CASTIMONIA

Sexual Purity Support & Recovery Group

Prodigals

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Prodigal – Saturday at 5:30 pm
Connecting with God
Summit, MS is small. Seriously small. Population 1,651 souls. Growing up in Summit probably mirrors other small towns. Everyone knows everyone and all their “business.” My Dad knew what I had done on a Friday night before I even got home.

Small towns have some advantages. Connecting with others doesn’t require much effort. As a boy, I just looked for the bikes. As I got older, I went to the places where everyone else hung out. Eventually I would run into all the people I knew.

Today, we have a whole industry for connecting. Social media exists to expand our connections. The breadth and variety of our “friends” has never been larger. We even have people we don’t know “requesting” to connect with us. A TV show just started on what would happen if God tried to “friend” us. Funny. Are all these social media friends really intimate friends? Is this our idea of a connection?

Connecting with God requires more than accepting a friend request. See, God wants to be more than our friend. He wants to know us intimately. And for us to know him intimately as well.

What are you doing to connect with God? Is He your acquaintance? Do you say hi to Him and tell Him about your day, much like when you check in with your parents? Or do you seek to know Him, asking Him to reveal His character and His will to you daily?

God gave us many ways to connect with Him on an intimate level. He gave us His Word. Through it we can seek to understand His character and ask Him to reveal more to us. He gave us His people, His church. We can surround ourselves with others who also want to know Him intimately, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through them. We pray and speak with Him. A constant conversation, opening our hearts, allowing Him to take over, and seeking his guidance.

What are you doing to connect with God? Try it. He’s the most important “friend” you will ever make.

Join us this week at Prodigal. We are a bunch of broken people searching for God’s purpose for our lives.

This week, Sean brings a message of how we improve our contact with God and Judy Z will share an impactful testimony.
When: Every Saturday at 5:30 pm

Location: The Fellowship (in the Loft), 22765 Westheimer Pkwy, Katy, TX 77450

Childcare is available. Pre-notification is not necessary but is requested. For more information about childcare, email us info@theprodigals.org.

Give:  We need your support! Give to the Prodigal. Use your smart phone and text your donation. Send a text to 28950, and type the keyword PROD, a space and the amount you wish to give. You will receive a text response for your name, address and account information for one-time registration. An email confirmation will be sent to confirm your donation. Next time, you simply send a text with the amount – and it’s complete.

Come home, prodigals!

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Was I Always Wrong? – Prodigal – Saturday @ 5:30 pm

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Was I Always Wrong?
I am struggling with a particular feeling. Wrongness. Not just when I am to blame. Just that I am ALWAYS the one to blame. That because of who I am and what I have done that I don’t have the right to be…well…right.

Was I always wrong then? When it comes down to it, did I ever do any good? Are the positive parts of my life limited to the time after I hit bottom? Or did I have any positive influence in my marriage, on my kids, in my job, in my church. In the difficult times, the answer is always no. No I didn’t have any positive impact anywhere. I am defined throughout most of my life by what I was doing and who I was. The only problem with that belief is…it isn’t true.

In Romans 8:28, Paul states that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. I haven’t always loved God but maybe He has used me. Even before letting us know that God works in all things, Paul also reminds me that the Spirit helps me in my weakness. Even when I don’t know what to pray for or what to say, the Spirit is helping me in my weakness. Paul doesn’t say the Spirit only helps me in my strength. Or in my recovery or when I know I need help. He says that the Spirit helps me in my weakness.

I have a lot of weakness. A lot. And the Spirit helps me in that. He knows what I need even though I don’t. So, no. I wasn’t always wrong or bad. I didn’t spend most of my life without any good. Not because of me. But because the Spirit helped me in my weakness and still does. Then and now.

Join us Saturday at Prodigal and find out how God can continue to use you and me, even in our weakness!

This week, Brian leads us in teaching and Andrea will share an impactful testimony.
When: Every Saturday at 5:30 pm

Location: The Fellowship (in the Loft), 22765 Westheimer Pkwy, Katy, TX 77450

Childcare is available. Pre-notification is not necessary but is requested. For more information about childcare, email us info@theprodigals.org.

Give:  We need your support! Give to the Prodigal. Use your smart phone and text your donation. Send a text to 28950, and type the keyword PROD, a space and the amount you wish to give. You will receive a text response for your name, address and account information for one-time registration. An email confirmation will be sent to confirm your donation. Next time, you simply send a text with the amount – and it’s complete.

Come home, prodigals!

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The Prodigals Recovery Service in Katy Falls Short ….

… and this is a GREAT thing!  THIS is what church should be but many are too concerned with production value and broadcasting of the services and fail to be “real” when it comes to spreading the Gospel, the dirty, beautiful Gospel of Jesus Christ and His power of redemption.  It “falls short” because it is not trying to live up to the production standards of some of the churches in the area who pride themselves on “entertainment” rather than spreading the message of God’s love and our redemption.

Come worship God with other broken individuals

Those of us in recovery will sometimes walk into our church service thinking that others are looking at us with downcast eyes; Pharisees? This is especially true early on in recovery when we have just been “found out” or rumors spread of our marital or personal problems.  We fear that these “normal” people are without addictions or compulsions and look down upon us that struggle with these issues.  We feel that the people in this room have never committed adultery, been black-out drunk, or used illegal drugs.  We fear that these people have never sinned; at least not like us.  This, of course, is not the case at a Prodigals service.  Those that attend this service are all broken, are all sinners, and are all loved by God.  This is because we are not blind to the fact that we are sinful and selfish people. For most of us attending this service, the 12 Steps have taught us this about ourselves; we are no longer blind.  Performing a deep and thorough inventory of who we really are has enlightened us of our character and leaves us with no choice but to turn to Jesus and His power to set us free.

The message at Prodigals is largely Recovery-based

The setting is fantastic, intimate and inviting.  The worship music is tailored to resonate with addicts and the broken.  It cuts to the core of our want and need for redemption and our cry out to the Lord to heal us from our affliction; to free us from our self-imposed bondage.  Freedom.  Along with the praise and worship music, a testimony is given in this service which adds to the welcoming environment needed by those of us in recovery.  We feel like we are not alone after hearing a testimony to which we can relate.  The short but effective sermon is one that we can also relate to.  It typically includes recovery-related themes with recovery-related language.  It also is raw, unblemished, and truthful.  They are not afraid to share of their brokenness or of their addiction.  They are not afraid to speak truth to those of us who are listening.  And they rejoice at having been restored from a life of addiction and compulsion to where the Lord can now use them for His good purpose.

If you are in any recovery program and feel like you don’t “fit in” at your church, I encourage you to visit the Prodigals service and see for yourself how powerful the experience can be worshiping the Lord with other recovery individuals.  Even if you are comfortable at your own church like I am, visit the Prodigals and experience a different side of praise and worship and the Word of God with your fellow recovering members.  Experience hope! It is an experience you won’t soon forget.

Prodigals information is written below:

Location: Loft Worship, Student Building of The Fellowship
Date: Every Saturday Evening
Time: 5:30PM
Website: http://theprodigals.org/