Posted in Abuse, Anger, Behavior, Bitterness, Burn Out, Care, Catholic, Christian, Dysfunction, Emotions, Evangelical, God, Healing, Hurt, Jesus Christ, Love, Low Self-Esteem, Pain, Patience, Prayer, Pride, Purpose, Religion, Self-Absorbed, Spirituality, Value, tagged Holy Spirit, The Great Commission on June 30, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Refer to STEP 11: I made a commitment to nurture my relationship with the Lord, asking Him to reveal His will to me and to provide me with the power to carry it out.
All authority has been given to Me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing [...]
Posted in Abuse, Anger, Behavior, Betrayal, Bitterness, Care, Christian, Cult, Dysfunction, Emotions, God, Guilt, Healing, Hurt, Jesus Christ, Love, Patience, Prayer, Pride, Purpose, Value on June 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Refer to Step 10: I believed that God still has a purpose for my life—a purpose for good and not evil.
If a man is going to do anything worth while, there are times when he has to risk everything on his leap, and in the spiritual domain, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you [...]
Posted in Abuse, Anger, Bitterness, Emotions, God, Healing, Hurt, Pain, Purpose, Religion on June 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Refer to STEP 4: I came to believe that God understood my wounded-ness, and He alone could heal me. I chose to accept as true what God has said about Himself. He is good and can be trusted.
For most people, after being subjected to a pattern of verbal and emotional abuse—and occasionally physical, sexual or [...]
Posted in Abuse, Addiction, Anger, Behavior, Betrayal, Bitterness, Burn Out, Care, Christian, Cult, Depression, Dysfunction, Emotions, God, Guilt, Healing, Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Pain, Patience, Prayer, Purpose, Recovery, Self-Absorbed, Stress, Wounds on June 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Refer to STEP 1: My life was shipwrecked.
Do you remember the movie, As Good as It Gets, with Jack Nicholson? It was powerful and poignant, as it showed life can be tolerable, rewarding, and even pleasant in spite of substantial character shortcomings. The main character was so flawed he had to take medication just to [...]
Posted in Anger, Behavior, Bitterness, Care, Catholic, Christian, Emotions, Evangelical, God, Healing, Love, Patience, Prayer, Pride, Purpose, Recovery, Self-Absorbed, Spirituality, Value on June 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Refer to STEP 5: I had to repair my relationship with God.
Everybody wants his or her prayers answered. That’s no surprise, but many people, perhaps most, really don’t want what God is seeking from them—intimacy with Him. They just want what they want and for God to grant their wishes. It’s as simple as that, [...]
Posted in Abuse, Emotions, God, Healing, Hurt, Pain, Purpose, Recovery, Religion, tagged Prayer, Pride on June 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Refer to STEP 3: I accepted that the responsibility for getting back on track was mine and no one else’s.
When you’ve had the rug pulled out from under you, as most of us have at one time or another, you start asking the tough but important questions.
Why did this happen?
What does God expect [...]
Posted in Abuse, Anger, Behavior, Betrayal, Bitterness, Burn Out, Christian, Cult, Depression, Dysfunction, Emotions, God, Guilt, Healing, Pain, Purpose, Recovery on June 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Refer to STEP 1: I recognized that where I am in life is not where I want to be.
After the pain of our abuse begins to subside and we realize our life is going to take a very different direction than we wanted or expected, we ask ourselves what lessons we need to learn from [...]
Posted in God, Purpose, tagged Add new tag, Dancing, Prayer on June 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Refer to STEP 4: I chose to accept as true what God has said about Himself. He is good and can be trusted.
Humans want to believe they have control of their own destinies. Barnes & Noble is full of books that tell you how to make all your dreams come true. Some of them are [...]
Posted in God on June 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The following was so on target for Pushing Jesus, we’ve decided to post the comment as a guest editorial.
–Jack–
I just wanted to let you know we finally see God at work on our hearts. It’s been nearly four years since we left the cult. God’s been faithful to heal our wounds, and we’ve let our [...]
Posted in Abuse, Anger, Bitterness, Emotions, God, Healing, Pain, Purpose, Recovery on June 13, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Gatorade has a series of commercials that are some of my favorites. They say, “Is it in you?”
For those of us in recovery, we know the answer: Yes, it is.
Having experienced the pain of religious abuse, all I had to counteract the devastating impact of the abuse was my relationship with the Lord. It wasn’t [...]
Posted in God on June 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Refer to STEP 11: I asked Him “to reveal His will to me and to provide me with the power to carry it out.
For those who are abusers, it’s all about them—their mission in life, their calling, and their exalted purpose. For those who have been abused by getting in the way, it’s all about [...]
Posted in Abuse, Anger, Behavior, Betrayal, Bitterness, Burn Out, Care, Depression, Divorce, Dysfunction, Emotions, God, Guilt, Hatred, Healing, Hurt, Love, Pain, Pride, Purpose, Recovery, Wounds on June 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Refer to STEP 2: I refused to continue living my life pursuing self-defeating behavior.
I love that commercial about V-8. It says you had the opportunity to make a good choice about what you put in your body and chose instead to eat something that wasn’t good for you. Because Americans do this every day, we [...]
Welcome! My name is John Watts, but you can call me 'Jack.'
