God is moving in CR

  By Joe Holloway, Encourager Coach at The Landing, Celebrate Recovery, Fellowship Bible Church, Rogers  4/28/21 There is a popular parable in Mark chapter 4 about the sower:  “ Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty-fold and sixty-fold and a hundred-fold .”  As with most passages in the Bible, there is a lot packed into that little space! In my life, I was blessed that many people came to sow seeds. Early on in my life, some of those  seeds  clearly "fell along...

By Brookelynn Harper, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team, 4/21/21 One of the only things I can remember being taught in P.E. was how to fall. There are safe ways to fall, and dangerous ways to fall. In professional sports, athletes fall down all the time, but they twist their bodies so that the fall doesn’t hurt them. I never got the hang of it though. I’ve twisted my ankle just by taking the wrong step down a slope. There are also ways to be falling emotionally and spiritually. For me, it often comes when I feel like something is out of control. A plan doesn’t go the way I was hoping, or I am about to do something I’ve never done before. Maybe it’s just that I’m flat-out tired, or I’m re-running a conversation with someone that went poorly. Whatever the circumstance, the result is that I feel like I’m falling. I can never be prepared enough to avoid the feeling of falling. I can, however, decide how I land. Sometimes I try to brace myself. I do everything tha...

By Kareena Holloway, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery TEAM Encourager Coach, 4/14/21 Have you ever felt stuck? That you are somehow defined by your past? Perhaps you’ve done things that you just feet that you can’t overcome. Do you feel like you "just can't win", or maybe you’ve been hurt by a loved one, and you just feel like you can’t get past it. Do you think that maybe you’ve put yourself in a “box?” That might sound odd, but if you think about it that is what we all can tend to do at times. We can set up camp on the idea that we are defined by our past choices, or that we will “always be this way,” “always be an addict,” “always be a victim,” “once a ____ always a ____,” etc. So how do we get out of this negative thought-life?  "In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears." Psalm 18:6 When I found myself stuck, I cried out to God for help!  Now, I ...

  By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team, 4/7/21   Cheryl and I like to call adopting our granddaughters “Parenting round 2.” Anyone who has had interruptions to their “rhythms of life” knows the unexpectedly sudden things like death, raising grandkids, taking care of an aging parent, or a host of other problems can be overwhelming. Some days I feel anger and resentment for a life that seems lost to me. Today as I write this could easily be one of those days. One of my friends told me recently that he is beginning what is known to some as "empty nesters life" and planning the things they will do. Another friend is just enjoying time alone with his wife and getting to know her again like when they were first married. These things remind me of the two years alone we had before we had to take custody of the girls. I am jealous and envious of my friends. I question why God allowed this to happen. It fuels my resentment again for son, the girl p...