I offered to be an Interviewee on a person’s Recovery Podcast. This person said, “Hello, I hope to make it clear that our group is a Christ centered faith based meeting. And yes, forgiveness is huge. I'm not quite clear on where your faith lies. Would you please clarify?“ Here was my response:
My Faith rests in, I Love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and others as myself. Upon this truth rest all the Laws and the Prophets.
I am not a proponent of Churchianity. I’m not a ‘good Christian’, but Christ as said ‘Call no man good’, so I don’t sweat that too much. I occasionally “Sweat” (Native Faith Sweat Lodge, but Christ goes in the Sweat with me). ZEN has influenced my World View, too. Phil. 4:8
Pre-sobriety, I violated 9 out of 10 of the 10 Commandments. But even while I was lost, God found me and did miracles in my life. Sometimes God uses the worst of us to help the rest of us. When I put my God Glasses on (Step 3 & 11), I see God everywhere. Satan being the father of all lies, no truth (freedom) being in him, whose actions when seen through the eyes of God, provide nothing but wonderful opportunities for spiritual growth. If anything ticks satan off, it’s that no matter what he does, we use everything in God’s Economy and not in wasting our energy on wondering what religion someone is (He makes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust). Indeed, in God’s Economy, nothing is wasted. Christ came for the sick, not for the well. Sure, we don’t want to be overburdened with non-believers, but that can only happen when we rely upon our own personal power. We don’t get ready to meet God, we meet God to get ready. Besides, if we are looking for the Perfect Christian in Christianity, we’ll die looking and waste our journey ‘missing God’ who is everywhere to the SURRENDERED Heart. Prison was not prison to me, but rather my Monastery. MADD has been my Ministry of Love & Forgiveness (I ‘cap’ those words because it’s about God and not me). My Sponsor (RIP) always quoted Jer. 29:10 to me.
I’ve studied the entire Holy Bible (in prison) and the entire Big Book (after prison). I authored a book relating to some of the miracles that God did in my life, titled, “The Little Book of Miracles, Stories from the Incomplete Skeptic”. https://cameron-communicationz.org/tgc Since I have not worked in 14 months or so, I can’t send you a free copy of the book. In the chapter, “A Spirit Called Alcoholism”, I prayed for a loved-one who was suffering from chronic alcoholism ‘in the name of Jesus Christ’ and the spirit gave up its hold on her and me (the spirit entered my body as I prayed for her interest). That chapter would interest you, as might the chapter on The Tenth Leper where a Christian prisoner in Oak Park Heights healed my lungs in the name of Jesus Christ (that’s why I wrote the book).
Before Eagle Brook started dividing groups by gender, I was a facilitator for Quest 180 (I respectfully exited due to the scripture in Galatians 3:28 about the Church of Christ having no males or females, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, slave or master). I did facilitate a small group at The Refuge for a few years, but don’t recall why I stopped. I spoke at the Refuge a couple of years ago and might do so again. I like Woodland Hills Church, but am more of a Podrishoner than anything, now. When my health improves, I’ll start attending again. I can’t work physically now, but I can speak and write, so that’s where my focus is. God gave me a Vision to be a Speaker many years ago, and that’s what I’ve done since sobering up. Yeah, I’m a slow learner, but drinking does that to a person.
One of my favorite parts of the Big Book reads that ‘…and we have ceased fighting anything or anyone…’ and that ‘love and tolerance of others is our code.’ (for us others might be Non-Christians in context). So if you are willing to interview a sinner, I’m all yours. God’s Will, not ‘it’s all about me’ will be done . Many are called, but few say yes and are therefore not chosen. Either God is everything or God is nothing. Einstein said something similar, that either everything is a miracle or nothing is a miracle. Einstein was doing the best he could with what he had, like Nietzsche, who believed, ‘’If it doesn’t kill me, it only makes me stronger’. Well, Nietzsche failed to discover in this life that what kills us also makes us stronger.
Peace Through Love (PTL), God is Love. The Steps are about LOVE and nothing else. There is One who has all power, that One is God, may you find Him now. The Chapter to the Agnostic is the most spiritual chapter in the Big Book.
Thanks for living and working Step 11.”
Now I wait to see if I am a good enough fit to be interviewed.
When Christians stop acting like Wardens and Wardens start acting like Christians, the system will begin to change. The Holy Spirit entered my life and heart while I was in a prison cell. I was loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength when it happened. I didn’t ask for it, expect it, nor contemplated it could even happen. The Holy Spirit bypassed all the rules, didn’t have to get on my “Visiting List” of approved visitors, and I wasn’t in a chapel, temple or other so-called ‘sacred space’. The sacred space was LOVE. I didn’t have to be ‘good enough’. Heck, I had more ‘wrong’ with me in one day than some people experience in their entire lives, maybe! LOL!