SEVEN STEPS TOWARD GOD
Bill Beatty
Contents
1 - Step One - Accept God's Love
2 - Step Two - Accept God's Plan
3 - Step Three - Admit Your Needs
4 - Step Four - Decide to Change
5 - Step Five - Give and Accept Forgiveness
6 - Step Six - Order Your Life
7 - Step Seven - Learn to Pray
8 - Walking On ...
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Bill Beatty is Executive Director for the National Service Committee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and a leader in the People of Praise, an ecumenical Christian community. He graduated from St. Vincent College in 7959 and the Management Development Program at Harvard Business School in 7967. He left an executive career to teach at Aquinas High School in Augusta, Georgia, where he served as chairman of the Religion Department. He has done extensive lay missionary work in the Caribbean and Latin America, and has spoken at many religious conferences throughout North America. He is a native of New York City. His wife, Laurette, is a teacher and Dean of Girls at Trinity School at Greenlawn. The Beattys have three children and live in South Bend, Indiana. U.S.A. |
"Keep it simple." This was my mother's approach to life. Whether it came to decorating a house (she hated bric-a-brac, which she called "dust-catchers") or to cooking food (preferring meat and potatoes to trendy fare), mom liked sticking to the essentials. She would like this book.
In Seven Steps Toward Cod, Bill Beatty has outlined the foundation stones upon which to build and maintain a sturdy love relationship with God. It is a no-frills book. Simply put, we need to know God's love for us and his plan for our lives, then accept ourselves, decide to change, ask and give forgiveness, put our lives in order, and learn to pray because prayer is the language of this love in which – rather, in whom – we live.
Living out the Christian life is not always simple or easy. In fact, it is often quite complex. Yet, the inexhaustible mystery of life in Christ is ultimately reducible to the stark reality of the cross – "for God so loved the world."
If you plan to treat yourself to a few hours or a few days alone with God, it might be a good idea to take this book with you. Each chapter concludes with a series of questions answered by a short text from the word of God, after which we are encouraged to give a written response, as the Spirit leads.
The wit and warmth and wisdom Bill brings to this subject give us new hope for what is possible in our task of growing in the love of God. After reading this book, I realize that it may be an uphill climb, but, like the little train in the storybook of my childhood, I found myself believing that one day I could stop saying merely, "I think I can, I think I can," but, rather, "I knew I could."
Dorothy Ranaghan
Introduction
We are all born with a longing in our hearts. This is the way God made us – with a deep-down longing, a hunger that wells up and cries out to be filled at the most surprising times. This longing may be the reason you bought or borrowed this little book. Something deep down inside you has moved you to seek more of God.
St. Augustine said, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." God has put this hunger in your heart. You may have tried to fill it with many things, some good, some bad, but nothing can fully quiet this restlessness or fill this void except God himself. God, who is all-just, is eager to fill it. If he put that hunger m you, he certainly will satisfy it.
Your life here on earth is a journey, with a lot of forks in the road. One leads to heaven; many lead to hell. Those going to hell lead you farther and farther away from God and other people. They bring you to greater and greater loneliness, isolation and fragmentation. These roads never lead anywhere. Your heart gets emptier as you go.
The road to heaven, on the other hand leads deeper and deeper into the kingdom of God. It is narrow and difficult at times but you are traveling it with the Lord and with others who can help you on the Way. As you go, you become more loving, peaceful and joyful. Your heart is filled as you travel the way of the Lord.
This book is about some first steps on the road leading to God. Proverbs says that this "path of the virtuous is like the light of dawn, its brightness growing to the fullness of day" (pr. 4: 18 JB). It is r path that ends when you see the Lord's face "shining brighter than the sun."
God is calling you now to hear and respond to his call to walk toward the "fullness of day," to experience his salvation in a new and deeper way, and to be strengthened, encouraged and better equipped for the journey.
There are no shortcuts on the road to heaven; no super-saver, cut-rate or bargain-basement fares. The road map is the same one that Jesus gave to the lawyer in Matthew 22: "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind," and "you must love your fellow man as yourself" (TEV).
There are two stages to the journey. These are the two commands that God gives to all who start on the road to heaven: first, be reconciled to God. "Let God change you from enemies into friends! Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that we, in union with him, might share the righteousness of God" (II Cor. 5:20-21 TEV). Second, "you must put on the new self which is created in God's likeness, and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy" (Eph. 4:24 TEV).
As you walk toward God you are called to an ongoing metanoia, an ongoing conversion of mind and heart. You are called to a normal Christian life, a life of holiness.
If this journey sounds very difficult or perhaps impossible, it is – if you try to make it by your own power. God, however, "is able to do so much more than we can ever ask for, or even think of, by means of his power working in us: to God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, for all time, forever and ever! Amen" (Gal. 3:20-21 TEV).
You can read this little book in an evening. I'd prefer that you take it on your journey. Spend a week on each chapter. Take 15 minutes each day to reread the week's chapter and reflect on one of the daily meditations. Repeat the daily Scripture passage often throughout the day, and at the end of each week write down the response you want to give to the Lord.
I hope we meet along the way!