JESUS AND THE TRUE CHURCH ARE A PATHWAY TO HEALING AND WHOLENESS FROM SEXUAL AND RELATIONAL BROKENNESS

JESUS AND THE TRUE CHURCH 

ARE A PATHWAY TO HEALING AND WHOLENESS FROM SEXUAL AND RELATIONAL BROKENNESS 

By Dwight Cunkle

  

 All of us know family or friends who have been impacted by the pain of sexual or relational issues. The cross of Christ and the word of God provide a pathway of restoration and freedom but it takes people to walk with them through the healing process.   

      Over a year ago I remember being especially burdened over the lack of a pathway of healing and a community of support for people in this painful battle. I didn't know that I was about to discover where these things already existed. Since then I have become friends with men and women who have experienced a beautiful restoration to God and freedom from shame or confusion.  Though the journey was extremely difficult and long I now know there is true hope and instruction for new life and wholeness in relationships. And there is equipping for those who feel called to be part of the healing process with others. Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and he uses real people as his hands and heart.

      After attending conferences, reading numerous books, spending many hours of prayer and conversation with pastors and hearing many stories from people of their own struggles in the area of relational or sexual wounding or brokenness, I believe God is sharing his heart with us for his sons and daughters and the restoration of his image in them.

   God's purpose for elders and pastor teachers is to equip the members of the body as well as keep watch over the flock from harm. These two charges to our office are held before God as truth in tension but not in conflict.

We  point to Christ as the Way for all who will come, and we teach God’s word as a boundary of safety for those who do.

      Marriage has God-given boundaries called covenant. Jesus said that men try to change what God created in the beginning but throughout Scripture and the history of humanity it is one man and woman committed for life and for the sake of the children they create and/or will influence through their marriage. Malachi chapter 2 states that the purpose of marriage is to produce godly children.
Marriage was designed by God and upheld by the governments of the earth to promote "the common good."  The marriage boundary  reveals Christ’s love a path of life.