by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n
I don’t know why you have chosen to ruin yourself with drugs over the life you used to happily lead. Without a conversation with you, you leave me guessing. I have met people in your situation who decide that there is no going back. Such is just another lie from Satan. Usually, this passage is dangled in front of the deceived:<\/p>\n
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame<\/em>” (Hebrews 6:4-6).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Satan whispers in your ear, “See, God has rejected you. He doesn’t want you back.” But it is a twisting of what this verse says.<\/p>\n
Who is this verse written about?<\/strong>\u00a0It is talking about people, like yourself, who once had salvation but decided to throw it away for cheap, temporary, worldly thrills.<\/p>\n
Who is this verse written to?<\/strong>\u00a0Is it written to the person who fell away or to those who try to bring them back? Read it carefully. It is written to people, like myself, who long for your return. God is telling me that I can’t\u00a0make<\/em>\u00a0you come back. I have little to offer you that you don’t already know. I can remind you of the truth you already know, but I can’t tell you something new that will suddenly make you realize to the depth of your soul that you need to return. It is impossible for me to bring you renewal.<\/p>\n
“There is nothing final about a mistake, except its being taken as final.” (Phyllis Bottome, 1884-1963).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The hard truth that I have to face is that there is little I can do until\u00a0you\u00a0<\/strong>want to come back. All I can do is wait, knowing that each passing day sees you increasingly damaging yourself and digging a bigger hole to climb out of. I want you back. I’m committed to waiting and reaching for you as long as the good Lord allows me. I fear at times I have years of tears in front of me. But if that is my lot, know that I think you are worth it. I won’t<\/strong>\u00a0give up on you.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSearching for My Friend\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mission Impossible? by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I don’t know why you have chosen to ruin yourself with drugs over the life you used to happily lead. Without a conversation with you, you leave me guessing. I have met people in your situation who decide that there is no going back. Such is just another lie…<\/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_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65678","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10341,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/genesis-a-study-of-the-beginning\/the-fall-of-man\/who-is-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":65678,"position":0},"title":"Who Is Satan?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Who Is Satan? In Genesis 3, we are introduced to the serpent, who we identified as Satan. From the previous lessons, we showed that mankind is not naturally sinful, though we are naturally weak. Satan preys upon our weakness, encouraging us to sin in various ways. Why is Satan so\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":700,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/letter-to-the-hebrews\/christ-is-better-than-the-angels-because-of-his-humanity\/","url_meta":{"origin":65678,"position":1},"title":"Christ is Better than the Angels Because of His Humanity","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Christ is Better than the Angels Because of His Humanity Text: Hebrews 2:5-18 All Things Are Subjected to Christ (Hebrews 2:5-8) The world to come was not subjected to angels, but to Christ. As supporting evidence, the writer quotes Psalms 8:4-6. In the psalm, David expresses his wonder that God\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64657,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/pauls-letter-to-the-romans\/according-to-gods-righteousness\/","url_meta":{"origin":65678,"position":2},"title":"According to God\u2019s Righteousness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 15, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"According to God's Righteousness All forms of righteousness are not the same (Romans 10:1-7) Paul again makes it clear that he is not against Israel as a people. He strongly desires that they be saved. Everything isn't all bad about Israel. They do have a strong zeal for God, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3477,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-revelation-given-to-john\/the-destruction-of-satan-and-his-followers\/","url_meta":{"origin":65678,"position":3},"title":"The Destruction of Satan and His Followers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Destruction of Satan and His Followers Revelation 20:7-15 When we last talked about Satan, we left him bound in the abyss he originally came from. His servants, the beast (the Roman Empire), and the false prophet (the false religion of emperor worship) had been destroyed. The binding was like\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67044,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/mark-jesus-the-active-servant\/mark-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":65678,"position":4},"title":"Mark 3","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Mark 3 Healing on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6) Jesus leaves and, on another Sabbath, enters the local synagogue. Among those attending was a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees saw this as an opportunity to rebut Jesus's recent points. They watched for Jesus to heal the man. In their\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10710,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-gospel-accounts-a-chronological-harmony\/jesus-baptism-and-his-temptations\/","url_meta":{"origin":65678,"position":5},"title":"Jesus\u2019 Baptism and His Temptations","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Jesus' Baptism and His Temptations Reading Assignment: Matthew 3:13-4:11 Mark 1:9-13 Luke 3:21-4:13 John 1:29-34 Psalm 2:7 Psalm 91:11-12 Did you understand what you read? Why did John try to stop Jesus from being baptized? Why did Jesus insist on being baptized? Who was present at Jesus' baptism? Did John\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\/09\/Outline-Map-of-Palestine.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Outline-Map-of-Palestine.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Outline-Map-of-Palestine.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65678","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=65678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65678\/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=65678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}