Jesus, The Embodiment Of Truth

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Pam Witzemann

 

Jesus Is Ultimate, Living Truth

Jesus is Truth, in bodily form. That truth is revealed through the life He lived, the death He died, and the eternal life He now enjoys and offers freely, to all. As the Son of Man, His seamless obedience to God revealed Him also, as the true, Son of God.

Truth isn’t understood or valued, in this current era, as it should be. People think of truth as it is expressed in facts but the value that is often given to factual information, is in how it can be manipulated and toward what end. Many people get so caught up in bending truth to their specifications and purposes, that they lose all ability to recognize genuine truth. This isn’t a new problem. It is as old as the human desire to be god. Factual truth in the hands of people who use it according to their personal desires, may succeed in obtaining earthly power and control for the one who manipulates those facts. However, evil is always, part of the result when the truth is twisted and used for personal gain. Human beings are incapable, without divine guidance, of producing anything of lasting good because personal needs and desires rob us of the ability to choose objectively, between good and evil. Even when our choosing does result in the objective we hoped for, it is always accompanied by hidden factors and unforseen consequences that result in bringing evil that we didn’t intend. We try to make good choices, according to what appears good to us and instead, our choices result in evil. God, the Almighty Creator, is the only One Who sits above good and evil and has the perspective that is necessary, to choose between them and achieve ultimate good. Some people are subjected to so much evil in their lives, that they seek power over evil, by adopting it and hoping to use it to their advantage. The result is a world full of suffering and sorrow, due to the human inability to choose correctly, between what is good and what is evil. Such people are commonly regarded as being beyond reformation but they are exactly, the kind of people that Jesus wants to save. Continue reading →

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Government Isn’t A Good Solution For Helping Abused Children

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Pam Witzemann

 

Child Broken By Sexual Abuse by, Nonnv

Recent events in England prove that pedophiles inhabit positions of power and use their power to obtain children for their personal gratification. Those of us in the United States need to pay attention and no longer put blind trust in the government foster-care system. There are many reasons why government is a bad solution for protecting abused children.

Jimmy Savile was a BBC celebrity and a powerful man in Great Britain. He hosted television shows and raised money for charities, for many years. He was knighted in 1990 by, Queen Elizabeth. He used his celebrity and power as cover for obtaining children to abuse for his sexual pleasure. I was shocked and angered by Jerry Sandusky but in comparison to Jimmy Savile, Sandusky was small-time. There are estimates that Savile abused as many as 800 children and the charities for which Savile raised money, were the vehicle that made children available to him, just like Sandusky. The most appalling thing about the Jimmy Savile case is that none of his crimes were acknowledged, until after his death. It’s not because no one knew how perverted and dangerous he was. He got away with committing child-rape, on a regular basis, because he was a famous, powerful man. He hid behind eccentricity, charity, and also, used his position at the BBC to help soften societal attitudes towards deviant sexual behavior. There is a push in Europe, to lower the age of consent and Jimmy Sevile was behind it and in support of it. He is the perfect example of modern pedophiles who seek power and use it to feed their perversion and hungry addiction for absolute power over others, by destroying innocent, young children. Continue reading →

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Emerging From Broken: Forgiving Parents/Abusers

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Pam Witzemann

Jesus Is The Way To Life

 

I have a new article at, http://www.emergingfrombroken.com/my-reckoning-journey-on-the-path-to-forgiving-my-parents-by-pam-witzemann. In this two-part article, I share my journey in finding my way to forgive my parents for the way they treated me, as a child. If you are a child abuse survivor and a Christian, I think this article holds special encouragement for you.

I know forgiving those who  abused us as children, is an issue for many Christians who are child abuse survivors. I also, know there are those traditionally, minded people out there who think I’m dishonoring my parents by talking about my childhood. However, their dishonoring took place long ago, by their own hand. Covering that past in pretense and lies has helped no one, least of all, my parents. I tried, for many years, to work this out within the family, to no avail, which is not uncommon. I don’t hate my parents. I love them and my hope for them lies in truth, the same truth that healed me, has the power to heal them. They have to choose to embrace it for themselves. I know that if and when they do, honor will come to them, as a result. Abusing children is a very common sin and the only way to eradicate it, is to bring it out into the light. Doing so, is the only hope for all of us. Abuse is sin and sin is abuse. None of us are free of abuses and none of us are unscathed by its effects. Forgiving abusive parents doesn’t often, result in reconciliation but it does allow the victim to lay down the weight of offense, finding freedom from them, and open the way for reconciliation, for parent-abusers who truly, seeks their child’s forgiveness. I offer my experience in hopes of helping others break the cycle of abuse in their lives. It is the only way to stop child abuse.

