Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Nicole Parker
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000446A
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00:29 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn
00:30 and we welcome you to Issues and Answers. 00:33 This is a program where we talk about issues 00:35 that are really pertinent to today's society 00:38 and then we provide a biblical answer. 00:40 And today we're going to be talking about 00:43 how hearts heal specifically from abuse. 00:47 So this is a program I think will bring, 00:50 you know, God, we can always count on God 00:52 to bring healing in His wings. 00:54 But today it's going to encourage you. 00:56 If you know anyone that has suffered from 00:59 sexual abuse or other abuse, you may want them to tune in, 01:03 but I encourage you to stay tuned in, 01:05 because we all need to know, 01:07 how to minister to those around us, 01:10 and there's so many people 01:12 who need to hear the good news 01:14 that God has a solution for this problem. 01:17 Let me introduce 01:18 our special guest Nicole Parker, who is... 01:22 She has a master's in biblical counseling, 01:24 and your husband Alan Parker is a professor 01:27 at Southern University. 01:29 We're just really thrilled that you're here, Nicole. 01:33 Tell me a little bit about how you became involved 01:38 in biblical counseling? 01:40 Well, you know, 01:41 I always found psychology fascinating. 01:44 My dad had studied some psychology in college 01:47 and I remember finding his psychology books 01:49 around the house and I would devour them 01:51 even as like a 10 or 12 year old. 01:53 I love to think about how minds worked. 01:56 But I was also going through a lot myself as a kid. 01:59 Now in some ways I had the perfect upbringing. 02:03 I had three wonderful sisters and our parents moved us out 02:07 into the country back when I was just a baby 02:10 so that we could be raised out in the woods 02:12 and the fields and the forests were just wonderful, 02:15 I loved it out there. 02:17 We worked in the garden which I didn't love as much, 02:19 of course, as a kid, but we had a great upbringing, 02:23 perfect in many ways but... 02:25 It almost sounds idyllic. 02:27 Yes, but my parents felt we were so protected 02:30 and so safe in the place where we were 02:32 that they never warned us about things like 02:34 safe and unsafe touch. 02:36 Okay. 02:37 They didn't realize that we would even be in any danger, 02:40 we were just at church and with family 02:42 and hardly any time we were ever around strangers. 02:46 But they didn't know that there was a relative 02:48 who started sexually abusing me at a very early age. 02:52 And due to that and some of the other factors 02:55 going on in my life, 02:57 I went into severe anxiety and depression as a teenager 03:01 and I didn't know how to cope. 03:02 Were you able to tell your parents about this? 03:06 Or was this something that 03:07 you felt so much shame and guilt 03:09 that you kept it to yourself? 03:10 You know, as a child, 03:11 I didn't know how to process it. 03:13 Okay. 03:14 I remember one time that my mother almost caught him 03:17 abusing me, 03:18 but I've been praying and praying I mean, 03:20 we went to church every week my whole childhood, 03:23 I knew that God was there and that Jesus loved me, 03:25 I sang all the songs 03:27 but when it came to applying the truth of the Bible 03:30 to this situation, I was absolutely clueless. 03:32 I remember wanting so much and praying, "Dear Jesus, 03:35 please help mommy come and see," 03:38 but then when I heard her coming, 03:39 he was so terrified that as a small child 03:43 I didn't know how to process it. 03:44 I thought, he is not gonna get spanked 03:47 that must mean I'm the one who's going to get spanked 03:49 and all of a sudden I didn't want anyone to find out 03:51 because I thought I would be in trouble. 03:52 Oh, bless her, oh, Lord... 03:54 For a child, you know, it's so sad 03:57 that anything like this happens 03:58 and we know it's happening with great frequency 04:01 in our own society and around the world. 04:04 But how did this affect... 04:06 If you were a child 04:08 that doesn't know how to process this, 04:10 how did this affect your relationship 04:12 with the Lord? 04:13 I mean, how did it, did it damage your picture of God? 04:17 Were you wondering, "Oh, God, 04:19 why aren't you saving me from this?" 04:21 Severely. 