How the 12 Steps Can Transform Anyone's Life | Ian Cron & John Ortberg

Comments · 95

• GJ

  @gjlaird · 1 year ago

  What an excellent discussion with Ian Cron! I so identify with much of what he said. I, too, was raised as a Roman Catholic child who embraced Christ as a Protestant Evangelical at the age of twenty-five. When my wife of 55 years died of dementia in 2023, I found myself hopelessly lost in grief, desperately in need of help. Somehow, I remembered a Jesuit Priest, Brennan Manning, who had profoundly influenced my life through his books and teaching on the radical love of God. I knew that he lived an uncloistered life of humility and service. I also know that he had alcoholism. According to Ignatian spirituality, he spoke much about his experience as a Jesuit of silent prayer retreats. After studying Ignatian spirituality and feeling that Jesuit values closely matched my evangelical desires, I began to seek an opportunity for a silent Ignatian prayer retreat. I chose an eight-day retreat at a Jesuit retreat house. It was a challenging and complex experience, but on the sixth day, the Lord broke through, thanks to a YouTube video by Dallas Willard on silence before God. He broke through the hard crust that had formed around my heart, and He allowed my tears to flow like a waterfall, cleansing my soul. He told me it was time to turn the page and begin the final chapter of my life. God was so gracious. He cut through my desperation with the skill of the Master Surgeon performing spiritual heart surgery. God answered my desperate cry for help as no one or nothing in this world could have done. He is truly good - using the pain and desperation of my grief to draw me deeper into His embrace than I ever could have imagined. God uses every circumstance we experience to draw us closer to Him - addiction, sin, grief - everything...

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• BE

  @beanfeld · 1 year ago

  One of the reasons AA meetings feel “safer” than church is because AA does not allow unsolicited advice giving, shaming, or comments on what we share, there. One gets help from one’s sponsor in private. I am constantly offered unsolicited advice and judgement from Christians (not this group, thank God!) so it makes sense to me that people are not honest in church groups. God help our churches to become a safe place for sinners. ❤🙏

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• AM

  @amberalbano7091 · 1 year ago

  I really appreciate the perspective of a positive experience with Roman Catholic background and into protestant discovery, too.  I believe I was a Christian, too, through first communion and confirmation.  I loved all the words and points stated today.  ❤ Thank you!

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• SH

  @shirleyproakis5321 · 1 year ago

  It would be so healing and wonderful, if “upstairs church” would be as open and honest as the meetings in “downstairs church.”

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• GI

  @ginardhenry · 1 year ago

  Thank you so much Become New team for the extended devotion today. It has been such a blessing!

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• GA

  @gabriellemiglis8781 · 1 year ago

  Al anons know that this program works because we understand that like alcoholics we have a spiritual malady that requires a spiritual solution. However it is so hard to find good Al Anon meetings where the twelve steps are actually practiced. So many bad meetings of desperate people unwilling to find their own solution because the Big Book never comes out.Thank God for my gift of desperation and the Big Book and thank Godd for His Bigger Book!

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• LA

  @larryharrison9155 · 1 year ago

  Thank you, John and Ian and the work you are doing!

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• PA

  @paulkick7870 · 1 year ago

  I state this as a compliment: You both talk on the same brain level that engages my brain so well.

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• GA

  @garysweeten5196 · 1 year ago

  A total show of giving advice about how to never listen to a hurting person but offer advice with brilliant quotes.

• DA

  @davidsimonson6939 · 1 year ago

  Loved this conversation.

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• TA

  @taniairivera453 · 11 months ago

  My church offers a 12 steps for all sorts driven behaviors and patterns such as codependency, people’s pessimistic , overeating , depression , pornography &nbsp;etc the program is called regeneration. It has been invaluable , all that to say that churches do offer support with a more depth spiritual<br>Component , you get to understand the symptoms and the deep root of your triggers

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• ST

  @stephenpetry8697 · 1 year ago

  This was such a life giving discussion for me today. It revealed other areas of powerlessness in my life. Thank you John and Ian.

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