Celebrate Recovery Is For Everyone

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12-Step Program, Alcoholism, Anger, Anxiety Issues, Celebrate Recovery, Co-Dependency, Depression, Divorce, Drug Addiction, Forgiveness, God, Healing, Hope, Jesus, Large Group, Life, Living Life On Life's Terms, Loss, Marital issues, Physical Abuse, Porn Addiction, Relational Issues, Richland Celebrate Recovery, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Sin, Small Group, Struggles, Suicidal Thoughts, Verbal Abuse, Worship

Why do people still believe Celebrate Recovery is just for addicts? Is it because they have seen the movie Home Run? Did they go to that bathroom or something during testimony night in the film, where the main character’s sister-in-law speaks of her sexual abuse as a child? Or could it be because everyone thinks only addicts need recovery?

I’ve been going to Richland Celebrate Recovery since it began at my church six years ago, with the exception of a small hiatus. I’ve seen many people come and go over the years for various reasons; mostly, because they move back home upon coming out their recovery program.

I’ve written about CR (Celebrate Recovery) many times on my blog and I talk a lot about it in general, yet people still see it as a place for addicts. Let me say for the record…yes, addicts attend CR, BUT that is NOT all it is about.

Here is what Celebrate Recovery is…

It is a Christ centered program for people. PEOPLE!

It’s not just for the addict…it’s for the hurting, the lonely, the habitual sinner, the depressed and the list can go on and on. It’s a place for people with hurts, habits and hang-ups. It’s a place for healing.

When I started going to CR it was basically to help as a volunteer for our church’s newest ministry. I had heard about it and supported it. Little did I know…I needed it for me.

At the time I was going through my separation/divorce, not being able to see my kids everyday, depression, anger and trying to stop a long struggle with viewing porn and low self-esteem among other things.

I would have gone absolutely bat crazy had it not been for CR and the conversations and prayer from dear friends during all that.

Here’s the thing. A lot of people who struggle, with anything, sometimes feel as if they are the only ones dealing with that particular issue. And many of them feel that if they share their struggle with anyone, they will be looked upon differently…basically judged. And yet we can’t judge and here is why…we are all sinners and fall short of the glory God.

God sees no sin greater than the other, yet He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for all. All is all, no matter what it is. It could be adultery, drinking in excess, lying, sexual immorality, gluttony, murder, stealing, idolatry, etc.

The thing is, if we are honest with ourselves, we all have hurts, we all have habits that may not follow in line with scripture, and we all have hang-ups of some form or fashion.

CR is for everyone!

I go for the worship and message and still feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit to repent of something or to make amends with someone.

It’s honestly hard to explain. Heck, we have a 70-year-old lady who attends and our youngest is a 17-year-old  young lady. Everyone gets something out of the message no matter what they are going through at that moment. That’s just how God works.

The small groups are more intimate and allows each person the chance to either share how the message applies to their situation or just share what’s on their heart. Small groups have been a source of healing for me just by letting things out. You know…my life verse…confess your faults one to another. James 5:16 is so powerful.

Allow me to ask you guys a few questions.

Are you depressed? Do you have anxiety issues? Are you feeling alone after losing a loved one whether by death or the break-up of a relationship? Do you suffer from over eating? Are you addicted to sweets? Do you drink in excess to the point of losing control of who you are? Are you hurting from the wounds of words spoken? Do you have low self-esteem? Have you ever been sexually molested? Have you been physically or verbally abused?

If you answered yes to any of those, Celebrate Recovery is for you.

Give it a try! Allow the Lord to lead you. Go to the Celebrate Recovery website and see if there are any local chapters.

I have a list of all the ones in Louisiana, here on my blog site and keep it updated as best I can.

If you choose to attend please let me know how you enjoyed it and if it ministered to you.

God Bless,
Stu

For Out Of The Hearts Of Man Comes What Is Sown

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Anger, Celebrate Recovery, Corruptible Seed, Forgiveness, God, Habits, Hangups, Holy Spirit, Hurts, Incorruptible Seed, Jesus, Peace, Reaping, Resentment, Sowing, Unforgiveness, Word of God

I think everyone understands the concept of sowing and reaping. What you plant is what comes up in due season. If you have a garden and plant seeds of corn..well, corn will come up from the seed not okra. If you plant an apple tree in your yard it will not bear an orange, but an apple.

So with that in mind…

If you sow into your heart bad things you will sow out of your heart bad things.

