How can I "Celebrate" Recovery
I came across this article today from the Pastors.com website.
First Colony Church of Christ is actively involved in the ministry of "Celebrate Recovery", and this article is something I think everyone should see.
CR, as its shortened, is a Christ-centered 12-step program that helps those struggling with any hurt, habit or hang-up. What you say? Your not an alcoholic? Or drug addict? Ok, keep reading...
The road to recovery consumes every sin and every sinner. When James states to confess your sins one to another, its so that you may be "healed" James 5:16. Not so you may be forgiven. Our sins bring about destruction in our spiritual being desiring a need to be healed. For some it's a long road. For others, it's just a matter of realizing what it is that is keeping your "whole-self" to be given over to the Will of God.
Georgia man discovers Celebrate Recovery isn't for someone else (click to read, or read below)
COVINGTON, Ga. (PD) Jim Nash always thought recovery was for someone else. In fact, the only reason Nash showed up for his first Celebrate Recovery meeting at Eastridge Community Church in Covington, Ga., was because his wife, Gay, was looking for help dealing with co-dependency.
"You're just here to support me, aren't you?" Gay asked him.
"Yep, there's nothing wrong with me!" Nash told her.
Little did Nash know how God would use that meeting to change his life.
"I never even entertained the thought that I had hurts, habits, and hang-ups," Nash said. "That was for people with addictions, psychosis, or nothing better to do on a Thursday night."
On that May evening, as Pastor Brad Rutledge taught on the importance of taking a moral inventory, he handed out a sheet of paper. Then he asked those in attendance to take a hard look at their lives and fearlessly put on paper the painful people and circumstances that had shaped their lives.
As Nash wrote out his moral inventory, he was for the first time face-to-face with a painful past he had shoved into a forgotten corner of his mind, a pain that began with a father who struggled with alcoholism, acted erratically while drunk, and never seemed to have enough time for his son.
That pain led to lifelong struggles with anger, shame, and guilt. For years, he had lashed out in anger at friends and family and then covered himself in shame and guilt. Although he had committed his life to Jesus more than 25 years earlier, his shame and guilt had kept him from experiencing the full depth of his relationship with God.
"It hampered my prayer life  which was virtually non-existent  because I couldn't have a relationship with a God who truly knew my innermost parts," Nash said.
Nash needed a freedom that only Christ could give. Despite his earlier denials, Nash needed Celebrate Recovery, a biblical recovery program used in more than 3,500 churches worldwide.
Yet Nash slipped that moral inventory in his Bible and tried to forget its contents. He simply couldn't accept help for hurts, habits, and hang-ups. It took another six months before he finally reached out for help. Still keeping up the guise of supporting his wife in her recovery, he attended the worship time of Celebrate Recovery just about every week, yet he tried to ignore his own recovery needs  until he could do so no longer.
Eventually, God began to show him that he did need to work through his issues of anger, shame, and guilt in order for him to live the kind of life God wanted him to live.
In November of 2003, he finally decided to join a step study, a systematic journey through the 12 recovery steps at the heart of Celebrate Recovery. In that first step-study meeting, Nash faced the denial that had characterized his 25-year spiritual journey. His group leader told him that anger, shame, and guilt were all by-products of a deeper problem.
"At first, I was a little offended," Nash said. "I already had my little jingle, Âanger, shame, and guilt.' That's what I could tell people that I was at Celebrate Recovery to work on."Instead, Nash discovered he was in need of a mental transformation. One of his favorite verses had been Romans 12:1-2 where Paul admonished believers to give their bodies as a living sacrifice to God and not to "copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." Although he could have quoted the verse, he had never really pondered what it meant to him personally."My thoughts had robbed me of every good gift God had given me for his service," Nash said. "Besides, I didn't really believe anything could be done to change the way I thought about things, such as my relationship with God and man or the purpose of my very existence."That's when Nash discovered principle two in the Celebrate Recovery program: "Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, and that he has the power to help me recover." Despite the fact that Nash had genuinely made a commitment to Christ and did believe in God, he knew he was a long way from earnestly believing in God. Because he didn't have a passionate relationship with him, he didn't really believe that he mattered to God. But once he admitted this to the other men in his step study and began to earnestly believe that God could help, the transformation began. God has restored his broken relationship with Nash through daily devotions, prayer, and his step study. Now God is using Nash to help others in need of recovery. He serves as the co-leader of a step study and an assimilation coach with the Celebrate Recovery program at Eastridge Community Church.
"This is a program that provides a safe place where I can come and join others who will support me by a like faith in Jesus Christ, our Higher Power," Nash said. "So no matter what the hurt, the habit, or the hang-up may be, Celebrate Recovery is just what I needed  even when I didn't know it."
