Battered boundaries in the church
Why did I suddenly, relentlessly, find my boundaries battered? Who knew battered boundaries in the church would set me on a new life quest?
Why did I suddenly, relentlessly, find my boundaries battered? Who knew battered boundaries in the church would set me on a new life quest?
When a group shuns, it rejects someone who has belonged. How shunning in the church looks, why it hurts so much – and why you can overcome.
Anyone can do a kind act for a selfish reason. Those who want to control others – and to appear good – can fake kindness and use it to abuse.
Counting the cost, going with God, may not look as we have thought. It may mean saying yes to the Lord Jesus and following him where our church culture forbids.
It’s agonizing to be bullied – and it can happen to an adult, in the church. People eager to control, plot to sabotage, coerce, shame.
Lord Jesus, show me when the church is not the church. Expose the world in church clothing – a system competing with God for my heart.
As unloved Leah did Jacob, a woman can give herself to a church culture that exploits her – while rejecting her personhood, her adulthood, her worth, her.
Maybe the church has become bewildering to you. Leaders you trusted and people you respected are acting in ways that do not reflect who Jesus is, nor what they profess to believe. They have turned on anyone among them who appears to threaten the status quo. What is going on?
When people manipulate, intimidate, dominate in the church – that’s witchcraft. See how it looks and how fully it can fool us.
Sitting in my car at that gas station on that winter afternoon, staring at Isaiah 58:1, I began to cry ... Oh. Lord. Not. This. Assignment.