Big Book Living Alive

Meet Joe & Charlie

In the premiere episode of the new Big Book Comes Alive podcast and videocast. A series dedicated to bringing the legendary `Big Book Seminars` done by Joe & Charlie to modern audiences. Available on most podcast platforms, Big Book Comes Alive offers a fresh and convenient way to explore the timeless wisdom of Joe and Charlie. Where we work to bring the insights of this classic seminar to life with modern audio clarity.

For decades, two popular audio sets featuring Joe and Charlie have been a staple for those seeking guidance in recovery. These recordings have provided comfort, wisdom, and insight to countless listeners on their journey to sobriety. Big Book Comes Alive brings this treasured content to the podcast world, offering a unique way to connect with Joe and Charlie's teachings. The episodes draw from a weekend seminar recorded in Latrobe, PA, in July 1993—a time when Joe and Charlie’s powerful insights captivated an audience eager to explore the Big Book in depth.

The Big Book stands as the approach to understanding the principles of recovery and the core messages of Alcoholics Anonymous. Joe and Charlie's sessions took the complex ideas in the Big Book and made them accessible, relatable, and genuinely inspirational. By revisiting these sessions through a podcast, we can engage with their guidance in a new light, appreciating the timeless relevance of their words.

Join us each week on the Big Book Comes Alive podcast to re-experience the voices of Joe and Charlie with modern audio and fresh perspectives. Whether you’re new to the Big Book or returning to it with new experiences, this podcast promises a journey that’s both familiar and enlightening. Let’s walk through recovery with Joe and Charlie as our guides, discovering how their wisdom resonates just as strongly today.

NOTE: Patreon site no longer available.

Website: https://bigbooklivingalive.com

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And wisdom to know the difference.

It works. But you have to work at it and share it. And, if you practice these steps you should have the spiritual awakening that will bring the relief from alcohol and the addition to it.

Remember that the only way to keep it is to give it away. This is where the spiritual awakening shines. We now know that service and working with others is the best way to keep our center in the program and maintain our Daily Reprieve.

Page 92 - 12 Step call

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Daily inventory and quiet meditation with a God of our understanding keeps us grounded and on the path. 

Prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God.

Pg 87 - Conlude your mediation with a prayer. But this is prayer for help with what we need, not a request or shopping list of what we want. There is no bargain, or fox hole prayers here.

And when we are willing to do his will we will not be caught short on what we can achieve or accomplish.

The 11th Step Prayer is: “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.” -- 11th Step Prayer

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✓ New episodes of the Big Book Living Alive Joe & Charlie podcast every Monday @ 2pm est.

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Addiction, Recovery, Joe&Charlie, alcohol recovery, alcohol recovery stories, addiction recovery stories

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The spiritual experience should be upon us if we have finished step 9, but we need to understand that we only have today for this reprieve from alcohol. We need to continue our

daily maintenance to make sure we don't side back.

We need to continue to make amends when necessary and keep our side of the street clean. And we can do that anytime of the day.

Additional promises on page 84 and 85. We are not fighting ourselves and we can feel the problem has been removed. This is the fit spiritual condition.

10th step prayer:

God, please help me watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear. When these crop up in me, help me to immediately ask you to remove them from me and help me discuss these feelings with someone. Help me to quickly make amends if I harmed anyone and help me to resolutely turn my thoughts to someone I can help. Help me to be loving and tolerant of everyone today. Amen.

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✓ New episodes of the Big Book Living Alive Joe & Charlie podcast every Monday @ 2pm est.

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The Promises: page 83

1. If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.

2. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.

3. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.

4. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.

5. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.

6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.

7. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.

8. Self-seeking will slip away.

9. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.

10. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.

11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.

12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves

You can have the whole world, if you do the action steps to get to that point. As a friend said to me early in my sobriety, `You can have everything in life if you are willing to give up one thing in life`

Achieve the 4th level of existence by completing the amends and restitution process. Finish clearing the decks of debts owed and welcome a new feeling of freedom.

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✓ New episodes of the Big Book Living Alive Joe & Charlie podcast every Monday @ 2pm est.

