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...

Slow Down

In recent years, I’ve come to learn the value of a good old dictionary. For in its pages are found a king’s ransom worth of knowledge.

In Prov. 19:2 we read “Also it’s not good for a person to be without knowledge. And he who hurries his footsteps errs.” The knowledge we are to learn here is the negative consequences of moving or acting in haste. I found it very interesting that the word hurricane (a windstorm of intense severity) precedes the word hurry and the word hurt follows right after it in the dictionary (just a coincidence?)

How many times has our impatience spirit turned a delicate situation into a tropical cyclone leaving behind a host of hurt (injured, damaged, grieved, distressed, and wounded) people!

Its here that one’s inability to wait causes us to err (go astray; to be mistaken and to sin.) Isn’t a shame, when all the dust finally settles to find out, that it was all just a big misunderstanding? If we would of just slowed down a-bit and waited patiently. You see, it’s only in that state of being, that we can see the whole picture, and find a peaceful solution.

James 1:19 “This you know, my beloved, brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.”

My friends, if we must – must open up our big mouths, let us direct our words in manner recommended in Phillippians 4: 6, 7 “Be anxious for NOTHING, but in EVERTHING by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the PEACE Of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

I believe with all my heart that if we can muster up the courage to apply this solution, we will hear the voice of the Master saying to the storm, “Peace be still.”



Your friend always in the Journey



Temecula, Ca.

Worshipping Around the World

Generally, dance and choreography are not commonly used within the Southern Baptist tradition. Although I agree while some of this dancing bit at times is somewhat corny, sometimes it's absolutely beautiful and it helps us worship in a totally different sense.

Below is a dance by a ministry from S. Korea called "Father's Love: Body Worship Dance." It's really neat to see how other cultures worship and the song that they chose is a song that we will soon be doing at CR.

Remember, worship is a huge part of Celebrate Recovery. Come see us on Wednesday evenings and truly worship the one, living Higher Power - Jesus Christ- with us!

P.S. Just ignore the first corny 18 seconds of the video :)

Am I really insane?

I remember asking myself this the first time that I read Step 2. It states that:

"We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

Now I've been told that many people struggle with the first step because they have trouble admitting that they are powerless. This was not the case for me as I knew straight from the get go that I was failing miserably at my own "recovery," but I really struggled with this second step for a while. It turns out that I had the wrong definition of the word "sanity" reeling through my head.

Like you, I thought that insanity simply meant crazy....as in he-needs-to-be-in-a-padded-room crazy. But that is not what it implies at all in CR. Simply put, insanity is defined as "doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result each time." It reminds me of geometry homework. Now...geometry was my least favorite, most hated and most horrid class during my high school tenure. To this day I still want to throw up when I hear of complex word problems involving two trains going to a station....LOL. Anyway, I remember struggling with many problems at home and I would spend long periods of time on one problem. I could never get the answer though because every time I tried to tackle the problem, I would do it the same, wrong way that I had done before. Before I knew it, my wrong way of thinking had become habitual in the way that I tackled geometry and it made for a really difficult semester for me. So this is a baby example, but try to apply this definition of insanity to your own life. How many times have you gotten high expecting a different result. Or how many times have you looked at an inappropriate website just knowing that this would be the last time? Or...how many times have you gone back into that abusive relationship thinking that this time it would be different?

Sanity, on the other hand, is a "wholeness of mind; making decisions based on the truth." Going back to math hell...if I had sought truth from my instructor by going to tutoring then I would have broken my insane habits and would have been able to make better, whole decisions about my homework. As believers, we are armed with truth at every angle. We have God's Word that helps us make decisions about everything...including our recovery. We have the Holy Spirit that lives within us, guiding us every step of the way if we will just let him. We have each other - sponsors, accountability partners and fellow recoverers that can help us have a wholeness of mind.

Remember that the first step to dealing with your insanity is believing....to earnestly believe that God exists, that you matter to Him, and that He has the power to help you recover. Without this foundational principle, your recovery isn't going to go anywhere. You'll get frustrated with it, and yourself and before you know it, you'll be doing the same exact things that you were doing before hoping that this time will be different. Move from chaos into hope...believe in God and all that He promises to do.

Hope to see you on Wednesday.

Dealing with Rain...

Here is a beautiful, song that deals with God's timing in our lives. If you enjoy Southern Gospel music then you're especially going to love this song!

