Category: Recovery Keys

Attitudes and actions that lead to lating, growing recovery.

Twelve Steps of Christianity

24th November 2020 aeboyle 2020, November, Recovery, Recovery Keys, Recovery Principles Comments Off on Twelve Steps of Christianity

Hi there,

Over the last couple of months, I have been challenged with the topic of what this blog will focus on in 2021. Every year in November and December I attempt to make a conscious decision on the focus for the year ahead.

To date, I have tried to maintain a 12 Step approach to blog content on this site. In the last few weeks, I have been reading (and studying) the book TWELVE STEP CHRISTIANITY by Saul Selby.

In this book, Saul Selby talks about how The Oxford Group’s spiritual tenets, contributed to the development of AA’s Twelve Steps.

The tenets are:

  • Surrender: The decision to submit one’s will totally to God’s will. e

  • Confession of Sin: Confessing one’s sins to both God and another person.
  • Restitution: The righting the wrongs done to others because of sin in our lives.

  • Guidance: Encouragement to set aside time for daily prayer and meditation to seek God’s face and receive direction and power for life.

  • Witnessing: Encouragement to share with others what God had done in our lives.

  • The Four Absolutes: The example of Christ Himself was the standard of living. His example of holy living held up as a banner by which we can measure our own behaviour.
    • Absolute Honesty
    • Absolute Purity
    • Absolute Unselfishness
    • Absolute Love

In the book Saul Selby also shares.
CHRISTIAN EQUIVALENTS OF THE TWELVES STEPS

They are:

  1. We are powerless to live the Christian Life. in our own strength.

  2. We need to experience Jesus both as personal and available in our lives.

  3. We need to decide to completely surrender our lives to God’s will and purpose.

  4. We need to honestly examine the impact of sin in our lives.

  5. We need to confess our sin to both God and another person we trust.

  6. We need to become determined to stop sinning.

  7. We need to ask God to remove our impulse to sin.

  8. We need to make restitution for the harm our sin has done to others.

  9. We need to resist the temptation to keep sinning, confess to God when we do, and make restitution for the harm it causes.

  10. We need to seek God’s will through prayer, meditation, and Bible study.

  11. Following salvation through faith in Jesus Christ we need to let Him use us to influence the lives of others.
  1. We are powerless to live the Christian Life.

  2. Experiencing Jesus as personal and available.

  3. Decide to completely surrender our lives to God.

  4. Honestly examine the impact of sin in our lives.

  5. Confessing our sin to God and another person.

  6. Become determined to stop sinning.

  7. Asking God to remove our impulse to sin.

  8. Making restitution for the harm our sin has done to others.

  9. Resisting the temptation to sin. Confessing to God when we do and making restitution for the harm it causes.

  10. Seeking God’s will through prayer, meditation and Bible study.

  11. Following salvation through faith in Jesus Christ letting Him use us to influence the lives of others.

In 2021 it is my desire to use these tenets and ‘Christian equivalents of the Twelve Steps’ to write daily podcasts and weekly topical videos to pass on the message ‘We all need recovery.’ and the way to achieve it is through learning and applying God’s plan for living as we walk the ‘Rod to Recovery’ together.

#2285 The Mission Field Is Where You Are

1st February 2019 aeboyle 2019, February, Living Life Recovery, Recovery Keys Comments Off on #2285 The Mission Field Is Where You Are

LLRTV

Reading: Luke 10:1-20

Focus Verse: Luke 10:20 “The great triumph is not in your authority over evil, but in God’s authority over you and presence with you. Not what you do for God but what God does for you–that’s the agenda for rejoicing.”

MAKING A DIFFERENCE WHERE YOU ARE
Romans 1:20 Ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities–His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

INFORMING PEOPLE ABOUT THE TRUTH
John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.”

SEARCHING FOR THE LOST
Luke 15:7 There is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

SUPPORTING THE FOUND
Philippians 2:4-5 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

INITIATING GOD-CONTACT
2 Timothy 2:24-26 A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people.Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.

OPENING UP OPPORTUNITIES FOR LIFE CHANGE
Ephesians 3:7 By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving Him by spreading this Good News.

NOT GIVING UP ON PEOPLE
James 2:1-4 My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others? For example, suppose someone comes into your meeting dressed in fancy clothes and expensive jewelry, and another comes in who is poor and dressed in dirty clothes. If you give special attention and a good seat to the rich person, but you say to the poor one, “You can stand over there, or else sit on the floor”–well, doesn’t this discrimination show that your judgments are guided by evil motives?

