My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:12-13
Reason For God—Can We Trust The Bible? Yes, we can. I appreciate Pastor Dennis’ teaching on this subject and thought a lot about his comments on how to read the Bible: Reading from a focus of it being all about me, or reading from a focus of it’s all about Him—Jesus. It’s interesting that this correlates exactly to our recovery walk in Celebrate Recovery.
We come to Celebrate Recovery broken, hurting and it being all about “me.” And yet that’s exactly where we need to be to begin our recovery journey. Nobody comes to Celebrate Recovery without hurts habits or hang-ups; if they do, we know where they are—denial! But if you stick around long enough, if you keep coming back, a transformation begins as we admit our problems and surrender them to Jesus.
We take nine months out of a year-long 12-step process engaging Jesus to take our past and heal us from it, and moving us out of “its all about me.” We spend the next three months, and a lifetime, working on steps 10 through 12 to learn how to be disciples for Christ. We learn to lay down our spiritual lives for each other, to truly love each other, to serve one another. We realize that it’s not all about me; it’s about Jesus, and if it’s about Jesus, it’s about loving you.
Recovery gives us a new perspective and it opens our eyes to more truth. As we read the Bible over and over again, it never reads the same way. I used to think the Bible was for “those people.” You know, the ones that have it all together. But when you look at the Bible through recovery eyes (broken-hearts-imperfect-people eyes) you realize that it is the greatest recovery book ever written. The only perfect person I ever found in the Bible is Jesus; the rest were all in recovery from something.
As we honored our brothers and sisters in uniform this past weekend at church, it brought back some memories. I thought of my dad, a career Army man. His best friend was shot and killed in the Philippines during WW2, covering for my father—he laid down his life for him, and my father gave me his name. As my dad served in the early years of Vietnam, he again put his life on the line for his country. Four years later I found myself in the Navy, not serving in Vietnam but caring for the wounded as a corpsman.
The wounds of war aren’t only physical, but emotional as well. My father wasn’t able to be close emotionally. It was part culture and part war experience I suppose. There was a piece of him that died in WW2 and again in Vietnam. But my story isn’t so different from a lot of yours who have had loved ones serve in battle, in war. The cost is great, some giving their lives on the battlefield for our freedoms, some giving a part of themselves for a lifetime. Thank you Dad, and to all who have served this country!
And thank you, Jesus, for laying your life down for us, that we may find freedom from our sins and a life of purpose in serving you, and a life with you for eternity.
Have a great God filled week,
Dana
Celebrate Recovery Crossroads Church Calendar
May 30-June 5, 2011
Friday—Large Group Meeting:
- Join us at 7pm for worship, and a teaching by Dana on Step 12: Give.
- Share groups at 8pm.
- Solid Rock Café at 9pm.