Category: <span>Healing from sin and abuse</span>

What Story Are You Living From?

It took us more than seven years of focused preparation to finally move to Austria as missionaries. Linda and I were excited to follow Jesus into this new chapter of our lives. We both had seen God provide in amazing ways to get us there, and by faith, we were expecting Him to work in and through us.

I’ve always thrown myself fully into whatever I’m doing and being in Austria was no different. I fully intended to spend the rest of my life there. I had sold my English library and began collecting books in German. God gave both Linda and me the gift of fluency in the language and we adopted Austrian customs and lifestyle quickly.

The Austrian people became very dear to us and we cultivated some deep relationships. The Lord was pleased to use us to help establish two churches, one in Baden and the other in Wiener Neustadt. By His grace, both churches continue to grow under Austrian leadership more than 30 years later. We praise Him for this!

But then, something happened for which we had not planned or prepared. Following the establishment of the second church, God clearly led us back to the US. I cannot fully describe the challenges and struggles this posed me. Nothing we had experienced till then even began to compare with what we now faced.

You see, in the mission literature back then, there were only two terms for a career missionary who left the mission field early (i.e., before they die or are no longer fit to serve). Those two terms were: missionary casualty and missionary dropout.

Even though we had experienced tremendous success in Austria as missionaries, I returned to the States feeling like a failure. I consciously rejected the idea that I was a casualty or dropout, but those seeds had been planted in my mind. I remember arguing with myself, “I spent three years in the Army, and they call me a Veteran. I spent six years as a missionary in Austria, and they call me a casualty and a dropout?!!”

I didn’t realize it in the heat of the struggle, but I had accepted someone else’s story. “Casualty” and “dropout” were not my story! But for the next two years I wrestled with this stigma and it didn’t help that some in the church saw us those negative ways. I recognize now that my identity was defined by my career, so when my career changed, I no longer knew who I was. Today, I understand the fallacy of that thinking, but I didn’t see it back then.

Meanwhile, Linda and I continued following the Lord, though there were some really tough times. Then, one day, I was reading in Acts 14. In the previous chapter, the Holy Spirit had commissioned Paul and Barnabas to depart on what we refer to as their first missionary journey. God’s call on their lives was crystal clear and public.

But as I read through the account of where they traveled, the churches they launched, and how they strengthened these new disciples, I saw something I had never seen before. In Acts 14:26 it says, “From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed the grace of God for the work they had now completed.”

And as I read those final words, the Lord tenderly spoke to me saying, “Rob, you did exactly what I called you to do in Austria. You completed the work I had given you to do.” For two years I had been living by a false story. Now I was freed from that. I also realized my identity is defined by who I am in Christ, not by what I do for a living. By God’s grace, I am a child of the King!

Recently, I’ve interviewed dozens of men and women who are either victims of sexual abuse or have suffered the aftermath of a past abortion. Like me, they too had believed the lies that what they had done or what was done to them defined their identity.

But it’s not what we have done, what was done to us, or even our career that defines who we are. For when we are in Christ, He makes all things new. Jesus has reconciled us with the Father and made us His children. You and I are sons and daughters of the King, so don’t let any past sin, experience, or anyone or anything else tell you differently.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)

How this Wrong View Promotes Defeat

by Rob Fischer ·

Romans 7:14-24 is one of the most misunderstood passages of Scripture. It’s the passage where Paul seems to cry out in anguish, “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”

I remember reading that passage when I was 19 years old, and I thought, “If that was the Apostle Paul’s experience, what hope do I have for overcoming sin in my life?” …But that was before I understood the context of the passage.

You see, if what Paul is describing in that passage is the common experience of a follower of Jesus, then we all have an excuse to sin… we just can’t help it. And living as a slave to sin is simply our lot in in life until Jesus comes back.

NO! A thousand times, NO! That thinking flies in the face of Romans 6, 7 and 8 and the rest of the New Testament. That thinking leads to a defeated life—a life of slavery to sin.

Many years later, I was reading Romans again and happened to read Romans 6, 7 and 8 in one sitting. That’s when I saw it. That’s when I realized what Paul was saying in that frustrating passage in Romans 7.

In Romans 6 through 8, Paul shows the futility of trying to live one’s life by keeping the law. He explains that the law actually increased sin (Romans 5:20). He says that the law “arouses sinful passions in us” (Romans 7:5). And finally, he explains that while the law is holy, it was powerless to give us victory over sin because of our fleshly desires (Romans 8:3).

But all this has changed with Jesus Christ. Repeatedly, Paul declares that in Christ we are now dead to sin. We are no longer slaves to sin. It no longer has power over us. Sin no longer rules us. We are no longer slaves to sin but have become slaves of God. (See Romans 6, 7 and 8.) He is not saying that Christians no longer sin. But he is saying that sin no longer has its grip on our lives like it once did.

So, in Romans 7:14-24, Paul described what his life was like when he was trying to keep the law and was trying to master sin in his life by his own strength. He couldn’t do it. No one can.

But look at the hope and victory that is ours when we trust Jesus, not only for forgiveness of our sins, but for victory over sin:

“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4 NLT)

If we are trusting Christ for our salvation, do we still struggle with sin? Yes.

Are we still slaves to sin, destined to do what we don’t want to do and not doing what we should do? No! “Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.” (Romans 8:12-13 NLT)

Jesus didn’t merely die to remedy the symptoms of sin, but to remedy its very cause. For this reason, you and I can live in victory over sin by faith in Christ Jesus.

By the way, this was the angel’s message to Joseph when he discovered that his fiancée, Mary, was pregnant, “What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21 NIV)

Jesus came to eradicate the hopelessness of what Paul described in Romans 7:14-24. And he encourages us to live in the freedom and power of the Holy Spirit and not as a slave to sin.

