“Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”

Jesus of Nazareth

Almost 90 years ago a couple of incurable alcoholics discovered how to stop drinking and start living.

Those men, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, became the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Hopeless drunks, they each sought and found sobriety and spiritual life through the work of a Christian movement called the Oxford Group.

Bill W. was changed through the Oxford method and remained dry for five months, but he was on the verge of drinking again when passing a bar while on a business trip. The Oxford method encouraged members to share their life experience with someone else, so Bill W. desperately called a hospital hoping to find a detoxing drunk to help.

“Bill looked into the cocktail room and was tempted and thought, ‘Well, I’ll just go in there and get drunk and forget it all and that will be the end of it!’ “

Henrietta Seiberling

Dr. Bob was doing no better. He had a spiritual conversion in an Oxford Group meeting, but was still a secret drunk.

Both men, everyone who knew them, and everyone who knows about them, all agree that God had prepared them to meet on May 12, 1935, for the purpose of helping each other and to lay the foundation for a worldwide fellowship of alcoholics. Their story can be found in many places.

What they had learned from Oxford Group meetings, they began to live and to share with other alcoholics who also found lasting sobriety. Collectively they refined 12 steps which have helped millions of addicts to find freedom and a good life.

“If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it, then you are ready to take certain steps.”

Alcoholics Anonymous, Page 58

These 12 Steps are a guide for anyone, addict or not, to experience a healthy spiritual life. But while many are called, few are willing to take Step One – admitting utter defeat.

The Good Book describes the best way of living like this: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” We call this the Great Exchange: Jesus takes our imperfect (sinful) record and suffers our condemnation on the cross, and in exchange He gives us His own righteousness so that we pass from judgment into life as adopted children of God.

To experience the new life Jesus gives as promised by the 12 Steps, we must admit we need help in every area of our being, not only with our addiction. We need to put to death our old way of thinking and living (i.e. crucifiy ourself) and trust God to guide us and to empower us to live joyously, happy and free.

If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it, then click here.