Twelve Steps: Voluntary Humility, Involuntary Servitude

"Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21(Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? 23Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh." (Colossians 2: 20-23)

AA is just one more example of "rudiments" or elements of the world.

Men and women who visit the "rewmz" of AA will find that most of the people who stay there, never leave, never check out, and their whole life ultimately revolves around provoking others because they have "worked the program" longer than other people.

Jesus did not come that we could receive a better program of action. He came that we would have life, and that more abundantly (John 10: 10). He is the Life that we need (John 14: 6; Colossians 3: 1-4).

Anything less just pushes people into "touch not, taste not, handle not", which cannnot grant a man a new heart, the core problem for every person who abuses alcohol, or any other substance.

The New Covenant is an easy offer to all who are willing to believe:

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

The key element of this Covenant, however, stresses that you and I bring nothing to the table. This New Covenant is cut between God the Father and God the Son, in who we live and move and have our being, for He is our high priest forever, ministering on our behalf before God the Father, and we can trust, entering boldy before the throne of grace (Hebrews 4: 16), that every prayer we pray is heard and answered before God, because of our High Priest Jesus:

"Herein is love perfected among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He, Christ, is, so are we in this world!: (1 John 4: 17)

Reject the involuntary servitude of AA, with its voluntary humility, and receive the honor which comes with resting in Christ's Finished Work at the Cross.