Good Shepherds

 Many have experienced very painful spiritual abuse and I have been traumatised by it myself.

We are familiar with many tragic stories. We see on the daily news how preachers abuse women and children. We can start to look at pastors and priests as enemies, but that would not be fair.

Who has never been misunderstood and hurt by their parents? Maybe some have. But imagine a world without parents, a world without a mother's love.

There are pastors who are guides for deeply wounded people, preachers who pass on God's love and lift up people who have been ruined.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not only a great theologian, but also a faithful pastor. He was a good shepherd in Germany during the Nazi era. He was not only the leader, but also a role model for the faithful Christians in the national church.

He sacrificed his life before the end of the war. He was executed by the Nazis. He was a heroic pastor and he was by no means the only one.

In 1941 in Auschwitz, a prisoner managed to escape. In retaliation, ten prisoners were to starve. One of the ten wailed loudly because of his wife and children.

The priest Maximilian Kolbe was also there. He volunteered to go to his death for his traumatised father. He spent three weeks with the other nine victims in the death bunker, where he comforted the others with faith and love. He was a true shepherd.

Countless preachers have suffered voluntarily in prisons, not only in Nazi Germany, but in communist and Islamic countries.

As a young man, I was depressed and needed a therapist. As a newly converted Christian, I also needed a good pastor. Unfortunately, my first pastors were very legalistic, manipulative and authoritarian. Instead of understanding and compassion, I experienced spiritual abuse.

I was rejected and shunned and I broke down. But I didn't stay down. I thank God for good pastors who helped me later.

My father was a psychiatrist. He didn't become a believer until he was 88, but he was a good doctor. I met Christians who were very grateful for his care.

I have also seen terrible abuse in psychiatric hospitals. I never want to discard good psychiatry because of bad psychiatry.

I also never want to disregard good pastors because of bad or even cruel pastors.

I have often been disappointed with pastors and sometimes badly hurt, but I would never have come to where I am now without good pastors.

Pastors are just people. So many have been hurt by parents, but imagine how we could live without parents.

In the Bible, Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jn 10:11 NIV

He is our role model, whether we are fathers, mothers, pastors or employers.

I thank God for good fathers and mothers, good teachers and therapists, for good doctors and nurses, for good pastors and preachers.

Don't Let Cruel Abuse Destroy You

Joseph was his father Jacob's favourite son. Jacob spoiled him and gave him a splendid robe. This aroused the envy of his brothers and they hated him.

They wanted to kill him, but instead they sold him as a slave.

These men were the fathers of the twelve Hebrew tribes.

These tribes formed the chosen people of God, but their behaviour was anything but holy.
Joseph was prophetically gifted but unbearably proud and arrogant.

His brothers were hateful and cruel.   

We Christians read the history of the Jews in the Bible and we are often proud that we are supposedly better.

We read in the New Testament about the heroic faith of the apostles and the love and virtue of the first Christians, but not everything in the first churches was beautiful and good.

There were good but also evil church leaders.

Paul teaches us that we should not passively accept cruel treatment from preachers and leaders.

For you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face. 2 Cor 11:20 NASB95

But surely there is no such brutal leadership these days. Yes, there is.

We often read terrible reports of Catholics who were sexually abused as children in the church.

In America, there are also many reports of sexual exploitation of young women in evangelical churches.

A Christian journalist in Australia has researched the stories of harassed wives of pastors. These women told how they were enslaved and often raped by their outwardly respectable husbands.

Jesus warned his apostles that they were not immune to hypocrisy either. We can all fail. Where can you find a Christian who has never been hurt by other Christians?

There are two tragic mistakes that we must avoid.
Some victims learn never to resist, to see themselves as inferior, to give up all hope.

When some husbands read in the Bible that their wives should submit, they demand slave like obedience. They don't allow access to a bank account. They always give orders and humiliate their wives all the time.

If the woman seeks help in the church, she is blamed because she is supposed to submit even more. There are women who put up with all this for years.

The other mistake is the strong reaction, whereby the injured victim escapes and then becomes an aggressive, bossy bully.

Joseph was the spoiled and proud son of Jacob. He was abducted by Arab slave traders and sold in Egypt. He suffered unjustly for years as a slave and then a prisoner, but he never gave up and never became bitter.

Joseph was finally freed from captivity. The strange prophetic dreams of his youth were astonishingly fulfilled. He became the head of the Egyptian government and then he was reconciled with his family.

Perhaps you have had to endure terrible experiences in churches, as I have myself. Please don't give up. Jesus was also persecuted by God's people. He understands your suffering and he loves you.

God has a way out for you, not unconditional submission, but not resentment and revenge either.

Of course this does not mean you cannot publicly call out for justice. Of course it is right to report rape to the police. Of course it is right to denounce abusive church leaders. Jesus and Paul publicly denounced bullies in pulpits.

‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you greatand mighty things, which you do not know.’ Jer 33:3 NASB95

Don't Let Abuse Cripple You

 Joseph was his father Jacob's favourite son. Jacob spoiled him and gave him a splendid robe. This aroused the envy of his brothers and they hated him.

They wanted to kill him, but instead they sold him as a slave.

These men were the fathers of the twelve Hebrew tribes.

These tribes formed the chosen people of God, but their behaviour was anything but holy.
Joseph was prophetically gifted but unbearably proud and arrogant.

His brothers were hateful and cruel.   

We Christians read the history of the Jews in the Bible and we are often proud that we are supposedly better.

We read in the New Testament about the heroic faith of the apostles and the love and virtue of the first Christians, but not everything in the first churches was beautiful and good.

