Tag Archives: Know

Be Honest

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Luke 19:8 Zacchaeus stood up. He said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of what I own to those who are poor. And if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay it back. I will pay back four times the amount I took.”

 God knows the things we have done wrong. He knows the people we need to make put on our list. Yet He leaves it up to us. He does that so we can learn the importance of honesty in the process of recovery.

When we write our list it can be tempting to leave people off because we didn’t hurt them very much, they hurt us just as bad or because we don’t think God really cares about that one.

 

Our list needs to include everyone we can remember hurting or who have hurt us. Remember the list isn’t going to be shared with anyone to be as honest as you can.

 

  • Is there anyone you have left off your list intentionally?

 

 Prayer: Lord help me be as honest as I can when making my list.

Live and Let Live

Listen, Hear and Understand

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Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious–the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
Matthew 13:14 ~ Romans 12:3 ~ 1 Corinthians 12:2 ~ 1 Corinthians 13:12

Philippians 4:8-9

I was Sculpted From Nothing Into Something.

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Psalms 139:15 You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Something beautiful, something good
All my confusion He understood
All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife
But he made something beautiful of my life

Thank You, Jesus!

new life

A New Creation

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2 Corinthians 5:17 Anyone who believes in Christ is a new creation. The old is gone! The new has come!

logo_transparent_bgAnother of my favorite scriptures. This verse in my recovery saved my life.

I never believed when it came to step six changes in my character were possible. Anyone who knows me will tell you I am a creature of habit. Always have been, always will be. I don’t adapt well to change. And I always prefer to be in control.

This one verse from the Bible gave me a whole new hope in my life. Hope that if I trusted God and did what he told me to do I never needed to be the person I was in the past again,

I want to tell you in my recovery journey I experienced so much change. In me, in my circumstances and in my life that without God would have driven me back to relapse.

Today I am a different person because I believed what the Bible said about change.

Change

 

Go to The Temple and Take Your Stand

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Scripture Reading: Acts 5:17-25

“Go to the Temple and take your stand. Tell the people everything there is to say about this Life.” Acts 5:20

Step 12: Having gone through these steps and discovering the importance of an individual relationship with God through Jesus, I will try to live according to His principles and to lead others to a personal relationship with Him.

Today I want to think about the message the angel spoke of. A new life that is available to us all. A new life of change.

Change comes to us through faith and the way we obtain faith is through the Word of God. The Bible is full of stories of people who through faith achieved great things. Another reason they achieved great things is that they were open to allowing God to change them. I believe one of the major stumbling blocks in us achieving great things is ‘PEOPLE TODAY ARE TOO PROUD TO ALLOW GOD TO CHANGE THEM. We get too comfortable in what we know and understand and are afraid to try new things. We need to humble ourselves before God.

No-one in this world, to my knowledge, ver achieved God’s will without humility. Jesus in John 13 washed the feet of His disciples, then ordered them to wash each other’s feet so they would learn a lesson in humility. He also wanted them to learn the importance of following his examples In order to change and become the people God wants us to become He expects us to also learn to follow the examples of Jesus. We have to learn to worship and praise Him, to serve Him with all our hearts in confidence and adoration.

God can and will use every one of us. If we let Him. We have to be prepared to change our attitudes and our actions. Wh have to take responsibility for our behavior. we have to face up to life, accept it and decide how God would have us live it differently? God keeps His promises to us. He promises nothing will ever be put in front of us we are unable to overcome with His help. Unless we are willing to open our hearts and lives to Him we have little or no chance of overcoming the problems of this world. He commands us to confidently follow Him. Love, Trust, and obedience to Him secure us a place in His Kingdom. If we are truly His children nothing on this earth will ever hurt us so bad we cannot recover from it.

