Go, and sin no more . . .

[Tallmark]

Studying the 12 steps of recovery helps a lot. They are all biblically based:

Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable

Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity

Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God

Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves

Step 5 - Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs

Step 6 - Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character

Step 7 - Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings

Step 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all

Step 9 - Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others

Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it

Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out

Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

[Stan]

Tallmark

We could use you one www.adventist12steps.com

[Stan]

ok that site has been hacked...

o well

Sleep is for the weak... will do what i can before morning

:(

[Stan]

http://adventist12step.com/

is now UNHACKED and looking good!!! Or I think it is...

[rush4hire]

Quote:

Studying the 12 steps of recovery helps a lot. They are all biblically based:

Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable

Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity

Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God

Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves

Step 5 - Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs

Step 6 - Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character

Step 7 - Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings

Step 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all

Step 9 - Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others

Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it

Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out

Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

Those sound like the Roman Catholic 12 steps of the AA and the NA programs. In my opinion it's better to just trust the simple teachings of Christ, which are actually repeated throughout all the Scripture. It's a simple principle:

[color:#BF0000]Psalms 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

And which of the 12 steps teaches us to study and seek to live by God's Word and trust the promises therein? So I think there's a big step missing. Sure the Lord will deliver drug addicts with these steps, and take no credit for it, because He's like that. God just wants to heal people because He is full of pity. And people are allowed to give the glory to themselves, or whatever "Higher Power" they want. Their higher power can be anything. It can be some spirit animal, or some rock band, or the AA group, or an idol, or anything. No doubt the program works, but those who want to give glory to the God of heaven will seek a more biblical approach.

I'm really just jealous because the 12 steps glorify the Catholic church. The more people venerate this program, the more pride the Catholics have because the program came from them.

I would trust something the Lord gives me on the spur of the moment, more than something some Catholic priests spent years perfecting:

http://clubadventist.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/182341/Re_Go_and_sin_no_more#Post182341

Really? If it's so sweet why did God deliver us from "under the law"?

....

Now, do you still wish to remain under law?

[Stan]

The CATHOLIC? you have GOT to be kidding.

When Steps to Christ first came out it had 12 chapters. STC came OUT before the 12 Step program. The each have the same 12 steps

I have never read Dr Bill or whatever the founder is, but was told he was in a Hospital that did hydrotherapy. Some speculate that the 12 step came from STC.

Currently STC has 13 chapters, they added what is now the first chapter after the book was first published.

I have a copy of that on a website here www.stepstochrist.ca

[Tallmark]

Thanks Stan, for the Scriptural 12 Steps. That's what I really wanted, but had no idea of how to find them.

[rush4hire]

The CATHOLIC? you have GOT to be kidding.

When Steps to Christ first came out it had 12 chapters. STC came OUT before the 12 Step program. The each have the same 12 steps

Interesting. Well maybe that's true. So we could match up chapters 2 - 13 of SC to the 12 step program of AA.

Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable

Chap. 2 - The Sinner's Need of Christ

Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity

Chap. 3 - Repentance

Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God

Chap. 4 - Confession

Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves

Chap. 5 - Consecration

Step 5 - Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs

Chap. 6 - Faith and Acceptance

Step 6 - Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character

Chap. 7 - The Test of Discipleship

Step 7 - Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings

Chap. 8 - Growing Up Into Christ

Step 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all

Chap. 9 - The Work and the Life

Step 9 - Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others

Chap. 10 - A Knowledge of God

Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it

Chap. 11 - The Privilege of Prayer

Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out

Chap. 12 - What to Do with Doubt

Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

Chap. 13 - Rejoicing in the Lord

I'm just not seeing it.

I think it's just a coincidence that there are 12 steps and 12 chapters in the original SC, (assuming that's true).

I said the 12 step program is fine for alcoholics and drug addicts. That's what it's made for and I guess it seems to work for them. At least it gives them some things to think about and a system and a law. The principles seem sound and they are universal ideas, supposedly not conflicting with any religion.

I would just say that it might give a false hope of finding God without His Law or His Word, or the person of Christ, or the Holy Ghost, or the Father. I guess maybe it's the best man can come up with that doesn't require a person giving his whole life to his Creator. It is a Roman Catholic system.

Also at AA and NA meetings they all drink coffee and smoke cigarettes. Sometimes the NA people continue drinking, as long as they exercise their new found faith and resist the temptation to use drugs. And the AA people will allow themselves to smoke pot as long as they don't drink. They sure don't flee fornication and other things.

God has given something that's much better. It's not a system, but an example!

[color:#BF0000]Matt. 16:24 ..If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

1 John 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Rev. 14:4 ..These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth..

14:5 And in their mouth was found no guile..

1 Peter 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

2:22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:

[Stan]

They are not in the same order.

[rush4hire]

OK, now I see it. It's at the bottom on the main page of that site, there.

So, you had the idea to try and compare Steps to Christ with the 12 Step program of AA, right? That makes sense.

Or where you saying that the guys that created the 12 steps where influenced by "Steps to Christ"? Or, do you think that's just a coincidence? Do you think Adventists created the program and it was stolen?

