I’ve been continuing in my journey through Beth Moore’s study “A Heart Like His”, on David.

The second week of this study discusses the appropriate attitude we should have towards leaders as well as the importance of placing our expectations in God ALONE! When we fail to do this; When we choose to place leaders or anybody on a pedestal, we are setting them up to fail. Beth Moore states it so perfectly…

Never expect of anyone else what only God can deliver!

Psalm 62 so perfectly reminds us of this…

¹ My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from him.

² He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

³ How long will you assault a man?
Would all of you throw him down—
this leaning wall, this tottering fence?

⁴ They fully intend to topple him
from his lofty place;
they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
but in their hearts they curse.
Selah

⁵ Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.

⁶ He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

⁷ My salvation and my honor depend on God ^[a] ;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

⁸ Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.
Selah

⁹ Lowborn men are but a breath,
the highborn are but a lie;
if weighed on a balance, they are nothing;
together they are only a breath.

¹⁰ Do not trust in extortion
or take pride in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
do not set your heart on them.

¹¹ One thing God has spoken,
two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong,

¹² and that you, O Lord, are loving.
Surely you will reward each person
according to what he has done

No matter what is going on in our lives, our GOD ALONE can fulfill all of our needs.  Read this again and again until you begin to grasp what God is capable of in YOUR life!  God has placed others in our lives for community, but when we begin to expect them to fulfill what only God can fulfill; or if we begin to depend on them to cultivate our individual relationship with God, then we are setting that friend or leader up to let us down and disappoint us!

A couple verses Beth Moore shares as caution to cultivating a second hand relationship with God are these…

Isaiah 29:13

¹³ The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men. ^[a]

and then back to Psalm 62:7

⁷ My salvation and my honor depend on God ^[a] ;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

Do you have an intimate relationship with God, a relationship that is between YOU and HIM; or are you trying to stay close to God through other people, or through church and worship alone?

Where is your HEART in all this?

Pray to God right now that you would be fully and completely dependent upon HIM ALONE!

PLACE YOUR EXPECTATIONS IN GOD ALONE!

Tags: a heart like his, god alone; beth moore, psalm 62

As America’s “Independence Day” nears, we stop to think about what FREEDOM really means for us personally.

This past Friday at Celebrate Recovery in Dubuque, IA, Rex Rains, the guest teacher provided this description of FREEDOM:

FREEDOM IS NOT WHAT I’M FREE TO DO, BUT WHAT I’M FREE NOT TO DO!

I think this is an amazing way to look at freedom!  We typically define freedom as what we are able to do, but with God and in Celebrate Recovery, it is exactly the opposite.  When we are free, we are not bound by sin!

I’ve heard this statement so many times relative to sinful behavior…

I just want to enjoy myself and have fun!

Is that really freedom?  If you have to do those things to have fun, or you have to do those things to relax, then you have become a slave to those things whatever they are!

I hope that makes sense.  I remember a time in my own life, when a drink would help me relax, a few more drinks would temporarily wash away all my pain and worries.

The ability to have those drinks was not freedom…The need to have them was enslavement!  Now I can relax without a drink and I can wash away my pain and worries by giving them to God…THAT’S FREEDOM!

God offers each and everyone of us REAL FREEDOM!  All we have to do is entrust every area of our lives to Him; the closer we get to that point, the more FREEDOM we experience.

So what is it that is keeping you enslaved?  What sin are you currently entangled in with what seems to be no way out!  I want to tell you that there is a way out…

¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

There is always a way out with God.  He is not going to tempt with you sin beyond what you can handle.  You have a choice to make.  Either you’re going to continue to live that way and try to keep a little bandage over a hemorrhage of uncontrolled pain and emotions; or, you are going to allow God to intervene, and you are going to deal with the sin in your life.

REAL FREEDOM IS AVAILABLE.  It is YOUR choice!

Tags: Celebrate Recovery, Celebrate Recovery Dubuque, celebrate recovery freedom, celebrate recovery God, celebrate recovery rex rains, celebrate recovery temptation, freedom

I am so amazed right now by what God is doing around me.  I have so many praises, and I don’t understand how tears of pain and joy can stream from the same eyes.

We just had our second Celebrate Recovery worship gathering at New Life Church in Dubuque IA.  I listen to this song “Peace Be Still” by Rush of Fools and I am fully reminded tonight that this God that we serve is SO BIG!  Celebrate Recovery at New Life would not be what it is without Him at the center of it.  There is just no other way to explain it.

I moved away from my home church in Dallas, TX, Watermark Community Church and the Celebrate Recovery program that had changed my life in 2002.  Since that time I have just held on to this prayer and this hope that God would have me be involved in the start up of a Celebrate Recovery program in Dubuque.

Today I am fully aware that this little vision I had in my head is so much BIGGER THAN ME!  What I mean is that God has even bigger plans than me; He has greater strength than me; God plans to do bigger things than I could ever do with my capabilities.

It doesn’t seem like that long ago I was sitting in those small group chairs for the first time wondering what I would say, wondering how people would respond, and just plan wondering.

I never could have imagined that God would bring me to this point.

