Alcoholics Anonymous Founder's Day

In the early part of the 20th Century, the Oxford Group became the precursor to Alcoholics Anonymous.  The group took essential Biblical principles such as identifying wrongs, making amends, and living a God-honoring life, to those who were consumed by alcoholism.  This quasi-religious group became a hospital of sorts for the most hopeless of cases.  Alcoholics at this point were treated in hospitals, with the prescribed course of action nothing more than simply a drying out period.  What people really needed was a radical spiritual transformation.  Why people weren't getting this in church is beyond my comprehension.  However, I am thankful the Oxford Group, and later Alcoholics Anonymous, were used by God to deliver people from the clutches of alcohol.  (I do want to make it very clear it is still God who delivers, not some person, group, or any perceived form of magical hocus-pocus.)  In a few months I will celebrate ten years of sobriety from alcohol.  (My sobriety date is August 18, 2006.)  So far the physical sobriety has been the easiest to maintain.  What is more difficult is maintaining the emotional sobriety, or living the God-honoring life which glorifies my Creator and Friend.  Yes, I miss the camaraderie of socializing with friends over a cold beer, but I also remember rather vividly the dark side of such a lifestyle.  To finish the history of the "temperance" movement, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Silkworth came on the scene much later.  They took what the Oxford Group began and carried it forward.  As a result, Alcoholics Anonymous is now 81 years old.  Happy Birthday!

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