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| CELEBRATE RECOVERY
- (July 1, 2007) |
 "Humble men are very fortunate!” he told them, “for the kingdom of heaven is given to them.” Matthew 5:3 (TLB)
Welcome to an amazing spiritual adventure! Celebrate Recovery is an “umbrella” recovery program which is not limited to dealing with the issues of alcohol or drug addiction.
Childcare is available from 6:30-8:00 pm.
For additional information, contact Mona DuBois at 263-5269, ext. 117 or 648-8842.
6:00 pm— Solid Ground Café opens for fellowship & refreshment
6:30 pm—Opening Prayer and Welcome
*Serenity Prayer
*Songs of Praise
*Introductions
*Reading of the eight principles and their biblical comparisons *Reading of Celebrate Recovery's small group meeting guidelines
6:50 pm—Teaching or testimony
7:10 pm—Dismissed to small groups (men’s and women’s)
8:00 pm—Adjourn
In the Celebrate Recovery groups, a limitless number of issues can be dealt with. The purpose of Celebrate Recovery is to encourage fellowship and to celebrate God’s healing power in our lives as we work our way along the road to recovery. We are changed as we share our experiences, strengths, and hopes with one another. In addition, we become willing to accept God’s grace and forgiveness in solving life’s problems. By working through the principles, we grow spiritually, and we are freed from our hurts, hang-ups, and habits. This freedom creates peace, serenity, joy, and most important, a stronger personal relationship with others and our personal, loving, and forgiving Higher Power, Jesus Christ!
In Matthew 5, Jesus begins His longest recorded sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, with a list of “blesseds,” which at first glance seem to defy common sense. He declares the most unlikely people—the spiritually broken, the mournful, the reviled, the hungry, the meek, the persecuted, the insulted—to be “blessed” or happy. However, as we dig deeper, we discover the poor in spirit are actually the opposite of the proud or haughty in spirit. They are those who have been humbled by the grace of God and have acknowledged their sin and their utter dependence upon God for everything in life.
Maybe you feel like one of the aforementioned and it is difficult to envision yourself as being blessed or happy. Maybe you have been carrying around old hurts for decades, and you are waiting for time to heal old wounds. The truth is, time only prolongs the pain unless the problem is dealt with.
Celebrate Recovery is a biblical and balanced program for helping overcome hurts, habits, and hang-ups. This program was born out of Dr. Rick Warren’s search through the Scriptures to discover what God had to say about “recovery.” To his amazement, he found the principles of recovery—in their logical order—given by Christ in The Sermon on the Mount.
"Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us”. Hebrews 12:1 (TLB)
Two things are notable in this verse: 1) God has a particular race or plan in mind for each of us—a plan for good; 2) We need to be willing to get rid of all the unnecessary baggage we carry as a result of past hurts or failures that keep us in unhealthy, even destructive behavior patterns. Because of sin, we’ve hurt ourselves, we’ve hurt others, and we’ve all been hurt by others. We are in need of repentance and recovery if we are to live our lives the way God intended.
“Celebrate Recovery” will be an ongoing weekly gathering which:
o is based on God’s Word;
o is forward-looking rather than focused on the past;
o emphasizes personal responsibility;
o emphasizes spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ;
o utilizes the biblical truth that we need each other in order to grow spiritually and emotionally;
o addresses all types of habits, hurts, and hang-ups.
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