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Reformer's Unanimous Delray Beach Florida, 4004 lake Ida RD, Delray Beach, FL (2026)

04/30/2025

Principle Four
It is not possible to fight a fleshly appetite by indulging in it.
Ecclesiastes 5:10, James 1:14-15

Disregarding this principle has caused such great pain and failure for many years. It is also this very same principle that God will bring to our remembrance every time we feel like indulging in any fleshly desire. This principle has done more to discourage the desire to wander than any of the others.

If the truth be known, the failure to recognize and apply this principle to our lives is usually at the core of every besetting sin.

An appetite is a dangerous thing. If disciplined, it can be controlled. If not, it can control an individual. God has given within each of His children a power to control our appetites. The need for food, drink, and s*xual satisfaction are all God-given, legitimate needs. However, Satan will twist them into lusts which, when coupled with enticement, lead to a life of sin and spiritual and sometimes physical death (James 1:14-16).

Remember the old commercial that advertised KOOL ci******es? The ad (falsely) stated that “They Satisfy”. Well if this were true, then we could all smoke one KOOL cigarette and our appetite would be satisfied and we would never need to indulge that appetite again. The truth is that KOOL ci******es (as do all ci******es) never satisfy you. The appetite created with indulgence will only intensify. Indulging in any fleshly appetite only makes it stronger, never weaker.

Not too long ago, I listened to a documentary on starving children in the third world. My heart was broken as the narrator explained that though the children were starving, they do not feel the hunger pains that we feel right before dinnertime. Rather, they have suppressed their appetite for so long, that their starvation is not accompanied with the pain of hunger.

It is the same way with any fleshly desire that we struggle with. Whether it be ci******es, drugs, alcohol, overeating, adulterous thoughts, po*******hy, gambling, or any other crippling appetite, if we do not feed it, do not give in to it, it will die. The only way to destroy the appetite is to starve it. That is a promise from God.

So the next time you feel that urge to indulge in a sinful fleshly desire, resign yourself to just “skip that meal”. When you skip a meal, you will see that after a few minutes or hours, you have lost your appetite for that meal. You may not skip every meal, but eventually, your desire will starve itself to death and the hunger will be gone. Don’t let the devil tell you if you just have one more cigarette or just one more drink or one more chocolate bar, you will be satisfied.

Ecclesiastes 5:10, “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.”

04/05/2025

Principle Three
It is easier to keep the heart clean than it is to clean it after it has been defiled.
Proverbs 22:3 & 6:27-28

Oh, what a truth this is! When my wife and I were first married, I had quite a few lessons to learn. I was a 28-year-old bachelor and was not accustomed to cleaning up after myself. My favorite meal was Chili-n-Fries Surprise (the recipe is available for a small charge). My wife refused to cook it because of the extreme mess that the grease and chili sauce would make on her white stove. I was forced to suffer. However, a friend of my wife’s asked her to work a few hours every Monday afternoon at her beauty supply store. She consented and I was left to fend for myself in order to obtain dinner on Monday nights. Praise the Lord, Chili-n-Fries Surprise! In my desire to consume this long awaited meal, I overlooked the cleaning of the stove. When the next Monday rolled around, I found the chili sauce and grease stains from the previous week’s delicatessen still splattered on my wife’s stove. It was gross, and there was no way I could prepare a meal on this filth. When my wife arrived home later that evening, I asked her when she was planning on cleaning the stove. BIG MISTAKE. Our first fight. I learned a valuable lesson that night. After an hour of scrubbing, I learned it is easier to keep a kitchen stove clean than to clean it after it has been stained.

This is the same truth we are taught in the Bible. Over and over again we are faced with examples of people who chose to associate with sin with hopes that it would not lead them to a sinful condition. Lot was a righteous man (II Peter 2:8) yet he chose to associate with ungodly men (Psalm 1:1a), he had day to day contact with sin (Psalm1:1b), and he allowed the people around him to decay into moral wickedness with no good use for God (Psalm 1:1c). Yes, Lot’s life was ultimately spared by God. However, he in no way prospered (Psalm 1:3). The last we hear of him, he is getting drunk and committing terrible sins (Genesis 19). How can this mistake be avoided in your life? Follow these two simple verses:

Proverbs 22:3, “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.”

Proverbs 6:27-28, “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?”

Remember: If you do what you’ve always done, then you will be what you’ve always been.

Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues (important things) of life.”

