Not only the Bible, but also the words of Bill Wilson in the Big Book, make clear that "fear" is sand in the machinery of life--a tool of the devil to replace the believing of God's Word with anxiety, doubt, guilt, shame, and all the rest. That is one reason why the Fourth Step in A.A. calls for making a "fear" list in one's inventory.
Here are some verses from the "Good Book" that make God's view quite clear:
Psa 34:4 (KJV): I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
Prov 29:25 (KJV): The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.
John 14:27 (KJV): Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Phil 4:6 (ESV): do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Phil 4:7 (ASV): And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
2 Tim 1:7 (KJV): For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
1 John 4:18 (KJV): There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
Showing posts with label A.A. and Conversions; AA and Christian Recovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A.A. and Conversions; AA and Christian Recovery. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
AA-How to Study, Understand, and Take the 12 Steps
A.A.: How to Study, Understand, & Take the 12 Steps
by Dick B.
© 2011 Anonymous. All rights reserved
FIRST THINGS FIRST:
The Bible;
Dr. William D. Silkworth (“The little doctor who loved drunks”);
William James (The Varieties of Religious Experience);
Anne Smith (and her personal journal which she kept between 1933 and 1939);
The Oxford Group (also known as “A First Century Christian Fellowship”); and
Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.
KEEP IT SIMPLE:
To learn about those key sources for material in the 12 Steps, I suggest you study:
Dick B., Twelve Steps for You: Let Our Creator, A.A. History, and the Big Book Be Your Guide (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006):
The sources of the 12 Steps and the “taking” of the Steps to completion
Dick B., By the Power of God: A Guide to Early A.A. Groups & Forming Similar Groups Today (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2000):
Details for study and for study groups
Dick B., The James Club and the Original A.A. Program's Absolute Essentials (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006):
Relating Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Book of James, and 1 Cor 13 to the Big Book
Three Clarence Snyder Sponsee Old-timers and Their Wives, Our A.A. Legacy to the Faith Community: A Twelve-Step Guide for Those Who Want to Believe (Winter Park, FL: Came to Believe Publications, 2005)
A 12 Step Guide for Retreats, Groups, and Individuals that also includes A.A. history
FOR: AAs, 12 Steppers, Sponsors, Speakers, Writers, Bible students, Christian recovery groups
TO ORDER:
You may read more about and order Dick B.'s titles here: http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml
You may order the Our A.A. Legacy book here: http://www.cametobelieve.org/
by Dick B.
© 2011 Anonymous. All rights reserved
FIRST THINGS FIRST:
The Bible;
Dr. William D. Silkworth (“The little doctor who loved drunks”);
William James (The Varieties of Religious Experience);
Anne Smith (and her personal journal which she kept between 1933 and 1939);
The Oxford Group (also known as “A First Century Christian Fellowship”); and
Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.
KEEP IT SIMPLE:
To learn about those key sources for material in the 12 Steps, I suggest you study:
Dick B., Twelve Steps for You: Let Our Creator, A.A. History, and the Big Book Be Your Guide (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006):
The sources of the 12 Steps and the “taking” of the Steps to completion
Dick B., By the Power of God: A Guide to Early A.A. Groups & Forming Similar Groups Today (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2000):
Details for study and for study groups
Dick B., The James Club and the Original A.A. Program's Absolute Essentials (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006):
Relating Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Book of James, and 1 Cor 13 to the Big Book
Three Clarence Snyder Sponsee Old-timers and Their Wives, Our A.A. Legacy to the Faith Community: A Twelve-Step Guide for Those Who Want to Believe (Winter Park, FL: Came to Believe Publications, 2005)
A 12 Step Guide for Retreats, Groups, and Individuals that also includes A.A. history
FOR: AAs, 12 Steppers, Sponsors, Speakers, Writers, Bible students, Christian recovery groups
TO ORDER:
You may read more about and order Dick B.'s titles here: http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml
You may order the Our A.A. Legacy book here: http://www.cametobelieve.org/
Thursday, December 16, 2010
A.A. and Christian Recovery Resources
A.A. and Christian Recovery Resources
100 Years of Stories about Drunkards, Conversions, and Jesus Christ
Dick B.