I believe today I am a fairly confident, competent individual, not because I have any special talent but because I am a child of God and my chief aim in life is to glorify Him and do His work. I know that no matter where I am or what I am doing He is there with me. He guides me and protects me in every situation. I haven’t always felt that way. A few years ago I believed my only purpose in life was to get drunk, take drugs and cause trouble. I went out of my way to destroy relationships I had with other people because I felt I was not worthy of other people’s attention. I didn’t like the person I allowed myself to become through the life I led and I thought the rest of the world didn’t like me either.

Through the Salvation Army and The Bridge Program, I met Jesus and experienced the message of new life first hand. In John 2:28 the Bible tells us to continue in the ways of God, so on the day He appears to us we can face Him with confidence without shame. everything we need He supplies, if He is not then maybe we are seeking the wrong things. in his book ‘Prisoner of hope’ Barry Goode says “Prayer it seems is one of the most difficult pursuits for Christians. Yet it is most necessary and rewarding.” “You can find stones and rocks anywhere.” he says “but if you want something really precious like diamonds, gold or silver it takes time, effort, patience to unearth it.”

Everything God makes, He makes for a purpose. I am sure we are all aware of the verse in the Bible that says “Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains.” God brings in His Kingdom by the mustard seed method. When we feel weak, ineffective, and inadequate as long as we have faith, even a minimum of faith God can use it.

When we feel weakest is usually when we are most open to the message of Jesus and the need for change in our lives. “Go stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of new life.” That’s the message the angel delivered to the apostles so long ago.

Today I would lie to say I believe only God knows the full message of new life. Only He knows how much can be achieved through faith in Him. And, the only way for us to find out His plan for us is to step out in faith, To let Him change us and lead us to new life so He can be glorified and we can be reconciled to him through the blood of Jesus.

purpose

 

Jesus Knows Everything

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meProverbs 15:11 Death and the Grave lie open in front of the Lord. So human hearts certainly lie open to him!
God knows all about me. He understands my strengths and my weaknesses. He knows if I lie, cheat, steal or do anything He disapproves of.
One of the best clichés I have ever heard in recovery is “The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it is open.”
Open-mindedness in recovery is not an option. It is a necessity. We are all going to have to accept things we don’t want to accept. We are all going to do things we don’t want to do.
The ‘Good News’ in that is Jesus knows all about me so I can be completely honest with Him.
– How honest are you really?

 

 

Prayer: Jesus help me to be open and honest with You about my list, my feelings and my difficulties in accepting some of the things I need to do in recovery

Trust God

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I hate all this silly religion, but you, God, I trust. Trust Go absolutely, people; lay your lives on the line for Him. Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. It pays to take life seriously; things work out when you trust in God

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God Knows

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Psalm 139:1-16

God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too— your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful— I can’t take it all in! 7Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute— you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!”  It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.  Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvellously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.

  1. GOD KNOWS ALL ABOUT YOU
    God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. Psalm 139:1

  2. GOD KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT YOURSELF
    Thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvellously made! I worship in adoration Psalm 139:14

  3. GOD KNOWS WHAT YOU THINK OTHER PEOPLE THINK ABOUT YOU
    “If there happens to be a feast celebrated, don’t go there either to enjoy the festivities.” Jeremiah 16:8

  4. GOD KNOWS YOUR POTENTIAL FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH
    All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally. 1 Corinthians 9:25

 

1 Corinthians 9:25 highlights the importance of the continued application of the principles of recovery and resetting our focus not on ourselves but on the things God wants us to be focused on.

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Daily Reflection July 25, 2016

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HeaderThank God

Psalms 103:2 I will praise the Lord. I won’t forget anything he does for me.

 Colin Buchannan sings a children’s song that says: “Remember the Lord. Remember that He is in control.”

 Good advice for people in recovery! Knowing that God is in control brings me a lot of peace.

This verse is a call to praise God for all He has done for me. I can tell you honestly without God’s intervention and my faith in Him I would not be here today. All through my life since the day I surrendered my will and my life to Him He has done great things in my life. Some of them I didn’t feel like they were so great when they were happening to me have been the best things that could have happened. The right things. God initiated and God controlled

Standing where I am now, looking back where I’ve been it is easy for me to praise God.

