ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS AND THE BIBLE: MY LIFE AS A NEW CREATURE IN JESUS CHRIST BEGAN EXACTLY 28 YEARS AGO TODAY by Geoffrey Grider for Now The End Begins
The Bible tells us to come as we are for salvation, that’s absolutely true, but God is His mercy will never leave you as He found you. Part of the evidence of your salvation is a changed life, different desires, because God gives us a new heart. And the struggle we feel is also proof of our salvation. God will never stop working to conform the believer to becoming more like Him, even if it takes a lifetime. Salvation happens in an instant, but our sanctification is worked out for the rest of our lives.
The Bible tells us to come as we are for salvation, that’s absolutely true, but God is His mercy will never leave you as He found you. Part of the evidence of your salvation is a changed life, different desires, because God gives us a new heart.
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This is the second installment of my personal testimony of how I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive full pardon of my sins through the cleansing power of His shed blood. Hard to believe, but it was exactly 28 years ago today, that I bowed my knee at a few minutes to midnight, and gave God the broken pieces of my life, and asked Him to save me. And guess what? He did, and gloriously so! And I have not regretted one, single second of walking with Jesus, no matter the cost or the trials I have had to go through.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
I was physically born on March 15, 1961, and became born again on March 14, 1991, one day before my 30th birthday. Today is one day before my 58th birthday, and a perfect time to write the second chapter in my story. I received so many emails after the first one article, you can read that here, from people who were encouraged in their own walk by the things that I had written. And that, ultimately, is the whole purpose and reason why I write and share as openly as I do.
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:18,19 (KJV)
Christians have been given the ministry of reconciliation, and I can think of no greater ministry in the world than to reconcile lost sinners to Jesus Christ, and to help restore backslidden Christians back to fellowship with Him. It’s a good thing to have a lot of Bible knowledge, and to know about prophecy, but if you don’t have genuine love and compassion for the lost sinner and the struggling saint, then your Christianity may need a gut check. He loved us when we were unlovable, if we claim to be His followers, how can we do any less for others?
AA and the Bible Part Two: My Personal Testimony Con’t.
It was in a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous that I met the Living God face to face, so my story and testimony will forever be intertwined with AA. I am not ashamed of being an alcoholic, they were the cards I was dealt. I was raised in a family where hard drinking was the norm, my mother continued to drink while she was pregnant with me and my 4 brothers, and I was encouraged to drink wine as a young teen altar boy in my local Catholic church. Needless to say, becoming an alcoholic was not an option for me.
