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- [00:12]
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Hey, everyone.
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Welcome to Project 20. My name is Scott. I'm going to be your host today.
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Thank you for joining us.
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Just by way of a quick introduction, if you're unfamiliar with who we are, if this is your first time at the podcast, I just want to encourage you that my friends and I have created this platform to be an interactive space because we want to hear from you personally. We want to understand some of the things that you're thinking about, the things that are maybe even troubling to you. Maybe you have concerns or even questions of faith that you're thinking through and you're just not quite sure where to go to begin to ask those type of questions. We want you to come to us. We would love to have you ask those type of questions and any other ones that you might have. We'd love to have you connect with us knowing that we aren't here to judge or shame you and that we're actually going to do the very best we can to provide a biblical perspective to encourage you and challenge you with. Maybe you're just going through stuff at school or with your families or on the job, too. We would love to kind of bounce those things off of you and us together to try to come up with some. Some encouragement that we might be able to offer you. It's really easy to reach us anonymously. All you have to do is to connect with me through the link that's in the podcast description. I'll receive your questions and your comments, and then we'll address them as quickly.
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As we can here.
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So interspersed with our Q and A sessions, and we're going to be mixing in some other episodes that I'm also really excited for. Um, we're going to have some guest hosts that are lined up, and they're going to talk to us about areas of that they are experts in, in their fields. And then we're also going to have testimonial interviews from people and folks just like you and I who are processing very difficult things in their life. Maybe they've survived some very difficult things and their faith has helped them in their journey. Or maybe they're actually in the thick of it right now and they're going to be vulnerable with us and just talk with us and encourage us as well. And then in addition to those, when we're not doing one of those two things, I'm going to also be adding some, like, what I think is really.
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Fascinating content that's in the Bible itself.
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I mean, we're going to be looking at some of the amazing ways that the scriptures convey a unified story that reveals God to us. And so we're excited for that. But for today, then we have a question and answer time and we had a great question that came in and in fact, it's such an awesome question, I'm actually going to devote two episodes to it just in order to do it justice, to peel back some of the layers of thought that kind of.
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Go into the question.
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So, like, in the first episode that.
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We'Re going to be doing today, I'll go over some of what the Bible.
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Says about this question. And then in the next episode, we're going to begin to unpack some real life examples, how people answered this question.
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In their own lives.
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We'll do that from people in the Bible as well as people who are just like you and I, living in the 21st century and going through things. And we're going to see how they.
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Handled this question as well. So let's just jump into it.
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Then this listener asks a great question.
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It comes in two parts. The first part of the question is.
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How do I find healing from.
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From being wronged? And then the follow up second part of that question is, what does God want me to do when other people hurt me?
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So like, okay, great questions, right? Let's jump into it and see if.
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We can come up with some answers to this.
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I think, first of all, let's start out by just agreeing to acknowledge the.
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Fact that there are massive amounts of examples that can fall under the umbrella of being wronged.
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I mean, there are times in our lives when we call unfair. And those events can range anything between.
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The smallest of things to the greatest of traumas.
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For example, maybe it seems unfair to.
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You that you lost your WI fi in a storm and now you can't binge watch your favorite Netflix show. Or maybe it's something as trivial as.
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Somebody took your parking spot and that.
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Triggers you to anger, maybe even rage. Or maybe, maybe it's something a little bit more different and deeper and permanent.
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Maybe you've been wronged and what that.
