Posted on 08/10/2012 3:48:44 PM PDT by evangmlw
Former addict has authored and published a book on how God delivered him from ten years of addiction. The book includes his personal testimony and explains ten progressive steps toward experiencing a clean and successful life.
Beg your pardon? I spent 10 years in addiction and was confined to 3 addiction facilities within those 10 years. I also spent years in AA. AA, rehab facilities, psychologists, and psychiatrists, were unable to set me free. Where have I been? For thirty years I have lived clean and free for addiction, have sought the face of God in prayer and Bible study, and worked with many addicts along the way. I wrote this book and spent my own personal money to publish it. Chances are I will never get back what it cost me financially to publish it. I wrote with the sincere desire to help others find the freedom, joy, peace, serenity, forgiveness, purpose, and meaning that I have found in life. For the past 30 years life has progressively and increasingly become the greates gift that anyone can ever experience. Your suggestion that I'm in this for the money is hogwash -- and I have actually given away several books to folk who can not afford the $14 they retail for. You know not of what you speak, and are guilty of judging a man's heart of whom you do not even know.
Wonder how much money has been made on the Big Book? Hmm!
And I wonder if AA gives a Big Book to everyone who comes to their meetings as I give my book to those who come to our meetings? Hmmm!
I am a former addict who spent ten years in addiction. I would eat, drink, smoke, or snort anything to get high and stay high. There were times in my 20’s when I stayed drunk for days. I was in three rehab facilities for addiction, and lost everything. I wrote this book on ten years of personal experience in addiction, 30 years of prayer, 30 years of biblical studies, and nearly 20 years of working with other addicts as God brought them across my path. I am the author of this book.
And I’ve been clean for 30 years, I think I’m very qualified to write a definitive book on addiction.
If that be the case, it would be because they refuse to follow His instructions and devour His prescripton. This is exactly what my book does: it provides God’s prescription for healing from addiction.
Every meeting I attend has or will get you a Big Book for free.
“this is where you are wrong and even guilty of calling God a liar”.
Well, evan, I was trying to be respectful to you. But the deals’ off when you have the nerve to say such a thing to me or anyone else.
So here goes my real opinion:
You are a fraud and a charlatan. You hide behind your supposed faith in God and Jesus as a means of avoiding the truth about yourself.
You didn’t succeed in the traditional well tested AA program because you didn’t want to. In fact, you wanted to use and drink and so that’s why you continued to fail.
The God of my understanding is a loving God who is not prone to be insulted by those who are trying their best to navigate through the complicated world of recovery.
Any method that is successful for the addict and helps them to find serenity and peace in sobriety is a worthwhile endeavor.
Yours is one way. Their are many other paths.. and I feel confident that the God of my understanding embraces all well intentioned efforts.
And why did you feel the need to advertise and try to sell your book on FR?
Most people who have recovered could, if they so choose, write books about a ton of other things besides their own recovery.
According to Jesus Christ, there is but One God, and One Way. He arose from the dead to prove His assessment. I’ll stick with him and the 30 years of clean living He has given me. I stick with “the peace that passes all understanding,” which I have experienced in an increasing capacity for 20 years now. I’ll choose to believe the One who arose from the dead over all the false gods of the world. AA is a fraud and promoter of the great lie that leads men to eternal destruction, of which you have falled prey.
Opinions will mean nothing when a man stands before his Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ. On that day, you’ll not be interested in anybody’s opinion, not even your own. Truth will prevail.
evang’s anger and vitriol toward AA is key here. This guy is a cauldron of rage. Don’t be fooled by his testimonial for his own way being the only way. I’ve been sober for 22 years and have never heard of his book or him before.
Love it(not)when a Freeper strays and posts a self aggrandizing thread that goes against all common sense and proven methods of success, then berates, castigates or condemns anyone who doesn’t agree with them.
Can you imagine what his “meetings’ are like? I would urge the unsuspecting participants to RUN. lol
really????
12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous & Biblical References
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol ... that our lives had become unmanageable.
“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18)
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
“... my grace is sufficient for you, for my POWER is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
..for it God Who works in you to will and act according to His good purpose.. (Phil. 2:13)
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of GOD as we understood Him.
“... If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23**)
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:40)
5. Admitted to GOD, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16)
6. Were entirely ready to have GOD remove all these defects of character.
“If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land.” (Isaiah 1:19)
7. Humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (James 4:10)
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23, 24**)
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Give and it shall be given you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38**)
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith GOD has given you.” (Romans 12:3)
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with GOD as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will, and the power to carry that out.
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...” (Col. 3:16)
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and practice these principles in all our affairs.
“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:1-2)
**The words of Christ
Psalm 119:104 "From YOUR PRECEPTS I get understanding; therefore I HATE EVERY FALSE WAY."
AA promotes and endorses MANY GODS; therefore, it's a FALSE WAY that is leading men and women astray. I base my stand on the word of God, not on the philosophies and wisdom of th world. On your summation of success: All men who live and die without Jesus Christ are ETERNAL FAILURES in the eyes of God. A man cannot be successful without Christ, because Christ is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. Without Christ, your way is false, without Christ, you have no truth, and without Christ, you're "dead in trespasses and sin." Reformation will never make a man successful, for he must be supernaturally transformed by the power of God, and the power of God can only be experienced Christ. Here is where the AA philosophy and worldly wisdom goes astray. Of course, "the natural man does not understand the things of God, he cannot, for they are spiritually discerned." Dead men can speak, hear, taste, smell, or feel. Without Christ, a man is spiritually dead, perhaps that's why you fail to understand my words. When Christ walked the earth, He physically raised men from the dead. He is still raising men from the dead, from spiritual death to spiritual life. Men without Christ cannot and do not know God.
I have over 30 years of being free from drug and alcohol addiction. That’s 8 more years than you do. I don’t have to attend meetings to stay clean; Christ keeps me clean, for the One who delivered me, is more than able to keep me. You see, I’m not only a conquerer, but “more than a conqeror in Christ.” You don’t know me from beans, and your assessment and attempt to make me a liar only serves to expose the darkness that lingers in your lost soul. I will now do as Christ Himself has exhorted me, I will now “shake the dust off my shoes,” and will no longer “cast my pearls before swine.” Love? There is no love outside of Christ. When Christ loved men and confronted them with the truth — THEY CRUCIFIED HIM. Is that what you are not doing to a man that you have never known? Have you read the book? Then how can you make a sound judgment on it? Of course — you can’t! You are not only guilty of attacking someone who has shared the truth with you, you have attacked Christ and the truth He brought to the world. Remaining in darkness is a choice that Christ affords you. Christ is life to some, and death to others.
Peter refers to this as “wresting,” or “twisting the Scripture” to conform God to your own understanding.
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