If you are a survivor, confused by the issue of forgiving those who abused you, I hope the path that Jesus walked with me toward finding true, forgiveness, will also encourage you on your personal journey. Emerging From Broken is a great place to find voice and validation, which are paramount for healing.

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Aging:Don’t Give Up! Look Up! Lean On Jesus!

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Pam Witzemann

Finding Strength In Old Age

Aging is an uphill battle that requires pushing against the personal deterioration that is the natural effect of passing time,on all material beings. It is often, exhausting and can make a person want to give up but giving up actually, speeds aging. Don’t give up! Look up! Lean on Jesus!

I’m 56 years old and as I look around at my peers, I see people who are still young and active. However, other people in my age group have become invalids. I’m somewhere in between. Some of the people I know lived hard when they were young and they are paying the price for it, in spades. Others are suffering through no fault of their own but when it comes down to it, suffering is just suffering and no one gets out of this world and avoids it, entirely. We all wish to die peacefully, in our beds after a long, fulfilling, interesting life. There are few who are so blessed. By the time one gets old enough to begin seriously, considering their mortality, most of us have learned by experience, that there are things much worse than death. A long battle with serious, chronic illness is one of those things. Chronic illness is part of aging and most of us will do battle with more than one. Aging is a process that requires strength and perseverance, but as the process continues, we are robbed of that which we need most to fight. Looking up and finding strength outside of self, through faith, is the best way I’ve found to keep myself in the battle. When I feel like giving up, I look up, and then lean upon Jesus and in Him finding all I need to continue living while getting older. Continue reading →

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The Power Of Unlimited Mercy In Jesus Christ

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Pam Witzemann

The Enduring Mercy Of God

Romans 11:32 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all.

I am alive and well this morning, thanks to the unlimited mercy of God. If it weren’t for the mercy I found in Christ Jesus, I think I would have died long ago or gone insane. By the time I came to adulthood, I was bitter, jaded and my heart was filled with spiritual darkness, because I’d experienced so much unmerciful behavior at the hands of other human beings. There certainly, wasn’t any mercy in me! I was lost. I had no hope. I didn’t even have a desire to live. It was at that point in my life, that God poured out His unlimited, unmerited (on the part of all human beings) mercy on me. The Holy Spirit revealed Jesus to me and I responded, by believing Him to be the Son of God and my personal Savior from the penalty of death, that I owed for the sins I had committed in the past and would commit in the future. With my mouth, I proclaimed Jesus as Lord and I was no longer lost in the spiritual darkness of my heart. I was saved from the full consequence of my sin, which is eternal, physical and spiritual death. My life from that moment forward, has been guided by the hand of God and under the protection of the unlimited mercy of God.

Like everyone else in the world, I was born bound to disobey God. On my own, I didn’t seek God and I didn’t believe in God. Not in the God of the Bible, anyway. That book was utterly, unintelligible to me before I experienced spiritual rebirth, by faith in Jesus. However, God never quit believing in me. He allowed me to get enough of the result of human disobedience and then He rescued me from it. Though I have free will and make my own choices in life, Jesus wasn’t simply a smart choice I made, that a lot of other people aren’t smart enough to make. Left entirely on my own, I never would have chosen something so foolish sounding as simple faith in Jesus Christ. I chose to bow before Christ and profess Him as my Lord because when the Holy Spirit revealed Jesus to me and I understood Who He is, there was no other way to respond. I have free will but God is Sovereign and I’m thankful that, by His mercy, He brought me to that moment of revelation and adopted me as His child. He did this through the work that Jesus Christ accomplished, in total obedience to God, when He died as a convicted criminal, so that I and all people could live. Continue reading →

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A Higher Purpose:What Can I Do To End Child Abuse?

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Pam Witzemann

 

Each Child Possesses A Unique Purpose

 Living for a higher purpose, unleashes the power of good into the world and is capable of solving our greatest, social problems. It even, has the power to end the most destructive scourge of our time, child abuse.

