God wants to help you.

 Jesus left Judea and returned to Galilee. It was a long walk, and at noon he took a break at a well in Samaria. 

There he found a woman drawing water from the well.

 It was taboo for Jews to talk to Samaritans. Jesus was also a Bible teacher, and no rabbi was allowed to speak to a woman alone. 

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

Jesus was alone with this woman because his disciples had gone to the nearby town to buy supplies. The woman was surprised that Jesus spoke to her.

So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How do you, being a Jew, ask from me water to drink, since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jn 4:9 LEB

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me water to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Jn 4:10 LEB

Are you a little religious, virtuous and idealistic? That's a good start, but there's more. Many pastors preach humanistic philosophy, and their listeners have nothing more than vague ideas about God and eternal reality.

Are you a Christian? Do you expect an eternal future in heaven? That's good. But if you knew what Jesus wants to give you here on earth, you would pray from the heart and expect miracles.

Are you entangled in drug addiction, prostitution, pornography or the occult?
 
The woman in this story was despised in her society, but she may not have been to blame.

The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 

for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” Jn 4:17–18 NRSVue

In this society, only the man had the say. Five husbands had rejected her? Why?
Was she unable to bear sons? 
Had she been sexually abused and was unable to satisfy her husband? 
Was she extremely depressed, traumatised and moody?

How could she survive as a woman who had been divorced five times? As a beggar? As a prostitute?

Jesus did not look at her sins, but at her need. He simply loved her.

Jesus died on the cross for you and your sins. He simply loves you.

No matter where you are, Jesus wants to bless you.

When you entrust your life completely to Jesus, God's Spirit comes and dwells in your spirit.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, Eph 3:20 NRSVue

Why do we expect so little from God? What is your problem?
Have you failed? Jesus can give you strength and wisdom to live a new life.

Are you caught up in a colourless, decent religious routine? Jesus freed the decent Jews of his time from their religious treadmill. Jesus gave his disciples a new life filled with joy, freedom and adventure.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Jn 10:10 NRSVue

Are you addicted to pornography? You can never enter God's heaven with pornography, but Jesus can set you free.

Jesus was tortured on the cross. Through his suffering, he took the punishment for all your sins upon himself.

If only you knew how God can and wants to help you, you would cry out for God's help and have a new life.

The Problem of Loneliness

 Those who trust Jesus have a hope and a good future, but we can be lonely along the way.

Loneliness is a sad reality of our life on this earth. Sadly there are so many broken relationships, divided families, displaced refugees and isolated victims in wars, victims of abuse, workplace bullying or human trafficking … The list is endless in troubled times.

Loneliness can be dangerous. In lonely times, we can experience heightened negative moods and emotions. You can be depressed or despondent. Behind many posts and comments on the internet is panicked fear.

In loneliness we seek comfort, and that is good. We can call friends or listen to nice music. We can have a pet as a friend or read a good novel. You can study something that fascinates you. A young German in an American prison was a fitness freak.

There are good ways to ease the pain of loneliness, but unfortunately there are also bad ones.

 You can drink, eat, smoke marijuana or watch porn. There are men who visit brothels and women who seek wild sexual experiences. This only makes your loneliness worse.

Eating, drinking and sex are part of a normal, healthy life, but when they become addictions and take you away from good human companionship, they make you even lonelier.

There are Christians who claim you don't need friends if you have Jesus. Either they have never experienced deep loneliness, or they have an exceptional spiritual gift to enjoy a close friendship with God and a calling to walk alone, like John the Baptist.

There are also introverts who like to be alone, but you must not expect others to be like you.

If you are a very strong believing Christian who likes to pray alone for hours and are content as a single intercessor, you must never expect that lonely and depressed Christians without partners or friends should be like yourself.

Such advice is not only misguided, but life-threatening. It can lead to despair and suicide.

In the Bible before the Fall, Adam was alone. What did God say?

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” Gen 2:18 NRSV

If you are alone and friendless, some Christians will blame you if you are not involved in a church.

