Steps to the spirit is about my search for, discovery of, and use of the Spirit to live my life according to the wishes and plans of God. I also call them gifts from God because I believe He has given us these tools to enable us to find a closer relationship with Him. I invite you to join me in this quest that is at times both difficult and extremely fulfilling. I will try to explain how and why it became necessary to surrender, thus enabling me to begin to live according to God's plan.I wil ...
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A Blogger powered video podcast feed of Mr. Hatak's first year Chemistry Podcast.
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I have not posted much about the 12 steps in quite some time. It seems like it might be time to take another look at the steps. I’m not going to just rehash what I’ve said before. I’m going to try to take a personal look at the steps from my vantage point. I am going to try, (with as much honesty as I can), to share how I have worked and am working…
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The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 10)
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Yes, I am finally at the summary of this series of episodes about the beginnings of our way of life, and how those beginnings are so closely related to the Oxford Group. So, when I think about all of the lists, steps?, And the general way of life given to us by the Oxford Group, I need to let it all go. Although the Oxford group provided us (Bill W…
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The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 9)
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I know, I know, once again this is supposed to be the summary of the influence of the Oxford group on the 12 step program. However I listen to a talk yesterday on the 12 steps and the Oxford group and I discovered some information that I had never, heard before. The speaker, who was anonymous because it was a talk hosted by an Alcoholics Anonymous …
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The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 8)
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Yes, I realize that I was going to write a summary of these past episodes concerning the Oxford group and its connection to the 12 steps. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized that I needed to speak more about the last episode and the Four Absolutes we have inherited from the Oxford group. Whereas the 12 step program is not a dir…
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The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 7)
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This episode is about a list of four items that I discovered as I was reading some information about the Oxford group. It is a list of four, I guess you might call them “ideas”, that I think is the most comprehensive and straightforward list of all of the lists in the Oxford group. This list is not included in the chart that you can find in my desc…
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The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 6)
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In this episode I will be speaking about the six basic assumptions. They are listed below: The 6 basic assumptions 1. Men are sinners; 2. Men can be changed; 3. Confession is prerequisite to change; 4. The changed soul has direct access to God; 5. The ‘Age of Miracles’ has returned; 6. Those who have been “changed” must “change others.” As you can …
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The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 5)
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In this episode, we shall be looking at the next list from the Oxford Group. This list has four items in it and is called 4 Spiritual Practices. They are as follows: 4 Spiritual Practices. (Expanded) 1¶. The sharing of our sins and temptations with another Christian. Life given all to God and sharing as witness to help others still unchanged, to re…
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The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 4)
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The 5 Procedures: 1. Give in to God 2. Listen to God’s direction 3. Check Guidance 4. Restitution 5. Sharing – For witness and for confession In this episode I’m going to speak about yet another list from the Oxford group. This one is called the five procedures and I’ve listed them above. As you can see, these procedures are also in line with the o…
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The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 3)
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This week we’re going to talk about the next in a group of list tidbits that I have found connected to the Oxford group. This particular tidbit is called “The Five C’s”. Here is the list 1. Conviction 2. Confession 3. Contrition 4. Conversion 5. Continuing So, I believe the first thing we have to remember, is that this list was probably written in …
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The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 2)
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So, my friends, even though I have heard about the Oxford group in the past, I am learning so much more as I revisit it. A couple of years ago I created a chart that compares the different ideas of the Oxford group to the 12 step program. I was amazed then, and I am still amazed, that every single group of ideas from the Oxford group relate directl…
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The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 1)
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I have been thinking about all of the information that I have been talking about in these podcasts. Of course, it is all about the 12 steps. However, lately I have been feeling like I haven’t given enough background on what the 12 steps are all about and how they got started. So I am going to use the next (few) episodes to talk about but I feel are…
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So, I feel that sometimes, okay, most of the time, I am sharing with you the wonderful connection I developed with my Spirit as a result of this 12 step program. I don’t think I am sharing the human part of me and all its foibles as much as I could. I really hope that I do not sound like I am pontificating. That is certainly not my intent. It would…
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Now that we are done with the promises, there are a few things I have thought about in the past couple of weeks. They have to do with what happens to us in my day-to-day experiences. Everything I speak about in these podcasts has to do with my 12-step program. These steps are the guidance for my humanity. They are not my spiritual program. The spir…
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The Promises – (Part 16) Summary & Finding God
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They will always materialize if I work for them. Once again, I humbly believe that these promises are, or may be directed to two different groups of people. If you recall the X and Y groups from the previous podcast, there are two groups who may, although approaching the 12 step program differently, get similar results. I believe that, while some o…
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The Promises – (Part 15) Extravagant Promises?
