Bible Studies on Recovery! - NetMinistry

1 Bible Studies on recovery ! 1990, 2008, Into Thy Word This series is designed to supplement a treatment or counseling program. This guide is designed to help you and your church get the most out of your recovery ministries and help your people grow deeper and closer to our Lord! Prayer is essential in your personal walk with and to be the best pastor or church leader as you can be. By being filled with the Holy Spirit, being people of prayer and trained to know and teach the Bible effectively: A powerful synergistic combination! These Studies can also be easily converted into a sermon series, thus you can use them for your Bible study, sermons in personal devotions, church and group use.

2 See our online resources for more Bible Studies , curriculums and articles. Resources for a Bible Based Christian 12 Step recovery Are you a mental health worker, pastor or counselor and want a better way to do recovery ? Do you need quality materials to supplement your people that are Biblical and effectual? Are you personally dealing with any kind of addiction or dependency or hurt? Do you have issues with Alcohol, Smoking, Drugs, Overeating, Pornography, Sexual Addiction Any past hurts that have caused you to be living in a bondage or dysfunction? Is your life in chaos or on the road to ruin? Then you need to find a good counselor or recovery program, and we can offer you these Bible Studies resources for your successful recovery .

3 The goal and purpose of this Twelve Step series is to offer you helps and insights on recovery . These are written from a theological perspective and not about any particular psychological theory. These are timeless truths found in God s Word from an inductive study in the Bible . This recovery program works! There has been no better way that earnestly helps people recover from their past hurts, addictions and dependency than the Twelve-Step program. When it is properly administered and followed with good Biblical principles. This series is designed to supplement a treatment or counseling program. Introduction to the Bible Studies on recovery The goal and purpose of this Bible study series is to offer you helps and insights on recovery .

4 These are written from a theological perspective and not about any particular psychological theory. These are timeless truths found in God s Word from an inductive study in the Bible . Also, this is written by someone who has personally been a counselor and in recovery . We are following the basic 12-step program developed by a pastor whose heart is to help those who hurt. I originally wrote this series for Rapha Treatment Centers in Southern California when I was on staff at the Fuller Institute in the late 80 s and early 90 s; this organization no longer exits, although its parent one still operates in Huston Texas.

5 Since I re-did these, I have used them as a pastor to help countess people; you can be helped too. These are not my ideas; rather, they are God s from His Word. This recovery program works! There has been no better way that earnestly helps people recover from their past hurts, addictions and dependency than the Twelve-Step program. This series is designed to supplement a treatment or counseling program. We are not licensed counselors or a treatment center; we merely offer you God s Word and His insights to your journey of recovery . If you are dealing with any type of addiction or dependency, any substance such as chemical, alcohol, tobacco, sexual, pornography, lust, overeating, a victim of abuse or any abuse to self or others, this study series is for you.

6 We also wholeheartedly recommend you seek the proper help. Be part of a 12 Step program such as Rapha, , AA, or Al-Anon, or any good qualified treatment center or counselor or licensed professional and use this series to supplement and help you through it. Is the 12 Step program good for a Bible -believing Christian? YES! The twelve-step program developed and used by Alcoholics Anonymous has its roots in the research and teachings of Episcopal priest Rev. Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Jr., and Dr. Frank Buchman, a Lutheran pastor from an Oxford Christian group in England who gleaned their ideas directly from Scripture.

7 Thus, the 12-step method is based on Christian biblical precepts. And yes, there are a myriad of versions of this from atheistic, new age, self based, Buddhist and the list goes on. Just because something is abused or distorted does not make the original bad. The Alcoholics Anonymous program is based from: informal home-like settings for meetings, intended to highlight the pleasures of spiritual fellowship; an expectation that members would remain in their own churches, turning to not for theological interpretations, but for support in living a moral life; a focus on gradually realizing a "changed life" by passing through "stages," a concept that presents sobriety as something positive rather than merely the absence of alcohol or drunkenness; the policy that workers, especially its founders, should never be paid.

8 An emphasis on helping others in order to change one's own life. The Oxford Group's teachings in the early 1930 s are based on the following six, basic, biblical principles: Human beings are sinners. Human beings can be changed. Confession is a prerequisite to change. The changed soul has direct access to God. The age of miracles has returned. Those who have been changed are to change others. In addition, incorporated the philosophy the Oxford Group's five procedures, which were: Giving in to God. Listening to God's directions. Checking guidance. Restitution. Sharing, both confession and witness.

9 Alcoholics Anonymous, in a 1937 book, by one if its founders, Wilson laid down six steps of a successful Christian recovery program, based on what he and other members experienced and learned from Pastor Shoemaker and the Oxford Group. The six steps were: 1. We admitted that we were licked, that we were powerless over alcohol. 2. We made an inventory of our defects or sins. 3. We confessed or shared our shortcomings with another person in confidence. 4. We made restitution to all those we had harmed by our drinking. 5. We tried to help other alcoholics, with no thought of reward in money or prestige.

10 6. We prayed to whatever god (As a follower of Christ we seek the One TRUE GOD) we thought there was for power to practice these precepts. The twelve steps now are: 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 4. made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our selves. 5. Admitted to God, to our selves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.