Looking Unto the Rock Whence Ye Are Hewn: One Man's Roadmap to Spiritual Recovery and the Beacons On His Journey

By Jaco J.J. Engelbrecht

Do you find yourself unable to deal with the pressure of drug and alcohol addictions?
Do you lack staying power, after you've tried and tried, and just don't seem to be able to hang in there?
You are feeling the pressure, because the harder and harder you try to scream for help, as in the scary dream, nobody seems to hear.

It might be that you have tried, and feel you need more support. Someone who understands and is willing to go with you on the expedition, to be a shoulder to lean on, when no one else is available or caught up in life. Anger and emotional problems seem to hold you back, and every day is a struggle. You need someone who sympathizes with you, who could stand in and try to explain to others the struggle within which you are facing, to the extent that you've considered, or are considering suicide. Is there any real help, or helper? You try to figure this out, as you are in desperate need.

What makes it worse is that you have kids or a family who feels they need to distance themselves from you for their safety. You don't want to lose them. Yes, we all need help sometimes, but we use different means to ask for it or indicate that deep down there is a struggle going on.


I am strongly of the belief that amongst our youth there are answers to your mind-boggling questions, locked up in this text, and I would recommend you take what calls to you. I can promise things will turn to the better. You will hopefully be directed to parts of scripture that you missed, or never looked at from this angle, and this will hopefully trigger the urge to make time for studying the Bible, and further shed light on more questions you may have. Start your own yourney, andyour life can enrich others in turn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543969696

Book preview

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Introduction

Do you find yourself unable to deal with the pressure of drug and alcohol addictions?

Do you lack staying power, after you’ve tried and tried, and just don’t seem to be able to hang in there?

You are feeling the pressure, because the harder and harder you try to scream for help, as in a scary dream, nobody seems to hear.

It might be that you have tried, and feel you need more support. Someone who understands and is willing to go with you on this expedition, to be a shoulder to lean on, when no one else is available, or caught up in life. Anger and emotional problems seem to hold you back, and every day is a struggle. You need someone who sympathizes with you, who could stand in and try to explain to others the struggle within which you are facing, to the extent that you’ve considered, or are considering suicide. Is there any real help, or helper? You try to figure this out, as you are in desperate need.

What makes it even worse is that you have kids, or a family who feels they need to distance them-selves from you for their safety. You don’t want to lose them. Yes, we all need help sometimes, but we use different means to ask for it or indicate that deep down there is a struggle going on.

I am strongly of the belief that amongst our young there are answers to your mind-boggling questions, locked up in this text, and I would recommend you take what calls to you. I can promise things will turn to the better. You will hopefully be directed to parts of scripture that you missed, or never looked at from this angle, and this will hopefully trigger the urge to make time for studying the Bible, and further shed light on more questions you may have. Start your own journey, and your life can enrich others in turn.

I heard this quote and I believe it is a very good indication of the mind shift people or society have undergone up to where we are today. It might be slightly paraphrased, but it goes something like this:

It is believed that man became a rational being around the 1300’s and 1400’s. It was followed by humanity becoming empirical beings, from around the 1700’s to 1800’s, becoming more of a tester. Then we became skeptical beings, as metaphysical propositions, and moral statements weren’t trusted anymore. Thereafter we saw the birth of existentialism and nihilism. Today we are living in a post-modern era, where you can define things yourself.

This contributes to the confusion, as the lines are getting blurred, and the absolute truth that once ruled doesn’t seem to exist anymore.

This book was born out of the idea that we can all play a role in each other’s lives, and of me sharing my life experiences can be helpful to someone who needs it.

Our Lord whom we serve is always to be our example, as I noticed from scripture, like John 13:14 for example, Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. These scriptures are an instruction, and it underlines the importance of how much we need each other.

Even 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. Most importantly, I have this feel for people, even with disappointment. I remember I also disappointed others, and help was extended to me. This is the help all deserve, and the actions and decisions, in the end, lie with them.

