The Good News for Lust and Sex Addicts and Other Sinners
Breaking the lust barrier has proven to be the great obstacle in recovery from sex addiction. Impossible Joy shows the way for personal breakthrough for the lust/sex-addicted and others, in or out of the church or 12 Step recovery movement. It helps one move from mere religious belief and practice to real recovery. Ron J. tells the story of his encounter with the humanly-tempted, suffering, saving Son of man, who was lost to him in the religious System. Not for the fainthearted, Impossible Joy opens the way to fulfilling what the Steps prepare the way for—finding the One our lust was really looking for.
This books takes up where Steps One through Ten leave off. Impossible Joy chronicles the author’s odyssey from a religious “believism,” which did not work, to a personal encounter with the One who really does loose from the power of lust and cleanse its defilement. What emerges is a real Jesus for the lust obsessed, a Scripturally sound basis for making one’s own saving Connection—a faith that works.
From the Preface: “I am writing this book because sexual sobriety and victory over lust seem so difficult, if not impossible, for so many Christians, not to mention others. There’s something wrong here. Also, so much of sobriety or attempted sobriety seems to be fear-driven and self-driven, which is doomed to failure. There is a better way. I want to bear witness to the fact that victory over lust can be energized by joy and love that come from a saving connection with the Son of man. This is the Good News for all, whether in or out of the church or Twelve Step recovery movement. . .
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 What It Was Like: The Boulevard Motel
2 What It’s Like Now: Bus Stop
3 What Happened: The Fellowship of Recovery
Part I Encountering the Real Jesus
4 Jesus’ Identification with Sinful Human Nature—Introduction
5 Jesus’ Identification with Our Sinful Human Nature—The Wilderness Temptation
6 Jesus’ Identification with Our Sinful Human Nature—His Life
7 Jesus’ Identification with Our Sinful Human Nature—His Death
8 Jesus’ Surrender—the Key to Ours
9 Let Him In
Part II Encountering the Real Me
10 A Startling Discovery
11 The Woman in Line
12 The Believer’s Sinful Nature—Romans 7
13 Religious Addiction—“Believism” as Unbelief
14 Idols out of the Id
Part III Real Victory In Christ
15 Jesus’ Identification with Our Sinful Human Nature—His Present Saving Work
16 My Point of Contact with Jesus Now
17 The Real Connection
18 The “Obedience of Faith”
19 Victory over Temptation
20 Temptation Flagrante
21 The Luster’s Fear of Dying
22 The Personal Sacrament—John 6
Part IV Real Fellowship
23 The Fellowship of Light
24 The Fellowship of Cleansing
25 The Fellowship of Harvest
Appendixes
1 Notes on Jesus’ Identification with Our Fallen Human Nature
2 Parable for a Lustaholic
3 “The Remission of Sins,” George MacDonald
4 The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
5 The Wrath Connection
6 James on Lust