Anne Graham Lotz: 'Wounded By God's People'

all of us have been wounded hurt or neglected by other people but have you ever been wounded by God's people people in the church well if so you're not alone even Billy Graham's daughter feels your pain take a look Anne Graham Lotz has been proclaiming God's word around the world for thirty years her beloved father Billy Graham has preached to more people than anyone in history like her dad and is also a best-selling author and her signature events called just give me Jesus draw people by the thousands in her book wounded by God's people and shares the most hurtful pains from her past and offers advice about healing the wounds of a broken heart please welcome back to the 700 club and Graham Lotz it's great to have your hair so good to be here thank you you know people would expect as Billy's daughter that you would be treated like royalty wherever you go and there would never be a problem especially in the church but the book you've written called wounded by God's people is about just that being hurt in the church by the people of God that has happened to you and not just people in the church but believers and I think the reason those wounds hurt the most is because they're people that you have trusted you feel safe with you've you've come to love and then when they reject you or betray you or slander you're a lot to you it hurts more so we've had several experiences like that - with major church experiences where after each one my husband now left and so for a year we didn't go to church and that's twice in our lives so we were what I call a believer in exile you've just been hurt so bad it's like you just can't stay there anymore talk about that a little bit because that's not an uncommon happening that someone is wounded in church and then is so deeply hurt there they don't feel safe going anywhere you know it's amazing and I think George Barna has come up with his research showing that the majority of people who were injured who are not in church they are not in church because they were hurt by somebody in the church there are many believers in exile out there and yet when when that happened it didn't damage my faith it made me feel actually closer to God because Jesus came to his own and his own didn't just receive him but they reject him they crucified him so he understands that kind of pain and I felt that it caused me to love the Lord more and it made me want the know God for who he is not as people reflect him sometimes because sometimes the church doesn't reflect them they give a very tarnished reflections of him and I wanted to know him as he is and then I wanted to make him known Terry in a way that would draw people to him not drive them away you know they say that the things that hurt us in life make us bitter or better and you say that wounded people are wounded so how how do we work through things like this how did you I think when you're wounded um if you refuse to forgive if you retaliate by withholding your forgiveness or our vengeful in some way then it's like drinking the poison hoping the other person dies yeah it ruins your spirit actually Ben your spirits are shrimp but if when you're wounded if you would bring it to the cross if you tell God you hurt tell them you're angry and you can cry but then you've got to make the decision and it's a choice to forgive the person and then receive God's forgiveness even for you some of your feelings and then reach out to the person do something to bless them and your spirit rises above it what I've had to guard is that when I'm wounded the natural reaction is the hurt bag you did that to me then I'm gonna get back to you you do something worse to me I come back to hear that this will react and so you had to be very careful because then it begins a cycle of pain that race in the book and hay gars life and she was the woman who was a slave and Abraham and Sarah's household she had Abraham's baby and then anyway there's just a series of woundings in there but where she became a wound ER she was wounded she became it was just and and Sarah the same thing until it just spiraled and spiraled and goes nowhere and so we have to break that cycle what do you do when the church has I mean here you are people have such high expectations of you and I know you've experienced the pain of being judged by people criticized by people you had a son who went through a divorce talk a little bit about happened and how you handle that we know handle it too by just going to the Lord I love the Psalms in their times when David cries outs and he was wounded by people of faith also in the Bible is a wonderful source of comfort and encouragement and sometimes conviction because at one point someone wounded me so devastatingly it was cruel what she did and I was stunned I couldn't get over it and so as I began to pray I thought you know was there something that I did that provoked that and over time it wasn't immediately but God revealed to me an attitude in my life that I had used as I dealt with her that I think must have built up in her over time and so she just exploded in this wounding way and I had to tell God I was sorry for my edit you tell her I was sorry and there was a sort of a formal reconciliation but there's not a warm relationship but but that'll I pray that'll come in time sometimes things take time to get over so some of it is having that attitude of search me and know my heart that's what David said in Psalm 139 you know he had he had the same thing he wanted God to search his heart to see if there was some wicked way had he done something to provoke some of that antagonism towards him it took you four years to write this book and even in the writing of the book you went through a hurtful situation is there one time that you were wounded that really stands out is the things that the the situation you just mentioned or what stands out is maybe the hardest thing you had to deal with you know I um I sort of put them in the past Harry I don't they don't stand out to me because they're under the blood Amy I think when when we were rejected by church we've been members there 15 years I thought would die there my children were baptized there I taught a big class there and when they voted on a Sunday morning to remove my husband from his leadership positions and rejected us to the sound of applause that that is an amazing thing but walking to the parking lot with that sound ringing in my ears I knew I wanted to know God as he was not like that Church reflected and I knew I wanted to make him known in a way that other people would love him so so this is something to learn about ruins God can allow them because they can bring a blessing you'll bring it to God he the wounds in my life I look back and he moved us from that church into another one or he'll redirect my ministry into a different area and so sometimes the wounding and my response to it is what he uses to direct me somewhere where he wants me to go so there can be blessing and you know the cross is a good example isn't it because Jesus was wounded in an ultimate way but look at the glory and the resurrection yeah what he's won through the cross oh and that's the takeaway of wounded by God's people is we can be whole we can draw closer to him we didn't know him well yeah it's like a dear friend told me that after the resurrection when Jesus allowed his disciples to put his fingers and his nail prints on his side he was showing them that wounds can heal quickly and you can be healed of your wounds but it's a journey it's a process well we have to ask you quickly before I throw over the pad as your dad doing well you know he is he'll be 95 and November 7th he's got the big my whole project going I encourage everybody to be a part of it it's going to be thrilling well tell him we love him great to have you here

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Id: rBvlfw0Gjus

Length: 7min 46sec (466 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 14 2013