Impaired No More

Why Early A.A. Succeeded and How You Can Too

By Dick B.

Copyright 2011 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Part Two

Using and Applying Our Core Ideas Today

·         Begin by employing the widely accepted, existing recovery approaches used today

1.      Qualify newcomers: Their admission, determination, commitment to abstinence.

2.      Remember the importance of medical evaluation or detox, mental health.

3.      Consider intervention (Jeff Jay) and Christian counseling (ACADC).

4.      Initial outreach through experienced, recovered “12^th-Stepper.”

5.      Attend fellowships of like-minded afflicted who suffer or have suffered.

6.      Stress daily participation in the program—Meeting, communicating, serving, helping others, speaking, sponsoring, and together: breaking bread, praying, studying the Word, reading, viewing, listening, worshiping, celebrating, and recreating together.

7.      Resist temptation—old ideas, old places, old “friends,” slippery people and slippery places, loneliness, self-pity, fear, guilt, shame, dishonesty.

8.      Utilize sponsorship. Stick with the winners.

·         Surrender absolutely to God.

1.      No false gods: “light bulb, chair, group, self, Something”: Ps 115.

2.      Believe in God completely. Seek Him diligently: Heb 11:6.

3.      Understand God: Learn what God has revealed about Himself in the Bible; seek the help of clergy and church, read.

4.      Recognize: No one comes to God except through Jesus Christ: John 14:6.

5.      Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. James 4:10.

·         Obey God.

1.      “Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God, rather than men.” Acts 5:29.

2.      “God is love.” 1 John 4:8. Jesus is the Son of God. John 10:36.

3.      “Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.” John 4:34.

4.      “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If  ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32.

5.      “Sanctify them through thy truth: Thy word is truth.” John 17:17.

6.      “For this is the love of God,  that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.”1 John 5:3.

7.      Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Mark 12:30.

8.      The “royal law:” Love your neighbor as yourself. James 2:8.

9.      “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Eccl 12:13.

·         Grow in your understanding and fellowship with God, His Son Jesus Christ, and other believers.

1.      “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1:3.

2.      “Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thess 5:17.

3.      “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Tim 2:15.

4.      “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” Prov 3:5-6.

5.      “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Rom 12:2.

·         Go and tell: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8.