Transition and Transformation

Welcome! My name is Dave. I’m a grateful child of our Lord God, being led out of addictions to the Internet – pornography, gaming, and shopping, and other compulsive behavior. I’m also the new webmaster for CelebrateRecoverySLP. Wild, huh? That is the power of Christ over our hurts, habits, and hang-ups, and I’ve very grateful to serve Him, and you, in this ministry.

I love the response of Joseph to his brothers, in the book of Genesis: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20.

It’s my hope and prayer that my walk with God from these hurts, habits, and hang-ups, will become a blessing to others, as He works through me.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Transition like this; a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage, or style to another. Yep, that pretty much sums up what’s been happening around Celebrate Recovery, here at the St. Louis Park Free Church. Let me tell you about it.

In July, Dean, our CR Ministry Leader, and one of the founding members of the CR-SLP group, following God’s calling for his life, pulled up stakes and moved to sunny Florida to begin Seminary on his path to becoming a Pastor. This certainly wasn’t a quick decision, but one that we watched Dean wrestle with for many months prior to his acceptance to the school. God took Dean through many trials and times to bring things around to His good and perfect plan, but He supported and supplied Dean throughout. It may have been selfish, but I was praying that he would be led to a school here in “sunny” Minnesota, but God has better plans.

Dean had things planned out to make a smooth transition of leadership in our CR Ministry here, and had been talking with a variety of us, when a number of items changed that required him to accelerate his move, to prepare things for the rest of his family to make their move. We pray for God’s greatest blessing on Dean and his family, as they follow His path.

Teri has blessed us by taking up the Ministry Leaders position and is now directing the ministry with the assistance of several other men and women. She continues the commitment to helping people find recovery from their hurts, habit, and hang-ups, through the saving power of Jesus Christ.

Our evening schedule has also taken a bit of a transition as well. We had been starting off with 30 minutes of Worship (starting at 6:30 pm on Thursdays), followed by announcements, then a lesson or a guest testimony. Through a small fluke one day, (ok, my mistake after being gone for a couple of meetings J), we did the announcements first, then went into worship and our lesson. It was great to go right from the worship into hearing God’s word through the lesson of the night, and the schedule has since stuck. Please feel free to join us at 6:30 Thursday’s at the St. Louis Park Ev. Free Church.

Unlike Transition, Transformation, is the complete change of one thing, into another. The definition is: to change in character or condition. The mission of CelebrateRecovery – SLP is to help people in their Transformation – through the power of Jesus Christ. We aren’t here to “fix” one another, but to point people to the source of strength that has already defeated the Sin and damage of our additions.

As I type this, I see the Verse from Isaiah posted on my Monitor; Isaiah 41:10

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

¹⁰ So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

This is the source of our Higher Power, the strength over the addictions and Sin that drives people to admit they are not strong enough in themselves and need help. Thankfully, that’s the purpose of Celebrate Recovery.

We have monthly opportunities to hear testimonies from people from other CR groups, as well as some from our own “family”, share the path that led them to Christ and his power over their hurts, habit, and hang-ups. We often hear and see the transformation of their lives.

So many times the stories are of great distress and sorrow, of almost unbelievable depths of darkness, yet there is a strength that calls to reach out to someone, something… our Creator. The heart knows. In almost each testimony, you can hear or feel that their heart knows where to turn for help.

In His discussion with Nicodemus, Jesus said;  ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  John 3: 16-17.

This is our Hope, our Transformation.  From darkness to Light, from dead to Life, from sin to Salvation.

Philippians 3:20-21 - New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ 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.

What a great Transformation – Thank you Lord!

Come and see what Jesus Christ does in people’s lives through Celebrate Recovery.

I would like to hear from you too. What things are relevant to your life? What are you looking for in this Blog? Leave me comments on this webpage and I will do my best to share God’s truth with you. Blessings on your day!

Forgiveness

As some of you may know, James MacDonald is one of my favorite pastors to listen to, and I usually listen to him every day on the radio. At Celebrate Recovery it is our prayer that you come to know Jesus and the healing and forgiveness He provides. If you don't know Him, I want to encourage you to start your journey right now. If you don't know how to start your journey, the following devotional will help you understand a little more about how to do that. This is a daily devotional written by James who is the senior pastor at Harvest Bible Chapel in Illinois. Read to the bottom and simply pray the prayer there and begin a life of healing through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, and God bless you!



