GREENE STREET LETTERS: N2R --- Enter

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

N2R --- Enter

While we are not a CELEBRATE RECOVERY....
We do CELEBRATE RECOVERY....
In fact, let's take it up a notch and celebrate the one who "recovered" us.
Celebrate Jesus....
Not the Jesus we have created in our minds...
Not the Jesus we see on TV....
Not the Jesus we see in pictures hanging on the walls of our Sunday School Rooms..
But the real, deal Jesus who is the expressed, spittin' image of His heavenly Father.

Celebrate a Jesus who defeated the power of sin...
Defeated the presence of sin....
and defeated the penalty of sin by dying.
Doesn't make much sense does it?
Well it didn't make sense to the devil either on that day outside of the city of Jerusalem, up on a hill called Golgotha.
IF it had of made sense to the devil, he never would have killed Jesus.
But no one every said that the devil was sharp, now did they?

We will be gathering on Saturday ~ April 13 ~ 7 p.m. at Gadsden Vineyard Church for our first N2R (No-Name-Recovery) meeting .
IT will be a celebration of Jesus!
Why another meeting?
I wish I could tell you they answer to that question.
Is N2R going to be better than all the other meetings?
To some it may be...
To others, it may not strike their fancy at all.
I'm not interested in collecting a bunch of people so we can say..."Look at the numbers who come to our meeting!"
I am interested in seeing Jesus when we come together.
Seeing Him in the music...
Seeing Him in the words that are spoken ...
Seeing Him in the prayers that will be prayed....
And especially.....
Seeing Him in the lives of the ones who leave the building at the end of the meeting.

This meeting isn't going to be about hype...
I'm not really interested in stirring up emotions or our flesh...
I'm more interested in learning how to hear God speak.
Learning how to worship...
Learning that it is through Jesus that real freedom comes from addiction.
Did you catch that?
Jesus?
Not church...
Not membership...
Those things are important, but they matter not if Jesus isn't first.
We've tried the bottle...
We've experimented with the needle...
We've misused prescription meds....
We've smoked a rock.....
Now listen to the words of Deuteronomy 32:31 ---- For their rock is not like our ROCK!
Get it?
It's just Jesus....

God on you...
mb

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Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

N2R --- Enter

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THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD