by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n
What do you see when you look into the mirror each day? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, but I suspect that any recent changes haven’t been improvements. Marijuana doesn’t just give you red eyes from all-night partying, addicts tend to get less and less concerned about their looks and personal hygiene. I doubt you’re an exception to the rule.<\/p>\n
“Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does<\/em>” (James 1:21-25).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What do you see when you look into your Bible? I know you call yourself Christian and congratulate yourself for going to church once a week, but how are you measuring up? Is your spirit, like your outer man, getting scruffy because you just can’t seem to bring yourself to care anymore? Marijuana addiction does do that to people. Joy is sapped out of life. The zeal for God is dying. You spend more time being angry than being happy. In fact, the only time you believe you’re happy is when you’re too stoned to care.<\/p>\n
I’m so sorry that you’ve decided to make yourself miserable. I continue to wonder when you will decide to return to true happiness and leave the chains of drugs behind. I continue to look for you, my friend, because I know you are still there underneath all that grime.<\/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":"
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall by Jeffrey W. Hamilton What do you see when you look into the mirror each day? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, but I suspect that any recent changes haven’t been improvements. Marijuana doesn’t just give you red eyes from all-night partying, addicts tend to get less and…<\/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-65776","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25976,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/","url_meta":{"origin":65776,"position":0},"title":"Searching for My Friend","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Searching for My Friend by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Once again I lost a dear young friend to the seductive snare of drugs. It grieves me to the depth of my heart to see a life full of potential and capable of great joy being twisted toward ruin, sadness, and loneliness.\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\/2020\/09\/Searching.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24560,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-corinthian-letters\/spiritual-gifts-the-greatest-gift-is-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":65776,"position":1},"title":"Spiritual Gifts: The Greatest Gift is Love","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Spiritual Gifts: The Greatest Gift is Love The need for love\u00a0(I Corinthians 13:1-3) Love is what makes all other gifts and actions worthwhile. If Paul was able to speak all the languages of men and angels, it would be just noise if he did not have love. Notice that Paul\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65548,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/proverbs-practical-advice-on-life\/advice-for-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":65776,"position":2},"title":"Advice for Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Advice for Life Text: Proverbs 27:1-27 Boasting (Proverbs 27:1-2) Don't live as if tomorrow is a certainty. We don't know the future (James 4:13-17). Similar proverbs (Proverbs 16:1,9; 19:21). Don't blow your own trumpet. It is fine if someone else chooses to praise you, but when you brag about yourself\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50549,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/remember-a-study-of-ii-peter\/prayer-for-growth\/","url_meta":{"origin":65776,"position":3},"title":"Prayer for Growth","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Prayer for Growth Text: II Peter 1:2-11 What Knowledge Brings - II Peter 1:2-4 Peter begins with a blessing to his readers. He desires that they receive grace and peace in abundance. The phrase \"grace and peace be multiplied to you\" is found only here and in I Peter 1:2\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3834,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/letter-to-the-hebrews\/a-better-covenant-based-on-better-promises\/","url_meta":{"origin":65776,"position":4},"title":"A Better Covenant Based on Better Promises","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A Better Covenant Based on Better Promises Text: Hebrews 8:6-13 Jesus has a greater ministry than the high priests in the Old Testament. As they did, He serves as a mediator between the people and God, but Jesus also mediated a new covenant between God and the people. This covenant\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10525,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/genesis-a-study-of-the-beginning\/the-destruction-of-sodom-and-gomorrah\/sexual-perversions\/","url_meta":{"origin":65776,"position":5},"title":"Sexual Perversions","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Sexual Perversions Homosexuality A homosexual is a person who has sexual relations with another person of the same sex. A man having sex with a man is a homosexual. A woman having sex with a woman is also a homosexual, though many people use the term lesbian for a female\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\/65776","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=65776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65776\/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=65776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}