Why I'm Thankful For Forgiveness
James MacDonald - Senior Pastor - Harvest Bible Chapel

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. —Ephesians 1:3-10

When we make the decision to turn from our sin and embrace Jesus Christ as our Savior, a whole lot of incredible things happen. One amazing gift that I’m thankful for is God’s provision in Christ for my forgiveness. I can work in my own effort all I want and never gain God’s favor. Only the blood of Christ, offered freely to all who believe can release me from the condemnation of sin. If we drill down into this topic more, we’ll discover more specific reasons why we should be thankful. Here’s my list:

I’m thankful for God’s forgiveness because I’m a sinner. If our deepest heart secrets were known, nobody could escape the sobering reality that we are all sinners. Jeremiah 17:9 says our hearts are wicked and desperately sick, literally, “terminal.” Put even a small group of us together and between us we’ve done it all.

I’m thankful for God’s forgiveness because it destroys the fear of death. I don’t dread dying but I’m going to live for Christ as long as I’m here. When I go, I’ll be with Him in heaven for all of eternity. How awesome is that?

I’m thankful for God’s forgiveness because it’s freely given. All you need to do to receive forgiveness is reach out and take it; that’s it. What else can you say that about? It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done; God’s offer stands.

Do you have it? Many people live under the “try hard and we’ll see” approach to forgiveness but that’s not God’s plan. He says, Stop trying and accept what is freely offered to you. God loves you and is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Can you look to a time in your life when you turned from your sin and embraced Jesus by faith for your forgiveness? If you have not done that you are not ready to die. While I hope you have many more years on this earth, only God knows the days that are appointed to you. If you can’t testify to that amazing gift of forgiveness, receive His gift right now.



Journal

·Have I embraced the forgiveness of my sins through Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection?
·What is stopping me?


Prayer

Father, I know that I am a sinner and that on my own I am not prepared to meet You. I believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for my sin. I believe that He rose from the dead. Right now, in this moment, I turn from my sin and I embrace Jesus Christ by faith. Come into my life and forgive my sins. Change me. Make me the man or woman that You want me to be. I give my life to You today. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

What is Forgiveness?

I thought since we've been talking some about forgiveness lately that it would be a good idea to talk about it here a little. If you are unsure about forgiveness, perhaps the following article from James MacDonald will provide some insight. I hope you find it informative and I pray that your walk with God is stronger for having read it and that your light might shine a little brighter by way of forgiveness. The following is all written by James MacDonald from Harvest Bible Chapel in Illinois, God bless:


"Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony" - Colossians 3:12-14

Forgiveness is a decision. It's an act of will to release a person from the obligation that resulted when they injured you.

Unforgiveness sounds like this: "You owe me! I'm going to make you pay by hating you, by slandering you, by returning in kind, by recruiting other people to my bitterness. I'm holding this over you!"

Here's forgiveness: "You don't owe me. I'm not trying to get even. I'm not looking for a chance to pay you back. God didn't make me that way. I choose to forgive."

You say, "James, I can forgive today, but I know by Thursday I'll have that thing back on my back again." I understand that. Get this: forgiveness is a crisis and a process. The first thing you have to do is see your unforgiveness as sin. You have to acknowledge that God's not going to forgive you if you don't forgive others. You've got to have that crisis. You've got to stop explaining, defending, holding onto it, cherishing, and reviewing it. You've got to say, "I don't want this for my life."

The crisis means, "I choose to forgive. I'm letting it go." But the process means, when the painful matter comes into your mind again, you promise yourself to maintain the following process: "I won't bring it up to the person; I won't bring it up to other people;" and most hard by far, "I won't bring it up to myself anymore."

Someone said to me, "James, I can't help myself. As soon as I see the person, Bam! My mind goes right to that thing." That's why forgiveness is a crisis and a process. In the crisis you decide, in the process you live it out.

Now, here's a key: When you fail in the process you have to return to the crisis. When you find yourself flashing back to unforgiveness, realize you failed in the process. You've got to return to the crisis. You've got to get before the Lord and say, "God, forgive me. I want to be a forgiving person and here I'm holding this again, Lord. Help me again. I commit afresh to let it go."

Crisis/process. Over time you'll let it go and you'll be a lot happier because of it.