04:22 And this is what I find in counseling with people 04:24 who have been abused. 04:26 Abuse strikes at the very heart of our picture of who God is. 04:30 That's why it's so damaging, that's why it's so important 04:33 that we process and find biblical healing 04:36 because if I can't believe that God is love 04:38 which is what abuse tells me. 04:40 If God were loving, He would have stopped this. 04:42 If God were loving, 04:43 He wouldn't have allowed this to happen. 04:47 So when I can't believe that God is love, 04:49 I can't love Him back. 04:50 Only by love is love awakened. 04:52 If I can't see God as a God of love, 04:55 then I'm going to try to find something 04:56 or someone who will replace what God is not for me. 05:00 All right, so this happened as a young child. 05:02 At what point were you able to tell your parents 05:06 what was going on? 05:08 Well, he died when I was 10 and the trauma for me 05:11 had been so severe 05:13 that I forgot what had happened even. 05:17 I moved on with my life, 05:19 but I had some triggering events with a neighbor 05:22 who started trying to assault me 05:24 when I was 15. 05:26 And at that point 05:28 I was still trying to follow God, 05:29 I wanted to be a good Christian, 05:31 I wanted to follow God with all of my heart. 05:34 But this neighbor grabbed me 05:36 and tried to drag me into his house, kissed me 05:38 and said, "I want to show you something," 05:40 and I had to hang on to his doorframe 05:41 and fight him off. 05:42 I did escape but then when I escaped 05:45 I was so angry as I was walking back home, 05:48 and I remember praying, 05:50 "God, I don't know what kind of God you are, 05:53 but I know I'm through with the stupid trust God thing, 05:56 because you never take care of me at all, 05:58 I have to take care of myself." 06:00 Wow! 06:01 And I mean, I remember it like yesterday, crystal clear, 06:04 I know exactly what I said in that prayer. 06:06 I told Him, "I'm not going to do anything stupid. 06:08 I'm not gonna go out and drink 06:09 and do drugs and destroy my life. 06:12 I'm gonna keep going to church but I'm through trusting You, 06:15 and I'm gonna take care of myself." 06:17 You see, now, I won't go into it 06:18 but I had a point in my life 06:20 where I had been taught erroneously 06:23 to have faith in faith and not faith in God, 06:27 if you will, you know what I'm saying? 06:29 If only you can just muster up enough faith, 06:32 God had to do what you had faith to believe. 06:34 And when it didn't turn out 06:37 as, as I had anticipated with a healing for my mother, 06:42 and this was from a mental type situation. 06:45 I was so angry at God 06:48 because I had been taught wrongly. 06:50 I was so angry that I shook my fist in his face 06:53 and said, "You don't keep your word, 06:55 I'm out of here." 06:57 So I actually walked away 06:58 from the church for a couple of years, 06:59 away from God for a couple of years. 07:01 And praise the Lord, He chased me down 07:03 but, but you've got this anger that is, 07:06 I mean just a deep wound. 07:09 You've been hurt your feeling. 07:13 I mean, there's all these emotions of guilt, 07:15 abandonment, rejection 07:17 that everything starts kind of pulling in together here, 07:20 and you decided probably because of the environment 07:24 in which you were brought up 07:25 that you were going to keep on living a decent lifestyle. 07:29 Right. 07:31 But you just didn't really trust the Lord, 07:33 and if you can't trust God that is the relationship... 07:36 I mean, that's the foundation for faith is trust. 07:38 That's right. 07:40 I thought that I could go on 07:41 being a good Christian girl without trusting God. 07:43 Just throw out the whole trust God thing 07:45 because clearly He doesn't take care of me, 07:47 so I would still do all the right things 07:49 but I didn't realize you have to worship God, 07:52 if you do not worship God, 07:54 you will worship some replacement for Him. 07:57 I thought I was angry at God, but praise God He knew better. 08:00 He knew I was angry at the false picture of Him 08:03 that I had. 08:04 And so He had to restore in me a true picture of who He was. 08:08 How did He do this though? 08:09 I mean, how when you are so... 08:11 I mean, at what point did you tell your parents? 