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Working the amends process can be, and should be, harder than we think. This is the process of clearing our wrongs, or facing what we to others and ourselves.

We heal ourselves by clearing the past the fixing the broken relationships during this process. That will, and can, bring an inner peace that we are now at the design for living stage of our lives and when we move forward, we do it without harming others and making a wreck of everything around us.

Payback, restitution, amends. Not the easy words that get thrown around when we start to truly see our consequences. Once we know that we have harmed others. And there can be

some level of denial when we are in active alcoholism, but there is no veil or curtain once the shakes clear and we start the steps. 

We have to own the fact that some of our damage is emotional and some maybe financial. We have to be willing to fix both. 

There is no shame is repayment of a debt.

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✓ New episodes of the Big Book Living Alive Joe & Charlie podcast every Monday @ 2pm est.

Website: https://bigbooklivingalive.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bblivingalive

Tags:

12 Steps, Prayer, Inspiration, Inspirational music, Inspirational music background, recovery music,

Addiction, Recovery, Joe&Charlie, alcohol recovery, alcohol recovery stories, addiction recovery stories

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Steps 8 & 9 are about getting right with the world. These steps work on the Guilt and Remorse of how we behaved. 

page 77 second paragraph of the Big Book explains to us how to approach someone to make amends

I pray for the right attitude to make my amends, Being ever mindful not to harm others in the process. I ask for Your guidance in making indirect amends. Growing in spiritual progress. - Ninth Step Prayer

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✓ New episodes of the Big Book Living Alive Joe & Charlie podcast every Monday @ 2pm est.

Website: https://bigbooklivingalive.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bblivingalive

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12 Steps, Prayer, Inspiration, Inspirational music, Inspirational music background, recovery music,

Addiction, Recovery, Joe&Charlie, alcohol recovery, alcohol recovery stories, addiction recovery stories

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Step 7 - Removing defects of character

My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen - Step 7 prayer

Just because your higher power can remove our defects of character it doesn't mean that it will do for us what we CAN do for our selves.

We can embrace who we really could be after we understand this change opportunity step. This is the path to living in harmony in all three areas: spiritual / mental / physical dimensions 

And, we cannot blame other for our behavior. this is a design for living. Living and caring and fruitful life with a God of our understanding directing our actions. 

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✓ New episodes of the Big Book Living Alive Joe & Charlie podcast every Monday @ 2pm est.

Website: https://bigbooklivingalive.com

Tags:

12 Steps, Prayer, Inspiration, Inspirational music, Inspirational music background, recovery music,

Addiction, Recovery, Joe&Charlie, alcohol recovery, alcohol recovery stories, addiction recovery stories

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After a huge step like 5 where we have shared our past and hopefully had a spiritual experience we need to stop and contemplate on what has happened

Remove from us all our shortcomings. We ask our higher power to make us willing to let these things go. This is how we can let our past go. Who are we without our defects. Letting the defects goes allows us to make room for all the better things that will fill us.

'Dear God, I am ready for Your help in removing from me the defects of character which I now realize are obstacles to my recovery. Help me to continue being honest with myself and guide me toward spiritual and mental health.' - 5th step prayer

“My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.' - 6th step prayer

And the episodes ends by taking us right into step 7

Read the first 5 steps

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

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✓ New episodes of the Big Book Living Alive Joe & Charlie podcast every Monday @ 2pm est.

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Big Book Living Alive: Episode 49 - Into Action

We finish the last part of step 4 and move into step 5. This is where we can let the actor go. The actor that lies and manipulates others. The way we behave when in active addiction.

Finishing step 4 we make another list and this will be the sheet for everything else. 

This makes sure we don't let things slip between the cracks.

We take our 4th step to take certain actions. This is a program of action and requires that we do a number of things;

1 we look at what we have done

2 we write those items down so that we can honestly review them

3 We discuss it with someone. 

We need the final step of this process to complete the process of review and release. This is step 5.

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✓ New episodes of the Big Book Living Alive Joe & Charlie podcast every Monday @ 2pm est.

Website: https://bigbooklivingalive.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bblivingalive

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