Sabotage, coerce, shame: Bullying in the church
It’s agonizing to be bullied – and it can happen to an adult, in the church. Supposedly godly people, seeking to control, plot to sabotage, coerce, shame.
It’s agonizing to be bullied – and it can happen to an adult, in the church. Supposedly godly people, seeking to control, plot to sabotage, coerce, shame.
Resentment may seem harmless. It may seem justified. Yet it is toxic and often misdirected. Whether it’s simmering within you or aimed at you, it’s hurting you.
From its start, Passover has met God’s people at the intersection of pain and gain, and urged, “Go with God. He is so worth it.” A story of Christ our Passover.
Have we seen Queen Esther as a beloved wife, living a fairy-tale life? If so, we’ve missed the abuse in her story and a surprising key to reigning in life.
Jesus grew up in a religious system God had instigated, and people had hijacked to use for their own ends. Jesus’ life shows us when and how to buck the system.
Decades ago, Sarah and Angelina Grimké told the truth with compassion and courage. Still today, the sisters can help us uncover cruelty hidden in plain sight.
When asked if I wanted to be ordained, I waited on the Lord. I’m still in awe! And I can encourage you: When he calls you to walk on the water to meet him – GO!
I’d seen it in Scripture, yet had not seen: How strongly God commits himself to defend the forsaken. How strongly he urges his people to befriend the forsaken.
Deeply grieving, falsely accused, Job cried in anger. “It is God who has wronged me!” Sometimes, intimate conversations with God are passionate and fierce.
The Lord sees when the vulnerable are wrongly rejected. He hears when the helpless cry to him, and he champions them. Defender of the forsaken – this is God.