This is
possibly the most important web page on the noahhite web
site. The principles of what we are writing about are not easily understood, but we do know that this topic is mandatory, for victorious
anonymous recovery.
Hopefully
we can look beyond the perfect truth of the constitution of the United
States of America, which guarantees each person the right to freedom of
speech. That is a given. And we need to look beyond all of the
truth in the first tradition of the original anonymous fellowship which
states:
"We believe
that there isn't a fellowship on earth which lavishes more devoted care
upon it's individual members; surely there is none which more jealously
guards the individual's right to think, talk, and act as he wishes."
Quite a
few years ago, while looking for something in the yellow pages, a quote
got my attention. "If
we are going to break the silence, let us make it worth while."
Before we
share experience on this subject, let us set some solid foundations, for our
position. First, let us quote a sentence after the third step
prayer, in the original anonymous text book, on page sixty three:
The wording was, of course, quite optional so long as we expressed the idea,
voicing it without reservation.
A
scripture that is remembered, from a long time ago, is as follows:
"Man
liveth by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
Any of
you all ever heard the expression, self-fulfilling prophecy? What
ever we say generally happens to us, along this path of being on this
planet. There is another expression that states, we have to put
it into the ether; speak it out loud. One definition of
ether is: The regions of space beyond the earth's atmosphere; the heavens.
Well,
what we are about, in our noahhite recovery is Self fulfilling prophecy, not
self fulfilling stuff, and the only thing that can possibly do that is
God's Holy Word, from the bible of your choosing. Each is responsible for what comes out of their own
mouth. We can not
blame the President, or the republicans, nor the democrats. It is
our mouth, but even worse, what we say comes from the heart. And
all have said some strange stuff, that is probably very ungodly, to say the
least.
Now let
us offer a paragraph, from page sixty in the bigbook:
Many of us exclaimed, "What an order! I can't go through with it." Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress.
We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
Don't
think that we can lasso and brand it, nor buy it at Wallmart or at Super
K, and especially not at the movies, bowling ally, golf course, swimming
pool, tennis court, nor adult book stores, etc.
The
only way to claim spiritual progress is to speak it into existence.
And faith must do that, not human knowledge or opinion.
Lest you
think that this attitude might be two stringent, hope that a few of you
can take in the Washington Journal program, which is aired every
morning, always at seven am, and generally lasts three hours, seven days a week, on the C-Span television
channel. Friends, some of those people are the sickest in the entire
world. We could be classified as angelic beings, compared to a few
of those suckers, that have the right to their vile and hateful talk, but
they are only hurting themselves, not who they are aiming their vindictive
hate speech at.
Hopefully,
some day, every one will understand that what I say about you is really
the state of consciousness that I am in. Since I really do not know
you, what my heart is judging, by the words that come out of my mouth, is
the condition of my own heart.
"Judge
not lest ye be not judged."
Let us be
clear on this point. If I call you a racist, that means, in the
spiritual realm, that I am a racist, in my heart. If someone calls
me a racist, that means, in the spiritual realm, that they are a racist,
in their heart. Maybe we need to pay more attention to who is saying
what, on the airwaves, in this world.
Racism
has stems into superiority. Do you think that if I showed up at a
Japanese movement, with twenty thousand people present, that I would not
feel inferior? And surely they would feel superior to little ole
me. Therefore, racism does indeed exist, in every human being
alive. Get used to it, but most important, accept who and what you
are, and be responsible for your own actions. Eternal souls are important to
all noahhites.
" 'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' "
Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?"
He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."
Peter said, "Explain the parable to us."
"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.'"
(Matthew 15:8-20 NIV)
Another
important principle in the realm of speech is about avoiding
self-confidence, which is detestable to the Lord. The co-founders
and the earliest pioneers studied the book of James, the Sermon on the
Mount - fifth, six, and seventh chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, and the
thirteenth
chapter of 1
Corinthians, according to the pamphlet "Co-Founders of Alcoholics
Anonymous."
And in
the book of James, we find:
Look here, you people who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you will be boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.
