12 Steps in 7 Words

I have been Studying the roots of the Twelve Steps and the ideas behind the Steps. I ran across the following the other night when I was examining ties between Alcoholics Anonymous of the 1930s and the Oxford Group. In particular I was reading about the influence Dwight L. Moody had over Frank Buchman, the Oxford Group founder. Moody had referenced the 32nd Psalm and described it using seven words: Conviction, Confession, Forgiveness, Prayer, Protection, Guidance, Joy. Those seven words fall right in line with Buchman’s Oxford Group language of the Five C’s – Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion and Conservation.

Samuel Shoemaker who Bill W. referred to as a co-founder of AA also referenced the Five Cs in his writings. Sam would not deny it when Bill W. said he was a co-founder, he would however give credit to God and the Oxford Group. Could the Five C’s have had an influence on the Twelve Steps or perhaps Moody’s Seven Words that are used to describe the 32nd Psalm.

Let’s look at the 32nd Psalm and then the correlation I see between the seven words Moody used to describe the Psalm and the Twelve Steps.

Here is the text of the 32nd Psalm:

¹ Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.
² Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,
         And in whose spirit there is no deceit.
³ When I kept silent, my bones grew old
         Through my groaning all the day long.
⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
         My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.  Selah  
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to You,
         And my iniquity I have not hidden.
         I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”
         And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.  Selah  
⁶ For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You
         In a time when You may be found;
         Surely in a flood of great waters
         They shall not come near him.
⁷ You are my hiding place;
         You shall preserve me from trouble;
         You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.  Selah  
⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
         I will guide you with My eye.
⁹ Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
Which have no understanding,
         Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
         Else they will not come near you.
¹⁰ Many sorrows shall be to the wicked;
         But he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him.
¹¹ Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous;
         And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Let’s begin by looking at verses 3 and 4 where I see Steps 1 and 2. In verse 3 we see a person who is dejected, who is broken, who I think we can say is at the end of his rope. Why else would he be silent, with his bones aching and groaning all day long. He has lost all sanity. He is powerless and his life has become unmanageable.

Verse 4 shows that he is aware of someone else’s presence, that God has had His hand upon him. He is coming under Conviction, the reality of his selfishness and self-centeredness . He is coming to realize that a power greater than himself has been with him and as we shall see in the next verse he calls on his Higher Power to restore his sanity.

In order to turn our will and our life over to the care of God we need to work through a series of principles, or steps if you will. These steps encompass more than just Step Three. If we look at the BB and we look at the way the steps were worked in the late 30s/early 40s, we find that when we turn our will over to God, we do it with a prayer but that prayer does not end with an amen (see BB. pg. 63, para. 2). The prayer is concluded when we complete Step Seven, when we go through Confession, when we ask God to remove all our defects of character (BB. pg. 76, para. 2). Then we must also do Steps Eight and Nine to complete the asking for Forgiveness. We must have our relationship with others right before we can approach God on getting our relationship right with Him.

In Matthew 6:14-15 it tells us we must forgive others before God will forgive us:

¹⁴ “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

We can not make amends to others until we have forgiven them for any harm they have caused us. Yes, we have to forgive them. In many cases it is the resentment that has caused the damage in our relationships with others. Therefore we must forgive them for whatever reason we are resentful towards them. Once Steps Three through Nine have been completed then we have acknowledge our sin, our defects of character and shortcomings to ourselves and God. Once we have confessed all to our Higher Power we have done what is described in verse 5 of the Psalm.

Verses 6 through 8 are Steps Ten through Twelve. They instruct us to pray and to get our direction from God. We can only get direction that comes with Prayer and meditation, meditating on the Big Book and the Good Book. We must pray and ask God for direction. We must also take a daily inventory and ask God for His forgiveness when it’s required. We must continue to practice the principles in all our affairs, which only come through God’s instruction and Guidance.