 

Power

21st January 2015 aeboyle Living Life Recovery, Personal Growth, Recovery Keys Comments Off on Power

True wisdom and real power belong to God; from him we learn how to live, and also what to live for. In awe before the glory, in awe before God’s visible power. Stand at attention! Dress your best to honour him! I’m filled with God’s power, filled with God’s Spirit of justice and strength. He set the power of salvation in the centre of our lives.  What comes next is very important: I [Jesus] am sending what my Father promised to you, so stay here in the city until he arrives, until you’re equipped with power from on high.

Job 12:13
Psalm 29:2
Micah 3:8 
Luke 1:69 
Luke 24:49

Perseverance

19th January 2015 aeboyle Living Life Recovery, Recovery Keys Comments Off on Perseverance

Don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don’t quit. Don’t cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.

2 Peter 1:5-7
Matthew 10:22
Romans 5:3-4

God’s Word is Dependable

27th December 2014 aeboyle Devotions, Life Experience, Living Life Recovery, Personal Growth, Recovery Keys Comments Off on God’s Word is Dependable

revelation 21.5-7Look! I’m making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate.” Then he said, “It’s happened. I’m A to Z. I’m the Beginning, I’m the Conclusion. From Water-of-Life Well I give freely to the thirsty. Conquerors inherit all this. I’ll be God to them, they’ll be sons and daughters to me.

God the Creator is also God the Re-Creator. He created us in His image and we messed it up, our sinful natures leading us toward destruction. We see evidence through our wrong decisions, actions and attitudes. 

God will have the final judgement on each of us and He promises to make ‘everything new’ if we are willing to turn our lives over to His care and control and trust Him in every area of our lives.

When you are discouraged, and feel like giving up remember God’s promise. When you see no way forward look to Jesus. And, be prepared for that which is yet to come.

You win

7th May 2012 aeboyle Life Experience, Living Life Recovery, Personal Growth, Recovery Keys Comments Off on You win

Philippians 1:21 Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.

Everybody does it

9th February 2012 aeboyle Life Experience, Living Life Recovery, Obedience, Others, Recovery Keys, Relationship, Truth Comments Off on Everybody does it

Many individuals have been unable to discover who Jesus Christ really is by being crowded out by others.We can become so entwined in unhealthy relationships that to make a move away from them would be unthinkable. In addiction we are allied to going along with the crowd. Everybody does it becomes our justification for living lives we know are wrong. Liberation from a crowd-complex can be difficult. Unhealthy acquaintance can crowd us into their world and crowd us out from freedom.

Zacchaeus refused to let the crowd govern his situation, he ran from unacceptable restrictions and cut loose from a depressing position. It is within our power to change to do the same!

In our pursuit of continued sobriety on the road to recovery it is imperative we choose our friends carefully and refuse to be content with anyone who might divert us from our chosen goal.

In Christ’s commanding presence we can be the recipients of amazing blessings and share them with others.

Luke 19:3 He wanted to see who Jesus was. There were many others who wanted to see Jesus too. Zacchaeus was too short to see above the people.

God rewards faithfulness

28th January 2012 aeboyle Living Life Recovery, Personal Growth, Recovery Keys Comments Off on God rewards faithfulness

God’s blessing and reward varies in accordance to our faithfulness to the tasks He gives to us.

1 Corinthians 3:8 The one who plants and the one who waters have the same purpose. And each one will be rewarded for his own work.

Call to Arms

24th January 2012 aeboyle Life Experience, Living Life Recovery, Personal Growth, Recovery, Recovery Keys Comments Off on Call to Arms

As we share together in recovery it becomes obvious some are only interested in taking short-cuts toward sobriety .

Todays text is a summons into a call to arms, or recruitment to battle. Get into the fight for spiritual survival. Desperate needs arising from past failures demand refusal to give up, sheer dedication and willingness to cut links with our past and venture into an unknown future through faith and reliance on Jesus Christ.

Jude 1:3 Fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.

A warning

22nd January 2012 aeboyle Living Life Recovery, Messages, Recovery Keys Comments Off on A warning

As we walk daily with God it is important we are as aware if what He doesn’t want from us as well as what He does.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 The Holy Spirit clearly says that in the later times some people will stop believing the faith. They will follow spirits that lie and teachings of demons. Such teachings come from the false words of liars whose consciences are destroyed as if by a hot iron.

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