I hope that this year has started off well for you so far. I know that there have been times in which the new years felt more like a curse due to my issues. Years can seem so long and for those who are right smack in the middle of dealing with something, this can be an extremely overwhelming time.
I hope you know that you do not have to face these fears by yourself. In the midst of all of your new year's resolutions, why not resolve to finally begin the most rewarding journey of your lifetime? It will be difficult and at times it will make absolutely no sense, but I promise you that God has a plan - and wants you - to live a free life.
As we begin at the beginning, we are going to look at denial. Specifically we admitted that we were powerless over our dependencies (regardless of what your dependency is) - that our lives had become unmanageable. Sometimes we are powerless because of our stations in life. We may be in a situation where other people have power over us. We may feel that we are trapped by the demands of others and that there's no way to please them all. it's a double bind: To please one is to disappoint another. Sometimes when we feel stuck and frustrated with our relationships, we look for a measure of control by escaping through our addictive behaviors and habits.
June Hunt goes on to elaborate in her book, Counseling Through Your Bible Handbook, by stating that:
Much of a habit's power rests in your belief that you are "on your own" during times of temptations. However, if you are a Christian, you are never alone. You have 'Christ in you'...to win the victory through you. The Bible says you are united with Christ, that you are 'one with him.' This means if you yield to temptation to be pulled down by a negative habit, you pull down Christ with you! Likewise, if you yield to Christ, He will pull you up above the temptation and be glorified within you. This understanding can be a life-changing motivator for you to reconsider your choices! - p. 208
So the key here is to be involved in a relationship with Christ. If this is foreign to you please, please ask me about this. I would love to personally share with you about what it means to engage in a relationship with Jesus...and not in the schmoozy, formulaic way that many churches tend to portray. Jesus is our Higher Power and He is our way - period. He has the power to help you break your addictions and habits whether it be drugs, pornography, codependecy, anger and/or anything else that is robbing you of your life.
Come check us out on Wednesday and see more for yourself. We're safe and we promise that you will not have to do anything that is embarrassing to you. We have all been where you are and many of us can attest to the fact that there is a way to beat your addictions and bad habits.
We'll see you at our new time - 6:30p. Until then, take care!
January 6, 2009
November 14, 2008
Welcome to Celebrate Recovery!
For those of you who have never been with us before....WELCOME! Celebrate Recovery (CR) is a Jesus Christ-based, 12 step program to provide support to you regardless of your issues. We are a ministry of First Baptist Dallas and are proud to be part of a larger group that truly does care for your well-being.
Please take a moment to check out all of our information on the left of your screen. If you can't find what you're looking for, then please feel free to email us at pastoralmin@firstdallas.org; or feel free to publish a post and I can get back with you.
So what issues do we deal with at CR? Those who have joined us so far have dealt with some of the following:
- codependency
- sexual addiction
- eating disorders
- alcohol/chemical dependency
- depression/anxiety
- emotional abandonment
-sexual/physical/verbal abuse
- and the list just goes on...
The beautiful thing about CR is that the program is for any and all hurts, habits or hang-ups. We acknowledge that healing comes from a Higher Power....the Higher Power Himself, Jesus Christ. It is through a relationship with Him that we can find our way to recovery. The 12 steps that we use are tools to help us grow in our relationship withe Jesus. The steps help us evaluate our life and offer us solutions to make us well. Again, the 12 steps are not a magical formula and will not work if you don't grasp the relational aspect of this program. If you think about recovery in these terms, then you can easily say that everyone could be in recovery for something.
Aren't you tired of pretending that you have everything under control and that everything is okay? We do not have to pretend anymore. There is a place for us to come forward and admit that we have been hurt and feel stuck. Come check us out and I promise you that we won't embarrass you or call you out. We won't judge you either because we've all been where you're at right now. It's hard work, but God does promise us freedom and wholeness.
See you on Wednesday.
Please take a moment to check out all of our information on the left of your screen. If you can't find what you're looking for, then please feel free to email us at pastoralmin@firstdallas.org; or feel free to publish a post and I can get back with you.
So what issues do we deal with at CR? Those who have joined us so far have dealt with some of the following:
- codependency
- sexual addiction
- eating disorders
- alcohol/chemical dependency
- depression/anxiety
- emotional abandonment
-sexual/physical/verbal abuse
- and the list just goes on...