(James 4:13-16)
Now let
us share an amazing story. About twenty years ago, had the privilege
of having a Yorkshire Terrier, which weighted four pounds, fully
grown. Every where I went, Petie went. We had quite a
friendship.
Some how,
one day he wondered off. About two weeks later, or so, maybe longer,
had gone to a noon time meeting, came back and had lunch, and was sunning
out on the patio, with the door open. From inside the patio home, a
loud voice said, "call the police department." Friends,
there was no one in that house.
Went in,
dialed the police station's real number, not 911, and asked if they had a
Yorkshire Terrier, in their possession. There response was,
"Just a moment please."
When they
came back on the line, they said yes, and gave me the number to
call. I cried all the way to the pound. And they did not have
him in the kennel, they had him up front, in the lobby, so every body
could give him attention, when they visited the animal shelter.
The point
of this is the following. When people would ask, "Where is
Petie?" my reply was always the same, "He is with
friends." But I did not have a clue as to his whereabouts.
What ever
we say effects every area of our life. God, or Satan, acts on every
word we speak. The more we can quote, or misquote - like I did most
of the time using paraphrases, the
conference approved literature, the straighter and shorter our recovery
path to God is.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to
alcoholics (or
others, depending on which fellowship we are in), and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
"A voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.' (Matthew 3:1-3 NIV)
Now let
us address the most damaging aspect of human speech. Some of you are
aware that we use the phrase "claiming spiritual progress," a
number of times, on our noahhite web site. The down side of human speech is that it
claims illness and sickness, with the same concept. What ever is
said, either God, or Satan, can take action on what is spoken into the
ether.
Don't
know why the news programs have such "bad news," generally, but
certainly, that caused part of our problem, in that some of us thought,
"If I ever get that bad, I will do something about it."
That could be any thing from the chain saw massacre guy to the guy that
chopped up and ate the bodies, in Chicago. And of course, that
allowed the path that we were on to continue, without any effort at
change, at all.
And on
the subject of speech, when we "claim" "my arthritis,"
or "my cancer," or "my depression," etc., we cause
things to be in our life, mind, or body, that we had really rather not
have, if we knew the consequences. Again, we can not blame the
democrats or republicans, for our own ills.
The point
is that our demons are ours. They do not belong to anyone else, at
all. And what is said about "them" - those that we do not
like, cannot be acted on, for good or evil, with our individual
speech. The truth is that we all need guardian angles, standing by,
to ward off all of the demons in the spiritual realm, that we can not see,
that can attack, and cause problems. We are given guardian angles
through good deeds, that the Father assigns, if He is our employer, and we
perform his work well. And if God is not our employer, guess who is?
The
really good news, on this aspect of life, is that in the program of
anonymous recovery, the demons, bedeviled emotions, and defects of
character can all be "cast out," if God chooses to do so,
through the spirit of his son, whose seed can be awakened in us, for God's
plan and purpose; God is definitely focused. But our attitude must be that we are committed
to recovery, totally, and are enthusiastic about helping others, and be
willing to work altruism into our lives. Friends, this takes years,
so please keep in mind, "One day at a time," and especially, "Easy
Does It."
If we are
able to achieve those objectives, through grace, we are then eligible to
live into the family of Christ Jesus, in accordance with the following scriptures:
Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God.
He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross. Because of this, God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, so that at the
name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Philippians 2:5-11 TB)
The LORD is far from
the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous. A cheerful
look brings joy to the heart; good news makes for good health.
(proverbs 15:29-30)
Please
understand that every
word out of a politician's mouth is judging his own heart.
Statesmen on the other hand do what is right for "we the
people."
So, let
us wrap this web page up. We hope that God will let all noahhites
learn how to talk about spiritual things, rather than about people.
We are all fallible. Never will forget what one of the most
prominent evangelist from the last century said. "If people are
talking about me, they are not talking about much. They need to be talking
about God."
And
hopefully, our web pages will give us more to talk about, than we have had
available to discuss, before their publication. But should you
disagree with anything that we have published, that is okay. We have
not finished yet, and the editing is an on going process. Remember
Orbie saying, on the way back to the office, from a big meeting in the
Chairman of the Board's conference room, "It is hell knowing what we
know, waiting on them to catch up."
