Sunday, November 27, 2011

How to Stop Molestation Scandals -- and the End the Harm they Cause

We live in a fallen world, as a result of the disobedience of our parents Adam and Eve.

Man is ruled by his flesh -- therefore, no one is to be fully trusted.

Young people have been force-fed a saccharine view of the world, that people are basically good, that people with the right amount of knowledge will choose to do the good, and that all things will simply work out.

By extension, young people are taught, and in some cases forced, to place all their trust in others, especially adults.

This naive culture fosters an atmosphere in which child predation is easier to perpetrate.

The world is justifiably alarmed about child predation, yet the answer cannot be found exclusively in more stringent laws.

If we wish to help young people to stay safe, they must learn to accept the tragic reality of a fallen world -- that even those "closest" to us can do the greatest harm, and that no one deserves blind trust -- not even our parents, church officials, or other caretakers.

Jesus taught His disciples to invest the greatest attachment to Him, and to no one else:

"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)

Here, Christ is not calling for every person to cruelly renounce every person in one's life, but rather to esteem our oneness with Him above all other relationships.

Imagine the power of our young people, when they know that by grace through faith, all their sins have been forgiven, that they sit at the right of the Father in Christ, that they do not need to gain the approval of man to be acceptable with God! That would put an end to the dangerous situations in which supposed caretakers take advantage of fallen and disadvantaged youth!

Only those who cast all their care on the Savior and live in accordance through the Holy Spirit, therefore, can possess the wisdom and worth to avoid being victimized.

Yet even if one is victimized, let us not fall for the wicked canard that a person's "innocence" is destroyed, or that a person is irrevocably "trash"

When a believer understands that he or she is fully "accepted in the beloved" (cf Ephesians 1:6), no terrible act committed once or even repeatedly can ever undo that person's joyous standing!

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus Christ has taken all the shame, all the hurt, all the wrong, all the evil that we have perpetrated, and that has been perpetrated against us!

Let no one every say that God cannot restore to us what has been lost, or even taken, either!

"I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners." (Isaiah 57:18)

And

"And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

"And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed." (Joel 2: 25-26)

And who can forget the glorious promises fulfilled in the life of Joseph, a blessed young man who never forgot that "the Lord was with him" (Genesis 39:2).

This same Joseph suffered unspeakable wrong at the hands of his own brothers, the wife of his master Potiphar, and was utterly forgotten by the butler whose dream Joseph had interpreted.

Yet when Joseph was promoted within one hour from the pit to the palace, he then bore two wonderful children, whose names indicated that GOD had made him forget all his pain, all his hurt, and had even made him doubly fruitful in the land of his affliction.

Not only does God restore to every person who has been harmed, even to those who have been the victims of child predation, everything that the feel that they have lost, He blesses every one who has been hurt with double, so that it seems as though no time has been lost!

Now, those who have suffered tremendous abuse --- who believe on the Finished Worked
of Jesus Christ, are forever renewed in the spirit. There will be awful thoughts and terrible sensations in a person's body.

Do not despair of God' glorious work in you! You mind must be renewed, just like every other person who is One with the Lord in Jesus Christ!

How is the mind renewed? By meditating on the Word of God! Meditate on these powerful promises! Reflect on how God has already made you complete in Him, and that no one can take this completeness away from you! (cf Colossians 2:10)

As for forgiveness, do not even try to forgive your perpetrator! God Himself has already given you the power to forgive (cf John 20:22-23)

As you meditate on the great forgiveness the God has already given you though His Son, you will be able to release what was done to you!:

"Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." (Luke 7:47)

Oprah Winfrey issued a scandalous and false indictment when she interviewed four convicted child molesters in one of her last programs.

She claimed that child molestation kills the soul of a human being. Nothing could be further from the truth!

In Christ, we are made the righteousness of God! In Christ, all things are restored to us, and more is added to our account to make up for the fear, shame, regret, pain, and physical trauma that a victim may endure.

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