August 5th, 2010 by GratefulForFreedom
“I can’t forgive myself- God may be able to, but I can’t.”
Wow- How many times have we heard this? How many times have we said this about ourselves? It’s difficult to imagine that the wreckage of the past can be wiped away; that all our mistakes can be forgiven. God says “He removes our sins as far as the East is from the West”. But is that all? Is that all I do- don’t I have to do anything to be forgiven. In God’s eyes you must confess your shortcomings and come clean- Repent- something we call TURN in Celebrate Recovery. God forgives us and show us great mercy. He sets us free, however, we do need to make amends to the people in our life who we’ve harmed. Our brokenness hurt others and we need to come clean and that means setting things right with those we’ve hurt. When you do that, you will get a sense of freedom you can’t imagine!
So you say “I can’t forgive myself.” Well, you know what? If God is King, and if He is full of Grace and Truth, then when He says I’m forgiven, that solves the question for me. Besides, isn’t it kind of arrogant to think that I cannot forgive myself, but God, the one I’ve chiefly offended can?
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July 25th, 2010 by GratefulForFreedom
Here’s a quote from a movie I watched a while ago.
“All men are islands. And what’s more, this is the time to be one. This is an island age. A hundred years ago, for example, you had to depend on other people. No one had TV or CDs or DVDs or home espresso makers. As a matter of fact they didn’t have anything cool. Whereas now you can make yourself a little island paradise.”
This is a sad statement. It’s essentially saying I have all I need to keep myself occupied, distracted and content. With Blu-Ray a Flat Screen and the Internet, who needs to share an island?
My experience is that this isn’t the way to live. God didn’t create us to be one man islands. We are created to be relational. We’re undeniably hardwired for meaningful relationships. But the problem for those of us with hurts, habits, and hang-ups is that we isolate to avoid confronting painful issues. We think we can handle our problems ourselves- that we don’t need help and that we can just “snap out of it”. Instead of moving toward healthy relationships and healing interaction with friends or accountability partners, we withdraw. This is a terrible pattern and it gets worse and not better when we try to go it alone. This is especially true when we’re spiraling in a bad cycle of depression or the compulsion to use. We want to escape; to get relief. When we’re not reaching out and we’re not accountable we can get into trouble very quickly. Not just that, but our perspective becomes distorted. Before we know it, our world gets real small real fast. Our world becomes just us. It’s all about my problem, my pain, my difficulties. This is the opposite of what is healthy for us. That’s my experience anyway, and when I see this happening or a friend helps me to become aware of this I know it’s time to reach out and call a friend, or an accountability partner or a pastor and then I try to be a servant to someone else who is struggling. That’s the best way I know to get out of my funk. Don’t be an Island- Reach out, Talk to someone and help someone who’s struggling
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July 15th, 2010 by Susan
Hey all! Sorry we have been gone so long over the past few months! Everything has been busy and we are hoping to get back to regular blogging soon – as we have someone who will be volunteering some time!
This week at Celebrate Recovery (7-16-10) Christ Church’s Duke Intern, Ryan, will be sharing this week’s CR lesson with us! Several weeks ago, Ryan shared his personal testimony with our group and he did a great job! We are looking forward to having him here this week! If you haven’t had the chance to hear Ryan speak yet – come on out Friday night and have supper with us and join in our worship at 7pm (supper starts are 6pm)!
Hope to see you there!
Susan
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April 20th, 2010 by Susan
Hey everyone! Sorry for not posting the past couple of weeks! I went on vacation and Pastor Greg was busy marrying his daughter Katie off! Looks like things are settling down and we are back to business!
This week we are so very honored to have Pastor Jesse join us to share his personal testimony! Jesse has an awesome story to share with YOU! He has walked in some of the same shoes of you with the sin he had committed – however, he turned his life over to God and God has taken him places he probably never would have imagined! Jesse is now the campus Pastor for Christ Church’s Fairgrove campus!!! A sinner to a Pastor! See there is hope for everyone! Invite a friend and we’ll see you on Thursday night at our Statesville Campus and/or Friday night at our Mountain View Campus! Supper starts at 6pm with Worship at 7pm and Open Share groups at 8pm!!!
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March 31st, 2010 by Susan
Blessed are the meek!
What a confusing statement at first glance. If we look at this phrase from the world’s standards, it doesn’t give us much encouragement in recovery. We all know how hard it is to begin the process but to work principle 3 (Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control) in a state of weakness makes no sense, how can we do it.