But there are Christians who repeatedly have negative or traumatic experiences in churches.

There are so many churches where you are expected to conform and think just like everyone else. You don't need manipulation. You need friendship.

There are Christians who see psychiatry, medication and psychotherapy as worldly and evil. But there are Christians who, despite active membership in churches, find better understanding and compassion in a clinic than in church.

As a young Christian, I had traumatic experiences in churches. For a while, I got more help in a psychiatric hospital than in church.

I am grateful that I have not needed psychiatric care for many years now. I have also been actively involved in good Christian fellowship for years.

If you are lonely, please never give up. God hears your prayers. There are other Christians who understand your pain and loneliness. Ask God that you find the right people.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jer 29:11 NKJV

You have Potential. Failure is not Final.

 A young woman went to see a psychiatrist. She told him she was schizophrenic and hoped he could help her. After a long conversation, the psychiatrist realised that she was not schizophrenic at all. Her family had imposed this false identity on her as a child.

I had eczema as a small child. I always had to wear gloves and my parents tied my hands to the side of my cot. Otherwise, I would scratch and tear my skin terribly.

Gradually the eczema disappeared, but then I was nervous, hyperactive and clumsy, even though I was intelligent.

Years later, I often visited a school friend. He recently told me how I accidentally spilt a jug of water not just once, but often.

My father encouraged me and I became a good chess player and learnt to appreciate classical music. I studied English literature and German, but in practical matters I kept making silly mistakes. My father was then irritated and critical.

Later I wanted to learn how to use a computer, but with little success.

Then, nearly 30 years ago, I wanted to study the Bible intensively. A friend of mine was studying at a Bible school. He told me that I absolutely needed a computer. That was in 1996.
I bought a computer and resolutely dedicated myself to mastering Windows 95. It wasn't child's play for me, but I didn't give up.

I worked as a language teacher for years. Through diligent effort, I developed my computer skills to the point where I could help my colleagues.

The idea that I was a technical idiot was deeply rooted in my childhood, but I was determined to overcome it. I've been using my computer every day for more than 20 years. I am a blogger and communicate with many people in other countries.

Were you given a false identity from an early age? Did you always hear that you were a failure, an idiot or perhaps mentally disturbed?

At school and at work, we always find cruel people who sense our insecurities and want to exploit them. Maybe that's why you experience bullying and are constantly put down.

None of this comes from God. God created you in his own image.

My mother was always put down by her mother. She went to university but failed miserably. Years later, she found help from a therapist. When she was 60, she went back to university. A few years later, she graduated. She wasn't really a failure.

God is your creator. He has a plan for every person. He doesn't create failures, idiots, mentally disturbed people.

You may be repeating the same negative thoughts about yourself over and over again. Please stop doing that!
Instead, keep repeating God's truth.

God created me and God does not create failures!

God created you for a good purpose. Ask God to show you how He sees you. You have potential.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jer 29:11 NKJV

With God as your guide, your potential can become reality. Even your weaknesses can become strengths.

Failure is not final. A well known American writer said: I failed my way to success.

You can’t earn your salvation. Jesus paid the penalty for your sins on the cross.

But Jesus did not accomplish everything for you so that you could accomplish nothing.

God's Way Out for Traumatised Victims

 In the decades after the war, there were Jews who could not bear to hear the German language.

Some people were so traumatised as children that they never want to marry. Some become homosexuals; others live in de-facto relationships. Others run away as teenagers and become homeless.

There are also many Christians who are so manipulated and disrespected in churches that they often feel threatened in church services.

God has given us homeland, family, marriage and church, but when these gifts of God are corrupted by lust for power, there are  countless victims who find life unbearable.

My wife and I were in a wonderful church for about ten years. Many loved God with a good heart. Many reached out to people on the streets.

Everyone was welcome: homeless, witches, prostitutes, it didn't matter. 

Some New Age people came to seek God, others came to practice witchcraft against us, but the Christians prayed with power and authority so that the devil could not gain the upper hand.

