them back, usually with alcohol. At others parties it can be more organized, with bartering and negotiations. Someone will say, “I have an X, which is harder to get. You will have to give me three of what you have to get one of what I have.”

Alarming New Trend

The abuse of prescription drugs, a practice known as “pharming”, is rampant among middle and high school students. According to a 2005 report from Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), 2.3 million kids ages 12-17 abused prescription drugs in 2003. More recent studies indicate that the trend is escalating.

What’s frightening is that so many kids are doing it and parents are completely unaware. This problem is not on the parent’s radar. But it should be: A National Institute on Drug Abuse survey estimates there’s been a 25% increase each year since 2001 in the use of sedatives and barbiturates among high school seniors.

These “pharming parties” are the cool thing to do according to many teenagers. Technology, in part, is to blame. Technology is allowing kids to communicate more often and quicker making the passing on of information easier.

Kids aren’t looking for any specific medication. Conventional wisdom used to be that it was an Oxycontin problem. Most authorities know now that it has nothing to do with the brand of medication. Teenagers admit that the newer the product, the more interesting. Kids will take it and figure out how to mix it with other things to get a different kind of high. Kids want to know how to get high quicker, faster and they want to find the best buzz. That’s why they combine the drugs with one another and with the alcohol and illegal drugs such as marijuana – sometimes with fatal results.

Deadly Doses

Approximately five years ago, when I was practicing medicine in the state of Michigan, I lost an 18 year old male patient to the lethal combination of beer and methadone, a potent prescription narcotic.
The patient was staying with friends for the night. He talked with his parents over the phone around 10:30PM. This was the last time his parents would ever talk to him. His friends found him unconscious the next morning. They rushed him to the Emergency Room where I got involved in his care. We worked on him for over 90 minutes but he finally went into cardiac arrest and died.
Prescription drugs are pretty safe when used correctly. But kids take risks without fully comprehending the consequences. An example: Oxycontin. As prescribed, it’s a perfectly legitimate pain medication. As the pill dissolves, it gradually releases its payload, for long lasting pain relief. But teens will often crush the pill before ingesting it or even snorting it, releasing all the medication at once. One pill could lead to overdose.

Even worse, kids rarely take just one pill. Many of the drugs at a “pharming party” are depressants, which slow down brain activity. Now add alcohol, another depressant, to the mix. All decrease brain activity, and they enhance one another. So a Vicodin-Ambien-Xanax-booze combination can be extremely dangerous. It can do more than put you to sleep – you can be put to sleep permanently.
If you combine depressants with stimulants, on the other hand, heartbeat, blood pressure and other systems in the body will start careening up and down. The heart doesn’t like this. When you start pushing the heart around, there could be the danger of arrhythmia. It could progress to a point where the heart is working inefficiently, and then you may have trouble. Things may start collapsing or stopping.

As a physician I am concerned that these young people are taking these drugs while their brains are still forming. These kids are in a fairly critical stage of brain development. Their decision-making skills are being honed. When you disturb that physiology with pharmacology over and over again, the brain may not reach its capacity and may not mature fully. Their ability to make decisions and process information will be compromised, maybe for the rest of their lives.

Why Prescription Drugs?

About 5 million school-age children take a prescription drug every day for some sort of behavior disorder. As a result, kids learn at an early age that if you take a pill, you get a mood change. And many teens view “pharming” as safe, since the drugs are of pharmaceutical quality. This is a frightening myth that can have fatal consequences.

Of course, OTC drugs are also welcome at “pharming parties.” Kids abuse cold medications made with dextromethorphan, or DXM. Instead of 1-2 pills recommended, they’ll take 2-3 boxes’ worth at a time, to create a drug-induced psychosis.

What About the Parents?

Most parents have no idea that their child is addicted. When some parents find out that their kids are abusing prescription drugs, breathe a sigh of relief. They think, Oh, at least my child isn’t smoking pot or doing heroin.

But prescription drugs can be more potent than street drugs. One in ten 12^th graders admits to using Vicodin at least once in the last year. If I said one in ten kids is using heroin, people would go through the roof. But while heroin sold on the street might be 10-40% opiate, pharmaceutical-grade Vicodin could be 10x more powerful an opiate than heroin.

