WHAT IS CHURCH HURT?
Here, I am addressing church hurt that stems from the disappointment of stumbling upon the humanity of a leader, sister, brother or friend in church. For our purposes here, it is NOT encompassing the extreme of trauma caused by experiencing any type of abuse. Be-it inside or outside of the context of a relationship, the trauma caused by abuse must be addressed directly for healing in such an instance to be complete. However, in both instances, the principle of forgiveness is paramount to freedom.
But Why???
As I spoke #offthecuff, I mention that God is not jealous like us in the sense that He isn’t envious. He doesn’t want something that doesn’t belong to Him. However He IS adamant that He is Jealous in the sense that He wants exactly what is His: all the praise, all the glory, all the honor and all of you because as His child, you belong to Him. He alone is worthy of our devotion. Everything we do should be done to the glory of God. As Kirk Franklin so adequately stated in Idols “He’s God of all or NOT God at all.” Often anything that we place as an idol before God, He will take down if we don’t. Too often we place a person where God belongs and give them what belongs to Him. We are to respect those in leadership, honor the authority God has given them, and certainly pray for them. But we are not to worship them because they are not God. They are fallible just like you and I.
HOW DO WE HEAL FROM CHURCH HURT?
“God is not a man that He should lie, Neither the son of man, that He should repent: Hath He said, and will He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and will He not make it good?” In order to answer those questions in the verse, you must know the word of God for yourself because therein lie His promises! The Bible is like a love letter that He wrote to us because the reality is that all He wants is all of you; He loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son so that an intimate relationship with Him would be possible once again. You see “since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.” Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for the sin that separates us from the Father, the One who created us for eternity. But all who call upon the name of the Lord, Shall be saved. So much comes with that salvation, it’s not just a get out of Hell free card. God just wants you and when you draw near to Him you will see that in His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forever more. Church is the institution He created so that we might experience Godly community, learn more about Him, use our spiritual gifts and experience the local family that we become a part of when we are in Christ.
The 2nd Adam who is Christ, died on the cross to restore the possibility of an intimate relationship with God; we shouldn’t fault God for the actions of man or credit man for the actions of God.
clay and The Potter 