Ministry Coach David L shares this CORE teaching about a true relationship with God. Too many have a head knowledge but no heart knowledge. Which is required for eternal life in God’s presence? Click to discover what a true relationship means for those who call upon Jesus Christ.
Click the link to hear Margaret R share her testimony about the love of God and His matchless mercies that each of us can experience when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through our lives.
Click the link to hear CR Worship Coach Star C share her testimony about the journey has experienced on the road to recovery. Star has a love for God that is evident in her life and ministry. You will be blessed as you listen to her story.
The CR ministry was able to provide the membership of Northwood Church an incredible testimony and challenge about what an interactive relationship with God and transparent connections with others is about by sharing through cardboard testimonies the powerful, healing hand of God. Click the link to view and leave a comment at mynorthwood.org.
When we first arrive at Celebrate Recovery, we feel like we are at the end of our rope, and hope is minimal. We may think things like, “if my husband, or wife would just change, things would be better.” “If I could just stop using, maybe the currents of my life would flow smoother.” ”If only my family, friends, and colleagues, would act the way I want them to,” as if I am some director in a play about me; things would be just fine. ”If I just had more money, and more things, life would be better.” “If I could just find the right diet, read the right book, meditate on the perfect verse, find the perfect job, drink less, eat less, and pray the perfect prayer, things would be better. ”
Part of the batlle we face is in our actions, and our behavior, but I think it begins in the way we think, and believe. David understood this battle of the mind, as he cryed out to God in the following Psalm.
1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
Celebrate Recovery, Principle 2 says:
“Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him and that He has the power to help me recover.”
To earnestly believe, means that I believe in a serious, or determined matter. My recovery depends on taking God at His Word, and believing that I matter to Him. How do I know that I matter? I know, when I read and meditate on John 3:16, and see His love through His son, Christ Jesus. Can He help me recover? Absolutely, but I have to do my part. Sometimes that looks like David’s Psalm 13, where I cry out to God, and invite Him into the battle in my mind.
Thanks to all who participated in our 2nd Anniversary Celebration on February 6th. What a wonderful night to see the hand of God move among His people. Many took surrender chips and for that we truly celebrate what God is planning to do in the lives of those who have come to the end of themselves and are now willing to accept the grace, forgiveness, and power of God to heal their broken lives.
If you have not yet checked out Celebrate Recovery, what are you waiting for? God is calling all of His children to become holy, and Celebrate Recovery is one step, perhaps the first step, in surrendering your life to be reshaped by God into His image. Celebrate Recovery is the potter’s wheel, we are the clay. Surrender today and tell the Lord, as in the words of the great hynm of our faith, “Have thine own way Lord, have thine own way. You are the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me, after they will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.”
The first part of this statement may seem negative. In the context of achievement, or of reaching goals, it would be. However, in the context of a broken life, it may be one of the most humbling statements that we can make. When we realize that, we cannot recover on our own; our hope begins when we humbly surrender. We surrender not in defeat, but in humility; as we reach out beyond our pain, present condition, and state of mind. We have tried to control our lives, and the people around us. We don’t want to feel the hurt, and grief any longer. We refuse to be hurt, or let anyone hurt us again. We want to stop, but don’t know how. We are constantly running, but never getting anywhere. It’s only in our humility, and God’s sovereignty, that we recognize the truth found in principle one.
“Realize I’m not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable.”
When we fully accept this, and relate it to our own lives, we can then say, “we can’t do this, but God can!” Now it is no longer I, but we. Now we don’t feel so alone, because we identify with the hurts, habits, or hang ups of other believers in Christ. We identify with their suffering, and trials. We find freedom in accepting our condition, and circumstances, but we surrender the outcome, and results to God.
“Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.” Psalms 107:13-16
Together, we begin to see, or are reminded of the mighty power of GOD, to heal battered and broken lives. We then begin to celebrate the miracle of recovery through our one and only higher power, Jesus Christ. In principle one we see the problem, and give thanks to GOD for the solution.
There are walls around homes, walls around prisons, and there was a wall in Berlin. All of these walls serve different purposes. To keep others out, to keep people in, or to provide safety, and security. If someone, or something had knocked a big hole in the side of my house, and littered the lawn with bricks; I would not sleep to well at night. There would be a breech in my sense of safety, and security. In Nehemiah’s day, the walls around Jerusalem represented the peoples safety, security, peace, but it also represented the condition of the peoples heart. Consider Nehemiah’s response when he found out the condition of the walls in Jerusalem, his home:
3 They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. 5 Then I said:
“O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. Nehemiah 1:3-7 NIV
At Celebrate Recovery, we are much in a position like Nehemiah. The walls of our brothers and sisters in Christ, or whomever God may send us are broken down in a sense. In the case of CR, the broken down walls represent the condition of their hearts, and the damage that their hurts, habits, and hangups have left behind. It also represents the condition of our hearts, as CR participants.
What will our response be?
Will we respond like Nehemiah with a compassionate, repentant heart, and a desire to re-build?
For the men in CR, we have an opportunity to respond, as we call for a Sacred Assembly, to examine our own hearts through prayer, fasting, a time of worship, praise, and thanksgiving.
What if… we who love the ministry of recovery saw God bring, expoentially, people into Celebrate Recovery who needed the healing touch of God on their lives? I have been thinking about the first century church and how it grew incredibly with the humble beginnings of 12 ordinary men. Could those of us who love the ministry of Celebrate Recovery experience the same kind of growth that the Church experienced in Acts?
What if… the power of God was brought down upon us in a fashion similar to Pentecost and the result was large numbers of individuals and couples seeing their marriages, relationships, and personal lives liberated from the bondage of emotional pain? Could the ministry of Celebrate Recovery become a healing place for many who are currently suffering in isolation, fear, shame, and silence and thereby see their lives transformed into growing disciples of Jesus Christ?
The very name Celebrate Recovery calls for those who have received the gifting of brokenness and experienced the healing power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, marriages, relationships, and communities to respond with an attitude of gratitude. Click the link to listen to CR Pastor Mark speak on gratitude and then write your Gratitude List being thankful to God, others, recovery, and church.