Spiraling out of Control

Many kids are taking these drugs because they find life hard to take. Many are also proud of their drinking and drugging activities. They also think that young people can’t get addicted and that young people will not go through withdrawals – obviously these statements are false.

I want people who are getting into drugs to know how bad it can get and to let them know that there is a way out!

The Fool (Part 4)

The Fool

This is the fourth part of the Bible study, The Fool.  It is a look at what God teaches concerning the fool in the Book of Proverbs.  Over 80 times the word fool or a derivative is used in the Book of Proverbs.  By definition a fool is anyone living life as if there is no God.  

Here is a classic example of a proverb.  One of the definitions of a proverb is a description by means of a comparison.  Here is one of many comparisons in Proverbs between the wise and the fool. 

Proverbs 3:35 (KJV) ³⁵ The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.

The first part of this parable states that the wise shall inherit glory.  If we are to better understand this proverb and the book of proverbs in general we must understand the definition of the word wise.  Who is the wise?  What is wisdom? 

The word wisdom is ḥokmâh  in the Old Testament and refers to the mental and physical skills of craftsmen, sailors, singers, mourners, administrators, counselors, and others; but other times, as in Proverbs, it focuses on the application of moral and ethical principles that result in skillful, godly living. A person with this wisdom has “expertise” in godly living.

A.W. Tozer said this about wisdom:  “Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it. Wisdom is, in fact, the practical side of moral goodness. As such, it is found in its fullness only in God. He alone is naturally and entirely and invariable wise.”

Wisdom is living live obediently to God’s Word.  It is knowing what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.  The wise man is learning God’s Word and most importantly learning to live life according to the Bible. He is applying the teachings of God’s Word to his daily life. 

This proverb states that the wise shall inherit glory.  An inheritance is an estate received by a child from his parents.  In Scripture to inherit means what we receive from God based on us being His children. 

Here in this proverb, inherit simply refers to what one receives if they are wise.  What the wise will inherit is glory.

Glory is defined as weighty. A weighty person is someone in society that is honorable, impressive, worthy of respect.   

To summarize the first part of this proverb a person living by the word of God receives honor and respect. 

This is a proverb or a comparison.  The other half of the proverb reads but shame shall be the promotion of fools.

The word shame means disgrace, dishonor and indicates a lowering of social position. 

The word promotion means to raise, to uplift.

To sum up this half of the parable:  The person living life as if there is no God brings shame, disgrace, and dishonor to themselves. 

4.            The fool brings shame and disgrace to themselves.

The Fool (Part 3)

The Fool

This is the third part of the Bible study, The Fool.  It is a look at what God teaches concerning the fool in the Book of Proverbs.  Over 80 times the word fool or a derivative is used in the Book of Proverbs.  By definition a fool is anyone living life as if there is no God.  

The next unique occurrence of the word fool appears in Proverb 1:32.  However, unlike most proverbs it requires an understanding of preceding verses to gain an accurate read on verse 32. 

Proverbs 1:20-33 (KJV)
²⁰ Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: ²¹ She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, ²² How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? ²³ Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. ²⁴ Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; ²⁵ But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: ²⁶ I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; ²⁷ When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. ²⁸ Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: ²⁹ For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: ³⁰ They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. ³¹ Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. ³² For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. ³³ But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Wisdom here is personified as a woman.  This woman is crying in the streets begging all to listen to her.  God has placed in all of us a conscious that knows right from wrong.  Sure, this conscious can be seared by our actions, it can be influenced by the world around us, but it is still there.  There are certain things that all of us know is wrong.  Doesn’t everyone know it is wrong to murder?  But God goes beyond just our conscious to inform us of what is right to do.  Wisdom, as stated here, is heard in the streets.  It is available to all who desire her.  Wisdom is not only a voice seeking to be heard, but wisdom is chastening us when we do wrong.  Wisdom is trying to teach us from our mistakes. 

What is man’s response to the voice of wisdom?  Well, if we are fools, we hate knowledge, we refused, we have not listened, and we have not learned from her correction.  In other words, the fool is living live contrary to what wisdom teaches.  The fool is living life not listening, obeying, or seeking what God would have them to do.

What happens to the person who does not heed the voice of wisdom?  What happens to the person who does not change their ways?  This passage is teaching that eventually our choices catches up to us.  Sin always starts slowly in one’s life and like a snowball gathers speed and size as it continues down its path. 

