This Thursday is Johnny’s Testimony
Taken from his mom at the age of one and abandoned by his father, Johnny tried to cope with the pain of his life by abusing drugs, alcohol, and pornography. After serving in Iraq, Johnny had reached a level of loneliness and despair that was unbearable. God’s grace and mercy transformed Jonny’s messy life, turning it into something beautiful for His glory.
“I knew after the first meeting in the men’s chemical dependency group that Celebrate Recovery is where God wanted me to be, so I stuck around. I remember gaining sobriety with alcohol and drugs and just how good that felt. To be honest, I thought that was all God was going to ask me to work on. But alcohol and drugs were just the beginning of my road to recovery. I never thought I was a sex addict and didn’t believe pornography was a problem. God has a way of getting my attention. That peace I felt from my sobriety from alcohol and drugs was fading and was replaced with great despair and depression. I felt God leading me to go to the sex addiction group for the first time. I thought ‘surely I am not one of those people.’ But when I heard the sharing from the other men, I realized this is where I needed to be and that I was not alone. I relapsed many times before gaining a good amount of sobriety for sex addiction. I needed to learn the lesson from the pain of relapsing instead of letting it defeat me. It was not until I realized I was using porn to cope with life that I was finally able to turn to God for comfort and not to my addictions. Because God is the only one that can truly help me and comfort me from the pain of life. “ – Johnny
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” Psalm 34:18
Come hear the rest of Johnny’s story this Thursday. Dinner starts at 5:30 and large group starts at 6:30.
Recovery Reminder
Principle 5: Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects.
“Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires.” Matthew 5:6
Step 6: We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” James 4:10
Thursday Night’s Dinner: Cindy is cooking: Pasta Aioli, meatballs, roasted vegetables, and garden salad.
Ready to take your recovery to the next level? Help lead a step study. Ideally, they will start in August. If you want to be a part of the best thing this ministry has to offer, click here to let us know you are interested.
– Men’s & Women’s group – The Journey Begins
For a list of important dates; testimonies, lessons, training, & leadership meetings. Please click Here or on the Calendar above.
Summit:
To stay up-to-date on what’s going to be happening at the 2017 Celebrate Recovery Summits, visit: www.crsummits.com.
Sign up to get updates from Celebrate Recovery At South Tampa Fellowship!
Text STF CR to 313-131
Prayer Requests
It is our privilege to pray for you! To submit a prayer request, please complete our contact form, which can be found by clicking HERE . Also feel free to write prayer requests on the back portion of the yellow response cards found in the CR bulletins on Thursday nights.