All In or We're Not In at All

Half-measures availed us nothing. Bill and Bob got that from both personal experience and observation of others and in God's Holy Word, the Bible. The Lord warns us that if we are lukewarm He will spit us out of His mouth. He states emphatically that He is a jealous God and that His desire is that we seek Him with all of our heart. When we do that, He blesses us more than we deserve. When we don't seek Him with all of our heart we get to continue to struggle while the enemy - cunning, baffling and powerful - continues to steal, kill and destroy us and our lives.

Free will is a total gift, and God made sure we knew it was ours to do with what we wish. What I find amazing is those who are really not all in, like Bill and Bob were all in, and then complain that their lives aren't how they would like them to be. The Lord is clear as day on this. He knows the plans He has for us, to prosper us and not to harm us - to give us hope and a future. When we choose not to excercise our will in the way Bill describes as "the proper use of our will", which is to ask God to reveal His will for us each day - if we aren't truly seeking His will for us then we will likely not be in the plans He has for us, but will be in our little plans and designs like we always have.

It amazes me how long some people can be AA members and still be struggling like a newcomer in ways like this. Unwilling to submit completely to God or to take any serious interest in the plans He says He has for us, we won't experience the benefits of His promises to prosper us, and not to harm us. We will experience what self-will has always gotten us. Yay.

On day one of our recovery, we were likely willing to get on our knees and go to any length to recover. Funny how after a few months or years our ego takes the wheel again and we delegate God to the back seat where we can effectively ignore Him and His still small voice. As we get guidance from Him, He seems to wait until we've done the last thing He's told us before He gives us the next thing. That's because He has plans for us, and until we build the foundation He cannot place a house on our lot.

Pretending that God is a matter of opinion avaisl us nothing. Pretending there are many gods avails us nothing, and the Big Book is clear that there is but One God,"Mmay you find Him now". Rejecting the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth is what the Ruler of the Kingdom of Air does. When we reject Him or His Holy Name, is that likely because we're in His will for us, or are we once again walking with the enemy, cunning, baffling and powerful as he is?

Bill and Bob's discovery that Christianity works was really no revelation. Billions of people over thousands of years already knew this. No wonder the church looked at AA with disdain: AA had taken God's way of living as clearly described in the Bible and called it something else. What set them free, according to Bill, was the book of James and 1 Corinthians, and the Sermon on the Mount. Daily devotions from the Bible were part of what set the captives free, as well. They didn't have Political Correctness to drive people away from Jesus like they do today in AA. AA worked because Christianity works. No one argued that fact. Quite the contrary, in fact, they celebrated that discovery and even wrote a book about it.

Living in one of the most Liberal strongholds in America today, when I got sober 18 years ago AA's collective hatred for Jesus in this recovering communisty was clear. I was taught well, that "It's not about that" and watched folks be chastized time after time if they said the word "Jesus". Perhaps that's why it took me 7 years of seeking God to really find Him. No relapses during that time - in fact, no relapses since my first day sober because God's way works - but I observed that being Jewish was acceptable, talking about Buddha was fine, describing a "Higher Power" that was the wind or a rainbow or nature or the ocean, even a redwood tree, were all acceptable for discussion in AA when I got sober. But say the word Jesus and some jackass was guaranteed to tell you that "You can't do that here". Imagine my surprise when, 7 years into my recovery, as active as a person could be, having been a greeter for years, literature person, secretary at countless meetings, even Chairman of Intergroup for 2 years, I discovered Dick B.'s website dickb.com.

Learning that Bill and Bob and a Bible were responsible for my recovery was quite a shock. Finding out that all of the Big Book came from the Good Book was equally astonishing to me. The hard-boiled Jesus haters in my AA community had done their job well, but the cat was suddenly out of the bag. Now I knew why, as one Jewish lady put it while chairing a meeting recently, "The Big Book was full of Christianese". She was exactly right, although no one dared say such a thing when I was growing up in AA. She went on to say "I didn't care about that because I could see that it was a way that works and I needed help!" The Jesus haters rejected me as soon as I came to Christ, 7 years into my recovery. They don't say "Hi" anymore and pretend not to know me now. Perhaps it's because I discovered the truth about AA and no longer buy into the ridiculous b.s. they spout at meeting after meeting. Perhaps it's because the enemy who is "cunning, baffling and powerful" won't allow them to get close to anyone who knows the Lord. Regardless of why, they remain as Bill put it, in "Spiritual Kindergarten", refusing to be open-minded about things of a Spiritual nature like the founders were, apparently full of hate and arrogance at those who have learned to AA the way Bill and Bob did it in the beginning, when it was so wildly successful.