© 2010. Anonymous. All rights reserved
An Account of Exciting Quest over the Past Two Years
My son Ken and I have just finished a draft of the First Edition of our new title, The Dick B. Handbook for Christian Recovery Resource Centers Worldwide.
This new work grew out of several major undertakings in the last two years. The first was convening The First Nationwide Conference of Christian Recovery Leaders at Mariner’s Church in Irvine, California. There, men and women from all over the United States and Canada gathered to share their concerns about how to deal with the seeming opposition among some in the anonymous and Twelve Step fellowships to God, His Son Jesus Christ, the Bible, Church, and religion—as well as to those who expressed themselves on such subjects.
As a result, we met, and there was interchange and enthusiasm among, all kinds of folks in the Christian recovery arena.
The next phase was to gather and publish as much material as we could to help inform and arm these leaders and the public with information about the real Christian origins and history and program of the early A.A. Christian Fellowship founded in 1935 at Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron, Ohio.
The result, after many meetings and conferences, was the publication of two resources: (1) “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery”—a class with four DVD’s and a Class Instructor’s Guide and Class Guide for Students—www.dickb.com/IFCR-Class.shtml. This visual presentation is now in wide use. (2) The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010—www.dickb.com/Christian-Recov-Guide.shtml. This resource is not only in wide use. It accompanies the Class, and it has been distributed at many of the conferences that followed its publication.
The final phase involved a series of 17 individual meetings, seminars, and conferences around the State of California and the Island of Oahu in Hawaii. And these showed the dramatic interest that has arisen in restoring Christian recovery, its history, variety of resources, and successes to the 12-Step, church, and recovery arena for those who really want God’s help.
With that, we began work on the idea of Christian Recovery Resource Centers—all over the world. And the first step was to roll up our sleeves and study. We studied the need. We studied the existing facilities, approaches, and programs. We studied the gaps in information. We studied the potential demand for more. And we began reviewing the resources that Christian leaders and workers in recovery could and should be making available, in their own work and in company with others carrying on the same type or even different and supplemental types of Christian recovery elements.
The facts, results, and conclusions will shortly be published in the forthcoming The Dick B. Handbook for Christian Resource Recovery Centers Worldwide.
A Brief Story of the Exciting Conversion Resources We Found
A.A. Cofounders Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith both were born and raised in a Vermont atmosphere of Christian conversions. The conversions existed in the work of evangelists like Dwight Moody, F. B. Meyer, and Billy Sunday. They existed in the huge revival meetings convened by YMCA lay workers. They were a dramatic part of St. Johnsbury history because of The Great Awakening of 1875. They were present in the Gospel rescue missions. They were present in the Salvation Army. They were present in the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor in which Dr. Bob was active. To a degree, they were much discussed and applied in the later Oxford Group and Rev. Samuel Shoemaker teachings and practices that impacted directly on A.A. itself. And they were part of the family, church, Sunday school, and Academy teachings in which Bill and Bob were both involved. See Dick B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous www.dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml; and The Conversion of Bill W. www.dickb.com/conversion.shtml.
But personal conversion to God through Jesus Christ was also very much a part of the dramatic events in Bill Wilson’s life when he made a decision for Jesus Christ at the altar at Calvary Mission, and when he decided to seek the help of the Great Physician as he made his way to Towns Hospital and had his “white light” experience in the hospital room and never drank again.
This element of Christian recovery became a “must” in the early A.A. program in Akron. And it became a common element in the testimony of the early AAs who went through the “real surrender” process at the Akron City Hospital, the home of T. Henry and Clarace Williams, and/or Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron.
But in preparing our Handbook, we decided to review for ourselves the testimonies—not the commentaries of psychologists—as to the thousands delivered from alcoholism by deciding to make Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior and, in some cases, having the same type of “white light” experiences that Bill Wilson and his grandfather before him reported having when they were cured of alcoholism.