08:13 Was that a beginning? 08:15 Or how did this horrible scab 08:21 that's over your wound right now, 08:23 how did this thing get released? 08:26 And it was festering, 08:27 how did this wound that get healed? 08:31 You know, God is so good. 08:33 He knew I wasn't ready to talk to anyone about it. 08:36 So I didn't tell anyone. 08:38 But after the attack by the neighbor, 08:41 I began having severe panic attacks. 08:43 I already was dealing with nightmares, 08:45 with depression. 08:47 I would wake up from a terrible nightmare. 08:50 It was always similar, 08:52 you know, kinds of things where I couldn't get away. 08:54 And I would be like, I'm trying to run, 08:56 I'm trying to scream but nothing would ever happen, 08:59 similar to the circumstances of how I had actually been abused. 09:02 I could never tell anybody, I could never get away. 09:04 Yes. 09:06 And praise God, those nightmares went away 09:08 after I dealt with everything. 09:09 But at the time, it was an oppressive life. 09:12 I had no idea that God actually delivered people 09:14 from things like this because I just... 09:16 It had never occurred to me. 09:18 And which is strange you would think, 09:20 I was reading the Bible every day as a child 09:23 and at least at that point 09:25 when I was abused by the neighbor. 09:26 But when I began trusting myself 09:28 instead of God, I was basically saying 09:30 because God is not who He is supposed to be, 09:34 I will be that. 09:35 And you see that's always the cycle at the heart of sin, 09:38 unbelief about the character of God 09:40 about who He says He is in His word 09:42 will inevitably lead to pride of some kind, 09:45 me trying to be what I think God ought to be. 09:47 That was the cycle with Lucifer. 09:49 It's a cycle with every sin from there on. 09:52 If I cannot believe that God is who He says He is in His word, 09:55 I will believe that He is who I feel He is 09:58 or who my circumstances seemed to say He is 10:00 and I will respond accordingly. 10:02 I cannot worship Him 10:03 because He doesn't seem like the one 10:06 who's worthy of worship. 10:07 And instead I will worship someone 10:09 or something else, 10:10 and whatever that thing is that I choose to worship 10:13 instead of God, it's always self disguised. 10:15 So for me, it wasn't even disguised, 10:17 I worship myself. 10:18 I believed that I could take care of myself. 10:21 So I began being very vigilant. 10:23 Everywhere I went, and everything I did, 10:25 I would make sure nobody could attack me. 10:28 I slept wearing jeans every night. 10:31 I was so terrified, 10:33 somebody would come through my window at night 10:35 and kidnap me and rape me. 10:37 I lived in continual fear, 10:40 and I began having panic attacks 10:42 anytime a man would walk behind me. 10:45 It was becoming more and more oppressive, 10:47 but at the same time I didn't dare tell anybody 10:50 because the more dramatic my symptoms were, 10:54 the more I was afraid if people found out 10:56 they would think I was crazy and maybe I was crazy. 10:59 So it's interesting to me, and maybe because this happened 11:02 when you were so very young. 11:04 Your parents, you were still developing a personality, 11:06 so they really didn't see this huge change in you. 11:10 No, and I was very good at covering it up. 11:12 I had friends at school, I had lots of fun. 11:14 I studied hard, got A's, read my Bible every day, 11:19 I seemed like I had things together. 11:21 No one knew that deep inside I was struggling. 11:25 My younger sister was the only one 11:27 who had some idea 11:29 because her bedroom was right above mine 11:31 and at night sometimes she could hear me crying 11:33 my heart out as I was lying there in bed. 11:37 You know, this is something 11:38 that when you are in an abusive... 11:43 If you've been in an abusive cycle, it is, boy, 11:46 I'm resonating with what you're saying 11:48 because it is so easy 11:50 and I've been there myself in that, 11:53 okay, I've got to take care of myself. 11:55 You become fiercely independent rather than depending on God, 12:00 you become fiercely independent and this protective, 12:03 you know, cocoon that you're trying to put around yourself. 