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Looks like falls into a category that every day after that event happens will be very different. It was a game changer. There will now be a new reality for you to face. Like, for example, there are people who have been unjustly fired from a job and still others who have survived situations that are horrific of intentional, like verbal, emotional, and even physical abuse at the hands of a tormentor. And there are also times, I think, that we can all relate to when somebody close to us dies and we know that we're never going to be able to see them again. We're never going to be able to talk to them and hear their voice or even hold them close. I mean, that can have such an impact on us that we actually cry foul against God. I mean, how dare he take that person from me. Even our own verbiage enforces our unique pain because we talk about losing the one that we love. So that or any number of other things that we understand or perceive to be unfair are things that can actually become catalytic in our lives and leave us feeling as if God himself has wronged us. This is addressed in a great book I'm going to recommend to you guys. It's called the Great Detour Ching. The authors Jim Davis and Michael Graham describe an all too common scenario that you might be able to relate to about a mother named Tammy. In their book, they talk about Tammy and they say Tammy's daughter is abused by a person on staff at a church. Only then was the matter swept under the carpet because covered up and not even reported to police by other people who are supposed to be mandatory reporters. They write this, they say Tammy was done. I mean, she was done. She never went back to church after that betrayal. The pain of it shredded her spirit. And on top of the sexual abuse and the subsequent cover up, the treatment they received from fellow church members just rubbed salt in their wounds. End quote. So look, I'm going to admit right up front something that we all know. Horrible pain is undeniable in this world. And even more so, tragically, oftentimes that pain can come at the hands of people and institutions who claim to be followers of God. And when this happens, the God of the Bible becomes known as some sort of tyrannical deity whose lack of prevention is misunderstood to be approval of the evil that's inflicted on humanity by itself. I mean, instead of recognizing him as a merciful, gracious God, the loving Father, the comforting spirit, or the Son who endured excruciating suffering to rescue us instead because of the wrongs that have been inflicted upon us, sometimes mankind defines him in the opposite ways that are described in the scriptures. And this is sickening. I mean, many church leaders and faith institutions actually flip the narrative on the redemptive story of Christ. It's disgusting to see how sometimes churches and church leaders become the enemy's puppets and they actually lead people away from Jesus rather than towards Him. So then what do we do with that? Our question remains right? How do I find healing from being wronged in that type of situation. What does God want me to do when other people hurt me? Well, the answer lies within recapturing and understanding who God is and how he's really working in this world today. There's another great book that I'm going to recommend to you all as well. It's called the Reason for Church, and the author's name is Brad Edwards. In his book, he challenged us to consider God's path isn't just one of my personal survival, but when I'm devoted and faithful to God, a byproduct of that is a flourishing life even no matter what happens to the things and the ways that I'm wrong. It begins with recognizing the inherent dangers of self repair and instead embrace the vulnerable intimacy that Jesus desires. Follow along with me in his thinking as I read to you what he says on page 43 of his book. He says this, and some of us can relate to this for sure. No child should ever have to suffer abuse at the hand of their father. And it is imminently understandable that an adult with such childhood trauma might find relating to God as a father to be extremely painful or scary, if not actually triggering. It might even make sense to us that God wouldn't want to traumatize anyone by insisting that we call him Father. I mean, but here's the thing. If God is good and loving, how could he not, by refusing to relate to God as Father because it's painful won't, no matter how hard we try or how firmly we believe it will bring healing or redemption to that horrific experience. He wants so much more for us than to make us safe or to heal our wounds. Our Father wants to make his children new. The sacred self remakes God in the image of our wounds. And no path can lead to resurrection in this life or the next if it accredits more power to a broken world than to the God who has vowed to redeem it. That's the end of his quote. Now that's a little complex, and let me just go into a different author to help us understand that, and then I'll make a comment on it. But many of you know who C.S. lewis is, if you've worked in faith circles or grown up in a church at all. C.S. lewis borrows a parable from a guy named George McDonald, and he records it in his book Mere Christianity, which great book, by the way, where he puts it this way. My edition of Mere Christianity has it on page 205, and he's saying the same thing, but he reframes it a Little bit different. Here's what Lewis says. Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps you understand what he's doing. He is getting the drains right and he's stopping the leaks in the roof and so on. You knew that those jobs needed doing and so you're not surprised.
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But presently he starts knocking the house.
