September 18th

SEPTEMBER 18th

Do you know the difference between those who attend CR (Celebrate Recovery) and every other human being? Those who attend CR know they are messed up, the rest think they are just fine. You are not just fine. You have issues. I am not just fine. I have issues. The sooner that we ALL realize that we have things to work on (hurts, habits, and hangups) the sooner we can be effective in ministry to those around us.

Maybe you don’t share your faith with others because you feel you are too messed up, not perfect enough, don’t have enough good days under your belt to be effective.

Maybe you don’t share your faith because you don’t think you have any issues yourself and so you can’t relate to others well because they all have issues.

Well neither of those are true, the first reason can quickly put us in victim mentality if we aren’t careful and the second one quickly becomes a pharisee mindset.

I think it would be good if everyone went to CR. WE ALL need it. Those who think they don’t, have just done a good job at burying their problems/issues in their own psyche. They often have ignored their issues for so long that they think they don’t exist.

Healing is not fun work, you have to feel it to heal it. Bravo to those who face their issues. “Come on in” to those who are pretending they don’t have issues.

1 John 1:8-10 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

John 8:7-11 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,”Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Nobody is without sin, not one person could cast a stone at the adulterous woman in this story from John 8.

The fact of the matter is that the world is messed up. The world has issues. The world needs to hear from healed people. The world doesn’t need someone who thinks they are just fine, telling them that they need Jesus. That’s not effective. That is why Jesus didn’t tell the angels to come evangelize the world. He told us to, because we are not perfect.

In the words of Henry Nouwen: Become a wounded healer.

If you struggle with feeling you are too messed up, too wounded to do any good, cast that lie aside and step up to the plate. This hurting world needs to hear your story of how Jesus rescued you. It is time for you to get involved in the healing of others by the power of the Holy Spirit.

If you think that you are just fine, it is time for you to step up to the plate too, in a different way. You need a lot of work, a lot of healing, period. You can’t effectively bring healing to others if you can’t tell the story of your own healing. Start praying that the Holy Spirit will reveal to you the areas that you need healing. There is always more needed, so even if you think you have tackled the “big stuff,” there are more layers that need the touch of Jesus and now is the time to begin laying those before the Lord. If Paul continued to struggle with sin, then you certainly can’t say that you don’t. Read Romans 6,7,8.

The world needs us to be the healers, the messengers, that we were created to be, today!

Lord, thank you for your transforming work in my life! Thank you that you rescued me and help me to see the victories and my shortcomings through your eyes. Show me what areas that I need to acknowledge before you and allow the Holy Spirit to heal in me. Help me to be willing to share my story with others and lead me to those that need to hear it. Help me to become a wounded healer by the power of the Holy Spirit and Your name. Thank you for this hope I have in You!