AA: God is God, and Self is Not God

 

A.A.’s Rev. Sam Shoemaker: God is God. Self is not God

Dick B.

Copyright 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

Direct quotes from the “co-founder of A.A.,” Rev. Shoemaker, found in Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., Pittsburgh Edition:

 

“God is,” 153

“God is God,” 153

“A new kind of life, which trusts God, not self,” 155

            “You will never find God by reading big books about Him,” 155

“I’ve spent a lot of time on this initial finding of God because I am convinced that there are thousands of people in the churches and out of them for whom God is an aspiration, and not a fact,” 155

“God-sufficiency,” 156

“Self-sufficiency and the independence of God—that is, for the Christian, the major sin of all,” 156

“God will come through to you and make Himself known,” 157

“Selfishness . . . . self-centeredness,”  158

“Self-pity, self-will, self-centeredness,” 158

“Self-surrender has always been and must always be regarded as the vital turning point of religious life,” 160

“let us rely much on God,” 160

“Let go! Abandon yourself to Him. Say to Him, ‘Not my will but Thine be done,” 160

“Abandon yourself to Him,” 161

‘O Lord, manage me, for I cannot manage myself,” 161.

“God is and is a Rewarder of them that seek Him,” 161

“Self-will seems the blackest sin of all,” 162

“For most men, the world is centered in self, which is misery,” 162.