I would love to take you on this journey with me, and the journey you continue will extend beyond the covers of this book, or any other for that matter. You’ll in turn become a blessing to others and take them on a pilgrimage--- the experience of a life with meaning.

Accumulative wisdom is unable to meet the daunting challenges of our time.

We depended entirely on an educational system that is so rankly liberal, and we actually think we are going to find answers in our universities. We won’t. The answer is not going be found there. The Greeks pursued it, to find unity in diversity of the disciplines.

Quintessence, looking for the essence that will bring it all together. You will never find it out there, because the answer has always been to find unity and diversity within before you find unity and diversity without. What is the world trying to do? They think by politics, or by education or by wealth or by power they can bring unity and diversity. The Greeks failed in their experiment, because they talked of virtue… ---Dr. Ravi Zacharias

As mentioned, it is believed man became a rational being around the 1300-1400’s. It was followed by humanity becoming empiricist beings, from around the 1700-1800’s, becoming more of a tester. Then we became skeptical beings, as metaphysical propositions, and moral statements weren’t trusted anymore. Thereafter we saw the birth of existentialism and nihilism. Today we are living in a post-modern era, where you can define things yourself. Absolute truth doesn’t seem to exist anymore. One of the reasons behind mental problems we find even now between youngsters, is that they seem to struggle finding clarity on what the ultimate meaning of life actually is. This uncertainty is sometimes so deeply protected with a range of questions and statements, but when the dots are connected, we find these kids don’t seem to find purpose and meaning in life.

I have listened to philosophers who believe this to be a scary time to live in as values are under huge attack. Also, this time was apparently predicted by philosophers long before. We can see that there is a big struggle to fight corruption on all levels of life, and there is also a big market for the fake. Fake love and fake caring are some of the most dangerous, as when overwhelmed by the reality of the relationships being built on fake love, people struggle with recovering from this to the point where suicide is on an exponential rise all over the world.

It is a true blessing to experience the miracle of support. It is inexplicably mighty as it underlines the fact that humans are social beings. We are praying, as it is our thoughts and the answered prayer that will carry a much deeper form of support. Hence these writings--- to also give some form of support during struggles.

This today is my view--- what I did, what I went through, how I hope to share what helped in my search for healing and recovery and restoration, and how it can and will help others struggling with similar issues after committing their lives to Christ. Most of this is unexplainable, except for the spirit of God, and His strength only, being the positive motivation behind the healing of me, especially as a wounded soul.

Some of us have experienced forms of heavy physical and psychological abuse during childhood and as teenagers. There was a time during 2018, when parents were afraid to send their kids to school in the Bonteheuwel area (Cape Town), because of gang shootings causing fear in these communities. In most cases, this is part of peer pressure, and in some cases due to domestic violence and broken households, or merely to survive.

Some never recover, and some hold on to it, to become statistics of suicide, or violent offenders in later years. These scars are often so deep that a total flip in the behavior of normal, quiet youth is seen when entering their teenage years. It’s tiresome to figure out how this change in behavior was even possible.

A huge amount of people living on our streets are struggling to deal with the spiritual and psycho-logical effects of their past. They drown themselves in alcohol and substances, looking for a way out, but instead are falling in the trap, as this is actually a way in. There is also a significant amount who make up our prison statistics all over the globe. This is a way into a circle of a life with no substantial contribution to the livelihood of even their immediate families and communities, hoping to ease the burden weighing so heavily upon them.

There are kids who rebel against their parents because they feel a sense of disappointment due to what they experience as a lack of protection which they expect from their parents. This is also added to the disappointment they experience from those policing our communities and streets.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26).

1. Feelings of anger and disappointment

Anger as per Webster’s dictionary is a strong feeling of displeasure and usually of actively expressed opposition or hostility. For a former addict, this is one of the biggest demons to struggle with. Apparently, the first 30 days of breaking a habit are the most difficult. With the cravings, you actually also deal with a huge amount of anger and discomfort as your body and soul