God is moving in CR

By Carol Holmstrom, Fellowship Bible Church, Celebrate Recovery , December 18, 2019 A little over 27 years ago, we were anticipating the birth of our first child. It was a difficult pregnancy and there were many concerns that he would be born  prematurely. Even though he was born a little before his due date, I remember being so thankful that the timing of his birth was perfect. Looking back, the months we waited for the birth of our son were short, but at that time, it seemed like an eternity. I can't imagine the anticipation of Elizabeth and Zechariah awaiting the miraculous birth of their son, John. They knew that he would  " be called a prophet of the Most High, for you (John) will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him."  ( Luke 1:76 ). As a parent, I have had many days of anticipating what my children would become. How incredible it must have been for Elizabeth and Zechariah to know that their son was set apart ...

By Kareena Holloway, Fellowship Bible Church, Rogers, Celebrate Recovery Women's Encouragement Coach, 12/11/19 One of the best things I love about my routine of reading Bible devotionals is that it sets my heart back right with Christ. I ask myself, and encourage you to ask yourself : "How's my heart today?" At Celebrate Recovery, we encourage one another to do a H.E.A.R.T Check on a routine basis. That is to ask, am I: H urting E xha usted A ngry R esentful T ense This is not meant as a trigger point, but rather, an opportunity to process!   As we go through these, we can take the necessary time to give it over to God, to process through what’s really happening so that it doesn’t fester like an infected wound. We don't have to carry it all. As Jesus said,   “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your sou...

By Carl Kimbrow, Fellowship Bible Church Rogers Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team writer, 12/4/19 “I’m a grateful believer in Jesus Christ.” I have introduced myself in meetings with these words so often that I say them without even thinking. I have so much to be thankful for, but I don’t always remember that.  The holiday season brings unpleasant memories and reminds me that the life Cheryl and I dreamed of together isn’t going to happen. It was seven years ago in November 2012 that our son went to prison for the first time. That Christmas we tried to hide our sorrow and keep the girls happy while their mom was passed out in the next room. Then in January 2013 girls’ mom left for work and never came back. A lot has happened since then. We have adopted the girls and moved on. But even after seven years the pain is still there. I often grieve that Cheryl and I can’t enjoy the ‘empty nester’s’ life we desire. In my pain and anger I sometimes lack an attitude of gratitud...

By  Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Bible Church Rogers,  Celebrate Recovery Training Coach 11/27/19 I think it is interesting that social media centers around people liking people and the value our culture places on the “thumbs up” icon. When I take a picture and post it on social media, I eagerly await the notification of likes that I will hopefully receive. We all want to be liked, don’t we? Many want to be liked so much that it becomes unhealthy for them –we call that codependency. Whether I am codependent or not there is one person who always likes me. Now, you may be thinking that I am going to say my wife, mom, or a really close friend. However, even those people don’t always like me. They love me, but sometimes they don’t like me. God, on the other hand, not only loves me, He likes me. Look at the verse below and you can almost see the thumbs up icon. “You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say...

By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church, Rogers, Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team 11/20/19 As Christians and fellow strugglers, we often say we are “there for each other”.  My wife (Cheryl) and I experienced the true the meaning of “being there for each other” at a dark time in our lives, and we want to share a small part of our story. In November 2012 on our son’s birthday, he and his wife had another in a series of drunken fights. After almost two years of sobriety, they had been sliding back into their addiction. That night in 2012 it came to a head. Our son went to prison, and his wife and his girls moved in with us. Life as we knew it was about to change forever. The next two months were tense. The girls mom was distant from the girls and would disappear for two – three days at a time. In January 2013 she went to work and never came back. In our 50’s and were left with an 18-month-old and a 31/2-year-old to raise. With our son in prison and their mom lost in ...

Written by Jenni Moon,  Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team, 11/13/19 I've always wanted to be good enough. That feeling of inadequacy led me through the depths of chemical dependency, sexual addiction, and self-reliance. I felt that nothing ever went my way. My life was a tragedy, and not a tragic comedy either.  Thanks to God working through Celebrate Recovery, my life is no longer a tragedy, however, tragedies do still happen. Recently, I moved into a new home. It was a leap of faith that I could afford it. Twenty-six days later I stepped off the curb on my way to a job I loved and received three avulsion fractures in my right ankle. As a CNA, I knew my career was through. Although it took a month of denial before I reached that conclusion, I did not have to choose to use mind altering substances or sex to numb the pain; physically or mentally.  Through it all, God has been there. Deuteronomy 31:6b states that God never leaves nor f...