If you have resentment towards your spouse, friend or family member and you continually water that seed of resentment in your heart all that will come out of your heart and mouth is negative things towards them.

If you have anger in your heart and you continue to fan the flame all that will come out towards that person you are angry with are words of anger, which in turn hurts them and starts the cycle in their own heart.

If you have unforgiveness in your heart towards your spouse, friend or family member for something they did or said to you….I believe you end up with all three seeds, unforgiveness, resentment, and anger, all growing together.

Then you have this big cluster of negative emotions sprouting and taking root, to where you truly do not know the reason for your attitude and actions towards that person.

If you plant visions of naked women or men into your mind all that will come out when you look at either sex is…”I wonder what they look like naked” or ” I wonder what they do when they have sex”. So you reaped adultery, for the Word of God says in RED (meaning Jesus himself said it) that if you look upon a women with lust in your heart you have committed adultery with her.

And we wonder why divorce is so rampant in our country, whether Christians or not. Why friendships do not last.

Everyone holds onto their hurts, habits…”my precious” for too long and just like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films, it turns them into something totally different and sort of corrupts their mind and heart.

But praise God, for He has given us a means to which we can seek forgiveness and have peace. A means to get to the roots of our “issues” and pull them up. But there are steps along the way by renewing our minds and hearts.

We must first have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins.

In John 14:6 Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

It is by building that relationship with God that we will want to let go of the things that are weighing us down like the hurt, the anger, resentment and unforgiveness we carry.

We must forgive the person who has wronged us. And when we do so it will lift a heavy burden from our heart.

Mark 11:25 & 26 tell us that if we do not forgive then the Father, who is heaven, will not forgive you of your sins.

We must confess our faults and sins to God.

1 John 1:9 states that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We must get into God’s Word for the truth which is critical in the renewing process.

Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

1 Peter 1:22 & 23 says since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.

For me the renewing means to put in the good (scripture) and get rid of the old (bad thoughts, hurts or habits).

And then let it go. Lay it down at the feet of Jesus and do not go back to it.

I know, it is easier said than done…trust me. I held on to resentment and anger for decades before I allowed God to truly start moving in my life and He used the 12 step program at Celebrate Recovery to get me to that point.

Don’t be like Gollum…be like Christ.

Not All Words Spoken Should Be Paid Attention To

Tags

Anger, Ecclesiastes 7:21, Resentment, Self-Worth, Words

There have been so many times in my life where this verse should have applied in my life.

By applying this I would have not had so much stress, anger, resentment and self-worth issues.

Somethings we hear should just go through one ear and out the other without stopping in our brain to be processed at all. Now, I’m not saying to ignore someone but some words just do not need to linger. And they sure as heck do not need to be stuck in a box to pondered on later.
 
That was and still is, to a point,  my issue in life. You can affirm me to the point where I’m ecstatic, but if one word in there even remotely references me in any way shape or form in a negative manner I concentrate on that one word and forget all the good stuff you put before it.
 
My girlfriend I had last year would do this to me. Not all the time mind you but enough. And she knew that words of affirmation was one of my love languages since we took the test together.
 
My ex-wife would do it and still does.
 
Friends will do it sometimes.
 
Co-workers do it.
 
Family​ members sneak one in on occasion.
 
These words hurt or make me angry, but if I can get to the point where I do not hear ALL the words spoken I will be better off.
 
What about you? Should you take this verse and heed it your own life? I’m sure there are some words your spouse said or a co-worker said that maybe you should have let just go in one ear and out the other ear without even bothering with them.
 
For our own sake and sanity I believe we should apply this verse in our lives daily. But alas…many times the, be a doer of the Word IS a lot harder than being a hearer of the WORD.
 
As for me, I am going to try my hardest to apply this to my life.

Do Not Let The Sun Go Down On Your Anger

Tags

Anger, Ephesians 4:26, Expectations, Husband, Life, Marriage, Recovery, Relationships, Sexual Sin, Struggles, Walls, Wife

Many marriages are in danger today.

When a spouse says they do not love you anymore it is because they have been hurt by their spouse. K, I get that. Been there done that.

But, in my opinion, a lot of that hurt is self inflicted though. And here is why. You are hurt by your spouse, for whatever reason..sexual sin, failure to live up to your expectations..whatever it doesn’t matter. Your feeling anger and resentment and building your walls, while your spouse is more than likely recovering from something you did to hurt them. Again doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you let the sun go down on your anger. Instead of saying honey, I’m sorry I screwed up..will you forgive me?… you allowed those feelings to fester in your heart and the longer you allow that to happen the worse it gets.