What they think of me is none of my business. I learned that at AA, but AA got that saying from the Bible, the same place they got virtually all of their slogans like "One day at a time", "Easy does it" and "Let go, let God". Gratefully churning Christian sponsors into our community today, the Lord has truly blessed me with the opportunity as Director of the largest Christian 12 Step long-term residential treatment program in Northern CA. Doing AA the way the founders did has resulted in as phenomenal a success rate as AA experienced in the beginning: from 75% in Akron to 93% in Cleveland, New Life University has an 84% success rate over the past 3 years since we began doing AA like Bill and Bob did it. Unafraid, submitted to God and to one another the way the Bible tells us to be, with accountability, encouragement and support, the NLU student body don't have to endure years of intimidation by AA Christian haters in order to discover a way that works like Bill and Bob and I did.

Gratefully,

Don C.

One Day at a Time

Matthew 6:34 is where this AA slogan came from. In fact, literally all of the 12 Steps came from the Bible. That's where Bill and Bob found them. "So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today." Bill and Bob and the first more than 100 recovered alcoholics were all over the Bible. Focused largely on the wisdom found in the book of James, 1 Corinthians and the Sermon on the Mount, early AA's daily devotions weren't about some generic god of their own understanding. No, daily morning devotions were straight from the Bible, Scripture rich and deep in God's wisdom, not diluted by Man's opinion. Early AA was so much more wildly successful than today's AA for many reasons, all identifiable. Thank God that He is leading his flock back to still waters and green pastures to discover what AA's founders and early members found which truly set them free!

God's Word has been guiding people to live one day at a time for thousands of years before AA adopted the slogan. Matthew 6:34 is an invaluable tool which helps facilitate keeping us focused on today, and not on yesterday or tomorrow. The problem with focusing on anything before or beyond the moment is this: Worrying about yesterday's mistakes, and the fear of discovery which comes with doing the wrong thing (acting out in our character defects) comes with a huge emotional load. Fear can be overwhelming, nagging at least, tugging our attention away from the very place where our lives are taking place - in the moment! Anxiety about, or even putting our attention on tomorrow, likewise comes with an emotional toll which drains our emotional facilities. With our emotions tapped by yesterday and tomorrow, we have lost access to much of our emotional arsenal. With one foot in yesterday and one foot in tomorrow (yes, I'm going to say it! LOL) we tend to pee all over today! That is because with our emotional resources tapped by tomorrow's concern and thoughts of yesterday, we likely may not have the emotional resources left to deal with what comes up today. The result is overwhelm, which alcoholics are very familiar with.

Another problem with focusing on yesterday and tomorrow rather than commmuning with God in the moment is that yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery. That is, neither place really exists. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow isn't promised. Neither exists in the moment, where we find God. So in order to spend time in either yesterday or tomorrow, because those places don't even exist, we have to climb into our heads and use our imaginations. That's correct: both yesterday and tomorrow are in fantasyland. They are a dreamworld and in order to spend time there we must abandon our very lives, and make a conscious choice to get into our heads and daydream. Yesterday and tomorrow are both imaginary. Perhaps now you can see why alcholics and drug addicts are always so deluded and act like mental cases. It's because they ARE! They are choosing to go play in their imaginary world rather than seeking to improve their conscious contact with God in the real world. One cannot commune with God (another term for prayer) and be in their head at the same time. It's literally impossible.

