Altogether.
It has taken me many years to pull out and take another look at many things which I had believed to be so fundamental, that they could be taken for granted.
I heard that often-uoted phrase from "the program" again: "My life is unmanageable."
Then I realized everything that Jesus did for me at the Cross.
His sacrifice at the Cross was about more--so much more--than taking away my sins.
He gave me life, His Life:
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends." (John 15:13)
Reminder, in case you missed what Jesus declared to His disciples, and now shares with all of us. Jesus laid down His life for us.
Let's go back to an early part of Jesus' ministry on earth:
"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)
John the Beloved Disciple wrote more blatantly in his First Epistle:
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (1 John 5:12)
In the Gospel of Luke, we learn why the Loving Father rejoiced at the return of his prodigal son:
"For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry." (Luke 15:24)
This parable of the Loving Father is about more than the return of a son. This account speaks of God's redemptive love for all of us. We were dead, alienated from our Father, and He not only welcomes us back as we are, but takes us from death to life and grants us a new standing before Him and in the world!
The AA cult teaches people that their lives are unmanageable, but if they turn their will, turn their life over to some "higher power", all will be well.
Nope.
The fact is, the program is designed in such a way that men and women begin turning their will, their lives, their everything else to the AA group and their sponsor. An arrogant old far and a rabid bunch of old-timers.
All this talk about turning my will and life over to God--whatever I thought he was--made it much harder to live and enjoy my life. What does that look like? How am I supposed to be directed in the steps that I take in this life? What if I am doing something wrong?
More questions, not fewer, emerged in my life. It seemed that life was more tenuous and stressful, especially because I was supposed to go around taking orders from "God", as though He was living and moving and having His being within me.
AA actually makes the lives of men and women more unmanageable, or at least forces them to be managed by someone else -- and that person is not the Holy Spirit.
No wonder life was so difficult and conflicted. On one hand, Jesus provides all things. At the same time, I was supposed to submit to this man-centered program which made me more self-conscious.
Sorry, but my life is more than unmanageable. Without Jesus, without His gift of grace ever-present and resplendent, I would have no life at all.
I don't want steps on how to better manage my life. I want His life in me!
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
and
"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)
Jesus is all about giving. We are not in some kind of 50-50 partnership.
He is my God, and I depend on Him wholly!
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2Every
branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that
beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3Now ye are
clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4Abide in me, and I in
you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no
more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He
that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for
without me ye can do nothing." (John 15:1-5)
Bill W. was a wannabe Jesus, a false Messiah, an anti-Christ.
I will abide and thrive in the Real Deal, Jesus!
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