Such a situation can become chaotic. There are some communities where the leaders are harsh rulers, perhaps out of greed for power, or perhaps out of fear of chaos.

Our pastor often said it was easer for him to control people than   to lead free people, but he was determined to respect everybody's freedom.

Paul also believed in freedom. He was extremely critical of preachers who wanted to rule harshly. He told the Christians in Corinth not to submit to such leadership.

You put up with it when someone enslaves you, takes everything you have, takes advantage of you, takes control of everything, and slaps you in the face. 2 Corinthians 11:20 NLT

Paul not only criticised the arrogant preachers for their cruelty, but also submissive Christians, for their obedience.

Cruel abuse of authority wreaks havoc. Many women and men want nothing more to do with God or the church because of severe Christian parents, teachers or preachers.

A good preacher told how she was out on the streets proselytising among prostitutes. Quite a few young women on the street came from devout Christian families.

How can we win the traumatised victims for Jesus?

Our role model is Jesus. He preached very hard against the sins of the arrogant religious leaders, but he was gentle and kind with the despised sinners.

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ’ Luke 7:34 NIV84

Are you yourself badly hurt, rejected and traumatised? Do you need to submit again to escape God's judgement? Many wrestle with such terrifying thoughts.

God's ways for you are quite different. He wants to welcome you kindly and help you with gentleness.

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.

God Loves Rejected People

The Father gave His only son Jesus for all mankind. In return, the Father wants to give all mankind to Jesus. 

 

Why do not all come to Jesus? 

 

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. John 6:37 (NKJV)  

 

Does God only draw some to Himself and to His Son?

• No, no, no.

Jesus said:

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32 (ESV) 

 

Jesus was lifted up from the earth on the cross, when He willingly died to pay the penalty for our sin, to receive the punishment for our rejection of our loving God because we chose to live as though He did not love and care for us.

 

Jesus died but He did not stay dead.

• After three days in the grave, He was bodily raised up from the grave by the Holy Spirit.

• He spent 40 days encouraging and teaching His followers before He was raised up from the earth again. 

While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. Luke 24:51 (ESV) 

 

The heart of the Father is to save every one of His lost children. 

• Without Jesus in your life, you are separated from God by your own choice because you have chosen not to live in the Father love of God. 

• You have lost your right to be called a son or daughter of God.

• God is the source and giver of all life and goodness. 

• If you die without Jesus, you will still exist and you will experience the darkness and emptiness of death for ever.

If you are not enjoying the love and forgiveness of God but you are reading these words, God is speaking to you calling you to come to Jesus.

• God sent His son into the world to restore everyone to Himself but He was rejected and put to death.

• It is the same today. 

• He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, John 1:10,12 (ESV) 

 

Why did God do this? Because God is Love. 

 

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8 (NKJV) 

 

God’s plan is that you would find His love in a church but sadly this sometimes does not happen. 

 

• If you have not found the love of Jesus in a church, don’t give up on God. 

• If churches have rejected you, Jesus has not stopped loving you.

 

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. John 6:37 (NKJV)  

 

If you come to Jesus by watching Christian TV or reading the Bible alone, God is loving you and not casting you out. If you are an isolated believer in Jesus, God wants something better for you.

 

And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Genesis 2:18 (NKJV) 

 

If you are a man or woman who is following Jesus alone, God is proud of you for not giving up on His Son but He wants you to have human companionship. 

 

Ask Him to lead you into Christian friendship. 

• This is more important than marriage. Marriage can be a blessing or a curse.
• This is more important than going to church or joining an organisation.
• Churches can be loving or they can destroy love.

But one great truth remains. 

Jesus is with you if you love Him and He is very powerfully present when two or three believers come together because they love Him.

• I pray that you will know the love of Jesus.

• I pray that you will find a loving church.

• I pray that you will enjoy loving family life.

• But even if you do not find a loving church or family, I pray that you will discover the blessing of believing friendship.

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20 (NKJV)

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.