In order "to improve our conscious contact with God" we have to let yesterday and tomorrow go. We need to stop spending our time trying to recreate what is gone (yesterday) and stop conjuring up what doesn't yet exist (tomorrow), learning to "Let go and let God" take care of that which is His. Yesterday and tomorrow belong to Him. While we are busy, lost in a dreamworld inside of our heads, our lives are clicking off, one moment at a time. We, however, are not there to experience our life when we are lost in our heads, imagining what tomorrow might bring or contemplating what might come as a result of yesterday's activity (fear). Click-click-click...each moment of our life continues to click off while no one is home because they're busy vacationing in tomorrow or yesterday.

Another major drawback about living in the past or imagining the future: We don't find God in either place. Oh, He's there, but we're not really there. He can be in all places at once, transending even time. We, however, are not so empowered. There is only one place that we might "find Him now". That place is right here, right now, in the moment. One cannot be in conscious contact with God and be lost in yesterday or tomorrow at the same time.

So who cares about any of this? Those who believe that God has plans for you (Jeremiah 29:11) and that He knows the plans He has for you. " For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope." That is a promise which secular AA ignores, yet that is one of the prime motivators of AA's founders which drove them to get and stay sober in the first place. They knew that God had plans for them which didn't include getting drunk every day, abandoning their families literally or emotionally, domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, selfishness in the extreme. Bill and Bob read Jeremian 29:11. They knew God had plans for them. They knew that the only way that they could learn of His plans for them was to seek Him with all their heart, to practice Step 11 on a regular basis ("Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God"), and to get out of their heads and get into the moment, where we commune with God and hear (on a good day) His still, small voice which leads all of us down the narrow path in the plans that He has for each one of us. The truth is that we don't hear His still, small voice when we're lost in tomorrow or yesterday. It's not that His voice isn't there. It's that we're really not there. We're only imagining being in tomorrow or yesterday, and so we've temporarily lost touch with reality, and are no longer in the moment. Remember, we can't be in the moment and be in tomorrow (or yesterday) at the same time.

Getting an alcoholic out of his or her head is a major step toward real sobriety. Starting them out by abandoning themselves to this day, not the last or the next day, is a great beginning. Ultimately, however, as they learn to pray and meditate and when interested in what the Big Book calls "the proper use of our will", which is to seek His will FOR us, they will experience what the moment feels like. They will only really comprehend the peace which surpasses all understanding when they've abandoned yesterday and tomorrow and have nothing on their plate except for the moment. No one gets overwhelmed by the moment. No one gets overwhelmed in the moment unless they've been away, visiting tomorrow or yesterday in their head.

Want a scary thought? Take a moment and reflect on how much of your life has been spent in the dreamworld of your head, pondering yesterday's events and imagining what tomorrow might bring. How often have you been in that dreamworld? I confess that I had an epiphany one day many years ago, early in my recovery, when I realized that most of my life had been spent pondering this or that, thinking about things like what you really meant or what you'll do if I say this or that. I went cold that day, when I realized how much of my life had clicked by without me being in it, lost in a dreamworld, the imaginary place where the last moment and the next moment take place. Click-click-click - I realized that much of my life had passed by without me being there. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with the desire not to let that happen again, to learn to stay in the moment so that I could experience my life, really experience what my life had for me each moment. And what do you know? There was only one way I could accomplish that. I had to ask God to help me learn to stay in the moment. Left to my own devices it was impossible for me to change my thinking, but God could and would if He were sought. And so I sought Him with all of my heart and all of my soul and all of my strength...and He has never let me down, even for a single moment.

Gratefully,

Don C.

Bill & Bob's Great Adventure

In my 18th year of continuous sobriety, never having experienced relapse as a result of working these Steps, of course I'm as grateful as I can be for AA. After all, the path laid out in the 12 Steps did exactly what it had promised. It facilitated in me a Spiritual awakening that changed my life forever. It promises that. Not a "spiritual" awakening, but a "Spiritual" awakening with a capital S, an unashamed reference to Jesus Christ.

