- \'rant\ : to talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner, Exposing Legalism, Things We Don't Talk About
Shhh! Don’t Talk About the Can’t Talk Rule.
As I continue my way through “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse” I am recognizing more and more that the extreme circumstances I faced as a teen and young adult are just a tiny piece of a larger problem. It is making me rethink the focus of my blog and the book I want to write. It’s easy to get tunnel vision looking at your own experiences. It’s easy to judge people who grew up like I did and left Christianity. But I’m realizing they have very valid reasons… “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11 ESV). There is a lie spread throughout…
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An Uncomfortable, Awkward Topic – Spiritual Abuse
This book, “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse,” that I am reading…wow, it’s eye opening! I resonate with so much of it from my own life experiences. When I started this blog just over four years ago, I thought I was writing to people hurt by legalistic systems like Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Principles (the place that wounded me). But as I wrote and heard back from my readers, I realized that many of you had never heard of Bill Gothard. And yet, we still struggled with similar false ideas about God and performance based faith. At first I thought maybe Gothard had subtly influenced more of Evangelical Christianity that…
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“Church Hurt” is a lot Like Miscarriage
I’m starting to think that “church hurt” is a lot like miscarriage. It’s way more common than we would ever imagine but no one talks about it. It’s been a busy couple of weeks. I had a dinner date that made me rethink my entire book idea…Devoured a book that blew up my old “cult” and it’s leader…And am in the middle of another book focused on spiritual abuse. I feel like I have been thrown ten miles up into space and am looking down with a new, much wider perspective. What do these have in common? What is the theme that is emerging in my mind? Broken people break…
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Feeling the Stretch
The shriveled clumps of grass clung weakly to the dirt. Brown and brittle, they crunched under my feet. It hadn’t rained in weeks. Everything was dry and dusty. Just walking around kicked up so much dirt that a light tan film constantly covered my feet and legs. My favorite summer camp was quickly turning into a desert. Click here to sign up for my monthly newsletter. We were desperate for some rain! “I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.” Psalm 143:6. I knew firsthand what it meant to be in a parched land and desire water. But what did it mean…
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But God is Not a Vending Machine…
Reblogged with a few tweeks from last year because I needed to hear this again! It’s easy to say that we believe God is all-powerful and that He has the ability to intervene on our behalf. But what about when He doesn’t? When a young couple, serving on the mission field, looses their healthy, newborn son to unforeseen complications, after two previous miscarriages… When a wonderful, loving pastor’s wife suddenly dies… When a family battling cancer with their teenage son finds out their second son also has cancer… Really, God? If you are really in control and absolutely powerful, why would these things happen? If we are honest, we will admit…
