Life on Life's Terms: Jesus!

"We had to learn to accept life on life's terms." (From "Acceptance is the Answer to all my Problems")

Another one of the hollow quotes oft repeated in AA meetings.

What does that mean, anyway, to accept life on life's terms?

Does that mean putting up with abuse at the work place, or setting for second place in one's work, in all one's affairs?

There is all too much about this life which should offend us, which we should not settle for.

If we rest in our own conception of God, we may find that this life actually ends up dominating us even more.

Life on life' terms is a useless statement. I need to know and understand that there is life, a life which flows and pulsates with or without my permission.

I am not responsible for creating this life on my own.

This life is a gift which we receive through Jesus Christ:

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10)

Before Jesus told everyone what He was offering to all who would believe on Him (John 6:29), He talked about the thief who comes to steal, kill, an destroy. In the same chapter, Jesus also talks about those who came before Him, bring doctrines of bondage and deceit. Just as the serpent deceived Eve into believe that she was not yet like God, and that partaking of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would grant her knowledge like God, so too Bill W. and all the other cult-adherents of AA offered up the hollow lies that working a "simple" Twelve Step program would enable us to have fun living.

Not the case at all.

Jesus came to give us life. God put the tree of life in the midst of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2: 9), yet Eve focused on the other tree, the Knowledge of Good and Evil:

"3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." (Genesis 3: 3)

AA is another fruit from the poisonous tree of Good and Evil.

While many will claim that AA does work, it does not. Even for the three to five percent of people who do get free of alcohol and stay in the program, they end up switching the overt perversion of alcoholism for a religious fixation, complete with medications and other mind-altering drugs.

Why do men and women overeat, drink to excess, or engage in other empty pursuits? They want life, they need the love of the Father, yet they are seeking this love in broker cisterns:

"15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (1 John 2: 15-17)

People are looking for something permanent, that unconditional, eternal love which only God is and has and does for us. We recognize and receive this love because of Jesus, who not only dies for us, but serves us after the power of an endless life at the right hand of God the Father.

Life on life's terms means nothing if we do not understand life:

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14: 6)

This statement cannot be ignored. If we believe on Jesus, then we accept Him as our life, as well as the way and the truth in our lives. He is alive and active in us and through us. Instead of looking at Twelve Steps, let us spend more time looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith, and allow His blessing to flow in us, to allow Him to live through us:

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." (1 John 4: 9)

That we might live through Him -- we are not trying to live this life on our own. This life is not even ours to live. Never once should we feel alone or lost, that we are facing the challenges, hurts, and setbacks of this life in our own strength. Never.

The revelation of how great is Jesus love for me is more than can be expressed in one blog post. Yet years of AA made it very difficult to understand that His life living and flowing through me is exactly what Jesus wants to do for everyone of us. Still, so many Christians do not understand the great privilege of Christ living in them, and that this life allows Him to do great things for us, through, and for others, too.

Live your life on Life's terms: Jesus, full of grace and truth!