04/05/2025

Principle Two
Every sin has its origin in our hearts.
Jeremiah 17:9, Proverbs 4:23, Romans 13:14

Before I came to Christ, I tried to overcome my addictions over and over again through regular attendance at group meetings in society. I would spend hours upon hours sulking in my coffee, smoking ci******es, and discussing my endless desire to drink. Sound familiar? Why didn’t this type of activity help me?

Ephesians 5:11-12 reminds us to … “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.” Our sins of the past must be forgotten . To meditate and discuss them openly only gives place to the devil. I decided a long time ago I would rather tell people what God has done for me than to tell people what I had done to God.

Constant meditation (thinking) on our desire to fulfill a fleshly lust will ultimately lead to acting out our desire. If we’re fortunate to avoid it physically, we will seldom avoid it mentally. Proverbs 23:7 reads, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” For me to avoid the seemingly unending desire to fulfill my desire to feed my addiction, I needed to discipline myself to avoid talking about it (in a desirous way) and avoid thinking about it. By thinking about it, I was actually making it easy for myself to do wrong. Romans 13:14 states, “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.”

I saw an old friend at a local grocery store. He had heard that I had stopped using drugs and had “found religion”. I explained how Jesus had changed my life and given me power over my addictions to both drugs and alcohol. He exclaimed his gladness and went on to tell me that he had been sober for three weeks. He had finally quit his job that led to after-hours drinking and had moved out of his buddy’s house (who liked to have drinking parties regularly). Realizing these were both good first steps, I encouraged him to visit church and offered to pick him up. He gave me the address. Unfortunately, the young man had chosen to take up residence in an apartment that was directly adjacent to a popular bar in town. He never made it to church. Why did this man fail in his recovery? He made it easy for himself to do wrong. Even if he never left his house, the constant sounds of the music in the bar beneath him would never let the thought of drinking leave his mind!!

You see, the heart can accustom itself to sin. An act that once would seem terrible and undeniably wrong can, by contemplating it too often, become attractive. Proverbs 4:23 reads, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Everything I ever searched for in life—the important issues of life: Love, Joy, Peace, Happiness, Friendship, Financial Freedom—were always witheld from me during my times of addiction. Why was that? Because the important issues of life are given by God and He never entrusts them to those who do not work hard (diligent) to keep (guard) their hearts from being hardened from the deceitfulness of sin.

Remember, before you ever did it, you thunk it!!!

03/17/2025

PLEASE JOIN US FRIDAYS AT 6:30 AT WESTPARK BAPTIST CHURCH 4004 LAKE IDA ROAD DELRAY BEACH FLORIDA 33445.
Contact us for more information.

03/17/2025

Principle One
If God’s against it, so am I!
Galatians 5:19-24

Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the works (deeds) of the flesh (humans) are manifest (revealed), which are these; Adultery (s*x with other than your wife), fornication (s*x outside of marriage), uncleanness (s*xual impurity), lasciviousness (s*xual excess), Idolatry (things in your life that are more important than God), witchcraft (sorcery), hatred, variance (causing strife or discord), emulations (being jealous), wrath (sinful anger), strife (selfish ambition), seditions (dissentions), heresies (organized divisions or cliques), Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings (excessive eating) and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Throughout the Bible, we see passages indicating behavior that God is against. He has asked that we avoid behaving in this way. He warns that participating in certain behavior will bring sorrow, punishment, and can even lead to a shorter life. We have seen this to be true in not only our own lives, but in the lives of many others as well. It is called the law of sowing and reaping. This simple law says if you sow (or spread) destructive behavior, you will reap (or receive) destruction in your life. But if you spread good behavior patterns, you will receive blessings from God.

The Bible was written to tell us what is right, what is not right, how to get right, and how to stay right. If God’s intention was to inform us of what is, what is not, how to get and how to stay right, then it is our responsibility to conform each area of our lives that is revealed to be wrong. He will help us to do this. He gives new believers His Spirit and a hunger to be right.
This new presence and new desire for good is what God uses to mold our new Christian character. If we draw a line and do not overstep this line of behavior that is considered by God to be wrong, then He will reveal more and more things that He would like to change in our lives. As we continue to adopt these revelations of God’s will for us, we will find ourselves farther and farther from the original line (which is to not indulge in our addiction). Eventually, we will find ourselves so far from our original line in the sand, so to speak, that even when we have a bad day, the thought of using or engaging in our addiction is not even a remote possibility. This is a joyous place to be.

To this end, we see that all who want to be unanimously reformed in their lives must accept Christ’s offer for salvation first and foremost. Then they must draw a line and say, “If God is against it, so am I!”

Reformer's Unanimous Delray Beach Florida

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