Sanctuary Trauma

When I was a teenager growing up in the church, I befriended a girl who had no voice.  It had been stolen by her oppressor...her own father.  It took about a year of friendship before she gained her voice and her cries became unmuted.   When she finally poured out her heart to me, I was forever changed by the impact of her story. 

You see, she had been systematically raped by her own father from 5 years old until she was seventeen.  Nowadays, we like to say molested instead of raped, as if somehow it shields our ears from absorbing the full impact of the assault that our children are forced to endure.

What makes the story even more horrific, is that her father was an elder in the church, and so he had unfettered access to what should have been a sanctuary to my friend.  This was his favorite place to bring her, into God's own house, to subject her body, mind and soul to the insidious lust of childhood sexual abuse, when no one else was around (or so he thought).

To compound the horror, when my friend reached out to a teacher in high school to tell her about the abuse,  a firestorm erupted in the community and the case eventually went to trial.   But instead of the father being put on trial, the tables turned, and the victim was put on trial.  The parents of my friend offered her up in the courtroom, as a lamb to the slaughter.  The case was eventually dismissed and the father got a mild slap on the hand.

The abuse that my friend suffered was difficult for me to comprehend, but the complicity of the family, the church and the community, is what I find to be the most astonishing thing of all.  It was an outrage then, and it is an outrage today!  At that time in my life I had no idea how to step into her world and make a difference.   But God did, and He has set my feet on a pathway of advocacy to rescue those who have been oppressed and cast off by society.

God himself was astonished at the absence of justice, and that there was no one to stand in the gap and fight against the oppressors:

The Lord has seen this, and he is displeased that there is no justice. He is astonished to see that there is no one to help the oppressed. So he will use his own power to rescue them and to win the victory. He will wear justice like a coat of armour and saving power like a helmet. He will clothe himself with the strong desire to set things right and to punish and avenge the wrongs that people suffer.(Is 59:15-17 GNT)

God is not silent about the unspeakable harm that has been inflicted on our children through sexual abuse and human trafficking, and Freedom's Cry is part of a movement that is poised to rid the earth of this kind of oppression. We hear their cries for justice, and we will not be silent or timid in the face of their oppressors. 

How astonished are you, and will you allow your astonishment to mingle with God's astonishment, so that this kind of suffering can be obliterated from the earth?

Competitive Mindset vs. Kingdom Mindset

Can we continue to seek our own agendas, and entertain a spirit of competition with other believers while incorporating these verses into our DNA's? I believe a kingdom mindset compels us to do otherwise:

"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,"(Phil. 2:4-5 ESV)

There is a tension in this first verse that we need to wrestle with, because we are not allowed to do one thing without also giving consideration to the other.  Do you see that?  Paul is telling us that as believers in Christ Jesus that we are to have a mindset that is the polar opposite of a competitive mindset.

What is an agenda anyway?

According to Webster Dictionary there is a two-fold definition.  It can be a list or outline of things to be considered or done, or, it can be an underlying often ideological plan or program such as a political agenda.

What is competition?

The act or process of competing/rivalry or a contest between rivals.

Why does our own agenda and competitiveness run contrary to a kingdom mindset? 

Because in the kingdom there are no losers, only winners.  Our rival is the adversary and his minions, not other believers.  In Colossians 1:13 we are alerted to the shift that has taken place when we accept Christ as our Savior,  "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,"

We are not only transferred into a different kingdom, but we are also given a new mind...the mindset of Christ Jesus.

There are really only two states of mind that can exist--either a competitive mindset or a creative mindset, and both of these mindsets are mutually exclusive.  In other words,  you can't be thinking competitively if you are thinking creatively...they are two totally different mindsets.

The competitive mindset is ego/flesh driven and it is dominated by fear, scarcity and limitations. It's not just thinking about its own agenda or winning, but it's about the other person losing.  The competitive mindset is a destructive mindset that completely ignores the abundance all around us, and it must win at any cost.  Other believers become disposable to this mindset and can easily be trampled over so that the spirit of competition can reach its desired end.  This pathway is littered with causalities (road kill) and there is no thought given to the interests of others.   