There were good but also evil church leaders.

Paul teaches us that we should not passively accept cruel treatment from preachers and leaders.

For you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face. 2 Cor 11:20 NASB95

But surely there is no such brutal leadership these days. Yes, there is.

We often read terrible reports of Catholics who were sexually abused as children in the church.

In America, there are also many reports of sexual exploitation of young women in evangelical churches.

A Christian journalist in Australia has researched the stories of harassed wives of pastors. These women told how they were enslaved and often raped by their outwardly respectable husbands.

Jesus warned his apostles that they were not immune to hypocrisy either. We can all fail. Where can you find a Christian who has never been hurt by other Christians?

There are two tragic mistakes that we must avoid.
Some victims learn never to resist, to see themselves as inferior, to give up all hope.

When some husbands read in the Bible that their wives should submit, they demand slave like obedience. They don't allow access to a bank account. They always give orders and humiliate their wives all the time.

If the woman seeks help in the church, she is blamed because she is supposed to submit even more. There are women who put up with all this for years.

The other mistake is the strong reaction, whereby the injured victim escapes and then becomes an aggressive, bossy bully.

Joseph was the spoiled and proud son of Jacob. He was abducted by Arab slave traders and sold in Egypt. He suffered unjustly for years as a slave and then a prisoner, but he never gave up and never became bitter.

Joseph was finally freed from captivity. The strange prophetic dreams of his youth were astonishingly fulfilled. He became the head of the Egyptian government and then he was reconciled with his family.

Perhaps you have had to endure terrible experiences in churches, as I have myself. Please don't give up. Jesus was also persecuted by God's people. He understands your suffering and he loves you.

God has a way out for you, not unconditional submission, but not resentment and revenge either.

Of course this does not mean you cannot publicly call out for justice. Of course it is right to report rape to the police. Of course it is right to denounce abusive church leaders. Jesus and Paul publicly denounced bullies in pulpits.

‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you greatand mighty things, which you do not know.’ Jer 33:3 NASB95

Jesus saves victims of Abuse

It hurts when you see Christians in leadership and they use the same dishonest political tactics as unbelievers. I have often felt I was being manipulated by Christian leaders and I was not wrong to think this way.

It hurts when you are pressured into supporting Christian leaders who are promoting themselves and  their party, faction or ministry more than justice and mercy.

Every time there is an election coming, I feel stressed because of the twisting and manipulation going on around me.

When I asked God about it, I believe the Holy Spirit gave me a very clear answer.
Politics is all about manipulation. It is what it is.

What does the Bible say about this?

There are leaders who want to hide their mistakes, or the sins of their colleagues.

For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. Mark 4:22 NKJV

There are leaders who demand unconditional submission.

The Apostle Paul was a true and faithful leader. Paul himself denounced the practice of dictatorial leadership.

For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. 2 Corinthians 11:20 ESV

Then Paul defines the foundation of true Christian fellowship.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:21 NIV84

 Some Christians might assert that this mutual submission should only apply to Christians of equal rank. But how did Jesus apply this truth?

The first Christian chosen by God to witness to the resurrection was not an apostle but but Mary Magdalene. When she and other women told the fearful apostles they had seen Jesus, they did not believe. How did Jesus respond?

Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. Mark 16:14 ESV

When a leader goes wrong, some Christians claim he was not chosen by God, but King Saul was chosen by God.

There are Christians who claim that you must never publicly criticise a chosen leader, but David openly accused Saul.

Suppose you have been abused, bullied, gas-lighted and cast out by Christian leaders, pastors or politicians.

What does Jesus think about this?

In John 9, Jesus healed a blind man. When the man testified that Jesus had healed him, the religious leaders excommunicated him.

Jesus didn’t just heal the man. He sought him out to help him when he had become a persecuted outcast.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 

He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”

Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 

He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshipped him. John 9:35–38 ESV

Have you been bullied and cast out by religious leaders? Please don’t blame Jesus. He wants to help you personally. The same religious leaders crucified Jesus, but he returned from the grave.

As a young Christian I was excommunicated but I learned that the cruel leaders were not the source of my salvation but Jesus Himself.

The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:2–3 ESV

Jesus gathered the outcasts of Israel and he also gathers the Christian outcasts today.

Courage to Live

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1 (ESV)  

Your greatest enemy is fear. 

• The birth of Jesus was unique. How many people do you know who chose to come into the world before they were born, or before they were even conceived?

Before His birth in Bethlehem he was happy with the Father in Heaven. 

• The great saints longed to leave the suffering of this life to be happy with God in heaven but Jesus loved you and me so much, that he decided to be born and become one of us.

The Son of God looked ahead and saw the humiliation of growing up in a small minded village community. 

• He knew he would be rejected and ridiculed because he was conceived before His parents were married. He knew many people would not believe God was his actual father.

He knew he would be persecuted by the religious leaders, unjustly arrested and executed in the cruelest possible way.

• He knew all this because he was God in Heaven but he decided to be born. He knew what would happen but he still chose to be born.  

• He natural human reaction to such anticipated suffering is fear but Jesus made a decision not to be afraid.

The Christian life is a supernatural life but it has its natural side as well. We have human feelings. 

• Jesus was sometimes horribly tired. He suffered deep rejection over and over again. Once he wept in public but we don’t know how many tears he shed in private.

He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Isaiah 53:3 (NLT)  

Jesus was often rejected and it hurt deeply but he decided to love anyway, to love the very people who hurt him.

• If you decide to follow Jesus, you will also suffer rejection and heartache. It will hurt. 

But God will be with you with the same miracle working power which he demonstrated in the life of Jesus.