Most people aren’t aware of the holocaust being waged against children, today. It only makes the news when something  horrendous occurs, such as the massacre at Sandy Hook, that a crime against children is even reported. Every night, there are stories about animal abuse but the millions of children who are abused every day are mostly, ignored. However, the reason the media doesn’t bother to report it is because people don’t want to know about it. Really knowing how children are commonly, treated requires a response and the most common response is, “Well, I can’t do anything about it” along with, the decision to ignore it. Some truly, do feel overwhelmed by the enormous, disgusting problem of child abuse and child sex slavery. It leaves people feeling repulsed and hopeless. However, we must not ignore what is taking place all around us. Blindly,we trust the government to take care of the problem but there are too many corrupted people working in child protective services, who are involved either in abusing unwanted children, themselves or using their office to provide children to those willing to pay to abuse them. The government is doing a lousy job of protecting and caring for children, who have no one who cares for them. The result is a monstrous, global epidemic of children being battered, broken, and shattered though abuse. These children are in desperate need of true, intervention and that has to come from all of us who care about children. Our response should not be, “I can’t do anything about child abuse” but instead, “God, what can I do to help end child abuse?” All of us must reach toward that higher purpose and work toward better treatment of children. We can ignore the problem but no one is unaffected by it and no child is completely, safe. If we don’t stop the atrocities that are taking place against children, our civilization will falter and fall.

I am writing this as a call to the faithful. It is true, faith is a comfort. When believers are hurting and facing personal challenges, faith is also, a source of personal, strength. However, I think many believers have fallen to the same view of our purpose that so many with no faith have embraced. We are overly, focused on ourselves and have reduced our faith to that of self-gratification and thereby, stripped it of its power to build a better, more humane world. If our faith has become nothing more than an escape hatch from our personal problems, how are we any different from those who use drugs or other material means of doing the same? It is true that those of us who are in Jesus have a seat in the heavenlies and that is a wonderful, refreshing retreat, when the pressures of life become too great; but if we never put our faith to work on earth, how can the Father’s good purposes ever be served? We must find our higher purpose, put our faith to work and reach out to those who are hurting and have no one to intervene, on their behalf. Continue reading →

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In Jesus, I Rise Above!

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Pam Witzemann

To Be With God, by, Simon Dewey

Life presents some serious challenges and aging compounds those problems, by leaving me weak and less able to cope. Living continually, in God’s presence is the answer to enabling myself to rise above my weakness, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I am a spiritual girl, living in a material world; but as I age and my material body wears out, it can be very easy to focus on all that is wrong, materially, to the point of neglecting my spiritual life. Aches, pains, doctors, and the constant demands in life that seem to be more difficult to meet each day, sometimes, overwhelm me. I feel tired, grumpy, and drained. I want to give up! If it were left to me, I would. However, even though growing old in a material world may be enough to cause me to forget what I have in, Jesus, God never forgets me. Because I believe in, Jesus, I am continually, in the presence of God. When I’m mindful of His presence, my problems shrink back down to size because in comparison to what I have in eternity, I realize they are insignificant and temporary. The truth is, my God is huge and my problems are small; and the only time my problems get the best of me is when I neglect to keep my focus on, Jesus. When I look back to Him, He renews my outlook, by the power of the Holy Spirit, who is my teacher and comforter. Then in spirit, I rise above my problems. Continue reading →

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Psycho Tropics + Guns = Mass Murder

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Pam Witzemann

Desperate Young Man

Since the massacre of young children at, Sandy Hook Elementary in New Town, Connecticut, the nation’s focus has been on gun control and mental health care in the United States. However, the discussion fails to focus on the negative effects psycho tropics often, have on people with mental illness and how they can induce psychosis, adding  fuel to the fire of a mental disorder.

Christmas 2012 was marred for everyone by the horrible mass shooting of innocent, small children and the adults paid to teach and watch over them, at Sandy Hook Elementary in New Town, Connecticut. As in so many of these terrible shootings, the murderer was a young man in his twenties, with a history of mental illness, and on psycho tropic medications. Everyone is quick to focus on what can happen when a person with mental illness has access to guns and  become violent. The knee-jerk reaction for a quick fix is to try to control who has access to guns. What most people don’t know is that most mentally ill people are not violent but the medications used to treat many mental disorders can cause mania and/or psychosis and cause an otherwise, nonviolent person to commit acts of violence. Continue reading →

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Faith In Jesus vs. Human Expectations For The New Year

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Pam Witzemann

Hope!

Human expectations are intense during the Christmas season and trying to fill those expectations takes all the joy out of Christmas, for millions of people, every year. When those same kind of high, unrealistic, human expectations are confused with faith, they leave us with a form of godliness but rob us of the true power of faith.

