Finding Freedom From A Broken Past

Twelve weeks of Bible study for individuals or groups A new, special edition installment in this best-selling series Leader's Guide included

Twelve weeks of Bible study for individuals or groups A new, special edition installment in this best-selling series Leader's Guide included

We all have wounds. We all experience the emotional suffering that arises when we’re prevented from receiving or giving love as we were created to. As we orchestrate our lives to hide our wounds and avoid the discomfort of having them irritated, we end up creating anxiety, unhappiness, exhaustion, anger, and a sense of meaninglessness. The good news is that God wants to heal us! In Finding Freedom in Christ: Healing Life’s Hurts, Dr. Matthew Breuninger examines the nature and causes of our wounds. Finding Freedom in Christ outlines a six-step model to help readers identify and remove the barriers to God’s healing grace—making deeper conversion pos­sible. Ultimately, the goal of this healing model is to free individuals to love and serve God and one another.

There are many forms of liberation—some that exist at the mercy of circumstance and others that can never be taken away. In this stirring and timely collection of stories, essays, poems, and letters, Jarvis Jay Masters explores the meaning of true freedom on his road to inner peace through Buddhist practice. He reveals his life as a young African American man surrounded by violence, his entanglement in the criminal justice system, and—following an encounter with Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche—an unfolding commitment to nonviolence and peacemaking. At turns joyful, heartbreaking, frightening, and soaring with profound insight, Masters’s story offers a vision of hope and the possibility of freedom in even the darkest of times.

We have been brought up to see things in a particular way—to interpret our experience and respond to events, people, and even to God in cultural and personal ways. This has given us a frame of reference that undergirds all else we know, trust, and love in life, as well as all we question, distrust, and hate. But this foundation is not without its cracks. We live in a broken world, and it has influenced us more than we know. Various Christians give us advice, but we often find ourselves stuck in the emotional pain of past experiences. We may not realize how much it controls our thinking, and we wonder why we are unable to experience the freedom and peace Jesus talks about. But things are not always what they seem; we need to see them as they are, not as other influences have shaped them. It is time we let God speak for himself on the matter. This book turns our minds to trust and freedom in our walk with God. It leads us to know God's grace, providence, and purposes in a way that changes our lives and experiences in this broken world from this day on.

Often Christians feel saved from the ultimate penalty for their sins, but not from the persistent pain of regret. The long-lasting consequences of bad decisions leave many feeling perpetually out of God's will and unable to move forward into freedom and productivity. Getting Past Your Past is the antidote to the kind of regret that can stall us spiritually and bind us up in emotional pain. Susan Wilkinson lights a clear path out of this prison with six steps, including understanding and truly embracing grace; learning to forego secrets and live authentically; and grieving old dreams and dreaming new ones. This wise, heartfelt book offers strong spiritual and emotional resolution of regret by focusing on the sovereignty and unmerited kindness of God, who alone can restore the peace we've sometimes lost.

Each of us has experienced something that left us broken and in pain. We need to recognize we are not alone—there are others who have been where we are, and God understands how we feel. We live in a broken world, but Jesus came to make us whole. In this study readers will learn how to recognize in their hearts they are children of God and made free, how to break free of the cycle of pain and not pass on the same legacy of sin and pain, how to forgive those who have wronged us and be reconciled, how to get past feelings of injustice, and how to experience joy even in the midst of suffering.

I have shared my life experiences and how they have shaped my view of myself, my Creator, and others. I hope that the reader will have a renewed sense of how wonderfully and perfectly loved they are by God.