So, what do we get for all this? We get verses 1, 2, 10 and 11. We get blessings and Protection. We receive God’s mercy. We get to be glad and rejoice because our Higher Power has delivered us from a sorry state of ‘I’, from a state of powerlessness. He has made us upright in heart and righteous, and because of all He has done for us we can shout for Joy.

The only thing left out of the passage is the warning in verse 9. God tells us not to be like the beast with no understanding, which must be harnessed. He tells us that the wicked shall have many sorrows. So, stand strong in the seven words: Conviction, Confession, Forgiveness, Prayer, Protection, Guidance, Joy.  Then you will have found true serenity. You will have true peace and happiness. You will have a life with the true Higher Power, with our God, our Creator.

The 11th of November

It’s Veteran’s Day! Do you know how Veteran’s Day came into existence? Have you ever heard of Armistice Day? Do you know how they are related or the difference between the two? How long have we been celebrating Veteran’s Day? Has it always been November 11th?

World War I involved 35 countries and lasted five years, from 1914 to 1918. The five years claimed many, many lives and many people believed it would be the very last war. When the fighting stopped, leaders of several the countries involved signed an agreement to stop all fighting on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month. The agreement to halt all fighting, in other words a truce, is known as an Armistice.

Veteran’s Day was originally known as Armistice Day. In the early 1950s people started calling Armistice Day, Veteran’s Day. It was a way that people all across America could say thanks to Veterans and remember those who gave their lives to preserve freedom. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill proclaiming November 11th of each year Veteran’s Day.

In 1968 the date was changed so that Veteran’s Day was to be observed on the fourth Monday of October. People protested, stating that November 11th had historical significance. After ten years of protesting, Congress returned the day of observance to it’s original date of November 11th.

There you have a little history of Veteran’s Day. Veteran’s Day is still the day set aside for all American’s to remember all those who have fought and lost their lives for America. It is also the day to thank a Vet for his service to our great country. Also, remember those who are actively serving today in our Military.

But, why should we only observe all this on November 11th? We should be grateful everyday for those who gave all, for those who have served America in the Armed Forces, and for those who are currently serving  for our country. Attend a Veteran’s Day parade, service or observance today and shake the hand of a Vet and tell him thank you. Tell a family that you know who has lost a loved one fighting for America that you appreciate their sacrifice and the sacrifice of the one they lost. Hug a soldier if you see one today. Then extend that same acknowledgement everyday of the year.

God Bless Our Troops! God Bless America!

Who’s Fault Is It? – Part IV

 

God is Love! So, where is God as we go through the suffering that we have to endure in this life? He is where He always is, right there with us. He has told us ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’ (Heb 13:5). He also said He would send us help, a counselor (John 14,15,16), to guide us through life on this earth, and help us to overcome the evil that exists. God is our protector, our trust, He strengthens us during suffering and He is our saving grace through our hope and faith in Him (1 Cor 13:7).

I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing I could have done to change what happened to me. I started making a change of lifestyle and two months later I experience a series of small strokes. Whether I had or hadn’t started the diet, exercise and healthier living, the result would have been the same.

There is no getting around the fact that evil exists in the world and there is a force that interferes with our personal lives. Some call the force Satan, others Lucifer, and still others the devil. Whatever you want to call the force, it is real and it or he causes our suffering. Especially when we are trying to good, when we are seeking what God wants us to do, when we are fulfilling our God given purpose, the evil one is right there doing everything he can to stop us.

That is exactly the reason that I experienced the recent series of events in my life. In a matter of weeks, everything was thrown at me to try and get my focus off my God given purpose. It took a little bit for me, with my wife’s help, to see the attacks against me for what they really were, and for me to re-focus my  resolve to do the good that God had planned for my life.

Some of you who read this will agree and some will disagree. I just want to say that that everyone believes in something. I believe that things don’t just happen by chance. Everything happens according to a divine plan. The same way that man cannot create anything without a plan, God had to have a plan to create the heavens and the earth. How can something come to exist from nothing. There has to be a superior mind, with a plan or plans to make anything exist. Just like the superior minds of the ‘rocket scientists’ who put man on the moon, the superior mind of God put the moon up in the heavens for man to strive for.

