Posts by Ben Funkhouser
Addiction and the Church
This is part 3 in a series of blog posts designed to be helpful to people who are struggling with some kind of addiction or habitual sin. The intent of these blog posts is to be really practical and point people who struggle to hope. Part 1 focused on repentance and part 2 focused on radical amputation. If you have not read those blogs I would encourage you to go back and read those as well. Part 3 is all…
Addiction and Radical Amputation
The last post on the blog was titled Addiction and Repentance-The Gospel Changes Everything. It was the first post in a series that is designed to address relevant topics for people who are struggling with life-dominating sin (addiction). Last month was on the gospel and repentance. This month is on radical amputation. In reality, this post could be an extension of the previous post on repentance because all true repentance includes radical amputation. Proverbs 28:13: Whoever conceals his transgressions will…
Look and Live
In December of 2014, I was preparing to go on vacation with my wife Holly. Back then we only had one child, our daughter Emma, and we were going to leave her with my wife’s parents while we were gone. One of the things I was looking forward to while we were on vacation was reading several books. The week before we left I got my hands on a book called Look and Live by Matt Papa. Many people might…
March 2020 Update
Spring is fast approaching and as the seasons are changing we find ourselves about a month into a new season at The Refuge. We began taking applications for our first residents in January and on February 10th our first resident arrived! It has been an exciting and busy month as we get settled into new routines and God has been very good and gracious to help us in this process. We currently have 2 men in the program and God…
Donations
It has been an exciting couple of weeks at The Refuge! We signed a lease on a property for the men’s residential program on July 1st and everything has kicked into high gear. We have begun to make plans to furnish the house and make plans for other projects that need to happen before we launch the program in January. God has provided a perfect spot for the program and now we want to ask people in local churches to…
The Refuge July Update
I am very excited to send out an update about what God is doing at The Refuge. The Lord has done big things in the last month! Monday we signed a lease to rent a property where we will be able to launch our men’s residential ministry. We had been praying that God would lead us to the right spot and He did! God provided a house that is outside of town and large enough that we can easily house…
May 2019 Update
Hey Everyone, I hope this update finds you doing well! It is hard to believe that it is May already. Before we know it Memorial Day will be here and summer will be in full swing, time is moving really fast! I want to give you an update on what God has been doing at The Refuge and on the things that I am working on. Currently, by God’s grace, I have raised 75% of my needed monthly support, so,…
Gospel Priorities from the Example of Jesus
A few months ago I was reading through the Gospel of Luke in my devotions. I came to Luke 5:17-26 and what I read in those verses caught my attention. This is the story of the 4 men who bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus while he is inside a house teaching. Since the crowds that followed Jesus were so large they could not get close to Jesus and they decided to do whatever it takes to get their friend…
March 2019 Update
Hi, thanks for taking the time to read this update! God has been good to The Refuge and there are several key updates that I am excited to pass along to you. First is that I started full time at The Refuge back in December 2018. I am so thankful for the opportunity to pour full time effort into the ministry here at The Refuge, and God is continuing to grow my passion and burden for Biblical addiction ministry. One…
Faith that Overpowers Sin
I recently read through the book of Hebrews in my personal devotions. Hebrews 11 is filled with one very important repeated phrase…”By Faith”. This chapter is known as the Hall of Faith as it records men and women from the Old Testament who by faith lived radically for the Lord. In Hebrews 12:1-2 we are told that the “large crowd of witnesses” in Hebrews 11 should lead us to lay aside every hindrance and sin that ensnares us so we…
- 1
- 2