As husband and wife, we must work together to make the marriage work. It takes patience, integrity, forgiveness and the love of Christ…daily.

We can not allow the enemy a foothold in the door of our marriages. Seek forgiveness daily from your spouse. Before you pray at night ask your spouse if there was anything I did today that hurt you. Then apologize, so I AM sorry, will you forgive me.

Words

Tags

Anger, God, Jesus Christ, Love, Pain, Relationship with Jesus, Struggles, Suffering, Words Spoken

Words…

Do we truly understand their meaning?

Do we understand how they work?

Do we realize their power?

Do we truly, and I mean truly, understand that they can either tear someone down to the point of suicide or bring them out of their pit?

Do we realize that the spoken word can literally break someone’s heart or give the life?

Now, I know I have written several times on the power of words and word play but because I keep hearing from people who had words spoken to them as a child and have carried them to adulthood I must keep bringing this to the light.

I have several female friends. They are my sisters in Christ and I love them dearly but they have no joy…if you will. Growing up they had bad words spoken into their life over and over again that they were either worthless, overweight, not pretty, a slut and some I will not say. Most of these women have amazing careers, are amazingly beautiful and have wonderful husbands that speak positive words into their lives but because of the past they will NOT let the positive in because they feel they are either lying to make them feel good or nuts. They just don’t believe them to be true no matter how sincere the husband is or anyone else for that matter.

And I have several male friends who have had bad words spoken into their lives as well. They have been called worthless, overweight, a$$hole, disgusting, gay and several others that I will not mention here as well. These men also have wives that speak positive words into their lives but, once again, because of the past they feel that they are either lying to make them feel good or crazy.

I personally have been called several of those words. I have great friends that build me up but I also have some great friends who tear me down though, I believe, unintentional. Right now, for me, it is the unintentional ones that hurt me the most because I know these friends love me deeply. It’s just that they are hurting and lash out. I can be on cloud nine one minute and then shot down to below sea level with one phrase. It hurts.

And because of their words there are times when I feel as if I am either not worthy or will never be good enough. Depression does set in on occasion. Sometimes it does take some time to get back up to cloud nine again…but enough about me…I’ll be fine.

What about the words spoken into the lives of our young people who grow up to still believe those bad words? What can be done for the beautiful young lady who only sees the flaws someone else told she has? What about the young man who was called gay when he starts to question his sexuality? What about the ones called worthless who feel that they do not deserve the love of another, the love of God or that good paying job? How do we help the ones who were called overweight and either have become just that or they don’t eat enough to actually be healthy? What about that young lady that was called a slut who slept around just because she didn’t care anymore?

Is pointing them to Christ enough? I would love to say YES! But I can’t say that in good conscious.

Would speaking positive words into their lives help? I can’t say that either. I’ve tried that one and it really didn’t work. I had a dear friend tell me once that IF you tell your wife that she is beautiful every day for years she may eventually start to believe you.

Healing can take place once someone comes into contact with the saving grace of God through Christ. When they find who they are in Christ wonderful things can happen as well. Changes will begin to take place from the inside out. I know this one to be true!

Healing can also take place when positive words are spoken into their life. I have seen lives changed by just a little loving word.

But there is another component I believe that needs to be involved and that is how we treat someone.

I believe that if said person has found who they are in Christ, has positive words spoken into their life and has someone who treats them with respect and love it can make ALL the difference. When a woman hears the words “You are beautiful” and then actually sees it in your eyes and you touch her lovingly while telling her or kissing her she will start to believe that she is indeed beautiful.

When someone finds their worth in Christ and hears you tell them that you love them and it shows in your actions they will in turn begin to feel worthy of the love and care you give them.

A lot of this can be solved before it actually takes place. And that starts with the children in our lives.

Dads, are we telling our princess how pretty she is?

Moms, are you telling your little prince how handsome he is?

When our children do something great are we complimenting them on their achievement? Are we telling them of their true worth? Are we explaining to them that their bodies are precious and should not just be handed over to another person due to peer pressure?

If not..we should be! It is time to begin correctly, with positive words and to help heal the older ones who have suffered due to words spoken into their lives in the past.

God Bless guys,

Stu