Story of Redemption with Tim

[James Nored]

God is at work! I have been corresponding with a man named Tim who visited our church at Easter time. He checked out our website and saw that we have a divorce recovery ministry. This interested him as he is going through a divorce.

I told him that we were starting a Celebrate Recovery ministry as well. Today, he called, saying that he wanted to come to Celebrate Recovery. He had a concern, however, that he did not know enough about the Bible to come, as he had not been to church much at all in his life. He had the same concern about being in a regular Bible class.

I told him about the Story of Redemption, a Bible study that begins at the very beginning of the Bible and assumes no Bible knowledge. He was interested in this, and we are planning to start our study this Thursday at 10:00 AM. I will be looking for a couple of people (hopefully guys) to go through this with us. Having another Christian or two is really an essential part of this study process, as it helps people to see and experience the love of the Christian community.

I am excited about what God is doing here. Celebrate Recovery has not even begun yet, and already it is helping us to share God's love with others.

How have you seen divorce recovery and celebrate recovery type ministries help reach people for Christ?

[James Nored]

Tim and I got together today just for lunch and had a great time together. Tim has struggled with some anger issues due to his upbringing, which affected his marriage. He lost both of his parents at a young age. He is from the NE, and really has no family or friends here.

When Tim faced personal and marital struggles, he blamed God. However, God has been chasing him. He went a few times to a Greek Orthodox church (he is Greek) and to a Christian church a few times. Each time he drove by our church he felt a tugging on his heart. On his commute each day, he would listen to people like Chuck Swindoll. (I am finding firsthand that a lot of unchurched people listen to Christian radio stations. We may need to check into this.)

So he checked us out on our website, saw our divorce ministry, and decided to worship with us. He came and had a good experience. And then last night, he went to our first Celebrate Recovery meeting. He really liked it. He said that it was good to be with other people who had struggles. Our CR leader also reached out to him, emailing him prior to the meeting and giving Tim his phone numer.

I really enjoyed my lunch with Tim. He was conscious of "taking up too much of my time." However, I told him that this is why I came to High Pointe, to help the church reach out to the community and people like him. So this meeting was not an inconvenience--it was the really I was here.

We are planning on going through the Story of Redemption next Thursday during the day. I'm working on putting together a few others to go through this with him.

God is good! I am excited about getting to know Tim more and journeying with him.

[James Nored]

Last Thursday, one of our members, James McClure, joined Tim and I for our first study. We went through part 1 of the Story of Redemption, and this really hit where Tim was. Tim is dealing with brokenness in marriage, and he and his wife had gone through several miscarriages in the past. These miscarriages had caused him to really question God, which is understandable. This first lesson, from Genesis 1-3, deals with why there is brokenness, death, and disease in the world. For so many people, this is the question that they are asking that is a barrier to faith. Explaining this can really open up the door of faith, for this explanation "rings true."

James and Tim really connected, since James has gone through a divorce and they are both in Celebrate Recovery. It looks like God has brought together a great match for this study. Please pray for this study, and for Tim's marriage.

[James Nored]

Since the last time I shared on our study with Tim, we have covered five more lesson in the Story of Redemption. Wow! I thought I had given more updates than this. Let me try to summarize how these lessons impacted Tim.

Part 3 - This lesson on faith from the story of Abraham really hit home for Tim. Tim had had many questions for God when he and his wife could not have a child. Abraham's frustration of not having a child for 25 years after God made his promise to him about having "nations" come from him (hey, one child would be great!) really resonated with him. Looking at Abraham's life, he saw that asking God questions is a part of being a person of faith. Remember, Israel meant "he who wrestles with God."

Part 4 - The first week we tried this lesson on Jesus' birth and early life, Tim could not get through it. He was simply too overwhelmed by his upcoming divorce. So I directed him towards some Psalms of lament, like Ps. 13. These psalms help a person cry out to God. The next week we picked back up and went through part 4.

Part 5 - This lesson is on the Sermon on the Mount, and it brought about some interesting discussion. The beatitude, "blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" spoke to him. Tim has struggled with anger, and this is addressed in the Sermon on the Mount--as are many other internal, heart issues.

Part 6 - Today we covered this part of the story, which looks at Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and his arrest. The last part of this section covers the abandonment, loneliness, and betrayal that he must have felt as Judas turned him over to the authorities and his disciples fled. Divorce feels like a betrayal, and it results in feeling abandoned and lonely. Thus, this part of the story spoke to him as well.

I feel like the study with Tim is progressing as it should. Lord willing, we will soon be celebrating his baptism into Jesus Christ!

[James Nored]

Again, several studies have gone on with Tim since our last update. When we came to the end of part eight of the Story of Redemption, it was clear that Tim understood the concept of baptism and forgiveness; however, he struggled with believing that he could be forgiven. He felt that what he had done was so bad that God could not forgive him.

This is not an uncommon perception. Many non-Christians, and even Christians, often have a works based view of righteousness. That God forgives us because of the good things we do. Of course, we can never be good enough, and this creates hopelessness and despair. On that day we went through lesson 8, we also went through the story of Saul in Acts 9 and 22, and saw how he had been a murderous and violent man, persecuting the church. But God appeared to him, knocked him off his feet, and blinded him. He was baptized, received forgiveness, and went on to be used by God as an apostle to the Gentiles. Oh, and he wrote a ton of the New Testament.

Two weeks passed from that day. And then today, we went through and looked at the story of King David and Bathsheba from 2 Samuel 11. David committed adultery by sleeping with Bathsheba, the wife of Urriah the Hittite, then he conspired to have her husband killed on the battlefield. But when confronted by Nathan the prophet about his sin, he confessed. This confession, plea for cleansing, and promise to teach others about God is beautifully illustrated in Psalm 51.

Then we turned to Acts 2 and went through the story of Pentecost. God used Peter--another person who had failed him by denying Jesus three times--to preach the sermon about Jesus on this day. Peter tells the Jewish people gathered there that they had killed Jesus. When they realized what they had done, they were cut to the heart and asked, What shall we do? There, Peter tells them to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. And they would receive the Holy Spirit.

When we started the study today, Tim told me that he had been thinking about baptism over the past two weeks. Then he went out with his ex-box for lunch, and his ex-boss, when he told him about being baptized, told him that it was the putting away the old Tim for a new Tim. Amazing! God was clearly speaking through this person, helping to confirm what we had studied. And so, after going through the story of David and Pentecost, Tim definitely wanted to be baptized. And he decided he wanted to do this right then.

When we got to the church building, I asked Tim who he would like to baptize him, me or the other James who has been going through the study with us. James has been a great friend to Tim, both at Celebrate Recovery and outside of this setting. While I would have been happy to perform the baptism, I was actually glad that he chose James, citing how he had been a greater friend to him than many people he had know for 20 years. How great is that for both Tim and James?!!

What a great story! Praise God! Praise God! We told Tim that this was the beginning of a life of service and sharing with others about Jesus, and that God would use him in powerful ways. I'm recruiting him to help with the Clothes Closet, as he had asked about doing some service a few weeks ago, and James is recruiting him to be a leader for Celebrate Recovery. I could not be more excited about what God has done. Tim had virtually no faith in God six months ago. And now, look at what God is doing and will do for him!

Thank you to all for your love, prayer, and support through this study. It is a great day.