The Bibliography that Can Whip Up Your Enthusiasm
We studied the following books which are listed, cited, and/or discussed in our new Handbook:
Jeremiah (“Jerry”) McAuley, Transformed; Or, The History of a River Thief, Briefly Told (Published by Himself, 1876).
Samuel Hopkins Hadley, Down In Water Street: A Story of Sixteen Years Life and Work in Water Street Mission: A Sequel to the Life of Jerry McAuley, Memorial ed. (NY: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1903).
J. Wilbur Chapman, S. H. Hadley of Water Street: A Miracle of Grace (NY: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1906).
William T. Ellis, Billy Sunday: The Man and His Message (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1959)
Irving Harris, He Touched Me: Conversion Stories of Norman Vincent Peale, Bruce Larson, Ernest Gordon, Bill Wilson, & Others (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1985)
Gordon Lindsay in Collaboration with William Branham, William Branham: A Man Sent from God (Jeffersonville, IN: William Branham Evangelistic Association, 1950).
F.F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer (Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell, 1973)
Smith Wigglesworth, Smith Wigglesworth on Healing (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1999).
C.S. Lovett, Jesus Wants You Well (Baldwin Park, CA: Personal Christianity,
E. W. Kenyon, Jesus the Healer: Multitudes Have Been Healed While Reading This Book (Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society, 2000)
Roberts Liardon, Compiler, John G. Lake: The Complete Collection of His Life Teachings (Tulsa, OK: Albury Publishing, 1999)
T. L. Osborn, Believers in Action (Tulsa, OK: Osborn Publishers, 2000); T. L Osborn and Daisy Osborn, When Jesus Visited Our Home (Tulsa OK: Osborn Foundation, 1980); T. L. Osborn, Healing The Sick: A Living Classic (Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, Inc., 1992)
Frank Costantino, Holes In Time: Autobiography of a Gangster (Dallas, TX: Acclaimed Books, 1979)
Pastor Michael T., From the Pit. . . to the Pulpit: A Life Transformed by Grace (Palermo, CA: Jordan Crossing Ministries, n.d.).
dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com; www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com; 808 874 4876
Gloria Deo
100 Years of Stories about Drunkards, Conversions, and Jesus Christ
Dick B.
© 2010. Anonymous. All rights reserved
An Account of Exciting Quest over the Past Two Years
My son Ken and I have just finished a draft of the First Edition of our new title, The Dick B. Handbook for Christian Recovery Resource Centers Worldwide.
This new work grew out of several major undertakings in the last two years. The first was convening The First Nationwide Conference of Christian Recovery Leaders at Mariner’s Church in Irvine, California. There, men and women from all over the United States and Canada gathered to share their concerns about how to deal with the seeming opposition among some in the anonymous and Twelve Step fellowships to God, His Son Jesus Christ, the Bible, Church, and religion—as well as to those who expressed themselves on such subjects.
As a result, we met, and there was interchange and enthusiasm among, all kinds of folks in the Christian recovery arena.
The next phase was to gather and publish as much material as we could to help inform and arm these leaders and the public with information about the real Christian origins and history and program of the early A.A. Christian Fellowship founded in 1935 at Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron, Ohio.
The result, after many meetings and conferences, was the publication of two resources: (1) “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery”—a class with four DVD’s and a Class Instructor’s Guide and Class Guide for Students—www.dickb.com/IFCR-Class.shtml. This visual presentation is now in wide use. (2) The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010—www.dickb.com/Christian-Recov-Guide.shtml. This resource is not only in wide use. It accompanies the Class, and it has been distributed at many of the conferences that followed its publication.
The final phase involved a series of 17 individual meetings, seminars, and conferences around the State of California and the Island of Oahu in Hawaii. And these showed the dramatic interest that has arisen in restoring Christian recovery, its history, variety of resources, and successes to the 12-Step, church, and recovery arena for those who really want God’s help.
With that, we began work on the idea of Christian Recovery Resource Centers—all over the world. And the first step was to roll up our sleeves and study. We studied the need. We studied the existing facilities, approaches, and programs. We studied the gaps in information. We studied the potential demand for more. And we began reviewing the resources that Christian leaders and workers in recovery could and should be making available, in their own work and in company with others carrying on the same type or even different and supplemental types of Christian recovery elements.