  • What can you praise God for today?

 

Prayer: God help me today to take time to thank You for helping me

Keep Moving Forward

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Over the last few months my life has been changing. Back in August last year at the request of my GP I had a blood test. He rang me the next day to request I come in and see him. At the appointment he advised me I had a high PSA reading and said he wanted me to see a specialist. I did, and the specialist conducted more tests then advised me I needed to attend an appointment at The Alfred Hospital to have a biopsy on my prostate. I did, then at a follow up appointment I was advised I had prostate cancer.

Now I know lot’s of other men have had this diagnosis but for me at 52 years old to be told “You have a cancer.” was the most terrifying news I have heard in my life in a lot of years. So I began attending all the tests, listening to all the doctors and everyone elses wisdom on what I should do and I prayed. Prayed like I have never prayed before. I started for the first time since I went through the recovery process in my life taking an honest, fearless moral inventory of my life.

I stopped working for The Salvation Army and started asking God the question “What’s next?” God then started putting on my heart recovery curriculum and I began writing. The way it happened was one day I was feeling sorry for myself and decided to go through recovery curriculum I have aquired through the years. Because I am used to using stuff other people have written and I heard the Holy Spirit say “No that’s not it to everything I picked up.” But I kept looking until I picked up a pocket size copy of “The Serenity Bible Companion for Twelve Step Recovery.” Previously owned by Major John Henderson. In it were three lot’s of hand written notes from Major Henderson from messages I had heard him deliver to men in The Salvation Army Bridge Program. As I read those notes and looked at the corresponding scriptures it was like a light went on and I knew what I had in my hand was what God was guiding me to use to lead people to personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I started writing using Bible Verses from “The Serenity Bible Companion for Twelve Step Reovery” and believe, because of the ease at which my writing flows using this simple little book I am now preparing God directed recovery based on His guidance and His purpose for my life. I am currently in the process of writing a “365 Dailt Reflection” book based on those scriptures from that bible and my own experience of recovery for the last 30 years (I am up to 265 so it won’t be fara way). Through the process I have also accumulated “31 Principles of Recovery from the Gospels” Principles I believe Jesus commanded each of us to adapt in our own characters in order to help others meet Him and understand His purpose for them.

Back in 2005 when God introduced me to Living Life Recovery He, through the Holy Spirit gave me Twelve Steps, which you can find on this website. Around the same time I also prepared for a leadership team a six week Leadership Training Course on ‘Christian Mentoring’ Which I believe is God’s guidance for how He wants Christian Recovery Leaders to lead.

So much happening, oh and yes I still have cancer but I am not letting it get the better of me. God has a plan and a purpose for everyone of us and if we continue to follow that plan He will help us to overcome any and every hurdle that get’s in our way. I believe that and I hope you do to.

Why am I sharing this now? Because God says it’s time! Over the next few months I will be concentrating on developing what God has given me to make it ready for others to recieve so they too might be encouraged to stop doing their own thing and start doing what God wants… My God is a Great God, I don’t have a job at the moment and yet I am busy. I am in the process of establishing and developing a number of new Living Life Recovery meetings, visiting hospitals and helping individuals who still reach out to me for help.  I don’t know what the future holds. I do know I am in His hands and He will never drop me so to that end I will keep writing recovery currculum stepping into gaps He opens up for me to fill. I will keep moving forward in His strength, His Power with His Love and protection.

Ibelive that through what I am now doing with God’s help and guidance lives will be changed and I would like to ask anyone reading this to add myself and Living Life Recovery to their prayer lists. God has a plan and it includes us all supporting each other to achieve His mission for us all.

My new verse for 2016 is the one above. God is using us all – no matter where we came from. His Kingdom is now my home country I hope it’s yours too.