{"id":27266,"date":"2010-11-10T20:50:21","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T02:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?page_id=27266"},"modified":"2024-01-12T16:31:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T22:31:00","slug":"round-in-a-circle","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/round-in-a-circle\/","title":{"rendered":"Round in a Circle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h1>Round in a Circle<\/h1>\n<p>by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n<p>It fascinates me how many of Satan&#8217;s traps are circles that spiral out of control.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People smoke tobacco to calm themselves. But the withdrawal of nicotine is jitteriness and anxiety, so the person rushes back to smoke again to remove the very symptoms the drug causes when it leaves his system.<\/li>\n<li>People drink alcohol, sometimes because they are thirsty. But alcohol is a drying agent, which makes a person more thirsty, so they respond by drinking more.<\/li>\n<li>People also use alcohol to lighten their mood, but alcohol causes depression. The person&#8217;s mood isn&#8217;t really lightened, they are just disconnected temporarily from thinking about the problems, so as they come down from the high, they become extra depressed. The problems haven&#8217;t gone away and the alcohol makes them feel more depressed, so they drink more.<\/li>\n<li>People smoke marijuana to deal with stress. However, the withdrawal symptoms of marijuana are stress, anxiety, and paranoia, so the person smokes in a vain attempt to remove the symptoms his pot-smoking causes.<\/li>\n<li>Guys look at pornography to relieve their sexual tension through masturbation. But filling their minds with dirty images increases their sexual arousal, which sends them back to pornography more often.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Over and over I see Satan getting people stuck in a cycle of doing things that cause the very thing they want to &#8220;solve.&#8221; Perhaps it makes the effort to get people to sin less on his part. For most, it never stays constant, the person moves progressively deeper into the cycle; just as you have been doing with the drugs you&#8217;ve been using.<\/p>\n<p>Breaking the cycle is painful at first. &#8220;<em>Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it<\/em>&#8221; (Hebrews 12:11). Sadly, most drug users don&#8217;t like pain. Real or imagined, they avoid facing discomfort. So the circle remains unbroken.<\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t it time to be a man? &#8220;<em>Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed<\/em>&#8221; (Hebrews 12:12-13).<\/p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/judge-jury-executioner\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Letter\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSearching for My Friend\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/seeking-another\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Letter\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Round in a Circle by Jeffrey W. Hamilton It fascinates me how many of Satan&#8217;s traps are circles that spiral out of control. People smoke tobacco to calm themselves. But the withdrawal of nicotine is jitteriness and anxiety, so the person rushes back to smoke again to remove the very symptoms the drug causes when&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25976,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27266","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":65479,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/addictive-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":27266,"position":0},"title":"Addictive Sins","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Addictive Sins Text: Proverbs 23:24-35 Make Your Parents Happy (Proverbs 23:24-25) A righteous son who makes wise decisions makes a father happy. Thus, children should strive to make their parents happy in this way. As we have seen before, this type of exhortation precedes a particularly important section to pay\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83966,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/what-does-the-bible-say-about\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-alcohol-and-drugs\/","url_meta":{"origin":27266,"position":1},"title":"What Does the Bible Say About Alcohol and Drugs?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"What Does the Bible Say About Alcohol and Drugs? by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Biblical View of Alcohol Old Testament Beverages New Testament Beverages \"Wine\" Has Not Always Implied Alcohol Not What They Told You -- Alcohol I Peter 4:3 and \"Social Drinking\" Notes on Alcohol The Question of Wine and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10485,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/genesis-a-study-of-the-beginning\/the-world-after-the-flood\/the-use-of-alcohol\/","url_meta":{"origin":27266,"position":2},"title":"The Use of Alcohol (Genesis)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Use of Alcohol In Genesis 9, we read of the first use of an alcoholic beverage. From the wording of the passage, we assume that drinking wine was known to people before the flood. Noah used his knowledge of winemaking to grow a vineyard and produce wine. From the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8464,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/preparation-for-a-lifetime\/temptations\/","url_meta":{"origin":27266,"position":3},"title":"Temptations","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Temptations Water runs the course of least resistance and many people navigate their lives in a similar manner. Problems appear so they do only as much as necessary for the problem to go away. They don\u2019t actually try to solve the problem. They just want the problem not to bother\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15632,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/moral-principles-for-young-people-volume-ii\/a-perfect-example-of-relativism\/","url_meta":{"origin":27266,"position":4},"title":"A Perfect Example of Relativism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A Perfect Example of Relativism by Richard Mansel This would be hilarious if it weren't so disturbing. The idea that this is the way far too many think today scares me. A conservative radio talk show out of Atlanta caught my ear one day as a discussion developed about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/ostrich-261x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":65806,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/growing-pains\/","url_meta":{"origin":27266,"position":5},"title":"Growing Pains (Searching)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Growing Pains by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Satan is never content with trapping a person in a single sin. There is always a possibility of escaping, so he drags a person deeper into sin to make escape look impossible. You can see this in your own life. You've told me several\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27266\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}