Just Follow The Yellow Brick Road

Matthew 11:28 -- "Come unto me.........."

Isaiah 50:7 -  For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

Jeremiah 17:5 -  Thus says the Lord, "Cursed is the man who trusteth in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord."

Jeremiah 17:7 -  Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.

Sometimes you have to clear the air. I am not a professional "anything".....doctor / lawyer / and especially theologian. I am a theologian (the study of God) but I lay no claim to incredible insight or ability. I believe that man has a need to think that the mysteries of God are deep and beyond our comprehension. Part of this I do believe. God with holds certain things because we have no need of knowing. The rest, I believe is there for us to find and have the Holy Spirit illuminate our understanding.

I read on the Internet all these different view and opinions about the 12 steps. Some believe that these steps are the salvation for mankind and those in addiction......
Others believe that A.A. is a cult and is deceitfully wicked.
If you do word searches, you'll find that opinions about the 12 steps run the entire spectrum.
What do I believe?
I believe that there is no magic in the steps.
I believe that the steps never stopped anyone from using or drinking.
Some put their trust and their focus on the steps.
When in fact, the trust and focus should be on Jesus Christ.
The steps are a discipline spelled out to aid in this new found relationship with Jesus.

Drinking and drugging are evidence or symptom of a deeper struggle within the person who is using.
Trying to treat the use is like giving someone an aspirin for headaches that are caused by a brain tumor. It may relive the pain but only momentarily. There won't be any real relief until the tumor is removed.
The heart of all addiction is "the heart". Not the organ that pumps our blood, but the part of us that contains our will, intellect, our character.....some call it the soul, some refer to it as our spirit. I'll just call it the heart.
Found within each of us is a condition called "SIN".
It is a state that affects the way we think and act. Some refer to this condition as "The flesh" or our "Sin Nature." In other words, I am born with a bent to do the  wrong thing. If you don't believe this, then get you a room full of three year-olds and put a single toy in the middle of the floor. You'll have a fight on your hands as each of the tykes try to take possession of the toy. The one who finally does retrieve it proudly screams, "Mine! Mine!" Now tell me. Who taught this child to be greedy? No one. The sin nature exercised its will and the behavior that came out was one of greed.

Paul in Romans 7 writes: For I know that in me (that is my flesh) dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. (Or I can't do it).
Paul goes on to write, "For the good that I want to do, I don't do. But the evil which I don't want to do, well that is the very thing that I do."
Later in the chapter, Paul says, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Do you see where addiction comes from? Do you understand that it is the matter of the heart?
Yes! If you keep using, you'll affect the brain and there will be some physical damage done to you.
Yes! If you keep using, you'll affect your mental state that will rob you of your ability to stop or choose to stop. But at the heart of all addiction is a deceitful heart that needs to be changed. And only the blood of Jesus can break the power of this sin nature. Paul ends Romans 7 with these words: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God but the flesh, the law of sin.

I can only speak from the truth that God has given to me and shown me.
I know in my own struggles there were times where I had lost the ability to stop. I hated myself each time declaring that this would be the last, only to return to my sin over and over and over. It took the blood of Jesus (the work of the cross...His death and resurrection to pay the price for my sin) to break my sin.
It abolished the penalty of sin in my life.
It cleared the presence of sin from my life.
It broke the power of sin in my life, and placed a comforter inside of me, the Holy Spirit of God.
Now I have an advocate or someone who will defend me if I do sin. Through my repentance and confession, Jesus brings forgiveness to me and removes my sin.
So while the 12 steps are very important and a vital piece of what we teach at Rapha, it is the "Higher Power" we call Jesus Christ that is the real determining factor in our sobriety.
The steps are merely a path that we follow under the direction and guidance of Jesus.
May you find Him today....

God on you....
mb