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About in a way that hurts abominably and it doesn't seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he's building quite a different house from the one you thought of. He's throwing a new wing here, he's putting on an extra floor there, he's running up the tower, he's making courtyards. You thought you're going to be made into a decent little cottage, but he's building a palace and he intends to come and live in in Himself. That's the end of his quote. So what Edwards and Lewis are asking us to remember here is that God is working in our lives at great cost to Himself so that we will understand his love and the beauty of that relationship. That loyalty that he has for us and which he desires, that we have for him will have eternal redemptive value and it will see us through the day to day. So in other words, as horrible and as traumatic as it can be, we can expect to be wronged by mankind and we may even suffer under the influence and the power of lesser created rebellious beings. If you want to hear more on that, go to podcasts five, seven and eight and you can hear a little bit about what is going on in the unseen realm that the Bible has in store for us. But there is evil that is intelligent, that's seeking our harm as well. But here's the thing. God loves us enough, and he strengthens us sufficiently that we, as a global community that's called church, will be able to not only endure it, but we will be able to prevail. We'll be able to thrive, and we'll be able to demonstrate his love to that same broken world by his own blood and suffering. He shows us how that's possible. And I'll get into more of that in part two of this Q and A session. But think on this until we get there. When we think about Jesus, we say that he endured excruciating pain. The word excruciating comes from the Latin verb excruciar, which means from crucifixion or from the cross. It was a word that was invented to describe the phenomenal pain associated with the death that Jesus had at death on the cross. That's how much he loves us. That's the biblical narrative. Let me show you some examples of what I mean and how this comes up in the Bible. And I'm going to read to us several passages here. But I think it's important that we.
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Have it like a pretty good umbrella.
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Understanding of who the recipients actually were that received the separate books of the Bible. The ancients who are described in the Bible and to whom much of the Bible was written were no strangers to the unfairness of mankind. Many were facing social persecution, imprisonment, and even death because they followed God. We can learn much from their stories as well, because they're the same as us and even at deeper and harder levels. The second half of the Bible is called the New Testament. It contains 27 separate writings. As I read from some of these, you can find all of them located in that portion of the Bible. All of them describe what a person who has believing loyalty in Jesus can do also when wronged by others. The first place I'm going to go is a book called First Peter. I'm going to read from 3, 14, 4, 12 to 13 and 5, 10. Here's where we find these words. But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed be. Do not fear them or be intimidated by people. He writes, Dear friends, don't be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you as if something unusual were happening to you. Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed. The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ was will himself restore, establish, strengthen and support you after you have suffered a little while. Another book called Second Corinthians. I'm going to read from chapter one, verses three to four, chapter four, verses eight to ten, and verse 17. Here we read. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are also in any kind of affliction through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. We are afflicted in every way, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but we do not despair. We are persecuted, but not abandoned. We are struck down, but we are not destroyed. We always carry the death of Jesus in our body so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable, eternal weight of glory. Another book that's called Second Timothy, Chapter 3, Verse 12. In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Galatians, chapter 6, verse 2, reinforces this. Carry one another burdens in this way and you will fulfill the law of Christ. It understands that we all have these burdens and healing takes place when we come together and we work through it ourselves. We lock arms through it. James, chapter 4, verses 1 to 2, and verse 12 says this. Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let the endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those that love him. Another book, Philippians, chapter 3, verse 10. Philippians was written by a man named Paul while he was in jail. And it's a book about joy. The word joy is one of the major themes of the book of Philippians. He writes this. He says, my goal is to know him, mean Jesus, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings to be conformed to his death. John, the one, arguably the best friend of Jesus, writes in his gospel in chapter 16, verse 33, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world, but be courageous. I have conquered the world. And then we have a book called Romans. And In Romans, chapter 5, verse 3, 8, verse 18, and verses 35 to 39, we, we have this truth. Romans is like the Magna Carta of the Christian faith. Here's what the author says. There he says, and not only that, but we will also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is going to be revealed to us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution, or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, because of you we are being put to death all day long we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other Created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And then I'm going to pull in something from the Old Testament. Now the Old Testament is the first half of our Bibles. There's 39 separate writings in that. One of the big ones that's right in the middle of your Bibles is called the Book of Psalms. I'm going to look at Psalms chapter 34, verse 19 and chapter 119, verse 71. Here it says this one who is my righteousness and my many and has many. Let me start that again. One who is righteous and has many adversaries, but the Lord rescues him from their all. