Acts 2:1
......All the believers were meeting together in one place.....
Friday night in Centre, Alabama, there is no better place to be than at the ROC.
Celebrate Recovery! Good food.....great company......killer band that loves to worship...
And stories....
Stories from lives that have been changed through the power of God.
Stories that stir hope in the hearts of those who are still trying to find their way.
Stories that have a message of "God saved me...He will save you".
One person sharing with others what they have found.
Giving away freely what they have received.
The night had a retro feel to it. The meeting was moved back upstairs where it began.
I'm sorry, but I love that room. I love the intimacy that came with the move, and it reminded me of how VRC feel son Saturday night. I usually open up our meeting with "Welcome to my living room!" because that is what it feels like.
Prior to the start of the meeting, person after person came by to speak with me.
Touching base, letting me know what has been going on in their journey.
Some good stories....
Some hard ones......
Prayer over all that we keep on keeping on. We can't afford to quit or give up.
To me this is the thing that makes recovery meetings of any kind special...
The honesty and transparency that says it's o.k. to be who we are...with all our character warts and scabs. What isn't o.k. is to excuse our unwillingness to change. We all are very much aware that we are all "works-in-progress"...
As we use to say at Rapha....."It's all about spiritual progress, not spiritual perfection."
There seems to be an unspoken connection among those who are on this road to recovery.
A bond that transcends blood and kin....
A binding together by a collective purpose that is colored by acceptance of a shared history. In other words, it doesn't matter who you are....what you drug of choice was....or how old you are......when it comes to recovery everybody's story is "The Same Song...Second Verse"....in other words, the stories are all the same.
It truly is about the new life that has been found. This new way of dealing with life is at the heart of our stories. No longer running away when troubles come, but the new found strength to meet them head on and, with the Holy Spirit guiding us, follow God's instructions on what needs to be done. THEN DOING IT!!!!
Our good friend Jeremiah Smith met Vicki and I Friday night and joined us up in Centre. He was given a heaping, helping portion of Recovery Centre Style. I do believe he enjoyed it. Of course Jeremiah is part of our core leadership at VRC, and truly has a heart to see people come to know Jesus, and allow Him to turn their life around. All in all, it was a great weekend. Now, here on Monday morning, I will continue to wrestle with this dinosaur of a laptop to see if I can post this entry into the Greene Street Letters.
Keep in mind that if there isn't a posting tomorrow morning it's because the dinosaur won.
God on you.....
mbb
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