God loves us, and God is always here with us, every time we go through trials or tribulations. If you want a glimpse of what God is like, what Jesus is like, get a copy of ‘The Shack’. Read about the suffering of a small child, the child’s family, and a father who went searching for the truth to his daughter’s death. What the father found was a loving, caring, Father God. Don’t take my word for it. Get the book and read it, but as you read it put any pre-c0ncieved notions of God aside. If you are a church going person, put everything you have been taught aside while you read ‘The Shack’, and let God reveal to you the parts that He wants you to understand, and the parts He wants you to forget.

If you have read ‘The Shack’ or once you do read it, please feel free to post your comments about the book below. Feel free to post your comments about my take on suffering and how you perceive suffering and why we suffer.

Who’s Fault Is It? – Part III

 

Let’s look at where suffering comes from. Is it a result of our own sin, the result of the sin of others or can we say we experience suffering as a result of a fallen world. Maybe suffering is a result of all three. Maybe all three can be blamed for why bad things happen to good people.

First, let’s examine suffering we experience as a result of our own sin. Suffering, sometimes, is the inevitable consequence of breaking God’s commandments. There are physical laws of nature such as the one that says if you put your hand in fire you will get burned. The pain of the burn acts as a warning when we exercise the wrong choice concerning fire. God has created a world based upon moral foundations, or moral laws, and there is a natural connection between sin and it’s consequences. If a person abuses drugs, addiction will be the consequence. If a person drinks excessively they may eventually suffer the consequences of alcoholism. If a person drinks and then climbs behind the wheel of a car, gets in an accident and injures them self, the injuries are a consequence of the person’s choice or we might say they are the consequence of the person’s sin. Similarly, selfishness, greed, lust, arrogance, and bad temper often lead to broken relationships and unhappiness that once again can be citied as consequences of our actions.

I think that what some call God’s punishment is a law of nature that God created. God gave us a free will, and we have the right to make our own choice, and as a result of our choice we experience the consequences. When we make a bad choice we suffer a bad consequence. It is just a fact of life, a rule of nature, a way God has created to let us know when our free will is violating what He wills for us.

Now let’s look at suffering as a result of other’s sin. First, it is important to note that not all suffering is a direct result of our sin. Much of the suffering in this world can be contributed to the sins of others. Look at global and community disasters. So much suffering is caused by war and in most cases it is the result of human sin. In many countries the suffering experienced is starvation which is the unequal distribution of the world’s resources or some other human sin. It is easy to see how individual suffering is often caused by others and sin such as – murder, adultery, theft, sexual abuse, unloving parents, reckless or drunken driving, slander, unkindness, or selfishness or self-centeredness. Some estimate that it could be as much as ninety-five percent of the world’s suffering can be accounted for by the sin’s of others.

Looking at the previous two reasons for suffering that leaves a very small portion that can be attributed to the fact that we live in a fallen world; a world in which all creation has been affected by the sin of man. It is a result of the original sin of man, the sin of Adam and Eve, that suffering (thorns and thistles) entered the world (Genesis 3:18). Ever since that first sin ‘the creation has been subjected to frustration’ (Romans 8:20). Natural disasters are a result of a disorder in creation. The freedom that God gave to man does not always the answer as to why a particular individual or nation is subjected to suffering, but it does help us to explain the origin of suffering. All suffering is the result of sin, either directly as a result of my own sin, or as a result of some other person’s sin, or indirectly, as a result of living in a fallen world.

Suffering is a result of evil, of sin, in this world. Bad things happen to good people as a result of evil, of sin.

If, as they say, God is love, where is God ….