Christmas 2012 has come and gone and now takes its place as number 56 among the other 55 ghosts of my Christmases past. These specters haunt my memories and mark the seasons of my life, during the holiday season. Christmas has brought me both joy and sorrow and those gifts were usually, the result of what I put into the holiday and what it meant to me at that particular time. There have been years when I dreaded Christmas and years when I waited in happy anticipation. Years when I’ve been disappointed and other years, when I was pleasantly, surprised by some unforseen blessing. I have celebrated as an unbeliever and as a believer and experienced both the material and religious expectations that can often drown out what people refer to as, “the true meaning of Christmas”. The Christmases I’ve enjoyed most are those quiet Christmases with the least expectations for the perfect Christmas, whatever that may be defined to be, and simply enjoyed the day God made, as it unfolded before me.

The year 2012 is fading and a new year is beginning to light the horizon. Because I am a Christian, I face this new year with hope for the future. My hope isn’t in the fulfilling of any human expectation but in Jesus Himself and the knowledge I have of God’s faithfulness, in working out His plan for me and the rest of His Creation, through His Son. My faith in Jesus is my hope even in the face of my sometimes, unrealistic and even, fearful expectations. Human beings plan many things and sometimes, they achieve that which they hoped for but more often, people make plans and life takes another course, entirely. Sometimes, it’s easy to get our desires mixed up with God’s Will and just as human expectations can drown out the spiritual significance of the incarnation of Christ at Christmas time, our expectations can be confused with faith and leave us disappointed when life doesn’t unfold according to our plans. Then we are disappointed with God and wonder why He doesn’t answer our prayers. True faith in Jesus moves our hearts and minds in accordance with God’s plan, while our personal expectations demand that God do things our way. Faith is the substance of hope and human expectations are the substance of pride. There is nothing we can’t accomplish with true faith in Christ, when our will is operating within the Will of God. There is nothing we can accomplish when our plans and expectations for them, are set in opposition to God’s Will. Even those things we aspire to achieve that seem godly and good can only be brought to completion if they are a part of God working the good and the evil to the good of those who are His, in Christ Jesus. Just as the Christmases I’ve enjoyed the most are those holidays that are simple and quiet so too, is my faith in Jesus most satisfying when I rely upon God’s plan instead of making grand plans of my own. I am better served through the work that Christ is accomplishing in me and through me than any ideas I may have of performing great works for Him. Continue reading →

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Celebrating The Birth Of Jesus In Me

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Pam Witzemann

The Way To Eternal Life

There’s a lot of controversy about the origins of Christmas and whether or not it should be celebrated as the birthday of Jesus. It’s true, I don’t know the day or hour that Jesus Christ was born but I do remember the day when I accepted Jesus, as my Savior. On that day, Jesus was born, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in me. This Christmas, as I consider the incarnation of Christ, I will also, be celebrating the birth of Jesus, in me.

Christmas is a joyous time for some and a painful, confusing time for others. Christmas has not always been the celebration of materialism that it is today. At the beginning of Christmas in America, it was considered to be such a holy day of contemplation that gift giving, on the scale we expect in modern times, would have been considered crass and maybe even, blasphemous. It was a day set aside to contemplate and meditate upon the incarnation of Christ Jesus. Of course, December 25 was celebrated as a Pagan holiday, long before Jesus was born. I have to admit,  the current celebration of Christmas in America, seems to become a little more Pagan every year; but holidays are what we make of them. They aren’t holy or unholy, in and of themselves. Every day given us is a day to be lived for Jesus or for our own purposes. This is the choice we make when deciding how to celebrate Christmas. How we celebrate tells the world what the incarnation of Christ means, in the life of a believer, and to the world. Christmas used to be a day that brought Americans together but Christmas has become highly, controversial and divisive. People take offense at everything from the crass materialism, to the Pagan roots of our traditions, to Christmas trees in government buildings and town squares. This Christmas, I am resolved to step outside the controversy surrounding the holiday and focus on the day of my personal salvation. This was the day when the Holy Spirit entered my heart and by faith, Jesus was born in me. When I consider all that He has done in my life, through the process of faith, the power of Immanuel, silences every controversy over the true meaning of Christmas. Every day is a good day to meditate on the wonder of God reaching down to man and December 25th is an acceptable day to marvel at the fact that the Savior who saved me, is by the same power of eternal life also, saving the world. Continue reading →

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