The facts, results, and conclusions will shortly be published in the forthcoming The Dick B. Handbook for Christian Resource Recovery Centers Worldwide.
A Brief Story of the Exciting Conversion Resources We Found
A.A. Cofounders Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith both were born and raised in a Vermont atmosphere of Christian conversions. The conversions existed in the work of evangelists like Dwight Moody, F. B. Meyer, and Billy Sunday. They existed in the huge revival meetings convened by YMCA lay workers. They were a dramatic part of St. Johnsbury history because of The Great Awakening of 1875. They were present in the Gospel rescue missions. They were present in the Salvation Army. They were present in the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor in which Dr. Bob was active. To a degree, they were much discussed and applied in the later Oxford Group and Rev. Samuel Shoemaker teachings and practices that impacted directly on A.A. itself. And they were part of the family, church, Sunday school, and Academy teachings in which Bill and Bob were both involved. See Dick B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous www.dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml; and The Conversion of Bill W. www.dickb.com/conversion.shtml.
But personal conversion to God through Jesus Christ was also very much a part of the dramatic events in Bill Wilson’s life when he made a decision for Jesus Christ at the altar at Calvary Mission, and when he decided to seek the help of the Great Physician as he made his way to Towns Hospital and had his “white light” experience in the hospital room and never drank again.
This element of Christian recovery became a “must” in the early A.A. program in Akron. And it became a common element in the testimony of the early AAs who went through the “real surrender” process at the Akron City Hospital, the home of T. Henry and Clarace Williams, and/or Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron.
But in preparing our Handbook, we decided to review for ourselves the testimonies—not the commentaries of psychologists—as to the thousands delivered from alcoholism by deciding to make Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior and, in some cases, having the same type of “white light” experiences that Bill Wilson and his grandfather before him reported having when they were cured of alcoholism.
The Bibliography that Can Whip Up Your Enthusiasm
We studied the following books which are listed, cited, and/or discussed in our new Handbook:
Jeremiah (“Jerry”) McAuley, Transformed; Or, The History of a River Thief, Briefly Told (Published by Himself, 1876).
Samuel Hopkins Hadley, Down In Water Street: A Story of Sixteen Years Life and Work in Water Street Mission: A Sequel to the Life of Jerry McAuley, Memorial ed. (NY: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1903).
J. Wilbur Chapman, S. H. Hadley of Water Street: A Miracle of Grace (NY: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1906).
William T. Ellis, Billy Sunday: The Man and His Message (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1959)
Irving Harris, He Touched Me: Conversion Stories of Norman Vincent Peale, Bruce Larson, Ernest Gordon, Bill Wilson, & Others (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1985)
Gordon Lindsay in Collaboration with William Branham, William Branham: A Man Sent from God (Jeffersonville, IN: William Branham Evangelistic Association, 1950).
F.F. Bosworth, Christ the Healer (Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell, 1973)
Smith Wigglesworth, Smith Wigglesworth on Healing (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1999).
C.S. Lovett, Jesus Wants You Well (Baldwin Park, CA: Personal Christianity,
E. W. Kenyon, Jesus the Healer: Multitudes Have Been Healed While Reading This Book (Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society, 2000)
Roberts Liardon, Compiler, John G. Lake: The Complete Collection of His Life Teachings (Tulsa, OK: Albury Publishing, 1999)
T. L. Osborn, Believers in Action (Tulsa, OK: Osborn Publishers, 2000); T. L Osborn and Daisy Osborn, When Jesus Visited Our Home (Tulsa OK: Osborn Foundation, 1980); T. L. Osborn, Healing The Sick: A Living Classic (Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, Inc., 1992)
Frank Costantino, Holes In Time: Autobiography of a Gangster (Dallas, TX: Acclaimed Books, 1979)
Pastor Michael T., From the Pit. . . to the Pulpit: A Life Transformed by Grace (Palermo, CA: Jordan Crossing Ministries, n.d.).
dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com; www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com; 808 874 4876
Gloria Deo
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