(To Be Continued)

Who’s Fault Is It? – Part II

 

Seems as though there is a quest to find the spiritual aspect of life. We can see it all around us. People are searching for a meaning and purpose, their looking for answers about life after death, they are trying to determine if God exists or not. There has been a trend in movies in recent years that prove our interest in the spiritual aspects of life. Movies like ‘Ambition to Meaning’, ‘Ghost’, and the upcoming ‘Hereafter’. Movies about God, from the comical ‘Oh God’ and ‘Bruce Almighty’ to the more serious and recent ‘Letters to God’. All of this points to the many that are looking once again toward religion and faith in God. However, in all of this searching for something spiritual, the issue of suffering is one of the common objections to religion and faith in God.

We are constantly confronted by suffering. Suffering on a global scale, signified by natural disasters, famines, floods and war. Suffering on a local level such as coal mines accidents, plane crashes, industrial plant accidents and the likes. Then we have suffering 0n a personal/individual level that affects us all: sickness, handicaps, broken relationships, loneliness, depression, persecution, injustice and poverty. The list doesn’t end there; suffering can take on many forms and no human being is immune from it.

Let’s look at suffering from a spiritual perspective. In order to do that we must consider God, the Bible and Creation. Suffering was not a part of God’s original created order. In the beginning, Genesis 1&2, there was no suffering before man rebelled against God. There will be no suffering after the new heaven and the new earth are created, as described in Revelation 21. Suffering only entered the world because Adam and Eve rebelled against God. When they rebelled against God they sinned, sin entered the world. Many theologians have said that all suffering is a result of sin, either directly or indirectly. If we take this to be a true statement then we have to ask, why did God allow sin to enter His created world and our world?

God allowed sin to enter into the world and our lives because He loves us and wants us to have control of our lives, He gave us a free will! Love is not love if it is forced; it can only be love if there is a real choice. God has given everyone one of us a choice and the freedom to love or not love. Given this freedom, this choice, men and women from the beginning have chosen to rebel against God and God commandments. The result has been suffering.

CS Lewis had this to say about suffering;

‘It would, no doubt, have been possible for God to remove by miracle the results of the first sin ever committed by a human being; but this would not have been much good unless He was prepared to remove the results of the second sin, and of the third, and so on forever. If the miracles ceased, then sooner or later we might have reached our present lamentable situation: if they did not, then a world thus continually under propped and corrected by Divine interference, would have been a world in which nothing important ever depended on human choice, and in which choice itself would soon cease from the certainty that one of the apparent alternatives before you would lead to no results and was there- fore not really an alternative.’

Suffering as a result of…   our CHOICE, others CHOICE, the WORLD…

(To Be Continued)

Who’s Fault Is It? – Part I

 

As I reflect back on the events of the last couple of months and try to figure out why I am going through all the tests the doctors have been putting me through, I start to blame myself. I blame my self for not listening to the doctor a year ago. I blame myself for not having the MRI done a year ago. I blame myself for not quitting smoking earlier in my life, especially since I had been told what it could do to my health.

I have come to the conclusion that it was not my fault and it probably would have happened no matter what I had done in the past. I have come to realize that there are forces in this world that we have no control over. Why do people get cancer? Why are kids and young people taken from us so young? Why do bad things happen to good people?

As I tried to answer the questions as they pertain to my particular situation and started searching myself and my beliefs it led me on a journey of trying to answer the question as to why bad things happen to good people. It took me on a personal journey of looking at life, my life, and why things happen the way they do. I started questioning my life and why if I was making things different, if I was making a life style change as my doctor suggested, why did one of the very things I was trying to avoid actually happen.

I was trying to avoid a heart attack or a stroke. After lowering my cholesterol 24 points, from 204 to 180, I experienced a TIA (mini-stroke). It just didn’t make any sense to me. Naturally I blamed myself for not following what the doctor had advised me a year earlier. So it was all my fault, or so I thought. It was then that I was reminded by my wife of the powers in this universe that work against us and try to defeat us, even to the point of death.

Please read along as I try to explain why suffering happens and why bad things happen to good people…

(To Be Continued)