The teaching of our text verse (32) is this.  The fool’s actions have caught up with him. If it is because of their naivety or because of their prosperity (interestingly enough the close definition in our language is stupidity), their actions will catch up to them.  There lifestyle ignoring the attempts of God to live life wisely has consequences.   Scripture teaches us in Galatians 6:7 (KJV) 7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The fool will suffer for their actions.  The turning away (their sinful actions) will slay (destroy) them.

The blessings of life are found within the boundaries of God’s Word.  Too many people do not like the boundaries of God and exchange them for their own personal freedom.  However, when one removes the boundaries they gain bondage.  In other words, one exchanges the boundaries of God’s Word for the bondage of sin.  God’s boundaries are not meant to limit our pleasure and enjoyment of live, but to protect us from the bondage of sin. 

The greatness of Proverbs lies in its conciseness.  Verse 32 and 33 are a summary of chapter 1.  Simply, live like a fool and it will catch up to you.  It will wreck havoc in your life.  Live wisely and avoid the fear of sin’s consequences.  The wise will be protected from the maladies of sin.  He will be at ease and at peace. 

3.  The Fool will Face the Consequences of His Actions.

Quotes for the New Year

Quotes for the New Year

Here are some quotes for the New Year.  Enjoy!

Pastor Curt

Be always at War with your vices, at peace with your neighbors,
and let each New Year find you a better person.

Benjamin Franklin

Glory to God in highest heaven,Who unto man His Son hath given;While angels sing with tender mirth,A glad new year to all the earth..

Martin Luther

Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front and take no interest in the things those were end are past.

By Henry Ward Beecher

New day, new blessings. Don’t let yesterday’s failures ruin the beauty of today. Blessings of God are new every morning. Today has its own promise of love, forgiveness, joy and success.Happy new year!.

Anonymous

I do not advise that we end the year on a somber note. The march, not the dirge, has ever been the music of Christianity. If we are good students in the school of life, there is much that the years have to teach us. But the Christian is more than a student, more than a philosopher. He is a believer, and the object of his faith makes the difference, the mighty difference. Of all persons the Christian should be best prepared for whatever the New Year brings. He has dealt with life at its source. In Christ he has disposed of a thousand enemies that other men must face alone and unprepared. He can face his tomorrow cheerful and unafraid because yesterday he turned his feet into the ways of peace and today he lives in God. The man who has made God his dwelling place will always have a safe habitation.

A.W. Tozer - The Warfare of the Spirit

Look not back on yesterday
So full of failure and regret;
Look ahead and seek God's way--
All sin confessed you must forget.

Dennis DeHaan

If this is to be a Happy New Year, a year of usefulness, a year in which we shall live to make this earth better, it is because God will direct our pathway. How important then, to feel our dependence upon Him!

Matthew Simpson

As we grow older in life, years somehow seem to shorten and New Year's Day approaches with an ever increasing tempo. The more mature we get, the more we realize that time is only relative; how we live means more than how long we live. Haply also we do not live by years, but by days. In His wisdom God does not show us all that lies ahead. So we enter a new year to live it day by day. What is past is past. Today we start anew, and what we do today will make our life for tomorrow. Chin up, shoulders straight, eyes agleam, let us salute the New Year, and each day let us follow more faithfully, more courageously, more daringly the lead of our great Captain who bids us follow Him.

William Thomson Hanzsche

Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will.

Jonathan Edwards

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Gilbert Keith G. K. Chesterton

No matter what the ruin of any life may be there is always a place to start. There is a place where you must begin. You need to apologize to someone. You need to go to somebody and straighten something out. You need to stop some practice that is wrong. You need to open yourself up to counsel. You need to seek advice. You need to get some guidance. There is always a first step. That is where you must begin.

And whatever you pray, pray that God will give you the grace, the strength and the determination to take that step. Then, the process of recovery has begun.

Ray C. Stedman

I said to a man who stood at the gate of the year: "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown"; and he replied, "Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way!" quoting from a poem by M. L. Harkins.

King George VI

A New Year's Prayer

May God make your year a happy one!
Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
But by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
But by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,
But by keeping your face bright, even in the shadows;
Not by making your life always pleasant,
But by showing you when people and their causes need you most,

God's love, peace, hope and joy to you for the year ahead.

