When we are hurt by someone, it damages our ability to trust that person, perhaps permanently. Depending on who is doing the hurting and how they hurt us, sometimes that mistrust can be far reaching, often beyond the individual who harmed us. We learn, out of our innate sense of self-preservation perhaps, to mistrust all people who, in our mind, are the type of person our abuser represents. This is often true in various forms of child...

Hold On! “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.” (Mat 7:25) “And Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’” (Mat 8:20) So many people have lost or are on the verge of losing their homes. The economy has caused a landslide...

Author Stephen Arterburn answers questions in this two-part series about his book “Toxic Faith”, which talks about spiritual abuse. Part 1: Part 2: Share on...

When I first heard the term “spiritual abuse,” I was little confused and probably deep down thought it was a new-fangled phrase used to describe something that had a more common name. What I learned, however, is that spiritual abuse is real, it’s painful and it’s much more prevalent in today’s churches than most people realize. The fear, anxiety, distrust and trouble with intimacy of all sorts that any kind of abuse breeds is just...

Three weeks ago, I discussed how the fear we can have of the unknown or unexpected situations in life can be driven by our anger.  However, neither fear nor anger should we express in times of uncertainty because of the faith that we must have in knowing that God has got His best in store for us.  Even though I talked about anger driving fear, this week I plan to discuss how anxiety, worry, and tension can fuel fear.  There are many...

Fear vs. Faith The unknown.  How can the unknown be defined?  One definition could be what is not currently seen by our “limited-to-the-present” eyes.  Can the uncertainty of our future also mean our future being uncertainly defined?  Within our definition and the knowledge we have of our own futures, sure!  What is unknown or uncertain and how should we react to it?  There are only two reactions that we can have towards...