God is moving in CR

   By Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Rogers CR Training Coach, 12/8/21 Recently my wife and I got up early, and we saw the most amazing sunrise! Then, we went into town to get a cup of coffee together. While we were driving to the coffee shop, we witnessed the most beautifully colored trees! Did you know that there is no tree exactly the same? There may be trees that are similar in height or size, but each tree is uniquely made different. Just like you and me! Each of us are uniquely different and special. There is a Latin word, Imago Dei, that means “Image of God.” You and I were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and He does not make junk! What’s incredible is that while we are made in His image, we are each uniquely made special. Sometimes I can get discouraged as the enemy points out what I consider to be flaws in my body or character. For instance, I have a really loud voice. I have always had a loud voice, and it got me into trouble multiple...

 By Carl Kimbro. Fellowship Bible Church Devotional Team, 12/1/2021 When we are struggling, we think about almost nothing else other than deliverance from our “hurts, habits & hang ups.” Often, we just want to give up and give in to the struggles we are facing. Attending Celebrate Recovery, we see people serving God and making a difference in the lives of others. We are thankful for them in our lives but in contrast, some of us have convinced ourselves that God could never use us like that. God never lets a hurt go to waste. If we are willing to be used by Him, He will make our imperfections the very thing that leads others to freedom in Christ. For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the LORD, because they have called you an outcast: “It is Zion, for whom no one seeks after!”  Jeremiah 30:17 For several years myself and a friend named Don have been leading a version of Life’s Healing Choices along with a small Bible Study group at Retur...

 By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team, 11/17/21 Recently, the focus question for Friday night open share at Celebrate Recovery involved these words from the Serenity Prayer: “Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.” I spent many nights repeating those words over and over and asking God to let that be true in my chaotic, stressful life where peace didn’t seem to exist. When I think of the word “peace,” I think of a relaxed person in tune with both God and the world around them. A person at peace has a mind that doesn’t feel mentally fatigued and is free from worry and stress.  I view peace as something that comes from turning our troubles, worries, fears and cares over to God. Doing this isn’t always easy. For myself, I know the problem. It’s me not trusting Him to give me peace. It’s me trying to find peace on my own apart from God. 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast your anxiety on Him because He cares for you”.  Peter is explaining God...

  By Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Rogers CR Training Coach, 11/3/21 What do you think of when you hear the word fear? I immediately think of my childhood worries. I was scared of the dark and would sometimes lay in bed sweating in fear. I would worry that something was in my dark bedroom that might hurt me. I was also scared of the ocean because I saw the movie Jaws when I was 8 and was really afraid that a shark might eat me if I was to go into the ocean. I remember being scared of a bully in my neighborhood who would get physical if you didn’t do what he said.   The word fear seems to equate to being scared or really worried about something. So, when the Bible says that I should Fear the Lord, I immediately equate that to being scared of God.   The Bible says in Proverbs 1:7, “ The fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge .” That’s a huge claim and emphasizes the importance of fearing God.  Proverbs 14:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is a ...

 By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team, 10/27/21 You probably have sat in Celebrate Recovery on a Friday night and heard a message  that touched you spiritually. You might have been impressed with the way a person  delivered the message. Maybe you thought: that was awesome, but I could never be  used like that. I could never stand up and talk from the stage because I would drop  dead from fright! You might be right. Maybe that’s not something you can do. But here is  the good news: you don’t have too. God may be calling you to be used in a different  way, one you are comfortable with, or one you haven’t even thought of yet.  Principle 8:  “Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and my words.” Each of us has something to offer. Our hurts, habits, and hang ups have given us unique experiences that God can use to be a witness to others. When our son went to prison...

By Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Rogers CR Training Coach, 10/13/21 I’m living through a pretty good season of life right now. However, that wasn’t always the case. I recently was thinking back on a time that wasn’t so good. In December of 2008 things were not going well for my business and I felt very alone. Have you ever felt alone even though there were people all around you? I’ve noticed that when I’m going through trials the enemy comes in with the lie that I’m the only one who is experiencing hardship and that I am on my own. This simply is not true.  So, there I was sitting at my office desk, preparing to leave work and head down to Texas with my family for Christmas with the in-laws. I was feeling depressed because my wife and I had recently went to our tax guy and he had informed us that we owed more taxes than we had the money to pay. This wasn’t a small amount of money and I had no idea how we were going to pay our taxes. Our national economy was falling quickly into a rec...

 By Sarah Bryant, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team, 10/7/21 I don’t know about you but with all the craziness that’s been going on in the world the last year or so I can get worn down, and it can be hard to exemplify the fruit of the Spirit some days in the little things.  I have to remind myself that it’s not the “fruits” of the Spirit – plural, where I can just pick one each day.  Hold the door for an elderly lady (goodness), then tailgate someone on the interstate who is driving too slow (neither kindness nor patience). No, it’s the “fruit” of the Spirit – singular. One fruit.  I like to think of it like a pomegranate, one fruit with a lot of seeds. I actually read a commentary the other day that said based on the original Greek it could actually be read with a colon after “love.” “But the fruit of the Spirit is love: joy, peace, patience…” Love being the fruit and the other eight items being the seeds. It’s a whole package wrapped up in ...

