Jan 17, 2018
Intimacy with God is the process of Salvation -- we connect to
Him more deeply through the process of Salvation. Salvation is more
of a process than an "event" where our sins are forgiven.
See Hosea, Song of Solomon, Eph 5 to see examples of intimacy with
God. He's created a world where we can find Him and going deeper
with Him.
Paul's epistles: What God has done, who we are as a result
(adopted, His children), therefore you live it out this way.
This is a big difference from "works theology" something that we've
been trained to live in fear of as Protestants.
We contrast between two verses that people use to defend that "certificate" of salvation vs. walking out our salvation.
Eph 1:4-5 (NLT)
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ
to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to
adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through
Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great
pleasure.
James 1:26-27 (NLT)
If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are
fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine
religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans
and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt
you.
How does "participating" in salvation change how we live?
We talk about our anxieties about Works Theology, and how to engage
in love for others in the way that Jesus prompts us in the gospels,
and the way James 1 does.
Salvation is a relationship -- not something that we possess, but as a relationship that's transforming us.
12 Steps of Recovery are a process of sanctification or "working through salvation"... our behaviors towards others and in our life change as we lean in and accept that God is our "higher power".
Bianary perspective on Salvation-- how do we see Salvation as All or Nothing Thinking?
Review All-or-Nothing Thinking & Trauma responses to fight-or-flight experiences that train our brain (amygdala) to respond quickly, or fearfully.
More information on M. Scott Peck's Stages of Faith:
http://www.whale.to/b/peck1.html
Depersonalization: when we're afraid, we turn our loved ones into "things" or thing-ify them as a threat, instead of someone who we love, or who has good and bad as part of their nature.
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CELEBRATE RECOVERY 12 STEPS AND BIBLICAL COMPARISONS
1. We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive
behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.
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. Romans 7:18 NIV
2. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could
restore us to sanity.
For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:13 NIV
3. We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the
care of God.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1 NIV
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of
ourselves.
Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40 NIV
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the
exact nature of our wrongs.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. James 5:16a NIV
6 We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of
character.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10 NIV
7 We humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 NIV
8 We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to
make amends to them all.
Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:31 NIV
9 We made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except
when to do so would injure them or others.
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24 NIV
10 We continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong,
promptly admitted it.
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! 1 Corinthians 10:12
11 We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us, and power to carry that out.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Colossians 3:16a NIV
12 Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps,
we try to carry this message to others and practice these
principles in all our affairs.
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore them gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1 NIV