A Tidbit on “Temptation”
in the 24 Communications, Inc. Quarterly
Dick B., April, 2014
Dr. Bob said
in The Co-Founders of Alcoholics
Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks that older AAs
believed the answers to their problem were in the Good Book. He then said they
believed that the Book of James, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians
were “absolutely essential” to their program.
In my early
A.A. days, that sparked my interest in the Book of James. It caused some of our
brothers across the country to form “James Clubs” which is what the old-timers
wanted to call A.A. And it later prompted me to write The James Club: The Original
A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials www.dickb.com/JamesClub.shtml
James
1:12-16 has always seemed to me to deal with “temptation” the recidivist
alcoholic or addict lure—a topic Dr. Bob mentioned more than once. The James verses
read:
Blessed is the man
that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of
life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for
God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own
lust, and enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and
sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Do not err, my beloved brethren
Dr. Bob and
his wife Anne frequently mentioned and cited verses from James; and I think the
foregoing verses, when coupled with James 4:7, can be particularly helpful to
those AAs who consider the Bible the “main source book of all” as Anne put it.
Incidentally,
James 4:7 says:
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he
will flee from you.
I was drawn
to this subject by an article in the Spring 2014 AAA 24 Quarterly,
on page 16. It was titled “Buchman’s Advice for Handling Temptation”
Buchman had learnt that temptation, of whatever kind, was
best resisted at its earliest stage. It was easier, he sometimes said, to
divert a small stream than to dam a river. He defined the progression of
temptation as “the look, the thought, the fascination, the fall,’ and said that
the time to deal with it was at the thought—“Tackle temptation well upstream.”
This was not a new idea. Thomas a Kempis, whose writings he would not likely
have encountered at Mount Airy but whose Imitation
of Christ went with him everywhere during his adult life, describes the
same progression. “The enemy is more easily overcome,” write a Kempis, “if he
be not suffered in any wise to enter the door of our hearts” but be resisted
without the gate at his first knock.”
Dr. Frank N.
D. Buchman was the founder of A First Century Christian Fellowship later known
as the Oxford Group.
If you are
looking at a challenging study topic that is really related to the Bible, the
Oxford Group, the Book of James, and a subject that will provide plenty of
useful discussions by alcoholics and addicts, this tidbit may be something you
can use in your James Club or in any discussion meeting.
Gloria Deo
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