By Bill Schlipp

Key Principle
The things of the world may promise temporary satisfaction, but they ultimately lead to disappointment and emptiness. True fulfillment and eternal life come from recognizing our sin and need for God, seeking His kingdom and righteousness, and trusting in His promises (Matthew 6:33). As the Bible tells us, “God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

Transformation – not recovery
Many who come to Fertile Ground Ranch (FGR) struggle with addiction, so most who hear about us believe we are a typical addiction treatment facility. It takes a closer look to reveal how FGR is different and holds the key to relapse prevention.

Many such facilities have programs that use 12 steps and/or psychiatric and spiritual “principles” as a way to help people recover from the problematic effects of their “disease” of addiction. At FGR we address addiction as God addresses it in His Word – as sin. The world doesn’t acknowledge sin, calling it a “mistake” or a “slip up.” The world’s remedy for sin, then, is to pick oneself up and get over it. Yet, sin keeps us in bondage, and the only lasting remedy is Jesus Christ’s death on the cross that frees us from this bondage.

Finding the truth
I have come to know that a lack of truth is the greatest hinderance to change. If you don’t know the truth of your situation, or you aren’t willing to face it, you will never find the solution. Matthew 22:29 tells us, “You are deceived because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God.” Clearly, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 informs us about that power saying, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” It is in light of these truths that FGR uses God’s Word as the solution that brings about lasting change for those who are in bondage to life-dominating sin.

The world has ideas about what success looks like for those who graduate from worldly recovery programs. These include one-day-at-a-time sobriety, aiming to keep addiction at bay, and enabling the addict to live a life that the world considers “normal.” FGR defines success from God’s perspective, incorporating scriptural truths such as receiving a new heart and the power of the Holy Spirit. This brings about transformed lives for people who can then act according to God’s good purposes. How does one achieve this at FGR? By learning to follow Christ as His disciple.

How to become a true disciple
To be truly able to follow Christ, disciples need to come to the realization that freedom from the bondage of sin is necessary. Bondage is the place where we find ourselves when we try to find satisfaction in created things rather than in the One who created us. We were created to seek and find satisfaction in a right relationship with God. But, for those who are unaware of this truth, their only option is to try to find satisfaction in the lesser and fallen things of this world. And, although the things of the world promise to help us experience joy and escape pain, the truth is that the promises are fleeting and temporary. World-centered promises cause us to seek harder and consume more until the pursuit becomes obsessive and life dominating. This can only leave us disillusioned, discouraged, hopeless and in despair, thinking we will never find the true satisfaction we so desperately need and want.

We believe that success occurs when the men who come to FGR understand the truth of their bondage. They become disciples who are convinced that freedom is found only in the Word, work, and person of Jesus Christ. Whether in bondage to mind-altering substances, money, power, pornography or earthy relationships, true deliverance and satisfaction can only be found in a right relationship with God through Christ. Just as Israel cried out to God to be rescued from their bondage in Egypt, God will do the same for those who look for deliverance in Him and in Christ alone.

Colossians 1:13-14 tells us, “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.” The world sees success for an addict as developing the self-discipline to give up an addictive substance. FGR sees success as a changed heart that loves God more than the things of the world. This is the enduring solution to addiction. It is transformation – not recovery – and the key to relapse prevention.

Photo by Ben Moreland on Unsplash.com      

Bill had the opportunity to give an update on FGR to our friends and supporters at New Hope Community Church (NHCC) in Palatine, Illinois. Bill and Judy had a delightful, edifying, blessed time of community with the NHCC saints, even getting to share in their celebration of Communion.
For a glimpse of Bill's update, check out Bill's presentation slides HERE.

By Bill Schlipp  

I first experienced a passion for discipleship on the very day of my new birth. Let me start from the beginning. 

I was raised in a good home with loving parents who worked hard to provide for me and my two sisters. I grew up in the Lutheran church and attended Lutheran elementary school. Yet, despite these advantages, my sin nature was still alive and well. I started drinking alcoholically when I was 16 years old. And, though my main drug of choice was alcohol, I was not opposed to the use of other illegal drugs because they all helped me to attain my heart’s desire – to experience pleasure and avoid pain. 

I believe these desires are at the heart of what it means to worship self. But as self increasingly became my priority, everyone and everything around me was ignored, and I became blind to my abusive and neglectful treatment of others and myself. Years later, finding myself in a 22-year bondage to alcohol and my sinful desires, I was awash in relational, financial and legal troubles and in anguish over my inability to change myself or my situations.