The beautiful thing about CR is that the program is for any and all hurts, habits or hang-ups. We acknowledge that healing comes from a Higher Power....the Higher Power Himself, Jesus Christ. It is through a relationship with Him that we can find our way to recovery. The 12 steps that we use are tools to help us grow in our relationship withe Jesus. The steps help us evaluate our life and offer us solutions to make us well. Again, the 12 steps are not a magical formula and will not work if you don't grasp the relational aspect of this program. If you think about recovery in these terms, then you can easily say that everyone could be in recovery for something.
Aren't you tired of pretending that you have everything under control and that everything is okay? We do not have to pretend anymore. There is a place for us to come forward and admit that we have been hurt and feel stuck. Come check us out and I promise you that we won't embarrass you or call you out. We won't judge you either because we've all been where you're at right now. It's hard work, but God does promise us freedom and wholeness.
See you on Wednesday.
August 18, 2008
Obtaining Victory
Hey everyone -
I hope this finds you all well. I took the month of July off from several of my duties so that I could rest up a bit. Now that we're practically into September, there are some awesome things that I hope to be sharing with you all within the next few posts.
This Wednesday we will be talking about Victory; specifically tackling the question: "How can you have victory over your character defects?" Now I want you to stop for a couple of moments and think about how you have attempted to gain victory over your habits. Maybe your head is instantaneously bombarded with strong, self-imposed resolutions such as, "I am not ever going to look at pornography again!"; or, "I am going to get eat less and exercise every other day!!"; or even better: "I am going to wake up early and spend time with God!!!"
Now perhaps you're able to make these calls and then automatically follow through with them without much effort or help. It is my experience and my understanding that tells me that many times, we come across with these wonderful statements of good intentions; only to end up failing because we're not as strong as we thought; which only makes us even more shameful, depressed and/or angry; which then leads us to more addictive, compulsive behaviors and so on and so on.
Principle 5 is in my opinion, one of the most incredible principles that we rely upon. It says:
Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects.
James 4:10 promises us that if we humble ourselves before God - assuming that we are relationship with Him - that he will lift us up. Will it be easy? Probably not, but God has yet to follow through on His promises. We, however, must first keep our end of the deal and submit to His power, which is much easier said than done.
Be sure to join us on Wednesday evening as our teacher tells us in much more depth how to go about obtaining victory and what it means to "submit to His power."
Hope to see you all there -
JH
I hope this finds you all well. I took the month of July off from several of my duties so that I could rest up a bit. Now that we're practically into September, there are some awesome things that I hope to be sharing with you all within the next few posts.
This Wednesday we will be talking about Victory; specifically tackling the question: "How can you have victory over your character defects?" Now I want you to stop for a couple of moments and think about how you have attempted to gain victory over your habits. Maybe your head is instantaneously bombarded with strong, self-imposed resolutions such as, "I am not ever going to look at pornography again!"; or, "I am going to get eat less and exercise every other day!!"; or even better: "I am going to wake up early and spend time with God!!!"
Now perhaps you're able to make these calls and then automatically follow through with them without much effort or help. It is my experience and my understanding that tells me that many times, we come across with these wonderful statements of good intentions; only to end up failing because we're not as strong as we thought; which only makes us even more shameful, depressed and/or angry; which then leads us to more addictive, compulsive behaviors and so on and so on.
Principle 5 is in my opinion, one of the most incredible principles that we rely upon. It says:
Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects.
James 4:10 promises us that if we humble ourselves before God - assuming that we are relationship with Him - that he will lift us up. Will it be easy? Probably not, but God has yet to follow through on His promises. We, however, must first keep our end of the deal and submit to His power, which is much easier said than done.
Be sure to join us on Wednesday evening as our teacher tells us in much more depth how to go about obtaining victory and what it means to "submit to His power."
Hope to see you all there -
JH
June 30, 2008
June 11, 2008
Casting Your Cares
Please know up front that I cannot take credit for writing what you see below. One of our awesome CR leaders sent this to me and I thought that it was completely worthy of blog-posting. Read on and enjoy...truly meditate on the words below.
Casting All your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7
As you’ve no doubt discovered, becoming a Christian does not make your problems go away. But it does give you an Advocate to whom you can take every concern. The Christians Peter addressed were facing persecution. They did not know whom they could trust; a friend, a neighbor, or even a family member could betray them, resulting in suffering and even death. But Peter had walked with the risen Christ, and he had personally experienced the love that Jesus had for His followers. He knew that Christ was in control, capable of handling every trial and that He wanted to do so as an expression of His love.
