We live in a fallen world and all of us will, in some way, suffer wounding because of it. Many of these wounds are so deep as to have affected every aspect of how we live and behave. How beautiful that in Jesus Christ, healing for every kind of wound, spiritual and emotional, even physical, is offered. I am grateful beyond words for the healing blood of Jesus Christ in my own life, as He has healed my wounds and continues to heal them. I pray that you would know this healing as well. All you need do is come to Him, with your wounds, and allow Him to take your heart and all its injuries into His hands and make them, and you, whole. If you've never done so, would you do it now?
However, there is a wounding that may be the most difficult for us to bring to Him, and that is the wounding we've suffered in the church, His church. He knows of this wounding. He suffered it Himself. Scripture says that He was wounded in the household of His friends. He knows the deep pain of betrayal and mistreatment from those we trusted most. He knows how deep the wounding can go, and He realizes how far we can run from the church, and Him, because of it. Maybe you have run from Him yourself. Maybe you're running right now. He knows your pain. As do I and so many others as well.
When I came out of the world and to Him and His church, I discovered a love and beauty I never knew before. I could not fathom how anything but love and rich fellowship could ever be found within it. I could not believe that the deepest wounds and suffering I would ever experience could come from the church I had not only become a part of, but would answer His call to serve and give myself to. But, like my Lord, I too was wounded in the house of my friends. It was inevitable that I would be. The servant is not above his Master. The shock of it all was devastating, and the enemy's enticements to turn away from His people were real, yet His was a love that would not let me go, and I stayed in the house of my friends, because there were still abiding there, true friends, and part of my growing process was realizing the imperfections of His church, a church made up of very flawed people but built upon a perfect Savior...A Savior who heals even the wounds inflicted by our friends.
Alicia Britt Chole said that we cannot avoid being wounded in the church. It will happen. Some of the wounds will be severe. However, she said we can avoid those wounds becoming infected. Infected with bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, the desire for vengeance. Infection that spreads to every part of our being. An untreated wound will give rise to infection and there are so many who have never taken their wounds to Him. They've withdrawn from Him and from His church....and the infection has only festered and grown deeper. Lives, marriages, families have been shipwrecked in their faith because of it. They've made the great error of expecting from His church what can only be found in Him....perfect love.
Without going into much detail, I was wounded deeply by some of His people. Used, betrayed, and had my character and integrity attacked. I can't really describe all the pain I walked through and it would have been so easy to walk away. But I couldn't. In all of it, He walked with me, and He taught me something of what it meant to share in the fellowship of His sufferings for a church and a people that He had called me to. A church and a people that He loved, and called me to love as well. I couldn't walk away from Him and I couldn't walk away from His call upon my life and to His people. As we walked together, He tended my wounds, and as He promised, bound up my broken and wounded heart. And He taught to look through the wounds that had come and still do come, and see Him. I served and followed not foremost for them, but for Him. And because I did serve Him in love, I could again serve those who had failed me in love as well.And in the woundings of some of my "friends," He led me to the richness of His people who have become lifelong friends, forever friends as some might say. I have found that, despite all its human flaws, His church is truly a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, "washed in the blood of the Lamb."
I don't know who this is for today, but if you've been wounded, know that your Lord suffers those wounds with you. Bring them to Him and allow Him to heal them. Don't run from Him or His people. Run to Him and to them. You will find, as I have, that whatever suffering has been involved, it cannot be compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing, walking with, and ministering with Him. We will find, as the old hymn says, that it really will be worth it all "when we see Jesus." And we, you and I, don't have to wait for the fullness of eternity to see Him. We can see Him now.....in the people He has sent us to and to be a part of.
Blessings,
Blessings,
Pastor O
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