Lessons from the Pit by Barbara Vigue
What do you do when you are confronted with marriage-destroying news? Do you take the counsel and advice of those who surround you or do you turn to God's Word and follow His plan for forgiveness, restoration and reconciliation?
Over many years, Barbara has written things down in a journal. As the years past it developed into a book. Although some things mentioned are painful to reflect back on; this is not a tell all book. It is a book about God's mercy and grace. But more than that, Barbara leads the reader into a straight path of how God restores homes, marriages and people back into useful vessels.
Lessons from the Pit is a message of hope and a call for individual believers to "go on unto completion" by looking foremost at Christ as their source of healing and renewal.
Lessons from the Pit is a book about climbing out of the pit of despair with God's help and direction, into a life of forgiveness and fulfillment. Join Barbara on this life-transforming journey.
Here is a taste of what you will glean from "Lessons from the Pit"
Lesson 6:
Disposable Christians
It appears to be a tradition of the modern church to dispose of Christians that no longer have service to us and, worse possibly, are an embarrassment to us... The ridiculousness seems apparent to me, but unfortunately this is generally not the case to most in leadership.
The thinking is that if you just go away, no one in your hometown or church will have the pain of seeing you anymore. They won’t have to deal with their range of emotions like disappointment, discouragement, anger.
As a counselor, I immediately was shaken by this response. Everything inside of me said that an issue must be confronted and dealt with for there to be healing and closure. To run away and let everyone “pretend” nothing happened is both unhealthy and unscriptural... Without dealing with the past, people go through life with the same baggage of pain and confusion and there can be little new growth.
Inside the church are sincere people who turned to Christ in need of a savior. They came to church as flawed people who recognized who they were. Then they got into the church network and had to hid any flaws and pains and function in a setting that too often breeds hypocrisy. They raise their hands in praise and know the entire appropriate Christian lingo. Still they have trouble in the secret places of their thought life and their lives don’t measure up to the image of the super-Christian that they portray. Many just give up in frustration. Some stay in the church and evolve into the present day Pharisees.
Trouble humbles us, breaks us down, and causes us to die to ourselves. God is so honest and open that he allowed us to learn about the real men and women in the Bible who had to deal with real problems and failures. One of the most famous of course is Jacob. He has been called a liar and a trickster, but he wrestled with the angel of the Lord all night. He refused to let go until God blessed him. He had a limp the rest of his life, but he was blessed. Noah, after the tremendous Ark experience, got so drunk that he was lying around naked for his sons to see...David, called a man after God’s own heart, committed adultery, killed the woman’s husband and then lied about it. Samson was called by God to deliver his people and kept playing around with the anointing of God until he was a blinded captive. Even Abraham was so filled with fear that he gave his wife to the King and said she was his sister. His son Isaac followed in his dad’s footsteps and made the exact same mistake. Men of greatness and destiny did terrible things at times.
So why did God include these failures in the Bible? Certainly not to condone their actions or bring a sense of permissiveness to the church. He included them because these things happened and the Bible is a true story. He included them because these men were some of the greatest men of their times.
The Bible is about God working miraculously through greatly flawed people, not about superior people who are able to accomplish mighty things on their own. God is not interested in appearances; He is interested in reality. He doesn’t cover up sin; He wants it exposed to the light. He will leave the ninety-nine to search for the lost one and secure it back into the fold. He wants us to learn from our mistakes and teach those lessons to others. He does not just put new wine in old wine skins which may fall apart and lose the wine.
The Bible does give instruction on how to deal with those in our midst who fail. There are so many wounded, discarded and disgraced Christians out there who need the church leaders to lead their people to healing. Jesus is coming back for a Church without spot or wrinkle and now is the time for us to change. There is an urgency for us to grow up and be adults that face life God’s way. We must recognize sin is what people do, not who they are. Our enemy is not flesh and blood, but the rulers of darkness. The average church goers are sheep that follow a shepherd in the direction he/she goes. It is necessary for leaders to become more like Christ so they can lead the people in restoration.
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