12:07 But people like that often put forth that false face, 12:13 I mean, you know, we're good at verbal camouflage, 12:16 you're good at making everyone around 12:17 you think everything is perfect when it isn't, 12:20 and so you even were able to fool your parents. 12:23 So at what age, what was it for you, 12:28 I mean, what was... 12:30 What knocked the scab off? 12:33 You know, I went away to a school 12:36 called Ouachita Hills Academy. 12:38 There was a small Christian school 12:40 where I lived. 12:41 It was about three and half hours 12:42 from my parents. 12:44 And when I came there to go to school as I was registering, 12:48 the principal asked me "When was the last time 12:49 you read the book, the Desire of Ages?" 12:52 And I said, "Well, I don't think 12:53 I've ever read the Desire of Ages." 12:57 And that was my assignment. 12:59 I started life and teachings of Christ class. 13:03 And as I started reading that book, 13:05 I remember the very first chapter 13:07 I read was called "Emmanuel, God with us". 13:11 And in that chapter, I read about a Jesus 13:13 I had never known. 13:15 And as I finished reading that first chapter, 13:17 I remember I came to the end 13:20 where it talked about throughout eternity 13:22 we will praise God for His unspeakable gift to us, 13:25 Emmanuel, God with us. 13:27 Amen. And the tears came to my eyes. 13:30 And I thought I've never known a God like this. 13:34 If that's actually what He's like, 13:37 I might be able to trust Him with my life. 13:39 Wow! 13:40 That was the beginning of a turning point for me. 13:44 All right, so the book, the Desire of Ages 13:46 and that was authored by Ellen G. White. 13:49 Yes. 13:51 And I've heard so many people who have said that 13:53 that book really brought them to a point of decision. 13:58 It's the story of Jesus' life. 14:00 It's like a harmony of the four gospels 14:02 put together in a story form. 14:03 And the great thing about it is that it's based on Scripture 14:06 but it also gives a lot of context 14:08 that you wouldn't know just reading the Bible, 14:10 things about the Jewish culture, 14:12 what Jesus was dealing with. 14:14 So as I read that book throughout that year in my life 14:18 and teachings of Christ class, 14:20 I came to understand what Jesus was like. 14:22 And over the next few months, 14:23 after that I decided I could trust Him with my life. 14:27 And I began surrendering to Him. 14:28 However, you know, the Lord is so gracious with us, 14:31 it never occurred to me still that God could deal 14:34 with my severe anxiety and depression. 14:39 But obviously He did. 14:40 He did, He did, but it took time. 14:43 I still hadn't even become emotionally healthy enough 14:46 to remember what had happened to me as a child. 14:48 And God is so good. 14:50 Sometimes people worry, "Well, what if I was abused? 14:52 I can't remember for sure. 14:53 Or do I need to remember... 14:55 should I rake through my mind 14:57 and see if the reason why I'm anxious is 14:58 because I was abused somewhere along the way?" 15:01 I would say, you know, 15:02 you can't blame your sin problems 15:05 on someone else's sins against you. 15:07 There may be trigger sins against us 15:09 that caused our sins of response. 15:12 And if so, the Lord will help us remember them 15:14 when we're ready to remember them. 15:15 At what point did you remember? 15:17 It was right after I turned 18. 15:20 I... 15:22 It dawned on me as I realized that he had abused someone else 15:26 in my family, 15:28 and I was asked, "Has he ever abused you?" 15:30 And I said, "I can't remember anything." 15:32 But then one night as I was lying in bed 15:34 trying to go to sleep, 15:35 I thought, "Did anything ever happen to me?" 15:38 And all of a sudden, everything started coming back to me. 15:40 You see, I had become emotionally healthy enough 15:42 at that point. 15:44 That you could take it. That I could take it. 15:46 And I think, the Lord sometimes put sort of, 15:48 it's like a pressure cooker valve. 15:50 If there's a release when it's too much for a person 15:53 to process emotionally, the pressure valve blows. 15:56 In order to preserve their sanity, 15:59 the Lord allows them not to remember that. 16:01 But we still need to come back. 16:03 We still need to come back and deal with things sometimes 16:06 in order to realize the ways that we're sinning. 16:08 Sometimes we need to understand the sins 16:10 that caused our sins of response. 