This will
be a touchy subject, especially for people who don’t normally acknowledge this
from a biblical perspective, but I have to write about it. I have to expose the
darkness in my life in order to give you, O reader, an understanding of why I walk
with God as I do. Abuse is not an easy subject to talk about, but my heart is
filled with this topic. Please read this blog until the end because there are a
lot of gems in it to dig up. There are a lot of different kinds of abuse, but I
will only name a few of them: physical and emotional. It’s very easy to see
bruises, cuts, and wounds on your skin, but it’s very difficult to see bruises,
cuts, and wounds on your heart.
Man can
see the wounds on your skin—no matter if you or someone else inflicted them. A
person you love—a parent, a lover, a sibling, or a friend—threatens you,
punches you, cuts you, and even threatens murder on you. How do you deal with
that? Is there that much hatred that murder is even considered an option? It is
true what Jesus said: “Because lawlessness abounds, the love of many shall wax
cold” (Matthew 24:12). There are black eyes, bruised rips, lashings on the
back, knife wounds, gunshot wounds, and the list goes on and on. Why? It…just
breaks my heart to even comprehend this, but it’s the reality of the times. The
reality of a culture pushing God out by not keeping the Law of God as He
spiritually intended: with love. John wrote: “God is love” (I John 4:8) “, and
in Him there is no sin” (I John 3:4). John also said: “Whoever
commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” (I John 3:4).
In other words, we need to keep the 10 commandments given to Moses
(Exodus 20) as God, through Jesus Christ, spiritually intended (John 1:17 &
Matthew 5:17 & John 14:15). If we don’t keep them, we commit lawlessness,
and as Jesus said, a cold heart is an effect of abounding lawlessness. Love for
God and others is pushed aside to Narcissism or, worse yet, hate for self and
others. Abuse happens because of a cold heart doing lawless deeds on another or
self. This happened at Columbine, Virginia Tech, and most recently, Denver
Movie Theater Shooting. A cold-hearted mad man with intent to murder—intentionally
breaking the 6th commandment—goes to a movie theater at midnight and
shoots random people in a Russian roulette. The man didn’t care who it was that
he was murdering—didn’t matter if it were military, women, or little children.
The man’s heart was cold as ice because he chose to walk in the way of Cain:
Genesis 4:4-16 and I John 3:12. Is this what you really want to happen, O
America? Are you going to seek God and choose to keep His commandments backed
with love?
Now, O Man, you can see
the effects of the wounds on your heart, the heartache, the sorrow, the inner
pain, the depression, the despair, etc, but man cannot see the actual wound,
and what caused them. God can see all the actual wounds, and knows how to heal
them. Remember all the healings, the rebuking of evil spirits, and the
forgiving of sins? Remember all the things Jesus Christ did during His
Ministry? Here’s the start of it:
“So He came to Nazareth, where He
had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the
Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And
He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book,
He found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord
is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,[j]
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”[k]
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,[j]
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”[k]
Then
He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And
the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled
in your hearing.”
So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the
gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.” (Luke 4:16-20).
