2 posts tagged “celebrate recovery”
3:13-21 "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."
I had heard the other day that many from CR that we had ministered to, loved on, cared for deeply, were hurt and felt like we had abandoned you when we stopped doing CR and left TRC. Please know our hearts were never to hurt anyone at all. We love you all deeply, and still to this day love all of you and pray for you still.
While at this point we do not believe that we are to come back to TRC for a visit just yet, we want you all to know we love you, and never meant to hurt anyone at all. The cancellation of CR was not due to us -- this was the Lord. He was the One who cancelled it. Why? Only He knows. Could it have been handled differently? Possibly. But what we want everyone to know is that we love you and miss you from CR terribly. It grieved my heart especially when the Lord told us He was moving us. I remember coming to a CR night and looking at all the beautiful faces the Lord brought to us, and couldn't hardly make it through the meeting. I left several times sobbing at the thought of not seeing you and loving on you in person.
For many months I have struggled with anger and hurts towards people in how it was handled, but here's the thing, this was how the Lord had it come down. The details at this point are unimportant. I have forgiven others, and forgiven myself and now I am looking forward to what He has in store for us next. I think that it had to happen the way it did so that it would move us into what His will is for our lives at this point -- we probably wouldn't have left otherwise. It had to happen the way it did.
My mom gave me a great analogy that when its time for baby eagles to leave the nest she removes many of the fluffy feathers from the nest making it less comfortable and pokey. Its not harmful to the eaglets, just pokey enough that it causes them to fly out of the nest. The things that happened that hurt us weren't things that were harmful, just uncomfortable enough for us to start seeking God and finding out what He had for us next.
The thing is no matter what church you attend there are going to be problems with people -- because that's just the way it is. How we handle it and respond to it is what causes us to grow and mature further in the Lord. Our hope and faith should be in the Lord, not people. If we seek the Lord with everything we have and do as He commands, which is to love Him with all our hearts, soul and mind and to love our neighbor as ourself, then we are able to forgive those things and continue to love our neighbors.
I know people don't understand fully, and sometimes when you have to step out in faith and do something the Lord wants you to do -- you may not understand it fully either. That's all apart of growing in our faith and trusting what His will is for our lives. Remember this -- we don't tell Him what His will for our lives should be, we ask Him what His will is for our lives. We submit our lives to Him -- His will. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 16:24 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Basically in terms we can understand today -- it would be an electric chair for us today. Pick up your electric chair and follow Him. The cross was a means of punishment. So what does picking up our cross and following Him mean?
It means we do what He asks, go where He wants us to go, go through the some of the things that He went through -- we will have trials and tribulations, suffering but we are not to lose heart because Jesus Christ has overcome the world for us. John 16:33 Jesus said "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
I have so many scriptures running through my mind to post here, but the final one I will leave you with is this Hebrews 5:7-8 "While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the One who could deliver Him out of death. And God heard His prayers because of His reverence for God. So even though Jesus was God's Son, He learned obedience from the things He suffered." God didn't deliver Him from going to the cross, because going to the cross was God's will for Jesus, and Jesus knew it.
Psalms 105:19; James 5:10-11; 1 Peter 4:19; 1 Peter 3:4; Jeremiah 29:11-13; Deut. 31:6
I will never forget the time we spent leading Celebrate Recovery, nor the people the Lord brought to us. I will love you all forever -- that will never change. I wouldn't ever change a thing that happened during that time -- many people came to know Christ, came back to the Lord, got much needed healings, and worked through many hurts, habits and hangups, began going to church, began serving in the church, and so that they could move forward into what God had for them next. Our time there was for a season, but now we ALL must look to the Lord (always) and seek what His will is next for ALL of our lives. I love you all -- and pray that the Lord blesses you in all your new endeavors and what His will is for your lives next. We love you all, Michele
I'm posting this on my blog because there are many from TRC (www.therockchurch.info)
that I don't have your emails, and I have already emailed many of our friends at TRC. Joe and I, and our family have a change coming in our lives, and wanted to share it with you. Isa. 43:19 "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."
Since about September 2007 we have known that the Lord was moving us from The Rock Church and into something new. He told us to remain faithful where we were until He told us otherwise, and we have. In April 2008, we prayed that if it truly was the Lord's will that we leave TRC that He make a way for us to be done with Celebrate Recovery. Two weeks later an announcement was made that CR was being canceled -- and in place a new wonderful ministry called All Things New, that Ron and Kathy Warren are leading with many of the leaders that had been in CR, which is awesome!
We have continued to pray and seek Him as to where He wanted us to go and when. While we are not 100% sure of the where, we are stepping out in faith and now is the time. This has absolutely nothing to do with TRC -- it has to do with us being obedient to the Lord and the call that He has on our lives. TRC has been a wonderful home to us, and we are eternally grateful for the leadership at TRC and for all we have learned through the process of becoming more like Christ. He has done some absolutely amazing things in our lives over the last 4 1/2 years, and I have seen wonderful things in all of your lives and ours.
While we don't understand it 100% -- we're okay with that. We have grieved having to leave TRC, but we do intend to come back to visit from time to time. Our kids have plugged into a local youth group ministry and are flourishing greatly there, and things at home couldn't be better. The Lord truly has blessed us.
We are excited now about where He wants us to go next, and are excited for this next leg of the journey in our lives. We pray the Lord blesses you all, and we hope you will all keep in touch with us as well.
I intend on continuing with this blog, as I believe at this point in my life it is the Lord's will -- and I will write of all those things I have always written about. The things He wants me to share - hopefully nothing more, hopefully nothing less.
