Toxic church – and a promise of real belonging
Long ago and still today, God promises his traumatized, grieving, scattered people: I will be a sanctuary to you. I will protect you. I will gather you back.
Shunning in the church
Any group that shuns is withholding your deepest needs in order to control you. That’s the opposite of loving you. It’s people you trusted, trying to erase you.
A validation blessing
“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountain crags, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” (Song 2:14 NET)
Now and forever: Resting in God’s love
Think of it! All that David experienced and described in Psalm 23 – all of it – is still flowing from God’s great love, in hot pursuit of you.
I will change your name
No longer wounded, outcast, lonely, afraid - your new name shall be Confidence, Joyfulness, Overcoming one, Faithfulness, Friend of God, One who seeks My face.
Cliques in the church
Cliques are by nature, exclusive. Wherever they occur in the church landscape, they fragment the church. They prevent the people of God from becoming one.
The most freeing thing
The work of exile – the work God wants to do through it – is to free you from bondage that masquerades as relationship, to draw you to himself, to show you what is and is not love. Perhaps the hardest thing you can do in exile – and by far the most freeing – is to stay there until it has done its work.