Sober living with Jesus

Surrender to God All-Powerful! You will find peace and prosperity. Listen to his teachings and take them to heart. If you return to God and turn from sin, all will go well for you. So get rid of your finest gold, as though it were sand. Let God All-Powerful be your silver and gold, and you will find happiness by worshiping him. God will answer your prayers, and you will keep the promises you made to him. He will do whatever you ask, and life will be bright. -Job 22:21-28 (CEV) Often in 12 step programs one can hear the expression "surrender to win." Generally this is in reference to alcohol or some other drug, but it can be said equally for any affliction a person may encounter. Our very lives in earthly flesh are wrought with afflictions--some self-made and others occur simply because we are human and descendants of fallen Adam and Eve. Although we may think we are surrendering to a disease of addiction, in reality that is not what we are doing. We are saying as indi...

Those who guard their mouths preserve their lives; those who open wide their lips come to ruin. -Proverbs 13:3 (NRSV) Last night, my wife had posted something political on Facebook (which she often does) and had her first experience with someone who vehemently disagreed with her viewpoint, choosing to respond in an angry manner. He accused her of such things as racism (I know my wife and she is no racist) and was "sad" for her. She was upset, called my attention to it and asked me who he was (she had "friended" him because he was a friend of friends and didn't really know him). I didn't know him, but was angered at his nasty little unfounded comment and accusation, firing back from my account that he should reserve his shame for himself. I also questioned why people can't disagree with the present political climate without being labeled racist?  In the back of my mind as I'm posting it, it occurred to me that it was simply venting and would serve n...

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The "Set­-Aside" Prayer "Dear God, please set aside everything I think I know [about myself, my disease, the Big Book, the 12 Steps, the Program, the Fellowship, the people in the fellowship, and all spiritual terms, and especially about you God] so I may have an open mind and a new experience [with all these things]. Please help me see the Truth. Amen." I don't remember where that prayer comes from; I found it in a file containing prayers that I had stored on Google Drive. I'll say this: it is one of the most necessary prayers I've prayed in a while and my hat is off to whoever thought it up.

Cover via Amazon A long time ago I was told that spiritual principles don't conflict. My life experience has shown that to be true. Quite often I read different meditation books and some of them do not contain Bible verses or specific references to Christianity. Instead of talking about Jesus, they tend to stick to a generic 'God' and let you fill in the blanks with whatever your conception of that Higher Power might be. However, while minus some of the theology that I believe in, the principles are generally the same and the wealth of spiritual 'gold nuggets' I can mine from such books is priceless. Such a book is the Twenty-Four Hours A Day book. While perhaps one of the most "religious" meditation books out there in use by many A.A.'s, it still tries to maintain a "one size fits all" structure to its writings. Today's reading (December 11) discusses the difference between many doctors' view of A.A. as group therapy [wh...

We love because he first loved us. - 1 John 4:19 (NIV) This morning, I picked up my wife's copy of a devotional publication she receives called Our Daily Bread . In today's reading, the author talks about a children's ministry where the kids are rewarded for their good behavior with prizes. One boy, who is offered a reward for behaving well, refuses it and says that he behaves well because he wants to and doesn't need a prize for doing as he wishes. When we love God, we wish to please Him. We should all strive to be like that young boy in the story and do the right thing because we want to, expecting nothing in return. Of course, the hard part is that, as believers in Christ, we know there's a reward! So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. -2 Corinthians 5:9 (NIV)

Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love these things you show that you do not really love God; for all these worldly things, these evil desires—the craze for sex, the ambition to buy everything that appeals to you, and the pride that comes from wealth and importance—these are not from God. They are from this evil world itself. And this world is fading away, and these evil, forbidden things will go with it, but whoever keeps doing the will of God will live forever. -1 John 2:15-17 (TLB) Wow. Tough words. Most of us that read such things are probably thinking to ourselves that we still have affection for those worldly things and may even question whether we truly love God or not. I submit to the reader that the fact they are concerned about the matter probably shows that they do love God and want fellowship with Him. Certainly, there are times when I battle with things of the flesh--such as lust, pride and the desire for material gain. The point is, ...