I pray that you will hold on to any ounce of hope that you can find today if you are in the midst of a struggle.  If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, God can move mountains.  God is moving mountains in Dubuque; He is moving mountains in my life; And He can move mountains in your life.

Know that He is God!  Listen to this song and know that this peace is available to you. Let His love be your bed! Let Him fill your cup! Let your fear subside tonight!

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Tags: Celebrate Recovery, celebrate recovery dream, Celebrate Recovery Dubuque, celebrate recovery faith, celebrate recovery God, celebrate recovery new life church, celebrate recovery new life church dubuque, celebrate recovery program, celebrate recovery small group, celebrate recovery start up, celebrate recovery struggle, celebrate recovery vision, celebrate recovery watermark, peace be still, peace be still rush of fools

Is it ever enough?

This may be the question you ask yourself periodically in life when it seems no matter how much you work on yourself, the process of refinement continues.

Scripture supports the ‘truth’ that He is not finished with you yet and you will continue in the process of refinement until the day you are with Him…

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus–Philippians 1:6

This isn’t the first time I’ve discussed this piece of scripture and I’m sure it won’t be the last because it holds so much promise and hope for us.

God desires to keep working on us; it is our responsibility to work with Him. We are to continually be repentant! We are to continue in the sanctification process without being resistant to the change God wants to make in our lives.

Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.–2 Corinthians 13:11

This verse clearly supports a continual growth process in our life. How do we do that? How do we aim for perfection? How do we live in peace when there is so much chaos around us?

Principle 7 in Celebrate Recovery says this…

Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.

I’ll be honest with you, the first time I went through principle 7 in Celebrate Recovery, I thought to myself…”You mean we have to keep doing this inventory thing over and over”. Doing the Celebrate Recovery principle 4 inventory was the hardest part of Celebrate Recovery and now we have to make it a part of our life?!?

The answer is yes! Celebrate recovery principle 7 is all about doing a daily inventory on yourself. The celebrate recovery acrostic for principle 7 is TEN.

• Take time to do a daily inventory
• Evaluate the good and the bad
• Need to admit our wrongs properly

This isn’t an easy thing to do EVERY day, but it a crucial ingredient for the ongoing growth that God has called us to.

I myself am guilty of missing the boat on this and I’m writing this post as I feel the urging from God to be more intentional about doing a daily inventory and I have committed to writing it out for awhile until it becomes more natural again.

I will get into good NEW habits and then before long the old BAD habits have crept back in.  Doing a daily inventory was something I was really good at for awhile after completing the Celebrate Recovery 12 steps, but before long, I just tried to admit when I was wrong most of the time.  Doing that leaves out the part of the daily inventory that includes evaluating the good and the bad; and it takes being intentional to admit when we are wrong EVERY time.

So I wanted to share with you what God is doing in my life right now, and how he has brought me back to the importance of Celebrate Recovery principle 7.  God has reminded me today that He is never finished with ME and that means I can never give up on myself or others for that matter.  God is working on all of us.  He is refining all of us.  He is even working on those in your life who are not believers…softening and stirring their hearts, so that in the perfect time, they too will bow before our Father in Heaven.

Strive for peace among others and the peace that you are longing for will become a part of your daily life.  I am confident that as I commit to doing a daily inventory even a greater peace will fill my heart and mind!

Tags: Celebrate Recovery, celebrate recovery 12 steps, celebrate recovery acrostic, celebrate recovery acrostic ten, celebrate recovery daily inventory, celebrate recovery inventory, celebrate recovery peace, celebrate recovery principle 4 inventory, celebrate recovery principle 7, daily inventory

It’s amazing to me how the feelings of elation and joy have continued to overcome me since the launch of our Celebrate Recovery program at New Life church in Dubuque, IA last Friday night.  It was absolutely amazing and honestly this is one place where I feel like I am ME!

If you’ve ready the book Life on Loan, you know what I mean by coming to an intersection, where your gifts/talents are perfectly aligned with God’s plan.  I am sure of this because of the way my heart has felt since Friday.  It is like I have a kind of “spiritual high” that has remained with me as of right now.

If you’ve never been exposed to Celebrate Recovery or recovery at all, you may wonder how being around any kind of recovery anything can bring about such a euphoria.

Celebrate Recovery changes lives in very dramatic ways.  I have witnessed several testimonies of miraculous life and heart change through Celebrate Recovery, specifically through completion of Celebrate Recovery’s 4 step study guides.

Friday night I sat in a room with 19 women, many who are experiencing a significant amount of pain in their life.  I walked away encouraged and with this amazing sense of peace because I know that God has put in their hands the tools necessary to find real freedom and peace in their lives.

I carry this feeling of joy and elation from Friday nights Celebrate Recovery meeting with the expectation of what’s to come.  I know and believe in what God is capable of!  I am convinced that He will give each of these women the opportunity to overcome their hurts, habits, and hang ups!

God is good!  God is amazing!  God is incomprehensible!  Need I say more?

Tags: Celebrate Recovery, Celebrate Recovery Dubuque, celebrate recovery joy, celebrate recovery program, celebrate recovery step study, celelbrate recovery peace, life on loan