Casting our cares is a choice. It means consciously handing over our anxiety to Christ and allowing Him to carry the weight of our problems. At times this is the most difficult part of trusting God! We don’t like turning over the responsibility for our problems. We have been taught that self-reliance is good and praiseworthy We may even enjoy worrying. Yet if we are to be freed from the burden of our concerns, we must choose to cast them into the strong hands of our Father.
Peter does not distinguish between little cares and big cares. God does not differentiate between problems we should handle on our own and God-sized needs. He asks us to turn them all over to Him. Once our greatest errors is to assume we can deal with something ourselves, only to discover that we really can’t.
God sees you as His frail child, burdened with a load that surpasses your strength. He stands prepared to take your load and to carry it for you. Will you let Him?
Casting All your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7
As you’ve no doubt discovered, becoming a Christian does not make your problems go away. But it does give you an Advocate to whom you can take every concern. The Christians Peter addressed were facing persecution. They did not know whom they could trust; a friend, a neighbor, or even a family member could betray them, resulting in suffering and even death. But Peter had walked with the risen Christ, and he had personally experienced the love that Jesus had for His followers. He knew that Christ was in control, capable of handling every trial and that He wanted to do so as an expression of His love.
Casting our cares is a choice. It means consciously handing over our anxiety to Christ and allowing Him to carry the weight of our problems. At times this is the most difficult part of trusting God! We don’t like turning over the responsibility for our problems. We have been taught that self-reliance is good and praiseworthy We may even enjoy worrying. Yet if we are to be freed from the burden of our concerns, we must choose to cast them into the strong hands of our Father.
Peter does not distinguish between little cares and big cares. God does not differentiate between problems we should handle on our own and God-sized needs. He asks us to turn them all over to Him. Once our greatest errors is to assume we can deal with something ourselves, only to discover that we really can’t.
God sees you as His frail child, burdened with a load that surpasses your strength. He stands prepared to take your load and to carry it for you. Will you let Him?
June 8, 2008
Way Overdue!!!
Hey everyone -
I hope that this finds everyone well. I'm sorry that it's been a month since I've last updated our blog but it has been craaaazzzy these last five weeks. In addition to graduating (which meant cramming a lot of work into two weeks :) I took on a new job that I absolutely thought was going to be incredible. In case you don't know this already....I am a people-person...that's the whole reason that I chose Counseling and Human Resources Management. So I was extremely excited to begin this new job which was advertised as "HR with 'light' bookkeeping for a small firm." I interviewed well and gladly took the job...without reading a job description. I know what you're thinking: "Jeremy! What kind of HR person are you? You NEVER take a job without reading a description!!!!" This was a hard lesson learned for me....especially for the newbie, in-experienced HR person that I am :). My job was straight-up accounting for 8 hours a day and it's been soooo uninspiring. This alone, I feel that I would've eventually gotten over, but to make matters worse, my boss is the antithesis of a people-person. Unfortunately, this man has created an atmosphere of utter fear and intimidation in his office and I, along with several other coworkers, have been the target of verbal/emotional abuse. Not being dramatic here folks....it really is that serious and it has made my life's balance just about unmanageable at times. FORTUNATELY for me, I have an awesome network of friends both inside and outside of CR that have truly helped me along this path - especially my wife, my sponsor, my accountability group, and our CR leadership.
However, I have learned some valuable lessons throughout all of this:
1.) Always get a job-description.
It is absurd to jump into a job not knowing what is expected. Our recovery journey is somewhat similar I suppose. In order to reach a place of recovery, we need a structured description or plan of action, if you will. Celebrate Recovery is a good plan of action for recovery. Not only does it lay out 12 steps, but it mandates a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ as well as encouraging service and giving back. It also lets you know that there is a good bit of work involved. Tonight, we just finished our first step but it has taken us two meetings to do so. There are 11 more steps to go.....roll up your sleeves folks because the job description for CR tells us that there is a good amount of recovery work to do.
2.) Be on the alert for hidden junk.
When I tell most people in CR that I have struggled with trust and abandonment, I usually get a furrowed brow and sometimes - if I'm lucky - a sympathetic head nod. It's hard to comprehend until I go deeper. Due to my trust issues I have battled pornography in the past. However, these last few weeks have revealed to me that I also deal with codependency issues. For an easy to understand website that explains codependency in greater detail, check out: http://www.nmha.org/go/codependency.
3.) Relationships are key!
This one is simple:
If you want a productive office, treat your employees fairly and respectfully. Value them.
