Recovery in the BIble (RIB)

KEEP IT SIMPLE

I need to keep things simple -- very simple. And recovery meetings spoiled me -- ruined me, in fact -- for anything less.

In meetings, I was hearing about brokenness: what had gone wrong, how God's guidance had been sought, and what happened next. This kind of sharing strengthened and increased my trust in God because I was hearing actual, real-life EVIDENCE. People were sharing about their dirty laundry, and how it was being washed clean. I had never heard this level of honesty  -- rigorous honesty. In my world, people (including myself) were truig to convince themselves (and everyone else) that "Everything' FINE!" But everything was not.

Unfortunately, the Highest Power could not be named in the rooms of recovery, a tradition which I totally understand and accept as directly from the expert Fisher of Men who knows the best ways to catch fish. But for me, Step Eleven brought me into a personal relationship with the Highest Power, and I needed to get know Him personally, and by name. Twenty-five years later, I have read God's manual, Basic Information Before Leaving Earth, cover-to-cover probably seventeen times by now. Through it I have l searched to know God's will about things; I shave sough (and continue to seek) to obtain the mind of Christ.

He has connected me to others who know Him up close-and-personally. As alive!  As available! As helping us --  and helping us help one another. I believe this The Church he came to birth -- a people, not a place.

And, for me, Church is anywhere two or three are gathered in His Name. It is that simple. We have a name for it: we call it COTLR, the Church of the Living Room. Sometimes we meet around a kitchen table. Either way, we let Him lead, and He does, and we are fed by Hand with the Bread of Life and His Living Waters.

This, I believe, is the Church of the New Covenant -- saints gathering from house to house (mostly), except for the occasional Upper Room. We do not see them building a building or returning to the former temple. Instead, they gather as temples of the Holy Spirit, assembling under Him, in Him, and by Him.

And so, so do we. Some who love me are shocked or horrified because I no longer attend church as they define it. But oh well. I am accountable to follow Christ wherever He leads, and He has given me twelve years in luscious green, nutritious pasture. His pastures. Under His Good Shepherd, which no mere man can be.

It is that simple. This is the Church of the New Covenant. I did , and I heard His voice, and I followed Him, and I daily follow. He desires that I keep it simple and simply refuse to settle for anything less.

This photograph is by Anna Bolton.