There is alot going on in the church today.

Will put some of our sermon messages on Facebook later from the jail ministry services.

I dont take the time to read much on facebook, but will try more.

God bless,
Herman

Love your breakdown between Brokeness and Woundedness. I find this to be very true. Through years of treatment centers and various programs I would only allow certain things to be revealed, so essentially that is as healthy as I got. That small voice inside of me was there telling me “you must go there to be free” but of course I wasn’t willing. So what happened?…found myself back again.

This time I was in the hands of some trustworthy men and was in a state of desperation and had to act if I wanted to be set free. So I stepped out in faith and faced it head on.

A very liberating experience for me. It had to be done.

I gave a message at our church last year about how the cross is not just a bridge we cross over to get to salvation, to come into relationship with God; the cross is also the place we live existentially, moment by moment. The cross is the intersection point – the place where heaven meets earth and righteousness overcomes sin.

We should be constantly experiencing the great exchange – passing our guilt, shame, woundedness and hurt to Him and receiving back His grace , righteousness and healing. it’s the only place and the only way to live.

Just this week I meet with a close friend and confidant so he could help me deal with some deep, deep hurts that were effecting my ability to be the man I needed to be in another, developing relationship. I had to be willing to face and expose the source of those wounds, which meant beeing willing to be transparent, and then let the Lord quietly speak to me his truth in that still small voice that he’s so good at.

It is not simply a “factual” or “theological” truth that he speaks, but a very personal, loving revelation of how he views the experiences and my resulting subjective beliefs that gave rise to pain. Once we get to the place where we are willing to meet him in our woundedness because we get to broken, and to then hear what he has to say, then the scripture says that his truth will set us free.

In my own life, and in the many counseling sessions I’ve done over the last year with men and women in deep, deep pain, I have never failed to see the Lord speak his gentle truth when someone is willing to meet him in the source of their pain. Think about that. It’s amazing. God never leaves us or forsakes us when we are willing to meet him at the source of our hurt. Brokenness is essential, however, because it allows us to set aside the fear and the pride that otherwise prevents us from getting to the place where the Lord is patiently waiting to speak to us.

If we never are wounded, then we are not living. I would never trade away the experiences that caused my wounds because they helped me find and come ever closer to who God wants me to be. Christ “suffered the cross for the joy set before him.” The joy of getting to the place where we can be the authentic person God created us to be is worth the price of admission.

Thanks for your comment. Before I posted this newest blog, I circulated a draft to a number of friends. This issue of woundedness is front and center at my church, where we have lots of “walking wounded” people, including some leaders. The responses I received were very interesting.

Those who had passed from wounded to broken and now were finding new life generally responded with comments about how the blog made them wonder if they still had issues with woundedness. In contrast, those who clearly were still walking in woundedness generally responded with comments saying they were so glad they had finally gotten past woundedness to brokenness.

I think those contrasting responses showed me that truly broken people are able to examine and deal with wounding — the underlying experience is still real, but the pain has been replaced with peace and rest because they were willing to meet God and hear from him in their place of wounding. They are very transparent to themselves, God and others, and able to deal with the question of woundedness without pride or fear.

Wounded people, however, tend to think that they have reached brokenness and that sooths them, when in fact they are unable to generally go to the place of pain to meet God there. Thus, the belief that they have reached brokenness, and the soothing balm that provides, is a defense against truly dealing with their woundedness.

Which then made me wonder if I may still be wounded . . .

(This will probably kill any comments!)

– Jim