Celebrate Recovery Changing Lives All Over the World!
Hey Partners and Friends,
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Jn. 7:38
How does that work?
Allow me to paraphrase. Anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as the redeemer of the world, the savior of mankind, the only begotten son of the living God, the first born of the resurrection, the sinless lamb of God, anyone who believes in Him as the scripture says, really believes, trusts in and relies on, believes enough to base their entire life on Him. Not just go to church but trusts enough to get real, tell the truth, confess their sins to each other, pray for each other, believes that nothing is impossible, that God will make all wrong things right. That God can and will heal the broken hearted, set the prisoners and the captive free, set at liberty them that are bruised, open blind eyes, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. Whew!!!
Out of his belly, (gut), not surface or superficial stuff but out of the very deepest places of the soul shall flow rivers. One translation says “innermost being,” the deepest regions of your psyche, from those wounds that go to the core of who you are, that gut wrenching place, those deep dark caverns —comes a river! Awesome! And not some muddy torrent of debris, junk or garbage but a flowing clear, clean, life giving river. Sounds awesome doesn’t it. Well it really does happen, so, back to my question, how? One way it happens and maybe the only way is when a person opens up that deep place of the soul to Jesus Christ allowing Him permission to touch the place of incredible hurt, pain or failure. What it looks like at CR is–people begin to be real, we trust God and at least one other person enough to risk sharing what is really going on in our lives, our pain our struggles or as we refer to it in CR our hurts habits and hang-ups. And as we do, God begins to change us; He begins to exchange the hard ugly or painful parts of our lives for healing, strength and recovery. Scripture says he exchanges beauty for ashes and causes a river of life to flow out of our innermost being.
Out of his belly, (gut), not surface or superficial stuff but out of the very deepest places of the soul shall flow rivers. One translation says “innermost being,” the deepest regions of your psyche, from those wounds that go to the core of who you are, that gut wrenching place, those deep dark caverns —comes a river! Awesome! And not some muddy torrent of debris, junk or garbage but a flowing clear, clean, life giving river. Sounds awesome doesn’t it. Well it really does happen, so, back to my question, how? One way it happens and maybe the only way is when a person opens up that deep place of the soul to Jesus Christ allowing Him permission to touch the place of incredible hurt, pain or failure. What it looks like at CR is–people begin to be real, we trust God and at least one other person enough to risk sharing what is really going on in our lives, our pain our struggles or as we refer to it in CR our hurts habits and hang-ups. And as we do, God begins to change us; He begins to exchange the hard ugly or painful parts of our lives for healing, strength and recovery. Scripture says he exchanges beauty for ashes and causes a river of life to flow out of our innermost being.
It’s miraculous that the river of life flows from the darkest, ugliest most hurtful places in our lives. That is exchanging beauty for ashes!
I want you to know there are rivers of life flowing out of the people of CR. Every other week we hear an awesome story of someone who has experienced this incredible phenomenon! A river of living water, cleansing, healing, refreshing water, from a formally dry, parched, barren life.
Jn 7:39 When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit,,,,
Our Higher Power actually flushes the poison from our lives and transforms the dry barren places, the ashes of our lives into a well spring of life that flows from deep within. This is what God is doing through Celebrate Recovery, it’s happening! Your prayers and support are a part of it. Thank You!
May the Spirit of God flow powerfully in and through the caverns of your life,
Jim & Pam