The problem is that in many cases we don’t understand what the definition of meek is, at least for awhile I didn’t. It’s true it does mean to be humble in spirit or mild, but the definition of the word used in past times is a bit different. This is of course the meaning that Jesus had in mind when he said–”Blessed are the meek”.
In the Greek, meek had several other meanings
a. was used to describe a soothing medicine
b. was used by sailors to describe a gentle breeze
c. was used by farmers to describe a broken colt
What do all of these have in common, great power under control.
If you look at a wild stallion that has been broken from its own will and obedient to his master’s wishes, you see what Christ had in mind when he said the meek would inherit his kingdom. There is great power still in the horse but its power is focused on the task at hand.
In recovery that is exactly what has to happen in order for us to be able to work the steps. We have to surrender our own will and desires to that of Christ. We at that point are able to use the power God gives us to focus on the areas of our lives that before we have been unable to control, our anger, our fear, and our guilt. With his help, we will finally be able to make some headway in our recovery. God doesn’t expect us to come to him already clean, on the contrary, we can never get that way without the gift of redemption he offers and our intentional effort to live a life that will glorify him. We all have to come through the door of Principle 3- surrender. We all have to spend our time in prayer in the garden as Jesus did in Gethsemane. Mk. 14:32
This Easter season, take time to reflect on the awesome power God offers each of us. We are all afraid of change, of turning our lives and wills over, but haven’t we all already done it. We have given the world power over our lives and that probably didn’t turn out too well. If you haven’t given God the reins over your life, consider it this weekend at CR, at Church, in your house, in your heart, but please make the decision to surrender your life to Christ–open the door so God can begin the work in you that he has longed to do since time began, it’s the only way we are going to be able to truly find healing and be able to celebrate our recoveries.
Have a Blessed Easter,
Pastor Greg
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March 25th, 2010 by Susan
Celebrate Recovery Blog 03/25/2010
It’s all about surrender— it’s all about Christ’s healing power —it’s all about praise!
Testimonies are such a huge part of Celebrate Recovery. We all at some point wander in the desert, we all get lost and hung up in our stuff and refuse to listen to God much less grab the rope he throws in front of us to pull us out. We doubt the Scriptures, we doubt when those church folks tell us God will heal.
But one thing that we will listen to are the stories of hope and healing that come from persons who have been there and struggled and have found healing in Christ. There is some added trust to the fact that maybe there is a God that can help me when “one of own” finds wholeness in God.
Join us this week as we hear a testimony on how God can and will work in your life when you finally give him the keys to your heart, when you pick up the rope thrown to you to get out of the ditch you have dug. God starts the chain and as you look in front of you, you will see many of those that have found freedom helping to pull you along with their love and willingness to serve Christ. The greatest thing about letting God be your higher power is that “you won’t be alone on the journey”. He brings those that celebrate the gifts he has given to help assure you, to help encourage you and to help you Celebrate Your Recovery. See ya Thursday in Statesville and Friday in Mountain View! Remember to invite a friend!
Please read the text below from the book of Psalm this week as we pray and seek God in our recovery… Pastor Greg
Psalms 107:1-22 (MSG)
1 Oh, thank God—he’s so good! His love never runs out. 2 All of you set free by God, tell the world! Tell how he freed you from oppression, 3 Then rounded you up from all over the place, from the four winds, from the seven seas. 4 Some of you wandered for years in the desert, looking but not finding a good place to live, 5 Half-starved and parched with thirst, staggering and stumbling, on the brink of exhaustion. 6 Then, in your desperate condition, you called out to God. He got you out in the nick of time; 7 He put your feet on a wonderful road that took you straight to a good place to live. 8 So thank God for his marvelous love, for his miracle mercy to the children he loves. 9 He poured great draughts of water down parched throats; the starved and hungry got plenty to eat. 10 Some of you were locked in a dark cell, cruelly confined behind bars, 11 Punished for defying God’s Word, for turning your back on the High God’s counsel – 12 A hard sentence, and your hearts so heavy, and not a soul in sight to help. 13 Then you called out to God in your desperate condition; he got you out in the nick of time. 14 He led you out of your dark, dark cell, broke open the jail and led you out. 15 So thank God for his marvelous love, for his miracle mercy to the children he loves; 16 He shattered the heavy jailhouse doors, he snapped the prison bars like matchsticks! 17 Some of you were sick because you’d lived a bad life, your bodies feeling the effects of your sin; 18 You couldn’t stand the sight of food, so miserable you thought you’d be better off dead. 19 Then you called out to God in your desperate condition; he got you out in the nick of time. 20 He spoke the word that healed you, that pulled you back from the brink of death. 21 So thank God for his marvelous love, for his miracle mercy to the children he loves; 22 Offer thanksgiving sacrifices, tell the world what he’s done—sing it out!
