Post by Cindy on Nov 7, 2015 11:48:53 GMT -5
I'm so very grateful to the Lord for getting my oldest son off drugs and helping live a godly life, but now Satan has stuck his nasty self into the picture yet again and turned him from the Phoenix House rehab program where he was working, to AA! And where he was going to church and getting to know the Lord, he's now repeating AA's mantra that no one can do this without a "higher power" and that it doesn't matter what or who the higher power is, that you can even make one up and it will work just fine! 
It makes me wish Satan were a physical being so I could punch him out! Oh I'm quite sure that AA would say that they were just making it so that the "unsaved" wouldn't feel uncomfortable, but that's a lot of bull! That's no different then labeling sin a sickness or disease, which they also do. So instead of admitting that you're a sinner and need a Savior and that you need God to do this for you, they just say, "I'm sick and I'll never be well" which denies God's ability to heal and change people's lives! It should remind us of the scripture: “having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” (2 Timothy 3:5) The Lord can and will change a person that comes to Him and make them brand new, including taking away their sins, the guilt, shame, and even their addictions: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Not to mention 2 Corinthians 12:9 which tells us that God's power is made perfect in weakness, not that we have to be strong and change ourselves. The Lord wants us to live a life of victory through Him, here and now, and doesn't want us believing Satan's lie that we'll be addicts or victims all our life.
Every time I think of that "higher power" garbage, I just want to scream! Satan blinds them to the truth and pushes his lies down their throats, and they accept it never realizing just how much damage they're doing to themselves. I guess it's because we'll do anything to keep our belief that we're the ones that are really in control and that it's all up to us. After all, if you can "make up" a higher power, then it has to be you behind anything changes that happen or any success you have. But to make sure you don't get a big head or think you can do it without the wonderful "AA Book" and group, they make sure you believe that you're going to be an addict for the rest of your life and that you'll never, ever be completely free. The total opposite of what God says: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”” (John 8:32)
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36) Satan really is a liar and a murderer, and he really does come across as "an angel of light".
What really gets me is hearing other Christians say that it doesn't matter what kind of rehab program a person goes to and further recommending that people go to AA or any other program other than one like Teen Challenge that introduces the person to Christ and spends their entire time discipling the person! Those folks come out of that program a brand new person, just like God's Word says, and they have no trouble at all showing that their program works. Statistics prove it. But stats don't prove AA or other programs like it, but boy do they ever brainwash the people who go to AA and tell them that if they go anywhere else, they'll fail! That really burns me up, but then it's so very much like Satan, isn't it?
I have know a number of people who run teen Challenge in our area and have met a lot of the folks that have been through their program. They're now wonderful, godly Christians living a productive life of victory through Christ. I don't have time to find all the latest research on Teen Challenge and how great they do. I had posted it on the old board but don't have a copy of it, so I'm just including the first two I found which are much older studies, as well as studies on AA to show the difference that Jesus makes. Of course, since Teen Challenge is all about God, they are constantly being attacked by everyone and everything, but to hear or see Christians themselves ignoring them or saying it doesn't matter where an addict goes to get help, just totally blows my mind!
Satan had better get away from my family though, because I will and am fighting back! I have on the full armor of God and I'm pretty good at wielding the Sword of the Spirit! And I won't quit praying either! And what's more, God always wins!
In 1992, a random survey of 6,500 A.A. members in both the United States and Canada revealed that 35 percent were sober for more than five years; 34 percent were sober from between one and five years; and 31 percent were sober for less than one year. The average time sobriety of members is more than five years.
www.hazeldenbettyford.org/articles/is-there-an-aa-success-rate
Most studies evaluating the efficacy of AA are not definitive; for the most part, they associate the duration of participation with success in quitting drinking but do not show that the program caused that outcome.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-alcoholics-anonymous-work/
The effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous in treating alcoholism is a subject of ongoing interdisciplinary research and debate in a multitude of academic and non-academic contexts. While newer studies have suggested an association between AA attendance and increased abstinence or other positive outcomes, older studies and studies done outside of the United States have not.