By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church, Rogers, Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team 11/6/19 “I keep fighting voices in my head that say I’m not enough. Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up. Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low. Remind me once again who I am because I need to know.” Lyrics to You Say by Lauren Daigle. Most of us at some point have felt the sting of failure due to a reoccurrence of our hurts, habits and hang ups. For me, failure brought doubt that I would never overcome my problems. Failure caused me to hate the person I thought I was. I looked in the mirror and saw failure and defeat. I didn’t love myself. I had reached the point of giving up. The temptation to isolate and give in to my destructive behavior was strong. God couldn’t love a failure like me . Or could He? “ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,  nor angels nor principalities nor powers,  nor things present or things to come, ...

By Kareena Holloway, Fellowship Bible Church Rogers Celebrate Recovery Ministry TEAM Women's Encourager Coach, 10/30/2019 When I started coming to Celebrate Recovery over nine years ago, I was desperate to change, but I didn’t know how.   On my own will, I tried to do the right thing, but I still ended up doing the wrong thing again due to a lifetime of unhealed hurts, habits, and hang-ups.   God’s awesome living Word has a scripture that explains this perfectly: 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell 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 7:15-18 Upon coming to CR the first time, I learned about that same scripture in Step 1 of the 12 Steps ...

By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church, Rogers, Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team 10/23/19 In November 2012 our lives changed forever. Our son went to prison, and his wife and kids moved in with us. His wife was struggling with addiction and not caring for the two girls. She was failing at work and would sometimes disappear for days at a time. Our son was also calling and threatening to harm himself over all that had happened. It was a bad situation and about to get worse. In January 2013 the girls’ mom left for work and never came back. We suddenly found ourselves raising a three-and-a-half-year-old and an 18-month-old. The girls didn’t understand what was happening. And frankly, neither did we. It seemed that no one understood what we were going through, and we felt very much alone. I buried myself in unhealthy activities to cope, and life got worse. Just when it seemed hopeless, God sent Vicky and Wayne into our lives. Never have two people been so welcome. It was ...

By Kareena Holloway, Fellowship Bible Church, Rogers, Celebrate Recovery TEAM Women's Encourager Coach, 10/16/19 In the first weeks into my recovery, I was having one of many gut-wrenching conversations which needed to be had with my husband. Seeing clearly how I had hurt my family was so much to bear and I found myself in one of a series of anxiety attacks. This wasn't something where I could just say "I'm sorry" and move on with life. I had broken TRUST in my marriage. My panic came from the idea and thought that I had to figure this out.. I had to come up with some way in which I could rebuild who I was. All I could see then was the enemy closing in on all sides. I didn't know what to do. I was afraid, and more than anything, I just wanted to wake up from this very, very bad dream.  However, that is not what God wanted. He wanted me to turn everything over to HIM .  Right then and there, I started to pray to God to help me through.  I took a dee...

By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church, Rogers, Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team 10/9/19 Victory and surrender . Two words that are as different from each other as day is from night. Battling our hurts habits and hang ups on our own is exhausting, and often leads to us surrendering to our old habits. Our human nature is to “go it alone” when we face struggles. For me, pride and fear of rejection stopped me from asking God for help. My own rationale went something like this: “Surely God won’t help me, since I got myself into this mess. I guess I have to get myself out of it too. I have messed up so much that He must be completely disappointed in me. He’s heard all my promises and seen them broken so many times, He can’t possibly forgive me anymore. God’s waiting for me to fix myself before He will even listen to my prayers again.” I had surrendered, but not in victory. I had surrendered in defeat to my sin. It seemed so hopeless and the pain so deep, that I could neve...

Written by Jenni Moon, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team, 10/2/19 As Christians we are taught that faith as small as a mustard seed is all that is necessary for God to move mountains on our behalf. As humans we can often feel that we require faith as large as an ocean in order to survive our hardest days. Our questions, 'Why, God?", "Where are you, God?", "What have I done to deserve this, God?" are futile because the answer is as simple as the mustard seed.  "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1 NIV)  If our lives were never met with discomfort and trials, what reason would we have to turn to our creator for help? Why would we praise Him? Why would we worship and draw near to Him?  A s a parent we would never wish that our children endure pain. We are delighted in watching them play, explore, learn, and grow just as our Heavenly Father delights in...