By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team writer, 9/29/21 Sometimes I wake up at night haunted by my past. The people I have hurt walk in my dreams single file in what seems like an unending parade. Past regrets flash before my eyes. Fear resurfaces and brings along its friend failure. Old habits and addictive sins call to me in an attempt to lure me back. They reach out with the promise that this time it will be better…this time I will find relief in my coping mechanisms…this time I can find true happiness in my addictive behaviors…this time I can believe the lies they tell me and everything will be alright.  My “night haunts” usually occur when I am struggling in life, when work is stressful, family relationships are hard, friends seem distant. When I am weakest they surface in my dreams, tempting me to return to my sinful past and destroy my walk with Jesus. My night haunts also remind me that I need God. I can’t handle the disappointments in lif...

 By Kareena Holloway, Women's Encouragement Coach at CR Fellowship Bible Church 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 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 the l...

By Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Rogers CR Training Coach, 9/16/21 One day I was walking through my kitchen and  there were some muffins cooling on the kitchen  countertop. They smelled incredible and I picked  one up and took a bite. It was horrible! I can’t  remember if my wife intentionally left out the  sugar trying to make a healthy muffin or just  forgot an ingredient, but it did not taste like I  thought it was going to taste. The sweet smelling  muffin was a deception and totally destroyed my expectations. Have you ever expected something to be really good but when it happened it just didn’t meet expectations?  This has happened to me a lot as I have lived my life. I put a high expectations on something and it just doesn’t deliver. It could be a house, a car, a family meeting that should’ve gone well, but didn’t or it could be that I thought something would make me happy and whatever it was didn’t.  In Real...

By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team writer, 9/8/21 When I first began to attend Celebrate Recovery, I went with my son. I did not believe I needed it because I did not have a problem. Each week I saw the miracle of recovery lived out before my eyes. In my “detached” point of view, I always got the impression that you attend CR and open share, and you stayed sober as a result. But when I admitted my own addiction, I found out quickly that this wasn’t even close to the truth.  My first two weeks after picking up a blue chip were awesome. I stayed close to God and stayed away from my problems. It seemed that the “chip” was the answer. Week 3 however was not so good. I struggled with and gave in to temptation. Suddenly, recovery wasn’t so easy! The harder I tried, the worse it got. It seemed like failure was going to be the winner in this fight.   However, I did not give up!   Fortunately, I sought advice with one of the leaders and li...

  By Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Rogers CR Training Coach, 9/1/21 Where do you get your “News?” I remember growing up and my mom and dad watching the news at 10:00 pm.  I have never really watched the nightly news, but now I get the news pumped right to my cell phone.  It’s always alerting me of stuff that’s going on locally and around the world.  I have noticed that very rarely is the news positive.  For some reason it almost always has a negative story to tell me.  Maybe it’s because network ratings are higher with negative news than positive news. Maybe it’s because there is more negative news than positive news, but I doubt it. I think it’s because the enemy wants to get into my mind and change the way I think.  During the pandemic my wife and I started watching more news.  Then, I started noticing my mind thinking about the negative news stories that I watched and listened to. I didn’t like where it took my mind.   How about you? Doe...

By Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Rogers CR Training Coach, 8/4/21 Have you ever been sitting with a friend or family member, and they are staring off in the distance? You say, “What are you thinking?” Thoughts are interesting. Sometimes thoughts can randomly come in and out of my mind, and then other times I can’t quit thinking about something. Especially if there is a major event going on in my life. I can sometimes obsess about whatever that big event is. So, let me ask you a question. What are you thinking about? Is there anything dominating your  thoughts? Work? A relationship? Your children? An event that’s happened in your life? Maybe, you have been keeping a secret that only you know, and it’s become a burden. Take a minute and do a self-check, and determine if your thoughts have been positive or negative? I recently read that John Hopkins Medical School found that 70% of disease is psychosomatic. This is NOT to say that these diseases aren’t real...

  By Eric Hutchinson, Fellowship Rogers CR Training Coach, 7/28/21 Have you ever forgotten your passcode to your  computer, phone, locker, safe, social media  website or maybe something really important like  an online banking account? It’s really frustrating  and sometimes a little scary. I have wasted much  time trying to figure out my passcode, and  sometimes I just have to reset it and then I have to  remember it all over again. Isn’t it awesome to  know that we don’t have to remember some kind  of passcode to gain access to our Higher Power  Jesus Christ? Once we have Jesus Christ living in our lives, we don’t have to remember a passcode to  have access to the greatest power in the universe? Romans 8:38-39 says, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can s...

By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team, 7/14/21 Fear is a strong motivator for me. There are times when it’s a positive motivator that keeps me from doing something dangerous. But it has also caused me to do the wrong thing, like lie to hide sin. Or believe that I have to follow the crowd to avoid looking bad, even if it’s wrong or immoral! Worse yet, fear has often caused me to try to fix myself instead of turning it over to God. My fears can take many forms: · Fear of failure as a father to my adopted granddaughters. · Fear of losing my job. · Fear of people seeing me as I really am. There are so many fears in my life, I can’t fit them here! If I am honest, most of my fears are unfounded. I often find I worried for nothing because my fears never came to life. But even when my fears turn out to be real, I still struggle because I often don’t put my trust in God. I try to fix it myself. I don’t include God in prayer, or ask my accountability partners...