Studies of both implementations of the therapeutic model have not yielded conclusive evidence of effectiveness when assessed in terms of long-term prevention of problem drinking as compared with other treatments, although limitations are widely acknowledged in obtaining acceptable data due to the difficulty in applying experimental controls to clinical analyses of AA, such as adequate placebo control and uniformity of the delivered therapy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effectiveness_of_Alcoholics_Anonymous
Deborah A. Dawson, a respected epidemiologist at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. In her 2005 article in the journal Addiction, Dawson pointed out that many health problems often improve on their own through what’s known as "spontaneous remission." Everyone gets over a flu or a headache, sometimes even without Nyquil or common aspirin. She calculated that the natural rate of recovery for alcoholism was 24.4 percent. In other words, over the course of one year, a quarter of alcoholics got tired and just gave up. No meetings. No treatment. No nothing. They just woke up one day and said, "Enough."
www.thefix.com/content/the-real-statistics-of-aa7301
The last statistically significant evaluation of the Teen Challenge program was in 1975, by the
National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). Of a sample of 1968 Pennsylvania Teen Challenge graduates, 87.5% of former abusers were abstaining from the use of marijuana seven years after completing the program and 95% of former abusers were abstaining from the use of heroin seven years after completing the program. In 1994, another study was conducted by Dr. Roger Thompson at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Thompson also concluded that Teen Challenge had phenomenal success. Bicknese's research found that 86% of those Teen Challenge graduates interviewed for his study were abstaining from drugs. Says Bicknese, "Society need not write off drug abusers; cures can be expected. Productive participation in society by former addicts is not unrealistic." The study credited the success of the Teen Challenge program
to the emphasis on a vibrant faith in Jesus Christ: what some have called "The Jesus Factor." Contrast these research results with the following comments about publicly funded programs from some of today's leading experts in the field of addiction treatment.
teenchallengeusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/1999_NW_review.pdf
A Wilder Research study of 154 former residents who graduated between 2007 and 2009 reported that:[9]
74 percent of adult program graduates reported no use in the previous six months
58 percent had attended school since graduating
77 percent were either working 30+ hours a week or were a full-time student
80+ percent rated the overall quality of MnTC as “outstanding” or “very good.”
When asked to name what helped most, the faith-based aspects of the program were mentioned most frequently.
Aaron Bicknese tracked down 59 former Teen Challenge students in 1995, in order to compare them with a similar group of addicts who had spent one or two months in a hospital rehabilitation program. His results, part of his PhD dissertation, were published in "The Teen Challenge Drug Treatment Program in Comparative Perspective"
Bicknese found that Teen Challenge graduates reported returning to drug use less often than the hospital program graduates. His results also showed that Teen Challenge graduates were far more likely to be employed, with 18 of the 59 working at Teen Challenge itself, which relies in part on former clients to run the program.
Much of these results were to Teen Challenge's benefit, and the high success rates (up to 86%) he found have been quoted in numerous Teen Challenge and Christian Counseling websites.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Challenge
It makes me wish Satan were a physical being so I could punch him out! Oh I'm quite sure that AA would say that they were just making it so that the "unsaved" wouldn't feel uncomfortable, but that's a lot of bull! That's no different then labeling sin a sickness or disease, which they also do. So instead of admitting that you're a sinner and need a Savior and that you need God to do this for you, they just say, "I'm sick and I'll never be well" which denies God's ability to heal and change people's lives! It should remind us of the scripture: “having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” (2 Timothy 3:5) The Lord can and will change a person that comes to Him and make them brand new, including taking away their sins, the guilt, shame, and even their addictions: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Not to mention 2 Corinthians 12:9 which tells us that God's power is made perfect in weakness, not that we have to be strong and change ourselves. The Lord wants us to live a life of victory through Him, here and now, and doesn't want us believing Satan's lie that we'll be addicts or victims all our life. Every time I think of that "higher power" garbage, I just want to scream! Satan blinds them to the truth and pushes his lies down their throats, and they accept it never realizing just how much damage they're doing to themselves. I guess it's because we'll do anything to keep our belief that we're the ones that are really in control and that it's all up to us. After all, if you can "make up" a higher power, then it has to be you behind anything changes that happen or any success you have. But to make sure you don't get a big head or think you can do it without the wonderful "AA Book" and group, they make sure you believe that you're going to be an addict for the rest of your life and that you'll never, ever be completely free. The total opposite of what God says: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”” (John 8:32)
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36) Satan really is a liar and a murderer, and he really does come across as "an angel of light".
What really gets me is hearing other Christians say that it doesn't matter what kind of rehab program a person goes to and further recommending that people go to AA or any other program other than one like Teen Challenge that introduces the person to Christ and spends their entire time discipling the person! Those folks come out of that program a brand new person, just like God's Word says, and they have no trouble at all showing that their program works. Statistics prove it. But stats don't prove AA or other programs like it, but boy do they ever brainwash the people who go to AA and tell them that if they go anywhere else, they'll fail! That really burns me up, but then it's so very much like Satan, isn't it?
