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What does recovery look like? And why do we celebrate it?
A gentleman by the name of Geoff Brown interviewed me for his podcast Kingdom Culture Conversations and the topic of discussion for Part One & Part Two was about Celebrate Recovery. I listened to both of the 2-part episodes after it was released and thought to myself, “How many people are wondering why I gave a testimony—a deeply personal testimony—for all to hear? I mean, really, I was supposed to be promoting a Christ-focused recovery group, but instead I shared more about myself.” If you haven’t heard it, or have no clue what I’m talking about, give it a listen below. I wrote a post called You Don’t Know Me.…
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You Don’t Know Me
How often have you heard—or even said yourself—these words: “You don’t know me! You don’t understand me! You don’t know how it is or know what it’s like to be me!” Whether a fleeting thought of inward defiance or spoken openly for all to hear, the desire to be known is strong inside each of us, especially people who are hurting (and let’s be real, we’re all hurting in one way or another). But in today’s fast-paced world where everyone wants everything quickly, with instantaneous information at our fingertips, and most people not even getting out of their car to grab a bite to eat—it is hard for anyone to…
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[s]indwelling or sin-indwelling
If we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit…. Here is an interesting verse to look at because there is so much packed inside of it—and I would like to unpack some of it: “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”Romans 7:20 ESV Paul wrote this letter to the Romans as a follower of Christ. Paul, like all Christ followers, has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So, the sin that dwells within each Christian must be sharing a dwelling with the Holy Spirit. That sounds like they could be roommates—except that they are…
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Prayer is fellowship with God
What if God’s plan unfolds and we don’t have the strength to endure? What if, instead of praying for someone to be delivered from their hardships, we instead pray for them to have the strength to endure? For example, can you imagine someone saying they will not pray for you to be delivered from your hardships? Stick with me on this. I know it sounds harsh, but much of the growth I’ve had in my life directly resulted from endurance of hardships. It needs to be communicated with tactfulness and gentleness, or not said at all. The point being made from the pray-“er” to the pray-“ee” is that the prayer…
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Everyone has a story….
And everyone struggles with wanting to tell their story to others. There’s a couple of problems with that. Number one is finding someone who wants to hear your story. Number two is once you think you’ve found a receptive ear, internally a person may struggle with not knowing which story to tell, or how to tell it. Those are real problems. Those are real obstacles when it comes to letting someone see who you are and what makes you tick. These are real determinants for whether or not that person you are sharing your story with would want to get to know you even more. Once you know a person’s…