It's been interesting, as I dig back into true AA history - not what AA General Service has propped up and edited and wants us to believe, but the true AA history - it's been interesting to find out how lost Bill actually was. Equally interesting has been learning how Lois was the Spiritual Giant of their family, and not Bill. As I've researched further and deeper into how AA even came to be, it's amazing to me that AA has drifted so far away from it's Biblical roots. Oh, I understand the value of pretending not to know who God is. Many Jews, Christian haters (I was one), New Agers and Self-Willers can make themselves at home if no one says the word "Jesus". But considering Bill and Bob's Great Adventure started out in a Christian fellowship called "The Oxford Group", and the original text that set them free was a Bible, and that all of the Steps were gleaned from the book of James (New Testament Bible), 1 Corinthians chapter 13 (New Testamernt Bible) and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (New Testament Bible), it seems a leap to me that they would abandon and hide any reference to the very tools and the God which set the founders of AA free. Surely, were such changes intended to make AA stronger? That's like taking away the hammer and the saw and the carpenter who built the first house, while still intending to build more houses. It doesn't make any sense.

No, I'm convinced that the intent in throwing out the Bible, banning it from AA meetings and abandoning the Lord Jesus Christ who set the founders and the first more than 100 men and women of AA free was not to make the program better or stronger or to help more people. That would be insane. Really, they threw out the program, then kept a description of the program and called that the program. Bill and Bob's Great Adventure included studying the book of James, in which they read James 1:23-27. The book of James tells us not to use profanity and the Big Book tells us not to use profanity, as well. But does AA embrace that teaching from the Bible and the Big Book? Generally speaking, no. AA members, even those with decades of continuous sobriety ignore those instructions completely.

The founders of AA also studies James 2:1 which states " My dear brothers and sisters,[a] how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others?", James 2:7-8 "Aren’t they the ones who slander Jesus Christ, whose noble name you bear? Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” and James 2:19 " You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. " Hmmmm. So AA's founders believed there was only one God. They said that clearly when they prayed "There is One who has all power. May you find Him now."

What did the Big Book say again? "There is One who has all power. May you find Him now." Yet despite AA's clear acknowledgement of the Holy One to which the Big Book refers to frequently as God, Him, Lord, Providence and Creator, AA members have literally kicked Jesus out of the rooms of AA. In the beginning, there was a Bible in every AA meeting. Dr. Bob always had his Bible with him and open to a particular scripture, reading and sharing it with the group.

That's how AA began. Alcoholics who needed help and a Bible. They discovered that when they took the Bible seriously, lived the way the Lord calls us all to live as found in His Bible, they had a "Spiritual experience" which rocketed them into a fourth dimension. God's way works. Man's way does not. Today, however, AA has been subject to Man's limited understanding as His program has been stripped down to a shadow of it's original state. Perhaps that's why Bill eventually referred to AA as "Spiritual Kindergarten". The diluted, watered down semblance of it's former self, AA has become a haven for some of the most ridiculous propositions and beliefs ever embraced. A doorknob became someone's "Higher Power". The wind, rainbows, redwood trees, the oceans, a group of drunks (Group Of Drunks), one's own understanding, even, is what people are encouraged to believe and those people are told that a redwood tree, the ocean and a doorknob is going to change their hearts and change their minds. Sadly, some people are just sick enough to believe them. Hence, the 1-3% success rate of AA today, compared to the 75-93% success rate when folks gave their lives to Jesus Christ, said the sinner's prayer and studied the Bible.

Perhaps the poverty mentality that commonly accompanies alcoholism finds this practically zero success rate acceptable. I don't, however. People deserve to know the Truth and they deserve to know how Bill and Bob got sober in the first place, by the grace and power of Jesus Christ and His Holy Word. But shhhhhh - mum's the word.

Sacrificing the Sick in Favor of the Ego

Who picks up the tab when we decide to stop seeking through prayer and meditation? We all do, but no one suffers more than the newest members. Coming soon.

Bastardizing AA Beyond Recognition

From a 75-93% success rate in the beginning at Akron and Cleveland, to an accepted estimated success rate of 1-3%, what happened to AA? Coming soon.

The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth so Help Me God

Rigorous honesty is not the most popular principle in AA today, and in fact is quite the rare commodity. No wonder the success rate has dropped to almost 0%. Coming soon.

Who is 12 Stepping Those Coming Out of Detox?

Considering we AA members need to help others, wouldn't you imagine that the county detox might be the most popular place to find people to help? Think again. Coming soon.