The creative mindset or kingdom mindset requires a completely different paradigm shift.  The creative mindset is patterned after our Creator (we have the mind of Christ-1 Cor. 2:16).  It's focus is on abundance, love and unlimited resources, not on fear scarcity and lack.  We are setting our mind on things above (Col. 3:2) which expands our capacity to be able to make room, and be concerned about the interest of others.  We have no need to trample over our brothers and sisters, because we understand that there is an abundance of provision/purpose/presence to nourish everyone in the kingdom.

The creative mindset sounds like the better choice to me...what say you?

Cries for Justice...unmuting the cries of the sinned-against. Part 1 of 2

How many of you know someone that has been a victim of other people's sin?  People that have been deeply hurt emotionally, abused physically and sexually, or even touched by the iron hand of human trafficking.  Their voices have been muted by their perpetrators, families and even the church.  The sinned-against have been encouraged to forgive their "unrepentant perpetrators" from their heart.  They have been told that their only pathway to freedom is to forgive someone who has never repented, and to add insult to injury, they have been told that if they won't forgive, God will not forgive them. 

Beloved, there is a "more excellent way" that connects them with their justice-making God.  A God who is close to the brokenhearted, hears their cries, dries their tears and moves into action on their behalf.  We need to understand repentance and forgiveness from a two-dimensional biblical worldview, rather than from a religious individualistic one.   We also need to be able to distinguish sinned-against issues from sinner issues, and see their different paths for healing.

People are both sinners and the sinned-against.  We sin against God and one another, and we are also the victims of other peoples’ sins.  Both the sinner and the sinned-against can have issues of broken-heartedness that need to be addressed.

The Gospel of the Kingdom is a demonstrated message of rescue and relationship.  It is greater than our sins...AND...it is greater than the effects of others’ sins that have been committed against us.

In the biblical worldview the sinned-against have the debt, the power, and the right for justice. The Lord commands, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay’” (Rom. 12:19; Heb. 10:30; Deut. 32:35).  God is on the side of the sinned-against and He hears their cries.

The brokenhearted and the sinned-against are people whose hearts have been crushed to powder…literally pulverized by the sins that other people have committed against them.  We serve a God of justice who hears their cries, who cares about their pain, and who wants to dry their tears.  He wants to un-mute their cries and give them back their voice.

In his book, The Wounded Heart of God, Andrew Sung Park contends that the church has overlooked the victims of sin and injustice.  In his Korean culture, they have a term to describe the depth of suffering the sinned-against experience.  That term is called han.

Throughout its history, the church has been concerned with the sin of people, but has largely overlooked an important factor in human evil: the pain of the victims of sin.  The victims of various types of wronging express the ineffable experience of deep bitterness and helplessness.

Such an experience of pain is called han in the Far East.  The church has developed the doctrine of sin and other theological ideas with the sinner, but not the victim of sin.  The traditional doctrine has been one-sided, seeing the world from the perspective of the sinner only, failing to take account of the victims of sin and injustice.  

“The experience of the powerless, the marginalized, and the voiceless in the world can be summed up as han…Han is the suffering of the innocent who are caught in the wicked situation of helplessness.  It is the void of the soul that cannot be filled with any superficial patch.  This void is the abysmal darkness of wounded human beings…han is a physical, mental, and spiritual repercussion to a terrible injustice done to a person, eliciting a deep ache, a wrenching of all the organs, an intense internalized or externalized rage, a vengeful obsession, and the sense of helplessness and hopelessness.” The Other Side of Sin by Andrew Sung Park (47)

Biblical Examples of Han

Cain and Abel (Gen 4:1-16)

–     The story of Cain and Abel is the story of han.  The two brothers gave offerings to God.  Cain’s offering was rejected, while Abel’s was accepted.  Out of anger, Cain murdered his brother and muted his voice.  Only Abel’s blood cried out to God from the ground (Gen 4:10)

The crying-out blood is the voice of han

Uriah and David (2 Sam 11)

–     David plotted to have Uriah killed because he had slept with Uriah’s wife and she had become pregnant.  Uriah was sent to a place of battle where he could not survive, and when he was killed, David married Bathsheba.

–     The faithful, loyal Uriah was betrayed, and he lost his wife and his life.  Like Abel, Uriah’s voice was muted.

No English word can adequately express the unfair treatment Uriah received, but han does.

Our individualistic worldview causes us to focus theologically on what my sin does in my relationship with God, with little corporate responsibility as to how my sin affects those I sinned- against.  For a theology that addresses the suffering of the sinned-against, we have to look outside our Western Christianity to find theologians that understood the suffering of the sinned against.