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I could learn your statutes. Okay, so let me stop there, tap the brakes a second. I know that that was a lot of different Bible verses that we just read, but I hope it gives you a sense of some of the consistency of the message of the Bible. Like these are just a small sampling of the fact that people have always and will always suffer at the hand of others. But also it's true and it's a thread throughout the scriptures that God, and this is what I want us to remember here, is consistent in his desire to change our hearts through the injustice. Like none of us will live lives free from being wronged or doing wrong or harmful things ourselves to other people and hurting them at times. It is the reality of our broken and sinful world. And as we talked about this a little bit in the previous episode too, God never promises a trouble free life. He does however promise several key things to help us frame our faith and understand how to respond to being wrong. For example, he promised us that whatever happens to us individually can be used for the eternal good and the daily good today of the global community that's called the church. Back in the book of romans, in chapter 8, verse 28, there's a very common verse for people who are familiar with their Bibles. It says we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are also called according to his purpose. The problem that we have with that verse is we make it internalized and individualistic. This passage is written to the corporate body, the church, many people, and is talking about the power of the church and the goodness of God being seen in the world today. Let me give you a modern day example of this that you might be able to relate to. On January 8, 1956, five Christian men landed in the Carari river in the rainforests of Ecuador. In order to do that, they wanted to be able to have contact and with their evangelistic efforts with an indigenous tribe called the Warani or the Auca. Their names were Jim Elliott, Nate Saint, Ed McCauley, Peter Fleming and Roger Yodurnan. And they were separated when they they landed and they were all speared by a group of Warani warriors. It was a horrible day for these guys and their families and everybody that knew them just was broken over it. But God actually used that awful day, which was bad for them, to be good for his kingdom plan. The deaths of these men galvanized the missionary effort in the United States, sparking an outpouring of funding for evangelism efforts all around the world. It catalyzed awareness of cross cultural challenges. It helped focus the need to empower local leaders to plant indigenous churches. It became an ongoing narrative of martyrdom and the redemption to inspire generations after them by fueling them and their passion with several books and movies. One of those was called the End of the Spear. Some of the books were through the Gates of Splendor and the Shadow of the Almighty. And I guess in short, their deaths became a pivotal moment in evangelical missions to inspire thousands of people to understand and engage the heart of Jesus to reach the lost. In fact, Elizabeth Elliot and her daughter Valerie and Rachel Saint, joined by a warning woman, returned to that tribe. Their return was marked with forgiveness, healing and significant evangelism results happened and a huge decline in the violence of the tribe took place. One of the highlights of their journey that rings true to the pages of scripture was the experience of forgiveness. True forgiveness includes vulnerability. It takes a risk. When we wall up our hearts. When trauma comes, we take the healing power of forgiveness off the table. We perceive that true safeness comes from isolation, when in fact safety is found in a loving community that the church should be. If our local churches, those who congregate, like at a certain address and a certain building that we call church, if those communities lack loving support and discipleship components, and many, many do, let's be honest, then we need to seek out other followers of Jesus that help us understand the significance behind his own statement on the cross that we can read in the Gospel of Luke, in chapter 23, verse 34, here's what he said. Jesus is hanging on the cross. Some of his last words. And then Jesus said, father, forgive them, because they do not know what they're doing. And they divided his clothes and they cast lots. We'll talk more about the ways that Jesus handled being wronged. By others in the next episode. But as we wrap up for today, let me just encourage you with a couple of final thoughts here. There is no denying that extraordinary pain comes from being wrong. Sometimes it hurts. I mean, there's. There's no doubting that at all. And nobody is saying that it doesn't. But the other thing is, you are not alone in your pain. The pages of scripture are saturated with the blood of victims who didn't deserve what they got. I mean, check it out in a book called Hebrews in chapter 11 and you'll read some of their stories. That chapter is describing and all the. The horrific things that have happened to the best of people. And it concludes with the these words. It says the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and in holes in the ground. All these were approved through their faith. Nobody deserves to be wrong. And we are all, in some way or another, wronged at some times because actually we're all created in the image of God, and He himself was a target of a broken world. Equally true is the fact that we don't deserve God's grace and rescue either. But he extends it to us when we are faithful to Him. The byproduct of our faithfulness is peace, healing, and a renewed heart. That renewal happens in a community of people who love him and they love you as well. And you'll never find it from within and in isolation and from trying to figure that out all on your own. I hope that you will trust us as the hosts of this podcast, to be part of that healthy community. We genuinely love Jesus and we want to help lock arms with you in this journey as well. Once again, please contact us and let us know where you're at. We're a safe place to be. Thank you so much for joining us today and for tuning in. The next episode will be wrapping up this discussion that we began today. Thank you so much. God bless and take good care.