If you want to truly experience grace and healing, you need to engage in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
If you don't want to be overwhelmingly alone, then you need to form supportive, healthy relationships with others - even when it's the last thing you want to do on earth.
Below is a video for a most incredible song that has really ministered to me throughout the past month. It's called "Whatever You're Doing" by the group Sanctus Real. Check it out :)
Also, one good song deserves another. This one is called "Revelation Song" and it's INCREDIBLE! Check out the link below and it should bring up the lyrics in addition to the tune. We introduced this song last week in CR and will be adding it to our praise and worship set so be ready to sing to our wonderful God!
Well....that's it for now. I will do my best not to neglect the blog for a month again. I hope to see you at CR this Wednesday. Until then, take care.
:)
I hope that this finds everyone well. I'm sorry that it's been a month since I've last updated our blog but it has been craaaazzzy these last five weeks. In addition to graduating (which meant cramming a lot of work into two weeks :) I took on a new job that I absolutely thought was going to be incredible. In case you don't know this already....I am a people-person...that's the whole reason that I chose Counseling and Human Resources Management. So I was extremely excited to begin this new job which was advertised as "HR with 'light' bookkeeping for a small firm." I interviewed well and gladly took the job...without reading a job description. I know what you're thinking: "Jeremy! What kind of HR person are you? You NEVER take a job without reading a description!!!!" This was a hard lesson learned for me....especially for the newbie, in-experienced HR person that I am :). My job was straight-up accounting for 8 hours a day and it's been soooo uninspiring. This alone, I feel that I would've eventually gotten over, but to make matters worse, my boss is the antithesis of a people-person. Unfortunately, this man has created an atmosphere of utter fear and intimidation in his office and I, along with several other coworkers, have been the target of verbal/emotional abuse. Not being dramatic here folks....it really is that serious and it has made my life's balance just about unmanageable at times. FORTUNATELY for me, I have an awesome network of friends both inside and outside of CR that have truly helped me along this path - especially my wife, my sponsor, my accountability group, and our CR leadership.
However, I have learned some valuable lessons throughout all of this:
1.) Always get a job-description.
It is absurd to jump into a job not knowing what is expected. Our recovery journey is somewhat similar I suppose. In order to reach a place of recovery, we need a structured description or plan of action, if you will. Celebrate Recovery is a good plan of action for recovery. Not only does it lay out 12 steps, but it mandates a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ as well as encouraging service and giving back. It also lets you know that there is a good bit of work involved. Tonight, we just finished our first step but it has taken us two meetings to do so. There are 11 more steps to go.....roll up your sleeves folks because the job description for CR tells us that there is a good amount of recovery work to do.
2.) Be on the alert for hidden junk.
When I tell most people in CR that I have struggled with trust and abandonment, I usually get a furrowed brow and sometimes - if I'm lucky - a sympathetic head nod. It's hard to comprehend until I go deeper. Due to my trust issues I have battled pornography in the past. However, these last few weeks have revealed to me that I also deal with codependency issues. For an easy to understand website that explains codependency in greater detail, check out: http://www.nmha.org/go/codependency.
3.) Relationships are key!
This one is simple:
If you want a productive office, treat your employees fairly and respectfully. Value them.
If you want to truly experience grace and healing, you need to engage in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
If you don't want to be overwhelmingly alone, then you need to form supportive, healthy relationships with others - even when it's the last thing you want to do on earth.
Below is a video for a most incredible song that has really ministered to me throughout the past month. It's called "Whatever You're Doing" by the group Sanctus Real. Check it out :)
Also, one good song deserves another. This one is called "Revelation Song" and it's INCREDIBLE! Check out the link below and it should bring up the lyrics in addition to the tune. We introduced this song last week in CR and will be adding it to our praise and worship set so be ready to sing to our wonderful God!
Well....that's it for now. I will do my best not to neglect the blog for a month again. I hope to see you at CR this Wednesday. Until then, take care.
:)
April 17, 2008
Life Without Limbs
Oh my goodness....be prepared to be blown away! I had heard of this young man months ago but didn't think twice about it until my wife and my uncle both forwarded his testimony to me. I want to share it with you now. It takes a couple of minutes to download and is about 13 minutes in length but please make sure you watch it in its entirety. This young man has bound to have had many hurts caused by this condition but is now a shining example of how anyone can experience the freedom and joy of Jesus Christ. It is my hope that you are equally inspired by this during your recovery journey!
Check it out and then let's talk about it. Comments will be open...
Check it out and then let's talk about it. Comments will be open...
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