I have know a number of people who run teen Challenge in our area and have met a lot of the folks that have been through their program. They're now wonderful, godly Christians living a productive life of victory through Christ. I don't have time to find all the latest research on Teen Challenge and how great they do. I had posted it on the old board but don't have a copy of it, so I'm just including the first two I found which are much older studies, as well as studies on AA to show the difference that Jesus makes. Of course, since Teen Challenge is all about God, they are constantly being attacked by everyone and everything, but to hear or see Christians themselves ignoring them or saying it doesn't matter where an addict goes to get help, just totally blows my mind!
Satan had better get away from my family though, because I will and am fighting back! I have on the full armor of God and I'm pretty good at wielding the Sword of the Spirit! And I won't quit praying either! And what's more, God always wins!
In 1992, a random survey of 6,500 A.A. members in both the United States and Canada revealed that 35 percent were sober for more than five years; 34 percent were sober from between one and five years; and 31 percent were sober for less than one year. The average time sobriety of members is more than five years.
www.hazeldenbettyford.org/articles/is-there-an-aa-success-rate
Most studies evaluating the efficacy of AA are not definitive; for the most part, they associate the duration of participation with success in quitting drinking but do not show that the program caused that outcome.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-alcoholics-anonymous-work/
The effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous in treating alcoholism is a subject of ongoing interdisciplinary research and debate in a multitude of academic and non-academic contexts. While newer studies have suggested an association between AA attendance and increased abstinence or other positive outcomes, older studies and studies done outside of the United States have not.
Studies of both implementations of the therapeutic model have not yielded conclusive evidence of effectiveness when assessed in terms of long-term prevention of problem drinking as compared with other treatments, although limitations are widely acknowledged in obtaining acceptable data due to the difficulty in applying experimental controls to clinical analyses of AA, such as adequate placebo control and uniformity of the delivered therapy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effectiveness_of_Alcoholics_Anonymous
Deborah A. Dawson, a respected epidemiologist at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. In her 2005 article in the journal Addiction, Dawson pointed out that many health problems often improve on their own through what’s known as "spontaneous remission." Everyone gets over a flu or a headache, sometimes even without Nyquil or common aspirin. She calculated that the natural rate of recovery for alcoholism was 24.4 percent. In other words, over the course of one year, a quarter of alcoholics got tired and just gave up. No meetings. No treatment. No nothing. They just woke up one day and said, "Enough."
www.thefix.com/content/the-real-statistics-of-aa7301
The last statistically significant evaluation of the Teen Challenge program was in 1975, by the
National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA). Of a sample of 1968 Pennsylvania Teen Challenge graduates, 87.5% of former abusers were abstaining from the use of marijuana seven years after completing the program and 95% of former abusers were abstaining from the use of heroin seven years after completing the program. In 1994, another study was conducted by Dr. Roger Thompson at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Thompson also concluded that Teen Challenge had phenomenal success. Bicknese's research found that 86% of those Teen Challenge graduates interviewed for his study were abstaining from drugs. Says Bicknese, "Society need not write off drug abusers; cures can be expected. Productive participation in society by former addicts is not unrealistic." The study credited the success of the Teen Challenge program
to the emphasis on a vibrant faith in Jesus Christ: what some have called "The Jesus Factor." Contrast these research results with the following comments about publicly funded programs from some of today's leading experts in the field of addiction treatment.
teenchallengeusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/1999_NW_review.pdf
A Wilder Research study of 154 former residents who graduated between 2007 and 2009 reported that:[9]
74 percent of adult program graduates reported no use in the previous six months
58 percent had attended school since graduating
77 percent were either working 30+ hours a week or were a full-time student
80+ percent rated the overall quality of MnTC as “outstanding” or “very good.”
When asked to name what helped most, the faith-based aspects of the program were mentioned most frequently.
Aaron Bicknese tracked down 59 former Teen Challenge students in 1995, in order to compare them with a similar group of addicts who had spent one or two months in a hospital rehabilitation program. His results, part of his PhD dissertation, were published in "The Teen Challenge Drug Treatment Program in Comparative Perspective"
Bicknese found that Teen Challenge graduates reported returning to drug use less often than the hospital program graduates. His results also showed that Teen Challenge graduates were far more likely to be employed, with 18 of the 59 working at Teen Challenge itself, which relies in part on former clients to run the program.
Much of these results were to Teen Challenge's benefit, and the high success rates (up to 86%) he found have been quoted in numerous Teen Challenge and Christian Counseling websites.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Challenge
I know He can, and I feel sure He will, but I still hate the way Satan does all he can to harm and kill us, and most are totally unaware of it. We're so used to compromise and tolerance these days that a lot of people don't even notice it anymore, which was exactly what Satan was working toward of course. The more I grow in my faith, it seems the more I see through the illusions that Satan and the world have set before us. I can't wait till we all have been rid of our sin nature and Satan's done away with for good. 
!!