Written by Dianna Skief, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team, 9/25/19 I was searching on the internet one morning for some nice GIF’s to include in a text to say “I love you” to a special someone in my life. I was surprised and horrified when some of the images that came up were very inappropriate and of explicit sexual content. I wanted to stop looking for that good, special image because what I had to wade through to find it was so dirty and made me feel dirty too! Quickly I decided it was not worth continuing the search on the internet and turned it off. This experience made me think of how God is willing to go trudging through the muck of this world to come looking for us, His treasures. He doesn’t choose to turn away, even if He finds us covered in dirt and sludge from this fallen world. He searches, and digs, until He finds what He knows is precious. Then He lifts us up and begins to slowly and carefully remove the grime from our hearts and lives...

By Sarah Bryant, Fellowship Bible Church, Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team 9/18/19 The God of glory thunders. The voice of the LORD is powerful and majestic. It breaks the cedars. It hews out flames of fire. It shakes the wilderness. It makes the deer to calve and strips the forests bare. (Psalm 29) It is mighty (Psalm 68). It’s like the sound of many waters (Ezekiel 43). It comes in a whirlwind (Job 38), from the midst of a fire (Exodus 3). It comes on the mountain tops (Exodus 19). It comes in a… fortune cookie ? OK, I don’t have a scriptural reference for that one…but today, for me, I believe it did. A few years back I’d struggled with some suicidal thinking. I seriously doubted my worth and value. I was hopeless, and exhausted. But God saw me through that in an amazing way through CR and therapy. This past year, however, has been a little rough, and recently some of these worthless and hopeless feelings have started to rear their ugly head again as I find myself working...

By Kareena Holloway, Fellowship Bible Church Rogers Celebrate Recovery Ministry TEAM Women's Encourager Coach 9/11/2019 I’ve got a big question for you.   Here it is:    Have you ever felt like you were heading towards an unknown destination with an unknown certainty?    WOW, how’s that for a starter!? A couple weeks ago, my husband and I got the joy of serving in the band for the 4 th and 5 th graders of Fellowship Bible Church, Mosaic.   We always stick around for the lesson, so I was really excited when I saw the lesson would be taught by my good friend Laura’s son, Logan.   I didn’t yet know what the lesson would be about, but once he started, I was drawn in!   As Logan taught, he talked about how God wanted Abram to pack up all of his belongings, leave everything he knew, including some of his family, and travel to an unknown destination to face an unknown certainty.   God made some amazing promises to Abram! He said, ...

By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church, Rogers, Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team 9/4/19 “Teach my song to rise to you, when temptation comes my way. When I cannot stand I’ll fall on you, Jesus you’re my hope and stay.” (Lord I Need You by Matt Maher) “So if you think you’re standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall”. No matter how well things are going, temptation can be waiting to trip us up and send us back to the very thing that we have sought so desperately to escape. Everyone faces temptation, and giving in to that temptation can result when we let our guard down. There are two common reasons we let our guard down and risk relapse. Time & Distance from our hurts/habits/hang-ups Many years of recovery isn’t a guarantee of continued sobriety. Yes, it makes it easier to resist the temptation, but it can also be the cause of a relapse as well. The longer we have freedom from our sins, the easier it is to think we have it beat. Satan knows this too! Paul ...

By: Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Bible Church NWA, Celebrate Recovery, TEAM Training Coach 8/28/19 My son is currently in Basic Training with the Army division of our Military.  He has been gone for several weeks now, and every now and then he sends us a letter.  It’s funny how excited my wife and I get when we see that letter from him in our mailbox.  It’s like Christmas!  If my wife checks the mailbox earlier in the day, she opens the letter before I get home because she can’t wait to see and read the words written from our son.  I come home and ask, “did we get anything in the mail?”  The words we read on that paper are surreal and are a lifeline to us as this is our only form of communication with our son for now.  I was reading the passage below in Corinthians recently and was impacted by Paul’s words.  He says, “ Clearly you are a letter from Christ …”  What an incredible metaphor!  You and I are letters from Christ to oth...