Anonymous

I pray that the Lord might crown this year with His goodness and in the coming one give you a hallowed dare-devil spirit in lifting the biting sword of Truth, consuming you with a passion that is called by the cultured citizen of Christendom 'fanaticism', but known to God as that saintly madness that led His Son through bloody sweat and hot tears to agony on a rude Cross---and Glory!

Jim Elliot

I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of His. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I'm finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colourless dreams tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.,

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labour by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions few, my guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problems recognizing me - my banner will be clear!

Anonymous African Pastor - Nailed to his wall.

To all my faithful friends, may you be found living this New Year in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit of God and enjoying His sweet presence daily in your life.

In Christ,

Pastor Curt

The Fool (Part 2)

The Fool

There are 36 references to the word fool in Proverbs alone and over 80 references when you consider its derivatives.  Most of Proverbs deals with comparisons between two people, the wise and the foolish.  

The first mention of the word fool in the book of Proverbs is:

Proverbs 1:7  ⁷ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

As we mentioned in the last lesson, there are three Hebrew words for the word fool in Proverbs.  Here the Hebrew word ʾĕwl is used. The word ʾĕwl  means one who is arrogant and flippant as well as mentally dull. He is coarse and hardened in his ways. This word is used 19 times in Proverbs.

The word despise is the Hebrew word bûz, “to hold in contempt, to belittle, to ridicule”
The word wisdom is the Hebrew word  ḥokmâ and has two primary meanings.  The first refers to the mental and physical skills of craftsmen, sailors, singers, mourners, administrators, counselors, and others.  The second focuses on the application of moral and ethical principles that result in skillful, godly living. 

The word instruction is the Hebrew word mûsār and denotes correction which results in education.

If we put all the words we defined together we can come up with the meaning of this verse.  This verse is teaching that a fool is an arrogant hardened person who belittles and ridicules the necessity of learning how to live life according to Biblical principle and to learn from the correction given by others.

Simply worded, a fool is a person who sees no need of learning or living life according to the Bible and its principles. 

                1.            A Fool is a person who sees no need of learning or living life according to the Bible and its principles.

Are we fools in any areas of our lives?  Are there areas of life where we do not strife to live according to God’s Word?  Are we willing to receive instruction?  Are we growing, learning, and skillfully applying God’s Word to our lives? 

The Fool (Part 1)

The Fool

Erasmus said; Fools are without number.  Certainly all of us at times are foolish. Jean Francois Delavigne said; Ever since Adam fools have been in the majority.  The Bible mentions the word fool 36 times in the book of Proverbs alone.  So, who is a fool, and what does it mean to be a fool? 

In Proverbs three words are rendered fool, kesîl referring to the dull or obstinate one, referring not to mental deficiency, but to a propensity to make wrong choices. ʾewîl refers to moral insolence (rude, arrogant, haughty, prideful), and nābāl to the boorish man of mean disposition.
So who is a fool?  A fool is anyone whose choices, behavior, and attitude are void of God. A fool is anyone living life and making decisions as if there is no God. 
Psalm 14:1 (KJV) ¹ The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
In this study we will see what God teaches in the book of Proverbs concerning the fool and his behavior. 
1.            Fools Commit Immorality
A man choosing adultery with an immoral woman is likened unto a fool bound in chains being taken to prison.
Proverbs 7:21-22 (KJV) ²¹ With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. ²² He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
The same could be said of a woman choosing to get involved with an immoral man.  She would be foolish.

Have you ever thought about how many problems in life are caused by people disobeying God when it comes to their sexual behavior?  Many relationship and financial problems are directly related to immoral acts.  The old adage you cannot win in sin is true.  Sin has consequences. 

Thomas Watson said; What fools are they who, for a drop of pleasure, drink a sea of wrath.  This quote would apply to many wrong choices we make, but specifically to those involving immoral acts. 
It is interesting to note how God chooses to describe people taken in immorality.  He compares them to a dumb animal unaware they are headed towards the slaughterhouse or to a person bound in chains being taken to prison. 

The question this passage leads us to ask ourselves is; Are we immoral?  If we are, what are we going to do about it?  The Bible says in Romans 6:1-2a  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid!

Matthew Henry said; Those that disobey the commandments of God do so foolishly for themselves. Sin is folly, and sinners are the greatest fools.

The first act in Proverbs ascribed to a fool is immorality.