God is moving in CR

By Rodney Holmstrom Celebrate Recovery National Director West,  Fellowship NWA Celebrate Recovery Ministry Leader “ Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit .”  Psalm 32:2 NIV When I read these  first 5 verses of chapter 32 of Psalms , I am reminded of why  Celebrate   Recovery  is so effective.  Celebrate   Recovery , by its very nature, helps me to understand that being real, honest and authentic makes for a much better life versus being deceitful, dishonest and hiding our stuff. Verse 3  gives a pretty graphic description of what life can be like when we hide who we are and what is really going on. “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped  as in the heat of summer.” Let’s see, which way do I want to go today? Do I want to go to a place where my bones are wasting away, where I f

By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church Devotional Team, 8/22/2018 In my recovery, I have had moments of frustration and sin where it feels like recovery is impossible. Sin keeps rearing its ugly head. No matter what “I do” things don’t go well.  The frustration turns to sorrow and feeling sorry for myself.  It’s at that point that I want to wallow in my sorrow and isolate myself from others.  Of all the struggles I experience in recovery, sorrow and sadness are usually the hardest to deal with. This black cloud drops like a curtain and covers me up. All I want to do is hide until the feeling goes away. God created us with emotions, and sorrow is one of them. But God also created other emotions like joy and peace. In our moments of sorrow, joy and peace seem out of reach. However, God provides a solution as well. When sorrow invades our lives, God is there as our comforter. Matthew 5:4 says “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” .   The mourning here is

By LaDwana Whittenberg, Fellowship Bible Church TEAM Training Coach, Devotional Team 8/15/18 This past week while I was power washing God started talking to me. Part of the house, just looking at it, it looked fine and didn’t need washing, but as soon as it was hit with the water it shed a whole new light on the matter. It was amazing the difference. As we moved around the house my step dad said, “we don’t need to worry about this section because it was just added on last year, so it shouldn’t need it,” He was right, that it wasn’t that bad, but there was a difference. If I left it alone and didn’t clean it, then by next year it would be worse and take more time to clean. So, if I deal with stuff as it comes up and not stuff it or deny it and pretend it isn’t there, then I can process through and deal with things more quickly than if I let it build up. “ You can’t whitewash your  sin s and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them .”  (Proverbs 28:1

By Kareena Holloway, Fellowship Bible Church NWA Celebrate Recovery TEAM Women's Encourager Coach, Devotional team 8/8/2018 As someone who has struggled with Love and Relationship Addiction  as well as Codependency   for years,  the lines can sometimes become blurry when looking for signs that I am loved.  I learned early on in life to do and say what I needed to in order to win the affections of those around me.  I was a chameleon, changing who I was in order to feel loved and accepted.  I see clearly now that for all of those years, what I really was doing was controlling and manipulating everyone around me so that  I  didn't have to feel the sting of rejection or abandonment from anyone.  I just wanted to feel loved, accepted and adored, so that was how I coped. Over the eight years  that  I've been at Celebrate Recovery,  God has helped me to learn three very important  truths  which I can use as tools in my recovery toolbox whenever the enemy whispers th

By: Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Bible Church NWA Celebrate Recovery Men's Encourager Coach, Devotional Team,  8/1/18 Our enemy works so hard to distract us and keep our minds occupied with anything other than our God and his plan for our life.  The media, trends and advertising, secular philosophy, and materialism are all examples of distractions that Satan will put before us.  In my own struggle against pornography, the mind is where the real battle takes place.  I heard the following quote earlier today and I have been chewing on it:  “Our lives move in the direction of our strongest thought.” – Craig Roeschel What do you think about?  Are there reoccurring thoughts in your mind?  What do you dwell on?  I’m not talking about work-related thoughts.  What do your thoughts move toward when it is not occupied by work?  My sponsor told me very early in my recovery that God was going to re-wire my mind if I let him.  You know what?  He was exactly right!  My thoughts used t