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Showing posts with the label Sexual abuse

How to survive abuse

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Building a new family from the ashes of past abuse is an opportunity to defy destruction and illuminate hope. When you’ve come from an abusive past, building up your own new family is no ordinary thing. It joyfully, actively, and creatively crushes the work of Satan . The work of establishing a Christ -centered family stands as an act of redemption and re-creation that proclaims God ’s glory and dominion over evil. We are made in God’s image, created to reflect his value through our lives, words, and works — but we don’t come into the world fully mature. God designed families to serve as one of the most essential arenas of our development. Thus, we are born as malleable, impressionable children, who intrinsically imbibe the world of our caregivers. And this can be a world of affection and instruction in Christ, or a world of neglect and abuse. Being raised in a godly home should communicate to us that we are loved, that Christ is to be trusted, and that God is our Father ...

Lot's wife and homosexuality

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English: Abraham Sees Sodom in Flames, circa 1896–1902, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Reumah could hardly stand the racket. The pounding on the door and the shouting were deafening. It seemed that all the men of Sodom had gone mad and were pursuing their madness at her door! And these were her friends and neighbors! The men had first demanded that Lot should surrender the handsome visitors to them to get “to know” them, but now they were screaming for her husband’s head. Lot was terrified and frozen in shock. How could all this happen? Reumah wondered. She and Lot were influential leaders in Sodom. How could the Sodomites have turned on them so suddenly and so viciously? Reumah knew that somehow it was all tied to the visitors whom Lot had secreted in their home. These two men had come on a special mission to Sodom. Knowing Sodom’s reputation for sexual aggression, Lot insisted that they stay with him and Reumah rather than in the ci...

Jehovah Witnesses and how they treat Jesus

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English: A Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall in Svolvær in Lofoten, Norway. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.  The New World Translation This is one of the most common verses of contention between the  Jehovah's Witnesses  and Christians. Their false assumption is that Jesus is not God in flesh but Michael the archangel who became a man.  Therefore, since they deny that  Jesus is divine , they have altered the Bible in John 1:1 so that Jesus is not divine in nature.  The New World Translation has added the word "a" to the verse so it says, " . . . and the Word was  a  god."  The correct translation for this verse is " In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."  This is how it is rendered in the NASB, NIV, KJV, NKJV, ASV, RSV, etc. The New World translation is incorrect in its translation of this verse for several ...

Biblical Forgiveness and Sexual Assault

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Author: Tim Challies. I wish this book had not been written, or more properly, I wish there was no need for this book to be written. I wish there was no such monstrosity in the world as sexual assault . Yet the ugly truth is that sexual assault not only exists, but is all too common. The statistics are shocking, alarming. And therefore, because sexual assault exists and because of its prevalence, I am grateful that Justin and Lindsey Holcomb wrote  Rid of My Disgrace .   He is a pastor at Mars Hill Church and adjunct professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary while she is a deacon who counsels victims of sexual assault; together they are compassionate and theologically-sound, able to provide hope and healing for those who have been victimized. I do not understand the consequences of sexual assault upon its victims. There were times as a child I came perilously close to being victimized—that school janitor, that older boy. But each time someone or som...

Grave danger of pornography

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There’s little doubt that pornography is a modern-day plague. Though pornography has always existed in one form or another, the Internet has created a medium through which it can be disseminated both widely and discreetly. Almost an entire generation of boys has succumbed at one time or another, with a new generation quickly falling into all of the same traps. And it has not just been boys; many men have found the temptation irresistible (and, of course, not a few women). While there are some who try to downplay pornography’s impact on life and marriage, evidence is mounting that it is a terribly destructive force. Two new books from New Growth Press address the issue head-on. One targets men who are struggling with pornography or any other manner of sexual sin and the other brings help and healing to women who have found that their husbands have an addiction. David White ’s  Sexual Sanity for Men  seeks to help men “understand that sexual sin starts in thei...