Can You Help Me Understand This?

by Rob Fischer ·

I have wrestled with whether to post this article on my discipleship website. But as a follower of Jesus I cannot remain silent on this issue for it saddens the heart of God and should sadden us as well.

Consider this:

In the US, the penalty for destroying an eagle egg can be anywhere from a $10,000-to-$250,000 fine and one to five years in prison, depending on state law. (Answers.com)
The penalty for premeditated murder of a human in the US is usually the death sentence or life imprisonment. (Answers.com)
However, there is no penalty for the premeditated murder of an unborn child. In fact, our government has legalized, promotes and subsidizes this practice with our tax dollars.

I love the outdoors. I spend a lot of time in the wilderness hiking and camping. So, I like eagles and other wild animals and seek to protect them.

What I don’t understand is how our morals, laws, and conscience rationalize protecting eagle fetuses while we callously exterminate millions of human fetuses?

As far as I can tell, the way we’ve rationalized this legalized murder is by claiming that one class of individual has the right to terminate the life of another class of individual. And we’ve elevated the right of choice for one class of person over the right of life for another class of person.

As a nation, we claim to adhere to a high standard of civil rights. But we’ve quickly forgotten that just fifty-some years ago, our nation was in turmoil over the prejudice, discrimination, injustice, and atrocities we were committing against African Americans and other non-white people groups.

But here we are again!

Only this time, it’s not just a matter of prejudice and discrimination. In the US, we have exterminated nearly 60 million babies since Roe v. Wade in 1973.[1] To put this in perspective, this is more than double the combined populations of the ten largest cities in the US.[2]

Imagine if New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, and San Jose were all mercilessly and heartlessly wiped out. All their inhabitants exterminated at the whim of someone else. Gone. Dead. And imagine that such horrific extermination was legalized and even promoted by our government and by the taxes that you and I pay.

Shocking?

That’s what we’ve done—and worse!

Unborn babies have no voice. They have no Dr. Martin Luther King among them to appeal for mercy and justice. The unborn cannot protest, march, or stage a demonstration.

No, you and I must stand up and be their voice for them. They cannot cry out, but we can.

How do we do this?

Speak out against abortion, but do so peacefully and tactfully.
Support your local pregnancy resource centers financially and/or with your time.
Vote only for candidates who support life. Don’t be duped by the thinking that abortion is “just another political issue.”
Support measures that will bring an end to abortion.
Seek to love and heal the post-abortive, many of whom are in terrible distress over their abortions. Show them compassion, mercy and grace. Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins is more than adequate to forgive abortion or any other sins, but we must repent. (See abanon.org.)
Pray for our nation to return to God and put an end to this barbaric, ungodly practice.

[1] Jason Noble, “FACT CHECK: 50 million abortions claim checks out,” Des Moines Register, March 6, 2015, https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/reality-check/2015/03/06/million-abortions-claim-checks/24530159/. “Data from the Guttmacher Institute—a research organization that supports legal access to abortion—does indeed show more than 50 million abortions were performed between 1973 and 2011.” Since 2011, nearly one million babies have been aborted in the US each year.

[2] Marian White, “The Top 10 Largest U.S. Cities by Population,” Moving.com, 07/05/2019, https://www.moving.com/tips/the-top-10-largest-us-cities-by-population/.

Healing Requires Disclosure

by Rob Fischer ·

Some years ago, I wrote a little book for men called Comrades in Arms. The subtitle of that book is: The Power of Pursuing Christ in the Company of Other Men.

You see, about 15 years ago, I realized that I had an anger problem in traffic that did not represent Christ well or treat people with the love He desires from us. I had tried countless times to curb that anger. Whenever it flared, I immediately felt horrible. I was contrite, and repeatedly confessed my sin to the Lord. But my problem persisted.

One day immediately after a blowup in traffic, it dawned on me that I had always been merely reactive toward my issue. That is, I only tried to deal with it after it occurred. Now I knew that the only way to beat this was to actively and intentionally root it out of my life. But how?

The answer to that question was the humbling realization that I couldn’t beat this alone. At the time, I was meeting weekly with my comrade in arms (spiritual partner) Ed. I knew that if I exposed my problem to Ed, I’d be committed to letting Christ change me. This was a very humbling thing to do. After all, I was a pastor at the time and pastors are supposed to be perfect, right? (No way!)

I shared my struggle with Ed and he took me seriously and began praying for me in this regard. In our spiritual partnership, we had already agreed to be open and honest with each other and gave each other permission to ask “tough questions.”

In the following weeks and months, (yes, it took a while for me to shed this anger), Ed would ask me how I was doing with my anger in traffic. Little by little, Christ was changing me. He was replacing my angry outbursts with patience, peace and love.

That experience and the transformation I enjoyed came at the price of disclosing (or admitting, revealing, confessing) my struggle with a spiritual partner. It was very powerful, and I’ve seen it work repeatedly in others’ lives too and with all kinds of issues.

Recently, I’ve been working with those who have been sexually abused or are suffering the emotional damage of an abortion. Here too, we’ve discovered that you cannot heal from something you hide, deny, or ignore.

Especially with issues like sexual abuse and a past abortion, these experiences are fraught with shame, guilt, and self-loathing. Taking the step to reveal your past to someone you trust can be extremely humbling and even painful. BUT, the rewards are worth the temporary pain and humility.

Whether you think you have “issues” or not, I urge you to identify and start meeting with a spiritual partner—another follower of Jesus whom you trust. And if you do suffer from the effects of sexual abuse or a past abortion, please go to: SAVAnon.org or AbAnon.org and join a same-gender small group in order to seek healing.

Remember, healing requires disclosure. “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” James 5:16

Healing from sin and abuse

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