In August 1997, having landed in jail (again), I was sucker-punched by the reality of my situation. I couldn’t dismiss the reminder that, the last time I was in jail, I swore I would never end up there again. But I had made the same promise to myself the time before that, and the time before that, and, well, you know how that goes. I suddenly realized that I had no ability to change the trajectory of my life. As hard as I would try, I’d probably be in jail – and certainly in misery – again. 

After being released from jail that night, in utter despair and defeat, I stopped at a liquor store, bought a large quantity of alcohol, got a hotel room, and began to drink. After a day-and-a-half of non-stop drinking, all that remained was empty bottles. I wanted more but knew I was in no condition to do anything about it. Suffering from painful cravings for more alcohol and the agony of withdrawal symptoms, I experienced a loneliness and hopelessness that was darker and more frightening than anything I had ever experienced or thought possible.

In panicked desolation, I stumbled into the bathroom and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Turning to look more closely, I was shocked at what was looking back at me. It wasn’t the man I would usually see – the one who thought he was in control of his life and could turn things around if he just tried harder. It was as if I was given a vision of what I really was, a helpless drunk whose best efforts got him to this lowest of low places. A man who was dead in his trespasses and sins. Staring back at me was a frightening image of a corpse that was literally wearing filthy rags for clothes. 

As the reality of my helplessness and depravity gripped me, I caught a glimpse of another image looking at me from above. I looked up and saw what I believed to be the face of God smiling at me. 

Now, remember, I’d been consuming alcohol for almost 36 hours straight, so it’s possible that the image in the mirror and from above might have been hallucinations. But something about the smiling face brought to me an immediate and profound sense of being loved and accepted, even as what I really was in my sin nature. At that moment I believed that God was revealing to me that He loved me, not only despite what I really was but also because of what I really was – a sinner in need of grace. He came to me that day, to a vile drunken sinner, and showed me that He loved me. The peace of God that surpassed all understanding had now gripped me, and the gospel message that had eluded me all my life was now a firm foundation upon which my new life would be built.

In my formative years as a young Lutheran, I had come to believe that I had to change who I was for God to love me. I now knew that the love of God, demonstrated at the cross of Christ, is what enabled me to change. 

Having been given faith through the assurance of His love and the repentance that follows, I was also given a great desire to reach out to all my fellow addicts and all who suffer the loneliness and helplessness of life without Christ. I wanted them to experience the Good News of Christ’s love and forgiveness as I just had. Surely, I thought, they will accept it as easily and profoundly as I did, right? Thus, on that very day, my journey to make disciples began.

By Bill Schlipp

I'd like to introduce myself. I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ and the founder of Fertile Ground Ranch Discipleship Ministry (FGR). In this opening blog, I want to tell the story of how God gave me a passion for biblical discipleship. Through it, I hope that you, too, will become passionate about it and all we hope to accomplish, by the hand of God, at FGR.

If you haven’t already, please read the brief description in the “About” section on our website.

It was during my conversion experience in 1997, when I was freed from the bondage and idolatry of drugs and alcohol, that I was given not only faith to finally trust God and the peace that came with it, but also a passion and a purpose to tell everyone – especially my fellow addicts – what I’d experienced. I couldn’t wait to tell others about the effortlessness of receiving the free gift of salvation through the finished work of Jesus Christ. This passion propelled me to exploit any opportunity God put before me to practice my newly found life purpose. I experienced many things, both encouraging and discouraging, during the early years of my Christian walk. These experiences were fruitful in helping me develop an understanding of what it means to be and to make disciples of Jesus.

I plan to share and explore these experiences with you in further detail as this blog about discipleship plays out. But at the root is a single, major revelation that came to me in a class I took at Moody Bible Institute while working on a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies. This class, “Life-on-Life Discipleship,” revealed to me that, while the Bible gives explicit examples of the qualities and commitments of true disciples, it also demonstrates the teaching methods Jesus used to develop these traits and how we are similarly instructed today to carry out the Great Commission of Matthew 28.

There is no shortage of books on discipleship in Christian bookstores today (and I’ve read many of them). There are just as many discipleship programs in good and well-meaning churches. But there is no substitute for the simple and clear Word of God when it comes to discovering Jesus’s plan to use disciples as the way to reach the whole world with the gospel.

My humble prayer is that God will use me to share and explore with you all that God has been showing me from His Word and through my own clumsy-yet-well-intentioned desire to make disciples of all nations.