God is moving in CR

As a dad, one of the greatest gifts I have is to visit with my kids after their day. Sometimes, there are upsetting things that took place in their day and of course as a dad, I want and need to hear those things as well. Hearing the good things in a day are fun and replenishing to hear as well. The reason for this is because they are family and I desire that conversation, that relationship with them. Last night at around 11:45pm was one of those experiences. My son got home from his college basketball game that he played in Joplin. I was not able to attend but my wife Carol went on our behalf. Unfortunately they ended up losing by 3 points in this game. While it was heartbreaking for him to lose this game that they felt they should have won easily, it was good for me as his dad to hear what he was experiencing play by play throughout the game. As his dad it was so neat to just hear what he was a feeling when this happened or how funny it was when that happened etc. The neat thing t...

As I wrote before, recently, I was challenged to spend time in the Book of Ephesians. So, this time as I read through it, I thought I would keep a journal of sorts on My Recovery Journey to Ephesus Eph 1:3-6 “How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.” I am sitting here reading these three verses stunned, awed, & humbled. Not even sure what I should write. I have no words that speak to what I feel inside. I want to break into singing but no song does it justice. This is one of those times that the Bible talks ...

What is your life like these days? Does it reflect one full of life and hope or is it reflecting more of hopelessness and a lifeless picture. Last year I had the chance to go to the country of Jordan with a small group of brothers and sisters to do a Life’s Healing Choices conference. While we were there we took some time to go visit the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is this body of water that is made up with so much salt that nothing can survive in it. It is exactly what it says, “dead”. A couple times we got the water in our eyes and the salt was so strong from the minerals that it burned our eyes. Amazingly it is true what they say; you cannot sink in the Dead Sea. We jumped in the water and immediately floated to the top. It was the most bizarre feeling to know you could not sink. Recently I was reading in Ezekiel 47, where a river is mentioned, also mentioned in Revelation 22, God refers to this river that is associated with the Garden of Eden in Chapter 2 river. When I think about the...

Sometimes the Holidays can be so tough. It can be a time when we feel like we are very alone and that while everyone else is enjoying family, we are by our self with no one to talk to. The enemy is so bad about preying on that weakness and the wound that may be exposed in us. The truth is though; none of us has to be alone. Even if we don’t have family at home, we do have family in recovery. Celebrate Recovery is a safe place to stand alongside others and walk thru tough seasons. Even if the Holidays are tough on us, we always have hope because we have a new family that God has placed in our life. We have hope! Max Lucado defined Hope as “a zany unpredictable dependence on God” Are you feeling like there is no hope? That is a lie my friend. You and I do have hope thru our faith, love and hope in Christ. Hope gives us that feeling that what is wanted in our life actually can be had and that it will turn out for the best in our life. Christ will knock our socks off as He surprises us...

Recently, I was challenged to spend time in the Book of Ephesians. So, this time as I read through it, I thought I would keep a journal of sorts on My Recovery Journey to Ephesus. I will be using The Message version of the Bible unless otherwise noted, I do not intend this to be a commentary on the book, just some notes as to what God is teaching me. Eph. 1:1 I, Paul, am under God's plan as an apostle, a special agent of Christ Jesus, writing to you faithful believers in Ephesus. Since coming into recovery, I have started to notice, how, Paul and the other writers of the Bible that God used introduced themselves. In Celebrate Recovery, we introduce ourselves by saying something like: “I am a grateful believer, who struggles with ______, my name is _____.” Our introductions are important in recovery, they are not just things we say, but they have a purpose for us. They keep us out of denial about our hurts, habits and hang-ups. By speaking them out and exposing them to the li...

Are you having a bad day? Does it feel like the world is coming down on you and you can hardly breathe? In these moments, the last thing I want to do is rejoice to the Lord. My mood may be down, or perhaps a tough situation is completely out of hand and out of my control. Or maybe my guilt or sorrow is overwhelming me and I just don’t have anything to rejoice about. I know when my mom was really sick several years ago, I had some rough days in watching her struggle so much with her illness. I still have days of struggles even after she has died and gone to be with the Lord. She has been gone 2 1/2 years and still last night one of those moments hit. I was going thru some old pictures and saw my sweet mom's picture. All the emotions came rushing back. Oh, how I miss my mom and felt sorrow in my soul for that. However, as I talk that out, I am reminded of so many blessed days with her and my heart is filled with so much joy knowing she is with the Lord in heaven now. In reading...

One time I was working from home in my office, on a summer day. The kids were out of school. I was preparing for something for the CR ministry and my daughter decided to come in and interrupt me. Now, you must know that there are rules when I work from home and one of those is that dad cannot be bugged when he is working from home. My daughter was pretty young at the time and she opened my office door and said "daddy!" My first reaction was to snap at her and tell her that she knew the rules on coming into my office while dad was working. She went back to her room. I alter realized that she was trying to show me a cute little picture she drew for me. Ouch! I know, terrible dad huh?!  Sometimes in my life I can develop tunnel vision and not even see what is right in front of me. You see, in my mind I had "ministry" on my mind and didn’t stop to realize that ministry was happening right in front of my eyes with my own daughter. I had to make amends to my sweet lit...

Relapse is a process rather than an event. A group of behaviors, attitudes, feelings, and thoughts develop first. Then these lead to an action – acting out the addiction. One may fall into relapse over a period of hours, days, weeks, and even months. Warning signals to alert you to a possible relapse include: • Feeling uneasy, afraid, and anxious about staying clean and sober. This begins to increase and serenity decreases. • Ignoring feelings of fear and anxiety and refusing to talk about them with others. • Having a low tolerance for frustration. • Becoming defiant, so that rebelliousness begins to replace what has been love and acceptance. Anger becomes one’s ruling emotion. • The “ISM” (I-Self-Me) attitude grows. Self-centered behavior begins to rule one’s attitudes and feelings. • Increasing dishonesty, whereby small lies begin to surface and deceptive thinking again takes over. • Increased isolation and withdrawal cha...