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Growing Daily in God and Sobriety!

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!!!!
Bible Study
Sermon on the Mount-Part 13
Matthew 6:33-34
Matthew 7:1-6

  • But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
(This portion of the Sermon on the Mount is summarized by the statement seek ye first the kingdom of God. The disciples who have pledged their allegiance to the King must continue seeking the kingdom and its righteousness. The present imperative form of the verb (Gr. zēteō) indicates a continual or constant seeking. The contrast between the spiritual and the material is again emphasized. The believer is to seek first the righteousness that is characteristic of God’s kingdom and then all these things (material things) shall be added to him. When our priority is spiritual, God will take care of the material, for where God guides, He provides. We need not even worry about tomorrow, for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (v. 34). This means that each day has its own troubles and challenges to be responsibly handled, without worrying about the hypothetical problems that could arise tomorrow.)


  • Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

(Judge not refers to an unfavorable and condemnatory judgment. This does not mean that a Christian should never exercise judgment of any kind under any circumstances. The point being made here is that we are not to judge the inner motives of another. We are not to render a verdict based upon prejudiced information. Nor are we to use ourselves as the standard of judgment for with what . . . ye mete (measure) you shall be judged. That ye be not judged refers to the ultimate judgment of God rather than our own judgment. The terms mote (Gr. karphos) and beam (Gr. dokos) are used metaphorically for a small fault and a great fault. A mote is a small speck of sawdust whereas a beam is a rafter used in building. Thus, the idea of the text is that one cannot remove the speck from his brother’s eye until he has removed the rafter from his own eye!

  • Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
(Thou hypocrite is the only statement that can be made for this play actor who pretends to be a physician when he himself is sick. The dogs and swine refer to those who have deliberately rejected the message of truth. These particular animals were especially repulsive to Jesus’ audience.)
My Prayer for the Day
"Heavenly Father-Thank You for teaching me today again that if I am seeking you, and growing in you, that all will be provided for me  without thought, worry or fear. That judging others and their motives isn't fruitful-that I should focus that energy on the huge plank in my eye! Thank You Father that I get to be apart of AA that teaches us always to look at us instead of them. Father thank You also for teaching and reinforcing that I must be able to see my own defects before I point them out to another. Again, something we learn in sponsorship-and that those who deliberately reject the message of truth, for whatever reason, must not take up my time when there are so many that want to stop their patterns and loops and have no problem receiving constructive feedback from one who has or had the same issues. In Jesus name-Amen"

Today's Action
  • Today I will be open to recieving contrustive crititsim even if it stings (this process is about deflating ego so that we can rebuild our spiritual house)
  • Today I will not give constructive criticism if I myself do not have first hand experience with it (I will practice speaking from spirit, not ego)
  • Today I will not give any of my energy to those who are unreceptive to the message truth (trying to convince people that haven't willingness, takes from those who are willing to go to any leaghts 
MORNING PRAYER
God direct my thinking today so that it be divorced of self pity, dishonesty, self-will, self-seeking and fear. God inspire my thinking, decisions and intuitions. Help me to relax and take it easy. Free me from doubt and indecision. Guide me through this day and show me my next step. God give me what I need to take care of any problems. I ask all these things that I may be of maximum service to you and my fellow man in the name of the Steps I pray. AMEN 
(p. 86 BB)


Podcast of he Day
Sandy B. Steps 10 & 11 (Powerful, Deep, & Thought Provoking)
A great man in AA-died in a AA meeting :)
Listen to more AA Podcast:


Big Book
We the Agnostics...Cont 

"This world of ours has made more material progress in the last century than in all the millenniums which went before. Almost everyone knows the reason. Students of ancient history tell us that the intellect of men in those days was equal to the best of today. Yet in ancient times material progress was painfully slow. The spirit of modern scientific inquiry, research and invention was almost unknown. In the realm of the material, men’s minds were fettered by superstition, tradition, and all sorts of fixed ideas. Some of the contemporaries of Columbus thought a round earth preposterous. Others came near putting Galileo to death for his astronomical heresies.

We asked ourselves this: Are not some of us just as biased and unreasonable about the realm of the spirit as were the ancients about the realm of the material? Even in the present century, American newspapers were afraid to print an account of the Wright brothers’ first successful flight at Kitty Hawk. Had not all efforts at flight failed before? Did not Professor Langley’s flying machine go to the bottom of the Potomac River? Was it not true that the best mathematical minds had proved man could never fly? Had not people said God had reserved this privilege to the birds? Only thirty years later the conquest of the air was almost an old story and airplane travel was in full swing.

But in most fields our generation has witnessed complete liberation of our thinking. Show any longshoreman a Sunday supplement describing a proposal to explore the moon by means of a rocket and he will say, “I bet they do it—maybe not so long either.’’ Is not our age characterized by the ease with which we discard old ideas for new, by the complete readiness with which we throw away the theory or gadget which does not work for something new which does?

We had to ask ourselves why we shouldn’t apply to our human problems this same readiness to change our point of view. We were having trouble with personal relationships, we couldn’t control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we couldn’t make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn’t seem to be of real help to other people— was not a basic solution of these bedevilments more important than whether we should see newsreels of lunar flight? Of course it was."