If you would like to hear more about this subject then please "stay tuned" and in part two you can hear "the rest of the story!"  In the meantime I can highly recommend two books, "Rediscovering the Power of Repentance and Forgiveness," and “Pastoral Theology of Rescue and Relationship For The Sinned Against: Solidarity and Empowerment For Christian Women Sexually Abused As Children.”  Both of these books were written by Dr. Leah Coulter and you can find a link to them from my website www.gloriadinerman.com on "links we like."

Hanging By A Thread

Have you ever felt like you just can't make it through another day?  Are you barely hanging on financially, relationally, emotionally or spiritually, and feeling like the ground underneath you is about to give way?  Are you at the end of your rope and barely hanging by a thread?  Then you have something in common with Rahab.  She is listed in the genealogy of Jesus (Matt. 1:5), and she is also listed as one of the Heroes of Faith in Hebrews Eleven.   You can read her story in Joshua 2:1-24. 

These are some of the elements that characterized Rahab's dire circumstances.  Her life was literally hanging by a thread:

·         she was on the brink of financial disaster

·         she was about to lose her entire family

·         she was consumed by emotional distress

·         she was spiritually bankrupt and in need of rescue

After the death of Moses, God choose Joshua, to be the leader of the Israelite people. They set about to conquer the land of Canaan, under the Lord's guidance. God said to Joshua, "Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9, NIV).

Spies from the Israelites snuck into the walled city of Jericho and ended up staying at the house of Rahab, a prostitute.  Rahab had heard about the God of Israel, and she had heard about him giving the kings of the Amorites into the hands of Israel (2:10).  Because of what she had heard she came to the conclusion that the God of Israel was "God in heaven above and on earth beneath"(2:11)  She believed that the land of Canaan had already been given by God to the people of Israel, and she believed all the things that she had heard about God.

Rahab had chosen to have faith in the God of Israel, so she hid the spies from the king's soldiers. When the time was right, she helped the spies escape out a window and down a rope, since her house was built on top of the city wall. Rahab made the spies swear an oath. She promised not to give their plans away, and in return they swore to spare Rahab and her family when the battle of Jericho began. She was to tie a scarlet cord in her window as a sign of their protection.

Faced with insurmountable odds, Rahab refused to allow her circumstances, her gender or her profession to define who she was.  Instead, she looked out of her window of opportunity, and she took a leap of faith into the unknown.   She embraced her future as she held unto that redemptive cord, and all the elements that had just been causing her dire distress, were now under her feet.

Whatever your dire circumstances are today, I want to remind you of  the words of our Savior.  Jesus said, "all things are possible to him who believes.”(Mark 9:23 ESV)  God is the one who can turn every impossible thing into a possibility.  As citizens of heaven, we have access to a domain that is "out of this world." 

God has designed a possibility to fit your present circumstance.  This is your Canaan and He is trying to move you into a new place in the Spirit.  Faith is the currency that allows us to see God and interact with heaven.   So grab hold of this redemptive thread and REMEMBER...you have the promises of Jesus, you have the nature of God, and you have the power of the Holy Spirit.  One person walking with God is always in the majority, no matter what the odds are. 

Look at your present circumstance the way that Rahab did, and know that this is your window of opportunity to encounter that perfect love that will cast out all fear (1 John 4:18).  Allow faith to arise inside of you right now so that you can overcome, because He is with you!  This is your defining moment...

 

INSIDE THE ALLIGATOR PIT...

The other day I was having a conversation with a dear friend of mine, and I was asking her what she thought some of my strengths were.  A few of the strengths that she mentioned were courage, tenacity and humor.  When I questioned her as to how she thought I might go about sharpening those strengths, her answer caused me to burst into laughter..."How to sharpen those things? Well, you could put yourself in a pit of alligators!" 

The realization stuck me that metaphorically speaking, I have spent some serious time in an alligator pit during my lifetime.   You know, that place of captivity, where you are enveloped in slime and shadows, and you can hear your enemies slowly sneaking up on you.  Jaws snapping, they are poised to make you the entree on the morning menu.

Aside from draining the swamp or being rescued by a helicopter with a long rope, what kind of strategy do we need to develop for the next time we find ourselves in such an awkward place?  It's better to think about this in the present, because when we are surrounded by alligators it is difficult to remember what our focus should be.   