First Colony Church of Christ is actively involved in the ministry of "Celebrate Recovery", and this article is something I think everyone should see.
CR, as its shortened, is a Christ-centered 12-step program that helps those struggling with any hurt, habit or hang-up. What you say? Your not an alcoholic? Or drug addict? Ok, keep reading...
The road to recovery consumes every sin and every sinner. When James states to confess your sins one to another, its so that you may be "healed" James 5:16. Not so you may be forgiven. Our sins bring about destruction in our spiritual being desiring a need to be healed. For some it's a long road. For others, it's just a matter of realizing what it is that is keeping your "whole-self" to be given over to the Will of God.
Georgia man discovers Celebrate Recovery isn't for someone else (click to read, or read below)
COVINGTON, Ga. (PD) Jim Nash always thought recovery was for someone else. In fact, the only reason Nash showed up for his first Celebrate Recovery meeting at Eastridge Community Church in Covington, Ga., was because his wife, Gay, was looking for help dealing with co-dependency.
"You're just here to support me, aren't you?" Gay asked him.
"Yep, there's nothing wrong with me!" Nash told her.
Little did Nash know how God would use that meeting to change his life.
"I never even entertained the thought that I had hurts, habits, and hang-ups," Nash said. "That was for people with addictions, psychosis, or nothing better to do on a Thursday night."
On that May evening, as Pastor Brad Rutledge taught on the importance of taking a moral inventory, he handed out a sheet of paper. Then he asked those in attendance to take a hard look at their lives and fearlessly put on paper the painful people and circumstances that had shaped their lives.
As Nash wrote out his moral inventory, he was for the first time face-to-face with a painful past he had shoved into a forgotten corner of his mind, a pain that began with a father who struggled with alcoholism, acted erratically while drunk, and never seemed to have enough time for his son.
That pain led to lifelong struggles with anger, shame, and guilt. For years, he had lashed out in anger at friends and family and then covered himself in shame and guilt. Although he had committed his life to Jesus more than 25 years earlier, his shame and guilt had kept him from experiencing the full depth of his relationship with God.
"It hampered my prayer life  which was virtually non-existent  because I couldn't have a relationship with a God who truly knew my innermost parts," Nash said.
Nash needed a freedom that only Christ could give. Despite his earlier denials, Nash needed Celebrate Recovery, a biblical recovery program used in more than 3,500 churches worldwide.
Yet Nash slipped that moral inventory in his Bible and tried to forget its contents. He simply couldn't accept help for hurts, habits, and hang-ups. It took another six months before he finally reached out for help. Still keeping up the guise of supporting his wife in her recovery, he attended the worship time of Celebrate Recovery just about every week, yet he tried to ignore his own recovery needs  until he could do so no longer.
Eventually, God began to show him that he did need to work through his issues of anger, shame, and guilt in order for him to live the kind of life God wanted him to live.
In November of 2003, he finally decided to join a step study, a systematic journey through the 12 recovery steps at the heart of Celebrate Recovery. In that first step-study meeting, Nash faced the denial that had characterized his 25-year spiritual journey. His group leader told him that anger, shame, and guilt were all by-products of a deeper problem.
"At first, I was a little offended," Nash said. "I already had my little jingle, Âanger, shame, and guilt.' That's what I could tell people that I was at Celebrate Recovery to work on."Instead, Nash discovered he was in need of a mental transformation. One of his favorite verses had been Romans 12:1-2 where Paul admonished believers to give their bodies as a living sacrifice to God and not to "copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." Although he could have quoted the verse, he had never really pondered what it meant to him personally."My thoughts had robbed me of every good gift God had given me for his service," Nash said. "Besides, I didn't really believe anything could be done to change the way I thought about things, such as my relationship with God and man or the purpose of my very existence."That's when Nash discovered principle two in the Celebrate Recovery program: "Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, and that he has the power to help me recover." Despite the fact that Nash had genuinely made a commitment to Christ and did believe in God, he knew he was a long way from earnestly believing in God. Because he didn't have a passionate relationship with him, he didn't really believe that he mattered to God. But once he admitted this to the other men in his step study and began to earnestly believe that God could help, the transformation began. God has restored his broken relationship with Nash through daily devotions, prayer, and his step study. Now God is using Nash to help others in need of recovery. He serves as the co-leader of a step study and an assimilation coach with the Celebrate Recovery program at Eastridge Community Church.
"This is a program that provides a safe place where I can come and join others who will support me by a like faith in Jesus Christ, our Higher Power," Nash said. "So no matter what the hurt, the habit, or the hang-up may be, Celebrate Recovery is just what I needed  even when I didn't know it."
posted by sirEller at 10:20 AM
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