Category Archives: Woundedness

The Mountain

August 9, 2025 By in Forgiveness, Repentance, Woundedness 1 Comment

Tell the mountain to be moved and cast into the sea?

So many times we hear the faith preachers tell us that if we have enough faith then we can cast any mountain into the sea and everything will be good.

But what if that was not what the Lord was only implying in Mark 11:22-23?

Maybe the emphasis instead should be placed on Mark 11:25:

“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Forgiveness is one of the keys to unleashing God’s power in your life.

Unforgiveness, however, is like living in a strong box that we constantly push against and keeps us in bondage.

What if “the mountain,” therefore, is our accumulated hurts, bitterness, rejection, or feelings of abandonment and despair over wrongs we might legitimately have suffered?

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Garden of Delight

August 18, 2014 By in Healing, Hope, Woundedness 1 Comment

Working in my flower gardens is one of my favorite delights. I love to watch them change from mere soil into beds filled with beautiful flowers. I believe that the Lord is the Master Gardener. He delights in transforming dry, dead, dismal gardens into works of art.

my_gardenThe Lord frequently speaks to me through prophetic pictures and many years ago He showed me that I was like a lifeless, desolate garden. His picture was not pretty.

In the Lord’s picture I opened a garden gate expecting to find a beautiful garden, but instead what He showed me was a brown, dried up, dead enclosed garden that did not have even one sprig of green. I was not instantly encouraged by the Lord’s picture!

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Apples and Pears

October 1, 2012 By in Brokenness, Compassion, Struggles, Woundedness 8 Comments
Apples and Pears

On Saturdays I love to go to the Farmers’ Market. I always go to one particular stand because they have the most flavorful peaches, apples and fresh vegetables. At the Farmers’ Market I enjoy the eclectic mix of people as well as the fresh produce.

Because it is the fall season, apples and pears are in abundance. The number of varieties is astounding! When I go to the market I look for the fruit that is unblemished. If I arrive near closing time, often the bruised fruit are the only ones left. Everyone seems to desire the perfect fruit, not the damaged ones.

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Finding Freedom From Life’s Hurts

July 9, 2012 By in Confession, Counseling, Forgiveness, Grace, Healing, Pain, Repentance, Truth, Woundedness Leave a comment
Finding Freedom From Life’s Hurts

This is a fifty-five minute teaching I shared with about thirty men, based on hundreds of pastoral counseling sessions where God showed up and brought freedom and healing from deep hurts – including abuse, abandonment and so much more.

My blog is a feeble attempt to upload a lifetime of service to the King of Kings. I believe this audio teaching, however, captures better than anything I’ve written some of the most significant things I’ve learned as I’ve walked with folks to those ugly places of bondage and hurt in their lives. When we get there, and they exposed their hurts and lies to the Lord, He brings His loving, healing truth.

In this talk, I also share some of my own very personal story about my own places of hurt, which I had to expose to Lord so He could then bring wholeness to me.

You may think you know me from my writings, but this captures my heart in ways that a written blog never can.

 
If this resonates with you, I also recommend my related blog, God Shows Up.

Becoming Our Past

February 26, 2012 By in Bondage, Counseling, Grace, Healing, Redemption, Struggles, Validation, Woundedness Leave a comment

Often, longstanding hurts, disappointments and emotional wounds are like old, familiar friends. We let them become so engrained into our sense of identity that they begin to define us.

When that happens, we often aren’t willing to transparently expose and turn them them over to Jesus, but tightly hold onto them like a child clinging to a security blanket.

Instead of finding transformation and wholeness, we become our past.

If this is a struggle for you or someone you know, let me suggest an old blog I wrote years ago called God Shows Up. It’s a good starting point on the road to healing.

Beauty from Ashes

September 9, 2011 By in Abuse, Church, Grace, Gratitude, Healing, Justice, Mercy, Pain, Redemption, Woundedness Leave a comment

Since early this year, I’ve been working on a huge sex abuse case involving a large, local Assembly of God church.

Hurt and Confusion

The human carnage and shattered lives have been great.

I take on these kinds of cases not only because I believe in justice, but because I also believe in redemption. Often, I have the privilege of seeing God’s grace shine through as healing comes and the survivors begin to find the strength to reclaim their lives – and their stolen voices.

As I interview and get to know various survivors and their families, I’m often asked if the pain will ever stop. I tell them how I have seen God bring beauty from ashes time and again, both in others and in my own life.

It is hard, but once we pass through the fire and begin to see what God does with the ashes of our lives, we experience gratitude for who we start to become.

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Abusive Church Leaders (Part 1) – My Personal Angst

May 23, 2011 By in Abuse, Abusive Pastor, Christ Chapel, Church, Confession, Healing, Judgment, New Covenant Fellowship, Pastor, Predatory Leaders, Repentance, Sin, Woundedness 14 Comments

Much to my dismay, God keeps bringing people to my door who have been abused by a pastor or other trusted church leader.

Over the last year, I’ve taken on three cases against abusive pastors. Two involve significant embezzlement and fraud by pastors in different churches. A third involves extensive sexual abuse and misconduct by around half a dozen men on the pastoral and ministerial staff at Christ Chapel Assembly of God in Woodbridge, Virginia.

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Leadership Burnout

April 27, 2009 By in Brokenness, Burnout, Grace, Healing, Pastors, Woundedness 9 Comments

Many leaders – including church leaders – suffer from burnout due to emotional and spiritual wounds which they mistakenly rationalize as Godly brokenness. But it’s not; it’s just profound hurt.

In their despair, they often become soothed by God’s love in their woundedness and want to stay there. The problem with unresolved wounds, however, is that they ultimately debilitate us, but Godly brokenness can bring new life – and sometimes literally a new life – if we let it.

That’s because true brokenness goes beyond hurt and changes the core of who we are – and if we’re willing to meet God there, He’s able use our burnout for our ultimate good.

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Woundedness

April 21, 2009 By in Christian, Counseling, Faith, Grace, Healing, Joy, Truth, Woundedness 12 Comments

On Sunday I taught men in the jail, using Psalms 116:5-7 (ESV), about moving from woundedness to life. I challenged them not to settle for mere comfort when confronting hurt, but to embrace life instead.

Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
   our God is merciful.
The LORD preserves the simple;
   when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest;
   for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

When hurt and wounded, too often all we can muster is a desire for God’s comfort or soothing presence. Although he’ll sometimes do that, what he really wants is to move us past woundedness into brokenness – that low place where we are willing to surrender to him. Only then can we hope to experience the bountiful life, both in us and around us, that comes from finding and finally doing God’s joyous will.

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