16:12 So I remembered what had happened to me. 16:13 And over the next few months I remembered much more 16:15 in each different event all the different times 16:18 that I was abused, in different ways I was abused. 16:21 And as I remembered all of those things, 16:24 an anger toward God came up again, 16:27 toward who I thought God was, but then I realized "No, no. 16:32 This is not who He was. 16:34 Whatever He's gonna get me through this, 16:35 it's gonna be this God that I know. 16:37 This God that I have met through reading, 16:40 through studying the Bible, through prayer, He is love." 16:44 And knowing that, 16:46 that central fact turned everything around for me. 16:50 Amen. 16:51 And it allowed you, you know, as you said, 16:53 anytime you go through abuse, it is something that will... 16:58 Especially when you're young and going through abuse, 17:01 it changes how you see God. 17:04 It changes your image of God. 17:06 And so often, I mean, the most difficult question in the world 17:10 to be asked by anyone is when someone says, 17:15 "Why did God allow this?" Right. 17:17 It's a difficult thing to explain 17:19 but sin is playing out its course, if you will. 17:23 That's right. And for him too. 17:26 And often God does intervene 17:28 and He protects us from many things. 17:29 But if He is not intervening, 17:33 I mean, it won't be until the sin problem is done 17:36 away with completely that this will be gone. 17:38 I don't know how else to say that, 17:40 but it doesn't mean 17:41 that God doesn't love you and that... 17:44 Do you know Christian Berdahl? Yes, I know. 17:46 Christian Berdahl said that he was so angry at God 17:51 because he was sexually abused as a child 17:53 and he was shaking his fist at the Lord. 17:54 And finally, one day, 17:57 he said that the Lord spoke to him, 18:00 just the still small voice, not an audible voice. 18:04 But he said, you know, there are rules of engagement, 18:07 and your mother didn't follow the rules of engagement. 18:09 His mother kept him in a situation 18:11 where he is being abused by his mother's boyfriends 18:15 if I remember correctly. 18:16 So, it was something that if, 18:19 I guess God was trying to get in touch with her, 18:21 certainly the person who abused you 18:23 being a relative is a very difficult situation. 18:27 But he certainly wasn't following God's rules 18:29 and bad things do happen to good people. 18:32 That's right. I had to understand. 18:35 And I came to an understanding 18:36 that was very liberating for me. 18:37 I had to understand the difference 18:39 between the purpose of God and the will of God. 18:43 God's will is often broken. Yes. 18:46 But His purpose can never be stopped. 18:47 That's good. 18:49 The great purpose of God in the whole battle 18:52 between Him and Satan is to reveal His love 18:56 to the universe, 18:57 to show the universe love is the best way 18:59 to run the universe. 19:00 Amen. 19:01 If He could have done that by making sure 19:04 that everybody in the universe kept His law, 19:06 just nobody's allowed to break it, 19:09 they would have never been loved 19:10 because love has to be voluntary. 19:13 And God knew if He's gonna rule in universe for eternity, 19:17 He has to let there be freedom. 19:19 Someday, somewhere throughout all of that eternity 19:22 if He lets all these beings choose 19:24 whether to love Him voluntarily or not, 19:26 somebody's gonna choose not to. 19:28 And so he had a plan. 19:29 And when Lucifer started moving down that path, 19:32 God pled with him, "Don't do this." 19:34 His spirit always pleads with us. 19:36 Yes. "Don't do this." 19:37 But Lucifer's first sin was unbelief, 19:39 doubt about the character of God. 19:41 "Maybe, He's not really loving. 19:43 What if He's trying to keep back good gifts? 19:46 I'd like to have power." 19:48 And the moment that unbelief creeps in 19:50 that we believe God maybe isn't loving, 19:52 then pride comes in at the same time. 19:54 It's like a balance. You can't stop it. 19:56 If unbelief creeps in, pride will creep in too. 20:00 And Lucifer was immediately in judgment over God. 20:03 "If I were God, if I were ruling the universe, 20:05 I could do it better than this." 20:07 So Lucifer went against the will of God 20:10 but he could not stop the purpose of God 20:12 because God will reveal to the whole universe, 20:14 love is the best way to run this universe. 