God’s Book Still Speaks

Question: Does God’s Book talk about implicit memories, dissociation, childhood sexual abuse, PTSD, eating disorders, Asperger syndrome, autism, ADHD, types A and B trauma, drug addictions, comfort foods, or brain injuries?

Answer: No, not directly.  

Question: Does God’s Book have anything to say to people struggling with such things, or those who are seeking to help others through these things?

Answer: Absolutely!

Question: What does God’s Book have to say?

Answer: That God invites everyone out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved Son in which there is redemption, the forgiveness of our sins (Colossians 1:13-14), and there in his kingdom God begins the transformation of our lives from our broken and sinful condition (including symptoms in body, soul, and spirit), into the glorious likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this lifetime, God will continually help his children through anything they are facing, and he will continually help every gathering of his family as they seek to help one another through anything they are facing, so that we are able to band together so that “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image (as Jesus) from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (II Corinthians 3:18).

No matter how much (or little) progress we seem to make in this lifetime, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28), and that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

Therefore, as we keep “speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:15-16).

No matter where we are starting from, if we are “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (I Peter 1:3-4), “we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2).

We don’t need to understand, or even agree, with every label people are given, but we can bring everything people are dealing with into the life of the church so that every child of God is loved and cared for, assured that God is working in their lives and in his church for their good. We press on by faith now, in the living hope of the certainties that are ahead, thankful that not one description of brokenness will exist in our new home.

Perfection is up ahead; therefore, we persevere in growing up in the here and now, whatever that means we need to deal with in each other’s lives. God’s Book teaches his children how to live, and so we live that way no matter what new labels describe the broken condition of humanity. God is at work to make us like his Son, so face life’s troubles together in Christ, and keep growing up in Jesus.

© 2017 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)