Here are some prescriptions for success:

First, Paul said, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. That is, concentrate your concern on the eternal, not the temporal. “Fix [your] eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”(Colossians 3:2)  Fixing our eyes on Jesus and knowing that His promises are true will cause courage to arise in our hearts in the very midst's of adversity.

Secondly, Stand therefore having . . . your feet shod with the preparation [hetoimasía, or firm footing for the foundation] of the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:13–15). This intimates the firm and solid knowledge of the gospel in which the believer may stand firm and unmoved like soldiers in their military duty. The Roman soldiers were furnished with shoes that had cleats on the soles for this purpose.  Standing in the face of adversity (slime, shadows, & snapping jaws) causes us to rise up in a spirit of tenacity that will always frustrate the enemy and cause him to loosen his grip on us.

And last but not least, David's intense focus on God gave him the assurance that after he had "walked through the valley of the shadow of death" he would be sitting down for a meal. "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;"  The Psalms also tell us that God laughs at His enemies.  "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision."(Psalm 2:4)

So here we are stuck in a pit and God begins to prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies (alligators)...and He is laughing!  Now here is where humor kicks in.  If God is laughing at our enemies while we are eating this meal, that means that we are not going to be "the meal," and we are just about to be delivered from this pit that we find ourselves in.  I don't know about you, but that makes me laugh!

So next time you find yourself in a pit of alligators don't be afraid (fear not).  Just know that you are a much loved child of God and He is just helping you sharpen your strengths, and He is forming you into the image of His dear Son!

...ever-increasing glory!

September 9, 2011

What we focus on...what we give our attention to, is what we are becoming.  The presence of the Spirit brings freedom and transformation to believers who keep their gaze focused on Christ Jesus.

One of my favorite verses about beholding and becoming is found in Corinthians:

"Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 3:17-18 ESV)

Here we see that it is the Spirit of the Lord that brings us into freedom-freedom to reflect the glory of the Lord in an ever-increasing glory.

In the Old Testament we can see the shining face of Moses as he beheld the glory of the Lord.  Here he had to veil his face before he could speak to the children of Israel:

^"Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.  And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.  But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him."(Exodus 34:29–35)

Moses veiled his face either because the glory of the Lord was too bright for the Israelites, or because he did not want them to see the glory fading. Unlike Moses, as believer's, we have unveiled faces, and everyone who encounters us should be able to see the glory of the Lord through us.

When we spend time in the presence of the Lord beholding his glory, the power and presence of the Spirit transforms us into the image of Christ.  This is a process of transformation (ever-increasing glory) where there is a degree-by-degree change.    

It was the Spirit of God that came upon Samson and he was able to demonstrate miraculous strength.  The Spirit enabled Joseph so that he was able to interpret dreams, and the prophets declared the Spirit as righteousness and they felt the Spirit within them.  The Spirit enabled David to be a conqueror in one crisis after another.  It was the Spirit of God that confronted Saul of Tarsus on the Road to Damascus, where he was cleansed and commissioned, and became a proclaimer of the good news.  Sustained by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness, Jesus came to his hometown in Nazareth and, standing up in the synagogue, He declared, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...To proclaim liberty to the captives..." (Luke 4:18).

The Spirit of God is active today in carrying out the mission statement of Jesus.  It is the Spirit that releases us from the captivity of our past-the sins that we have committed, as well as the sins that others have committed against us.  He intercedes for us with groans because He understands the pain that we have experienced in this life, and He understands the difficult issues that we encounter in our journey. 

Sin and the affects of sin, have veiled our eyes from seeing ourselves the way God sees us.  Instead of unveiled faces, we veil our faces because we don't feel worthy of beholding the face of Jesus.  Our shame veils our eyes which keeps us from fixing our gaze on Jesus and seeing the beauty that God sees in us.  We hide from God and from others.  It is the Holy Spirit that wants to  remove these veils that distort our view of God, ourselves, and others so that we may "behold" Jesus within us, “as in a mirror.”

What a privilege we have today of being able to abide in the glory of God without intermission.  We can enter into his presence and behold that glory uninterrupted.  With "unveiled" faces we can  continually behold the face of Jesus and we become like him in the process.

Are you beholding Jesus today, and if not, what veils are getting in your way, keeping you from becoming Christ-like?