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March 18th, 2010 by Susan
Turn?
We are at a place in Celebrate Recovery where the rubber hits the road so to speak. It is time for us to make the decision that we all have known was coming. It’s time to stop running from God and surrender our wills and lives to His care and control, and this is extremely hard for us to do in many cases. We all have heard the call on our hearts in one way or another, some louder than others but we all know that in order to get well we have to realize that we can’t do it by ourselves. We need both a new group of support around us and we need God to guide our hearts and our wills from this point on instead of our own.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is Jonah. If you want to see a great example of how we run from God’s will, read the book of Jonah.
The more we try to run our lives, the more we try to hide our hurts and pain from not only ourselves but God, the deeper the trouble we end up in. We all fight this step of turning our wills over to God, we think it is crazy to think that someone or something else can help us, but don’t we surrender every day to our addictions and unhealthy behaviors? Instead of running to a God that can help us find sanity, we run to the places that bring us the most comfort, our addictions. Whether we use drugs or alcohol, food or sex, controlling others or submitting to others as our means of comfort, we surrender our wills and control to those things every time we run back when things go bad.
When God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh to proclaim his message that if they did not change, destruction was coming, Jonah ran for the hills, well actually the ocean. He was headed in the opposite direction as far and as fast as he could go. He knew that God would win out in the end, but still wasn’t ready to see Gods will lived out. This led him on an eye opening experience of seeing that God’s will win out. He ran until he could not run any more. Give Jonah a read this week and look at the comparisons in your life. We all do the same thing– we run and run till we are stuck. We have to end up neck deep in the quagmire of our own sin, in the debris left over from the choices that we made before we finally realize that we cannot do it alone.
We have to get to the point that we give up being our own God and begin to trust the God that loves us. The God that wants to see good things lived out in our lives. In order to find healing we have to get to the where we consider working principle 3 which states:
“Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control”
Over the next few weeks, we will be hearing lessons on how to apply principles to find the strength to turn our lives over to Christ as well as testimonies from people just like you and I that have had issues in life, but through the Grace and Peace that Christ offers, have found a new beginning and freedom from the hurts, hang ups, and habits that kept them in bondage for many years. The most important thing to remember about recovery and your spiritual journey is that
You don’t have to do it alone!
Join us on Thursday night at Christ Church Statesville Campus and/or Friday night at Christ Church Mountain View Campus!!! Food and Fellowship at 6pm; Group Worship & Praise at 7pm; and, Open Share Groups at 8pm!!! See you there!! Oh and be sure to invite a friend!
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March 12th, 2010 by Susan
Tonight we have our very own John N. sharing his personal testimony with us! John has a powerful story about how God freed him from his hurts, habits and hang-ups! John nows lives everyday for the Lord! Come on out and hear his story! Supper is at 6pm, Worship (music and testimony) is at 7pm and Open Share Groups (gender based) are at 8pm! See you there!!!
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March 5th, 2010 by Susan
Hey all – come on out to Christ Church-Mtn View campus tonight for Celebrate Recovery! CR is a safe place to lay down those hurts, habits and hang-ups that are keeping you from having an awesome relationship with God & others! Invite a friend and come on out! See you there!
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March 4th, 2010 by Susan
This week we will be hearing the lesson on Sanity! See notes below!
Sanity
You have all heard the definition of “Insanity” – doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result each time!
The definition of “Sanity” has been defined as “wholeness of mind; making decisions based on the trust”.
Jesus is the only Higher Power who offers the truth, the power, the way and the life.
Tonight Brother Mike will be using the acrostic for SANITY which will show us some of the gifts we receive when we believe that our true Higher Power, Jesus Christ, has the power and will to restore to us SANITY!!
So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time. Matthew 6:34
Come see us Friday night and start taking those new steps to a New You!!!
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