First, please understand that I love the church - the Body of Christ. I love everything it stands for and has the capability of being. I have great hopes of personally seeing the Glorious Church the Apostle Paul mentioned in the book of Ephesians. The church, as with a perfect bride, is to be without spot or wrinkle and holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27). I personally believe that is Jesus' and the Holy Spirit's current ministry to the church - washing us with the water of the Word in order to present us perfect (mature) and blemish free: To reveal and restore truths that were long ago stolen from us or simply forgotten through easier, less stressful times. The world needs this type of church with the power and the peace it will provide all who enter. However, we are a ways from that today and that alone should concern all of us enough to cause us to search for answers. I also believe that it is our responsibility to inform the Body of errors discovered that are currently destroying this awesome potential. It would be much simpler for me to go about my business hoping everyone else gets it before long. However, that is not what God is calling me to do.

My purpose for this appendix is to humbly offer information, gained through years of personal and professional experiences, that is currently correcting this error in individual's and their churches. By correcting the error we get closer to becoming the Glorious church without spot or wrinkle, elevating the church back to a relevant source of moral activism as well as a resting, healing place from the storms of life for those who desire to enter

The Error

Unfortunately, much of the church still believes that true freedom is living without sin. The freedom that Jesus died for is the ability to live in truth! (John 14:27) Trying to live without sin is an impossible and self-defeating process. This process creates legalism and hypocrisy. Jesus referred to it as trying to be perfect on the outside while ignoring all that is taking place on the inside (Luke 11:39). Being sin-conscious causes sin in those who's sin nature was circumcised (Romans 6:6-7, Colossians 2:11). Being sin-conscious gives sin power over us by the fear it creates. When you allow fear in your life, you give power to that which is causing the fear. The power of sin that Jesus died to destroy, regains its power and therefore, its control by our being sin-conscious.

Being able to live in Truth, or in Christ, is not concentrating on sin at all. Living in Truth, or abiding in Christ, brings the understanding that when you lose your peace (John 14:27) (Which causes you to sin.) a lie hidden in your soul is being exposed. By looking to God to replace the lie with His truth, your emotional pain leaves with the lie, stripping sin of all the power that it once held over you. (Romans 6:7)

In my personal experience and my professional experience of ministering to hundreds of troubled Christians, the sin within the church is not the root problem; it is the fruit of the real problem, which is the lie believed to be true by the one struggling. Knowing that believing a lie is the cause of emotional pain helps us understand why we do, at times, what we really hate to do (Romans 7:15, 19). It also makes the misbehaviors of others around us less threatening to us personally. Recognizing the source of other's misbehaviors gives us more understanding and empathy for our brothers and sisters. This understanding alone brings more peace to the local church and eventually the Body of Christ universal.

We humans are unable to control our feelings; on the contrary, our feelings control us. So, in effect, the sin is not causing us all our pain, but our root pain is causing us to sin. I am not saying that sin does not cause pain. Sin does cause pain. I am saying, however, that the sin Christians find themselves in only increases the pain that drove them to the sin in the first place. For example, being an alcoholic is not the real problem; it is the fruit of the problem. The real problem (or root) is the pain from which the alcoholic is trying to hide. Help an alcoholic or drug addict, homosexual, abuser, gambler or any other person who is sinning eliminate the pain and the sin will usually cease. Once you have identified and dealt with the root problem, the once hurting individuals must then learn Godly ways of responding and reacting to life. When the pain disappears, those once hurting can now pay attention and learn how to live Godly. Trying to teach a person in pain how to live above the pain is like shouting swimming lessons from the shore to a drowning person. It doesn't work very well. We have been blessed to help many Christians trapped in one or more of these sins find true, permanent freedom. True rehabilitation only comes from God. Sinful behavior, in the life of a Christian, is a hiding place from, or a coping mechanism for, emotional pain.

If you believe, as many in the church do, that a Christian's sin or bad behavior is the only cause of their emotional pain, then you also believe that the act of confession and repentance are the only and complete answers.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1John 1:9)

It is true, Jesus does forgive us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness when we recognize we missed the mark and are willing to confess it to Him. However, cleansing us from the results of our actions or words and healing us from the cause of our sin are two different things. The Roman Catholic Church has a very long history of trying to cause a change of behavior by mandating confession for healing. It does not work - ask all the Priests caught and charged with improper behavior, if all their time confessing their sin actually took away the cause of their sinful behavior. The Protestant Church has the same problems going on within it as well. No one group has a corner on ungodly behavior. My hope and purpose for this section, as I have said before, is to help in reducing the error by sharing what I have experienced that works. I am not talking about working once or twice, but hundreds of times since 1999. We have spent thousands of hours in fulltime ministry to emotionally hurting Christians and non-Christians alike from around the world. It works every time

I thank God that, during my personal battle with rage, I was able to find moments of temporary relief from this cycle of destruction. That temporary relief amounted to me confessing to God that I was a weak sinful creature who, in my own mind, did not deserve His love because I could not get a grip on my anger. I actually had a well-meaning Christian leader tell me that the way I was confessing was my problem. Therefore, desperate to find permanent healing, I changed my methods of confessing, the tone of my voice and the length of my confession. I even tried taking communion when I was confessing, but none of these techniques improved my ability to control my rage or lengthened the times between my outbursts. Following is a picture of what my cycle of behavior looked like.

1. Something would trigger my rage and I would EXPLODE!


2. Guilt and self-condemnation would set in as soon as I ran out of energy and collapsed in a pile of tears and regrets. (Romans 8:1 made me feel even guiltier.)


3. Depression would set in for a period-usually for a couple of days.


4. I would finally break before God and in tears confess my sin and repent and promise Him I would try harder next time, which, is what I was told I needed to do.


5. I would find His soothing touch calming and the reassurance that He loved me very helpful until something would trigger my rage and the cycle would start all over again.

With each pass through that cycle, I would lose: confidence in me as a Christian, the excitement and joy received during my good days, my hope of ever amounting to anything as a Christian. Worst of all I lost my confidence in God's ability and willingness to put up with me and deliver me. It is like digging your own grave, burring yourself in the shame and guilt of not being good enough to make it.

Thank God, I did get free from that cycle of self-defeating works. However, many Christians are in the same self-defeating cycle of despair. Despair caused by their belief that our misbehavior is the cause of our pain and if you can't find relief through repentance and trying harder, something unredeemable must be wrong with you. That is not what anyone said to me. However, that is the feeling and impression received, as many of today's Christians attempt to find permanent freedom while struggling with their improper behaviors.

I am here to tell you there is NOTHING Jesus cannot heal or NO ONE Jesus cannot redeem. Nothing is greater than He is, but we must first learn how to work with Him to affect peace in hurting minds. It is time the church begins to help heal the brokenhearted and open the prison doors to them bound in dungeons of self-defeat. By not helping, we are causing more guilt and shame by judging them as rebellious sinners who are not paying attention.

You can pick bad fruit all day long and never destroy the root that caused the fruit in the first place. That is what I was doing as I worked to manage or control my sin known as rage. That is what I am afraid the church is doing. It's time we quit picking the bad fruit and get to the root of our misbehaviors caused by our pain and despair.

The church needs a slight paradigm shift of thinking when it comes to helping those whose presentation and maturity level is less than desirable.