Why This Upcoming Book?

Show Us the Father: Steps Toward True Identity in the Lord Jesus Christ

Most of my life, I’ve struggled with a tendency toward suicidal depression. For many of those years, I hated myself and believed I could do nothing right. The strong influence of a critical, accusing spirit often held me captive. There were times, early on, when it totally debilitated me.

Eventually, in my search for truth and relief, the Lord led me to discover the Twelve-Steps—yes, as in Alcoholics Anonymous. These steps began to help me in a real and powerful way to manage my tendency toward zero positive self-esteem, as nothing else had. It wasn’t so much the steps themselves, but that they put me in a place—in the right frame of mind, with an openness of heart—before God, so I was able to receive His very practical, personalized help.

Similarly, spiritual disciplines practiced by Old Testament God-followers, Jesus, and the early church also gave me helpful assistance in applying the Twelve-Steps.

Between studying the Bible and trying to make the Twelve-Steps a habit, I began to see how grounded in the Bible the concepts behind the Twelve-Steps are. Also—to my amazement—I found out that these steps are based on particular portions of the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer.

Besides being a voracious reader, I am a person who loves the expressive use of literary devices and patterns—such as similes, metaphors, chiasmus, sets of three, and in this case, sets of eight in the Bible. With the development of my Bible studies, I also saw that there are significant parallels between the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer, themselves. Putting them side by side deepened the meaning of these particular teachings of Jesus and gave me even greater insight into them—and the Twelve-Steps.

Along the way, I ran across another parallel with the Beatitudes, which I didn’t expect....

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