20:16 Amen. 20:18 So Lucifer's decision to go against the will of God 20:21 has actually accomplished more of the purpose of God. 20:23 You cannot stop God from revealing 20:25 that love is the best way. 20:27 And so now the sin problem, 20:29 even though God said to Lucifer, to Eve, 20:32 to every person since then, 20:33 "Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it." 20:34 And I know He did that to my relative too. 20:36 Still when we do it, when we go ahead 20:40 and go against His will, God says, "All right. 20:42 Now, not just in spite of this sin, 20:44 this breaking of my law but because of this sin, 20:47 the universe is gonna understand 20:48 that the law of love is the best way to rule." 20:50 Absolutely. 20:52 And once I understood that, once that really dawned on me 20:55 that God didn't want this to happen to me. 20:58 He didn't mean it to happen to me. 20:59 He didn't plan it. He tried to stop it. 21:01 His spirit appealed to my relative saying, 21:03 "Don't do this. 21:05 Don't do this." 21:06 He made his choices and God said, "All right. 21:08 Now not just in spite of this sin but actually 21:10 because of this sin, 21:12 if Nicole will surrender to me in faith instead of unbelief," 21:16 if my response will be faith, 21:19 then God will use this thing that wasn't His will 21:22 to accomplish His greater purpose. 21:24 I'm glad. 21:25 I'm grateful for what happened to me. 21:27 I wouldn't ever wanna go through it again. 21:29 I wouldn't wanna anyone else to go through it. 21:30 But I'm glad it happened to me because it has helped me 21:33 become a deeper and richer and broader person. 21:36 I understand why suffering is allowed in this world. 21:40 And I'm able to protect my children much more wisely, 21:43 but even so even if something were to happen to my children, 21:46 I know how to help them understand 21:47 how the healing power of God's Word 21:49 will set them free. 21:50 And I've been able to share that with hundreds of people. 21:52 As I share with them, this is how God has healed me, 21:56 it's almost like, I used to be lost 21:58 in this maze of darkness and evil. 22:02 And God came to me there 22:03 where I was by revealing Himself, 22:06 led me out of that maze, and then He sends me back 22:08 and says, "Get this one." 22:10 You know, when you think about Romans 8:28 that says, 22:13 "All things work together for good for those 22:15 who love the Lord and are called 22:17 according to His purpose." 22:18 And when something... 22:20 When you're going through abuse, 22:21 it's so difficult to say, 22:23 "How are you going to work this for my good?" 22:25 Yes. 22:27 But Romans 8:29 that should have 22:28 never been separated, 22:30 it should have been a single sentence. 22:31 He says, "For those God foreknew, 22:34 He predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus." 22:38 So what are you saying is, no matter what happens 22:41 in your life, no matter how bad it is, 22:44 trust me, God can work that thing 22:48 to your good by making you a little more Christ-like. 22:52 He will teach you how to be more loving. 22:54 He will teach you how to be more understanding, 22:57 and that's what's happened here. 22:59 You know, when you said you were glad for the abuse, 23:00 I'm thinking "Oops! 23:02 Wow! That's... 23:03 That is radical statement to say 23:05 you are grateful for the abuse." 23:07 It was a long journey to come at that. 23:08 But, and, you know, I want to put qualifiers on it. 23:10 You're glad for the way God responded to your abuse, 23:14 I'm wanting to qualify that. 23:15 But I say what you're saying because we can only comfort, 23:19 you know, Paul wrote in the 1 Corinthians, 23:22 "He's the God of all comfort." 23:24 And we comfort others with the same comfort 23:28 we've received from Him. 23:29 So God is using you in a mighty way. 23:31 You went through a healing process yourself. 23:37 You became educated so that you can then turn around 23:41 and use biblical counseling, not just what we would 23:45 call Christian counseling 23:46 because Christian counseling sometimes can throw God out. 23:50 You can take Him or leave Him in other words. 23:52 But biblical counseling is what you are focused on. 23:56 Yes. 23:57 Biblical counseling is so different 23:59 than traditional counseling, 24:02 and that's what's drawn me to it. 24:03 You know, the Lord just completely led me 24:06 in so many ways to understand. 