Here's to better things....

Have you ever thought about "hope" and its meaning. The dictionary defines hope as "a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen." I personally think that hope - and the action of hoping - is a beautiful thing. Unfortunately though, it's one of those buzzwords that everyone likes to throw around so much that it tends to lose its significance in our daily lives.

Principle 2 is called the Hope Principle in our CR literature. It says this:
Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recovery."

Much like our recovery, having hope is not just something that happens to us; rather, it is something that grows and develops as we put effort into it. As always, the founder of CR, Pastor John Baker has come up with an acrostic for HOPE. Usually I find these rather irritating after awhile but this one is short and extremely applicable (they're all applicable by the way...).

H - Higher Power
Alright guys, this is what separates CR from other addiction programs. We do not believe in an ambiguous higher power that we cannot name or experience and we certainly don't believe that recovery happens on our own. We believe in the one, true higher power- Jesus Christ - the ever-living, resurrected Son of God who came to save each of us.

O - Openness to Change
This is hard for many people because we tend to want to stick to our own ways of doing things....EVEN WHEN WE KNOW THEY'RE WRONG! It's the whole "dog returning to eat its vomit" example. We must be open to a new way of doing things in order to experience the freedom of true recovery. Step 2 says that "We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

"We came..." We took the first step when we attended our first recovery meeting.
"We came to..." We stopped denying our hurts, habits and hang-ups.
"We came to believe..." We started to believe and receive God's power to help us recover.

P - Power to Change
It's not enough to be open to change, we must be empowered to change. As was stated earlier: that empowerment does not come from us or anything on this earth...it comes from God Himself. Hope draws its power from a deep trust in God. We are able to hope because we trust that what God says He will do, that He will actually do. God has told us that through His Son that we 1.) have the ability to become new creations, 2.) that we have the ability to directly approach the throne of God with confidence, 3.) that He will never abandon us and 4.) that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength....including kicking your addictions!

E - Expect to Change
You have got to make a mental decision to expect change to happen. Our cognitive processes are pretty powerful and actually have a good bit of influence in how we behave. We must expect that we are changing even if we can't see it happening. Remember, change is not an overnight process for us. Even though our salvation is instantaneous, it still takes us a while before we can catch up to it...sometimes a lifetime even. I want you to know that that's okay! God is pleased with us on a daily basis if we put our faith, hope and actions in His care. Remember, we're not the ones that are responsible for healing ourselves...God is. We are only responsible for contributing where necessary.

I hope that you will join us on Wednesday evening!
Until next time...

Plug into the Power Source!!!

I wish you guys could've seen my youth camp t-shirt back in the early 90's. It was black with neon yellow and green letters that said Plug into the Power Source!!! Behind it were these bright blue and aqua-ish lightening bolts. It was something to behold! I can't even find it in a Google search. Looking back on that time period....I can't believe I ever wore that shirt! Just like I can't believe that I still find myself thinking that I am in complete control and have power over my harmful, addictive tendencies.

Two weeks ago we learned that in order to begin our recovery process, we had to stop denying that there was a problem. This week, we will still be looking at Step 1 as we confront the fact that we are powerless.

We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. - Romans 7:18.

Ummmm....so shouldn't it be comforting that super-apostle Paul admitted that even he was powerless over his own harmful behavior?!? This is the Paul - as in the Paul, who met Jesus on the road Paul. He understood that he alone could not be the good, whole person that God wanted him to be. If it were left up to just him then he'd still be missing the puck (I love ice hockey...).

Come on and say it with me...you'll feel better as you come to realize your own powerlessness. Altogether now:

I admit that I am powerless over my addiction(s) and compulsive behavior(s). My life has become unmanageable.

There...don't you feel somewhat better already just admitting this?

"Before we admitted we were powerless, we tried to escape and hide from our hurts, habits and hang-ups by getting involved in unhealthy relationships, by abusing drugs such as alcohol, by eating or not eating, and so forth. Trying to escape pain drains us of precious energy. When we take this first step, however, God opens true escape routes to show His power and grace. 'For the light is capable of showing up everything for what it really is. It is possible for the light to tur the thing it shines upon into light also' (Ephesians 5:13-14)." - John Baker

So...let's all truly plug into the Power Source. He can take over and accomplish things where we cannot even begin to go. See you all on Wednesday!