It doesn't take much imagination to see the possibility of Steps to Christ influencing anything in this world. It's a very famous book, to say the very least.

You led me to do some research. I was told AA was started by 2 Catholic priests or something like that. It turns out the guys that started the AA movement broke away from an ecumenical, or evangelical, program, called "The Oxford Group". Why not just paste the text?

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1996/9610fea1.asp

ALCOHOLICS Anonymous, as well as the dozens of 12-step self-help programs modeled on it, owes its origins to a twentieth-century Evangelical movement known as the Oxford Group..

Founded on a belief in the necessity of personal conversion, a transforming spiritual experience, confession, and restitution, the Oxford Group flourished in the 1920s and 1930s.

The alcoholics who later became AA first achieved sobriety though this movement, which sought to practice "original Christianity." After only a few years, AA broke away to become a more narrowly focused organization whose primary purpose is to help alcoholics recover.

Those earliest AAs, including co-founders Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith ("Bill W." and "Dr. Bob" to AA members), retained much of the initial vision gained in the Oxford Group, and, as we shall see, were also deeply influenced by Catholic theology. AA's emphasis remained on personal conversion, a "spiritual experience" sought through working the 12 steps of recovery-the first of which is to admit that one is powerless to save oneself from alcoholism.

[Lineman]

It is surprising to me that years ago I also came up with 12 steps from Steps to Christ, but they are not the same 12 you have, or so it seems:

Quote:

The sinner may resist [God's] love, may refuse to be drawn to Christ; but if he does not resist he will be drawn to Jesus."

Steps to Christ, page 27

Quote:

Submit yourselves therefore to God [do not resist God].

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

James 4:7

There are a set of steps to follow that will lead you to Jesus and to heaven. Here is what YOU have to do:

1. Do not resist God's love. (Resisting is something we do, but not resisting is something not done.)

2. (See step #1)

Quote:

Many have an idea that they must do some part of the work alone. They have trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, but now they seek by their own efforts to live aright. But every such effort must fail. Jesus says, "Without Me ye can do nothing." Steps to Christ, page 69

Now, here is a condensed list of what JESUS will do:

1. Jesus will bring you to the place where you will realize and admit the fact that you are a sinner, that you cannot remove your past sins and that you cannot change your own heart and make yourself holy. In fact, you cannot even give your heart to Jesus, but you can ask Him to take it. Do not resist.

2. Jesus will bring you to the place where you will ask for help. He wants you to say, "Lord, I believe, help me where I am having trouble believing" or to just say, "Lord, save me" like Peter did when he began to sink in the water. It must be your constant desire to be saved and changed, but He will even give you that desire. Ask! Do not resist.

3. Jesus will bring you to the place where you will believe in His love for you, in His desire for your happiness, in His death on the Cross. Do not resist.

4. Jesus will bring you to the place where you will want to be pure like Him and sorry for what you have done wrong. (This is called repentance.) Do not resist.

5. Jesus will bring you to the place where you not only feel sorry for what you have done, but you will ask Him to let you start over, to forgive your past mistakes. (This is called confessing.) Do not resist.

6. When Jesus forgives you He erases all of your mistakes and gives you a clean record. Do not wait to feel that you are made whole, but say, "I believe it; it is so, not because I feel it, but because God has promised." (This is called trust, and Jesus will even help you to trust Him.) Do not resist.

7. Jesus will bring you to the place where you will want to be baptized, because He asks you to. Do not resist.

8. Knowing that you are a forgiven sinner will make you so happy that you will not be able to keep it from being visible to others. People will want to know what made the difference in you and when they ask you about it then you will have the opportunity to share what Jesus has done in your life. You don't need to know everything about the Gospel of Jesus, just tell them what He has done for you. Do not resist.

9. Jesus will bring you to the place where you will really love God. (This is the First Great Commandment.) Do not resist.

10. Jesus will bring you to the place where you will actually love every person, not just the nice people. This will be a love that will give of self to help others. (This is the Second Great Commandment.) Do not resist.

11. Jesus will bring you to the place where you will want to keep His laws, all of them, because you love Him. (This is called obedience.) Do not resist.

12. When Jesus is ready, He will take you to live with Him and give you life, never ending life, abundant in good things. He will give you life so good you cannot even imagine it. All of this, just because He loves you and wants you to be HAPPY! Do not resist.

Quote:

"...without me ye can do nothing."

John 15:5

Quote:

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 3:5, 6

Quote:

Submit [do not resist] yourselves therefore to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

James 4:7

Quote:

Of ourselves, we are not able to bring the purposes and desires and inclinations into harmony with the will of God; but if we are "willing to be made willing," the Saviour will accomplish this for us...

Acts of the Apostles, page 482

[Woody]

Thank Lineman. Great message. I think the two quotes below go hand in hand. I like your message of ... just don't resist and He will draw you.

Quote:

John 12:32 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me. "

The sinner may resist [God's] love, may refuse to be drawn to Christ; but if he does not resist he will be drawn to Jesus."

Steps to Christ, page 27