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Are these extravagant promises? I think not. They are being fulfilled in me – sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if I work for them. So, for this question at the end of the promises, I really have to say that there is an X and Y group that I would be addressing at the same time. The X group are those that are doing or…
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Promise #12: I will suddenly realize that God is doing for me what I could not do for myself. So my friends, I think of this promise in terms of what we used to say in the Bronx when I was a kid, a no-brainer. No, I am not trying to be condescending at all. I suppose that some of you who have not chosen to use this 12-step program in its truest sen…
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Promise #11: I will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle me when I see this promise the first word that comes to my mind is fear. I personally believe that I knew how to handle many situations that seem to baffle me, but my self-esteem or self-worth was absolutely nowhere to be found. Without feeling confident, competent, …
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Promise #10: Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave me. I am sincerely not sure why these two aspects of the promises were listed together. However, the uncommon to nominate the Diaz linking them. It is the second step. As we form this new way of life, for me anyway, the second step always works in the back of my mind. I not only beli…
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Promise #9:My whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Those of you who have found a new way of life as a result of this program will have no trouble in understanding this promise. Of course, I mean those of you who have truly this program. This means that it has not been simply a psychological exercise, but a way of connecting to God and …
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Promise #8: Self-seeking will slip away. So, what does it mean when promise number eight is that we will lose self-seeking? Does it mean that we will not be trying to accomplish anything? Does it mean that we will not try to provide for ourselves and our significant others? No, that is not the case at all. Let me rephrase this promise as far as wha…
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I will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in my fellows. I believe that this promise, promise number seven, is closely tied to promise number six. Once I lose the feeling of uselessness, as I said in the last episode, the program steered me in the direction of looking for ways to share this beautiful way of life. At one time I was ve…
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That feeling of uselessness and self- pity will disappear. So, once again, this promise really hit the nail on the head for me. Personally, I feel that most of us who have an addiction or a life problem of some kind, are above average in our abilities. I was fortunate to be born with an above average IQ. I believe they gave us IQ tests when we were…
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No matter how far down the scale I have gone, I will see how my experience can benefit others. This promise is one of the promises that always felt was written specifically for me. If I only looked at myself, I know how far down the scale I really have gone. But when I have talked to others, I have realized that all of our scales are different. I r…
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I will comprehend the word serenity and I will know peace. This promise is one of the best of the 12 promises. I know, I am likely to say each one is the best of the promises. Well they are also true and comforting that I can’t help myself. When I think of this promise, I think of what I considered to be serenity before my earnest association with …
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This episode is about Promise number #3. Promise #3 is: I will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. As you may know, I have written before about us becoming a “tabula rasa” in order to accept new powers and new thoughts that arrive from our Spirit. Becoming tabula rasa however, does not mean that all of our old experiences are gone.…
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This week we will explore promise number two of the 12 promises. The second promise is as follows: I am going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. Wow, this sure seems like a huge promise. Well right off the bat, I will tell you that I am experiencing this promise. It has come true in my life and it manifests itself every day. I also must adm…
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In this episode I will be talking about what I consider the first of the promises from the first edition of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. The promises start on page 83. Once again, I consider the following to be the first of the 12 promises: Promise 1: I will be amazed before I am halfway through. As I have said, I am not absolutely sure to what …
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In this episode I would like to continue with a discussion about (what I call) the introduction to the promises. It is the paragraph before, or at the beginning of, the promises, depending on how you like to look at them. The following is the line of which I’m speaking: If I am painstaking about this phase of my development … To begin, I feel a lit…
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I have been looking forward to these upcoming episodes on the Promises. As I have said many times, all of my references to the 12-step program text are from the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, (p. 83). In most of the current list of Promises that you will see throughout the 12-step meeting rooms will have a slightly different version of the …
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In this final episode I will talk about last two lines in Reinhold Niebuhr’ s Serenity Prayer. They are below: So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen. So, what do you think about these two lines? For me, they are kind of superfluous. After all in the first line he asks for God to pay h…
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In this episode I am making a break in the Serenity Prayer series in order to talk about the events we’ve experienced in the last week. It just so happens that these events emerge perfectly with our series on the Serenity Prayer. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to remember and resort to serenity prayer during our flood. As some of you know I, and …
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The next three lines in the Serenity Prayer, (I’ve noted them below), are, to me, the definition of step number three in the 12-step program. Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, I don’t believe my newfound union and surrender could be described in a better way than this. I am saying in …