24:08 You see, Christian counseling, 24:09 there's a wide spectrum of things 24:11 that are called Christian counseling, 24:13 but often they're very similar to secular counseling. 24:16 Secular counseling says the answers to life's problems 24:20 come from secular sources 24:23 and much of Christian counseling 24:24 does the same thing. 24:26 It has a humanistic presupposition that says, 24:28 "I just need to sit here and listen to you and say, 24:29 "How did that make you feel? 24:30 Well, that's really sad. 24:32 What answer do you think 24:33 you can find within yourself to this?" 24:35 It's a very dangerous philosophy to think 24:38 that I have the answers within myself. 24:39 Absolutely. 24:40 Biblical counseling is founded on 24:42 an entirely different presupposition. 24:44 I cannot find the answers within myself, I'm a sinner. 24:47 And I'm deeply affected by other sins against me. 24:50 The answers come from the Word of God. 24:51 Amen. 24:53 And as the Word of God works deep within us, 24:55 He transforms us into His image so that we learn to love, 25:00 not just in spite of the sins against us 25:01 but actually because of them, 25:03 we understand the battle between good and evil 25:06 like we never could have 25:07 if we hadn't been caught in the midst of it. 25:09 And God's plan is always that He will take bad things. 25:14 God never ordained for me to be abused, 25:16 never ordained for anyone to be abused, 25:18 never ordained for those poor children 25:19 to be starving in Africa. 25:21 But He will use even bad things to draw us close to Him, 25:26 to teach us that love is the best way 25:27 to run the universe. 25:29 And that He cares about each one of us personally. 25:32 Without the gospel, 25:34 I don't think there would be any true forgiveness. 25:36 I don't think that something that's really in our hearts. 25:38 No forgiveness, no healing. Yes. 25:40 It was when I came to understand 25:42 the power of the gospel 25:44 that I started really being able to break free. 25:47 As I had a wonderful experience in which the Lord 25:52 used the power of the Word of God 25:54 to break and incredibly 25:57 to break the chains of my abuse, 26:00 I began not being, not living in anxiety. 26:03 I began being able to walk free where before 26:05 I wouldn't even walk in a grocery store aisle, 26:07 a grocery store aisle... 26:09 I should say that over again. That's fine. 26:11 I wouldn't even walk in a grocery store aisle before 26:14 if there were a man in it 26:16 because I would have a panic attack. 26:17 Yes. 26:18 But now I began singing Scripture songs. 26:20 I could walk anywhere. I could walk down the sidewalk. 26:23 I could have a man walk behind me. 26:25 And it was this time of pure communion with God. 26:28 As I would have to cry out to Him every time, 26:31 I began suffering from the temptation to unbelief 26:34 and pride that anxiety and depression 26:37 He would set me free. 26:38 Yes, amen. 26:39 This is, it is such an encouragement 26:43 to hear your story. 26:45 And the fact that, you know, 26:46 often when I'm talking with someone, 26:48 and you probably find this in counseling 26:49 and know we have such a short time. 26:51 But if someone cannot tell their story 26:54 without feeling a lot of pain, 26:56 I don't feel that they've really been healed. 26:58 I can tell you've been healed. 27:00 This is something that God has dealt with for you 27:03 and He's changed your life because of it. 27:06 You know, we're out of time today. 27:08 But, Nicole, we want you to come back 27:10 and talk a little more specifically on this topic 27:14 of sexual abuse and healing. 27:16 And so, will you come back and join us, right? 27:19 All right. All right. 27:20 Well, thank you so much for being here today. 27:22 And I want you to be sure and tune in 27:26 for our next program 27:27 because we will bring Nicole back, 27:29 and she's going to have much more to share with us. 27:32 Right now, our prayer for you is that the grace of our Lord 27:35 and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of the Father 27:38 and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit 27:40 will be with you today and always. 27:43 He is a trustworthy God. |
Revised 2017-09-05