God is moving in CR

By: Carol Holmstrom, Celebrate Recovery National Assimilation Coach, Fellowship NWA Celebrate Recovery Ministry Staff 5/30/2018 Service With A Smile “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Galatians  5:13  (ESV) Don’t you just love it when you need just a spark of motivation, encouragement, or conviction - and then God steps in and delivers?  One Friday night at Celebrate Recovery, I was once again struck over the simplicity of gratitude. I had just walked out of the worship center after a difficult conversation with a precious young woman who was struggling. I saw 2 guys feverishly wiping down tables. It was about  9:45pm. ..and those 2 guys, in particular, had gotten there at  3:00pm  to help get the meal ready for Celebrate Recovery that night. A few minutes later, one of those guys said to me,  “Ok, just tell me wha

By Katie Treadway, Fellowship Bible Church, CR Devotional Team, 5/23/2018 What a beautiful day the Lord has made! Between the rain and the sunshine, our grass is growing so much and it’s been kind of difficult to keep up with keeping it trimmed. But an interesting thing has been happening around our house when it comes time to mow. Our house is backed up to a cattle field where cows graze. We had our builder give us a 4 ft fence (instead of the standard 6 ft) so that we could get a better view of the cows and the field. It’s brought with it an unexpected bonus! When we mow our yard, Justin will throw the grass clippings behind the fence. I use to scorn him for this! “What if that creates mold?!” “What if that attracts BUGS!?” “Justin…. You KNOW those clippings will be a safe haven for snakes now.” Unlike Justin’s natural tendency to just go with the flow (flow = whatever the wife says), he, for whatever reason, didn’t listen, and it’s brought about an interesting situation. Some

By: Kareena Holloway, Fellowship Bible Church NWA, Celebrate Recovery, Women's Encourager Coach 5/16/18 Do cloudy, dismal skies get you feeling kind of cloudy and dismal yourself?  I can relate!  I admit, sometimes I forget  to look beyond the clouds and to remember that the most beautiful blue skies are right on the other side.  I catch myself forgetting that very fact.  I focus on what's right in front of me, or what the sky looks like, and I forget.  If I let it go too long, I start wanting to isolate, and I feel down.   How about those real-life  storms ? There are bound to be those days where you can't seem to lift your face because there is so much going on in your own life or the life of a loved one. In these times we need to reach out for prayer so that we remember God's truths. This is why God's Word is so vital to yours and my health.  His truths and promises keep us on track,  inspire us to reach out to like-minded people for prayer, and enco

By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church CR Devotional team member 5/9/2018 As it happens so often in our lives, we are moving along in a close relationship with God, serving Him, praising Him, living for Him. Things seem so good, and then suddenly it happens. We may relapse, we may stumble in our walk, we may get caught up in circumstances around us and fall flat on our face. We may tell ourselves “this has happened too many times. I just can’t do this anymore. It’s impossible for me to get past my hurts, habits, and hang-ups. They own me now and they always will.” Doubt creeps in and we wonder if we are really a child of God. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. We all go through this. In our shame, failure can seem like the end, but is it? The psalmist wrote in Psalm 73:26; “ My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever .” We don’t have to fear failure because failure is NEVER final. God is our strength, not us. God will

By Susan Nichols, Fellowship Bible Church CR Devotional team member 5/2/2018 Have you ever heard of the "5 W’s & 1 H—Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?"  I think it was my 7th grade English teacher who taught that asking these questions when writing helps make sure the reader gets all the important details.  Well, I love to have all the details, so somewhere along the line, I came up with my own 5 W’s and 1 H that I’d ask God.  They went something like this: “ Who  is going to help me?” “ What  do you plan to do about this, God?”  “Lord,  when  will you deliver me from  (fill in the blank) ,” “ Where  are you taking me, Lord?” “Lord,  why  are you making me go through this?” “ How  am I going to fix this?” I asked these questions because I wanted to be in charge of my own life.  I knew what I wanted my life to look like and didn’t want to be patient with God.  However, t he harder I tried to control my life, the faster it spun  out  of contro