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The Serenity Prayer – (Part 6) One Day at a Time
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Now that we are in our new season, number 4, episode 1, I will begin by continuing with the Serenity Prayer, as written by Reinhold Niebur. I’ll begin after the prayer says, (in our new version: Wisdom to know the difference) and the original, which is the one we will be using, (wisdom to distinguish one from the other). I have included the remaind…
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It’s a New Year tomorrow everyone and we all have a lot to celebrate and look forward to!. It all depends on our point of view! Happy New Year to all all!By Chuck Lutz
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A Christmas Message – from my Spirit to you
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I certainly would like to start this episode by wishing you all a Merry Christmas! As I thought of what kind of Christmas message I would like to give in this podcast I found myself in a quandary of sorts. I guess it’s nothing new, but each year all the Santa and gift-giving hoopla seems to be more prominent. I think I’ve decided it may be better t…
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This episode on the serenity prayer is going to be about our wisdom to know the difference between what we can and cannot change. In the original Serenity Prayer, it goes like this: and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Now, wisdom sounds like a pretty awesome and inspired thing. But when I researched the word wisdom, I discovered t…
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So, here we are, right after me describing to you my idea of prayer, we are asking God to give us courage. I believe, with all my heart, that we receive every single gift, strength, knowledge through the grace of God when we were created. I say this prayer as a reminder of the wonderful things I have been given that are available to me whenever I c…
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The Serenity Prayer – (Part 3) About Prayer
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This episode is going to be a little bit of a diversion from our discussion of the actual Serenity Prayer. At the end of the last episode I went off track a bit. I discovered somewhere in this head of mine, that I wanted to talk to you about my thoughts on prayer and how it is when I pray. When I was receiving my Catholic education there were many …
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This is part two of my series on the serenity prayer. In the last episode I wrote about the origins of the serenity prayer. Many folks think it is part of the 12-step program, but of course, it is not, although it is interwoven quite nicely throughout the program. In this episode we will get into the meat of the prayer. I am going to be using the o…
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The Serenity Prayer – (Part 1) It’s Beginnings
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This is part one of a series about the Serenity Prayer. The Serenity Prayer is very well known and popular in all of the variations of 12-step programs. It is not an official part of any of these programs and it was certainly not included in the original publication of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. However, its ideas are woven into the very fabric…
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Now that we have reached the end of this series of episodes about in the 12 steps in our day-to-day lives, I would like to end with an episode about me and how I think of myself as a citizen of the world. As I’ve said in the episodes on the 12 step, even though we sometimes think of these steps as originating in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous,…
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in the first two episodes in which we examined step number 12, I spoke about what I consider to be the first two parts of the 12th step. This third, and final part of both the steps and of this series of episodes, is the perfect ending, or if you will, beginning! This final phrase of the 12th step is that I practice these principles in all my affai…
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In the last episode we spoke about a spiritual experience versus a spiritual awakening as well as the change, really inconsequential, in the 12th step where it says as a result of these steps versus as a result of this course of action. In this episode I will be speaking about the next phrase in the 12th step which says in the original, first editi…
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Step number 12 is, perhaps, the step might think of the most is using in our day-to-day lives. My version of this step comes from the first edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. I have taken those steps and changed the wording slightly in order to make them more personal. So, my version of step 12 is as follows: Having had a spiritual experienc…
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Hello my friends, I’m so sorry for this interruption in these podcasts episodes four Steps to the Spirit. Today is Thursday, October 12, and I am doing this episode for Sunday, October 15. We would be on step number 12, however, with the news In Israel this past week, I feel as though I must do a special episode to address these events. I have been…
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In this second part of step 11,… praying only for knowledge of His will for us, and the power to carry that out, there is no question in my mind that the thing phrase, the power to carry that out, is the result of the belief and realization of the power we have in step number two. I would like to speak more about praying only for knowledge of His w…
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So, here we are at step number 11. As I was speaking about steps number eight, nine, and ten I kind of realized that there wasn’t a whole lot of application of those steps in my everyday life. Of course, it is important to remember those folks I had harmed, including those new, harmful things I might do today. It is also important, on a daily basis…
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Step¶ number 10 could be the poster child for working the steps in my day-to-day life. Of course, this step is an extension of step number four where we began our action steps. Step four was most likely a very cleansing experience if there were two things present. The first was our determination and sincerity in doing this step. This would actually…
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All of the action steps can certainly be used in our daily routines. Step nine is the last of the action steps. Step nine is: “I made direct amends to such persons wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others”. I hate to admit it but, yes, I am human! During the day, (actually, quite often during the day), I say or do things …
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