CHEMICALLY DEPENDANT
If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit drinking or using entirely, or if you have little control over the amount you consume, you are probably an alcoholic and/or an addict. If that is the case, you may be suffering from a problem which only a spiritual solution will conquer. If you are as seriously alcoholic or addicted as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human resources, we had but two alternatives: Once was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best as we could; and the other was to accept Jesus Christ as our Higher Power.
Romans 7:15-25 points out—
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find that law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” (NIV)
THE SOLUTION
By working through the Eight Recovery Principles found in the Beatitudes with Jesus Christ as your High Power, you can and will change! You will begin to experience the true peace and serenity you have been seeking, and you will no longer have to rely on your dysfunctional, compulsive, and addictive behaviors as a temporary “fix” for your pain.
Is there a way to undo the past?
Yes and no. We feel that if only we could go back, and do things differently. ‘If only’, we think. But as time travel is not possible, there has to be another way. If we cannot undo the past, then it must be paid for. Yet we can punish ourselves, deny things to ourselves, even be punished by society, and still feel guilty. How can the price be paid?
The price
We may somehow feel we should punish ourselves. Yet at the same time, we want to escape the punishment we feel that we deserve!
This is where we ask you not to turn off! Because this is where we suggest to you, that none of us do enough to wipe out the past. But we know a man who can! What we are suggesting, is that God has the answer to guilt.
The real answer
God made a world that he wanted to be perfect. But people chose to go their own way, run their own lives. The world, indeed the whole universe, dropped - ‘fell’ - into evil and going against God.
Because of this, we all find it easy to do wrong, and be selfish, and ignore God. We live in our own little world with a wall around us against God, and (often) other people.
Only God could make a way round this problem. He chose to come down into his own world, to limit himself - shrink himself, if you will - to a human face that we could understand. He came to earth to be born as a man - Jesus. Yet Jesus was not an ordinary man, because not only did he never do anything wrong - he was, really, also God. Not just a god, or an angel or a superman. And yet, he was ‘the man born to die.’ The holy writings for 2000 years before, had promised God’s special leader - Messiah - as one who would be born (it was even written in which town) and that he would die for the sins of his people.
The punishment that each of us deserves, he took instead. A prophet named Isaiah wrote an amazing book, hundreds of years before Jesus was born. He foretold the coming of an innocent man who would suffer for our guilt. And here is a key sentence, telling how Jesus would die for what we had done:
“All of us like sheep have gone the wrong way. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has put on Him the sin of us all.” (Isaiah chapter 53)
The good news
If what we owe has been paid by Jesus, we don’t need to pay it again. We are free. Our guilt and shame have been paid for.
It is like the man who bought a car from a garage. Things began to go wrong, strange noises, gearbox trouble, and leaking oil. He couldn’t afford to put them right, so he struggled on for months. Then someone told him that the garage had given him a total guarantee, and that all the problems with the car would be fixed free! His problem was not the car, or the garage, but not knowing what had already been done for him!
This is just brilliant! We can be free from guilt, fear, all sorts of problems, if we do it God’s way. It is like coming out of the shadow into the sunlight. If you need confidential email advice, the next page tells you how. It is like the man who bought a car from a garage. Things began to go wrong, strange noises, gearbox trouble, and leaking oil. He couldn’t afford to put them right, so he struggled on for months. Then someone told him that the garage had given him a total guarantee, and that all the problems with the car would be fixed free! His problem was not the car, or the garage, but not knowing what had already been done for him!
This is just brilliant! We can be free from guilt, fear, all sorts of problems, if we do it God’s way. Carry on to our next page to find out more. It is like coming out of the shadow into the sunlight. If you need confidential email advice, the next page tells you how.
One more thing, If you have done something wrong to another person, you will never have peace about it till it is put right.
If the person is still alive, ask for their forgiveness. If you have stolen something, confess it and give it back, or pay back the same amount of money.
If it is impossible to pay the money back directly, (for instance, money taken from a company which no longer exists) then give the same amount of money to a charity.Actually, the Bible suggests adding 20% on to such repayments!
There is the story of the man who wrote to the tax office.
“I am sending this money I owe, because I have been unable to sleep at night. If I still can’t sleep, I will send you the other half.” If the person is still alive, ask for their forgiveness. If you have stolen something, confess it and give it back, or pay back the same amount of money.
If it is impossible to pay the money back directly, (for instance, money taken from a company which no longer exists) then give the same amount of money to a charity. Actually, the Bible suggests adding 20% on to such repayments!