Beauty from Ashes
In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 and told His listeners, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:1-3).
Everyone who ministers in Jesus’s name is a minister of healing hope in the midst of traumatic suffering and abuse.
For the past several decades, I have focused on just such a ministry. Today, I’m collating some of my writings into this one document on 48 Resources on Healing from Sexual Abuse, Domestic Abuse, and Spiritual Abuse.
6 Resources on Healing from Sexual Abuse
Resource #1: 11 Biblical Counseling Resources on Sexual Abuse: Healing and Hope in Christ
As the title suggests, in this resource I collate, link to, and provide an introductory summary of biblical counseling on sexual abuse recovery.
Resource #2: 6 Biblical Counseling Resources on Sexual Abuse Prevention
In this resource, I collate, link to, and provide an introduction to biblical counseling resources that provide practical wisdom principles for sexual abuse prevention in our churches and homes.
Resource #3: Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes—Book Page
Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes is my P&R Publishing booklet on sexual abuse recovery. Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes provides readers with a Christ-centered, comprehensive, and compassionate understanding of sexual abuse and sexual abuse healing in Christ. It walks with readers through 2 Samuel 13:1-19 on a journey with Tamar. Tamar and the readers journey from a loss of faith, hope, love, and peace to a place of faith in the midst of doubt, hope in the midst of evil, love in the midst of sin, and peace in the midst of shame—all by Christ’s grace. The link above takes you to my author page where you will find free resources related to Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes.
Resource #4: An Excerpt from Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes
This five-page excerpt from Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes uses 2 Samual 13 to explain the damage done by the horrors of sexual abuse.
Resource #5: Author Interview on Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes
This resource shares an author interview I did with the Biblical Counseling Coalition on Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes.
Resource #6: Quotes of Note from Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes
In this resource, I provide two pages of quotes from Sexual Abuse: Beauty for Ashes. They include quotes like, “God’s Word provides us with robust, relevant, relational wisdom for addressing the horrors of sexual abuse.” “We want to obtain wise counsel from the divine Counselor through His Word which teaches us that grace is God’s prescription for the disgrace of sexual abuse.”
4 Resources on Healing from Domestic Abuse
Resource #1: 12 Biblical Counseling Resources on Domestic Abuse
I am a collator of resources. In this document, you’ll find a collation of, links to, and introductory summaries from 12 biblical counseling resources related to domestic abuse.
Resource #2: Shepherds, Please Think, “Protect Well.” Please Stop Saying, “Suffer Well.”
This is perhaps the most personal blog I’ve ever posted. Until I published this, many people—even those who have known me well for decades—had no idea that I grew up in an abusive home. In this post, I use my own story as the basis for counseling pastors and counselors to protect people who are suffering through the horrors of domestic abuse.
Resource #3: A Compassionate Biblical Approach to Suffering: “Biblical Sufferology”
I wrote this as a follow-up to my post on Shepherds, Please Think, “Protect Well.” Please Stop Saying, “Suffer Well.”
Resource # 4: In Abusive Relationships, Misapplying Biblical Principles Can Endanger the Abuse Victim and Can Enable the Abuser
As biblical counselors, pastors, and Christian leaders, we must avoid misapplying biblical passages and principles. Not every biblical principle applies to every unique life situation. We should not apply situationally-applicable principles universally to every situation. In abusive relationships, misapplying biblical principles can endanger the abuse victim and can enable the abuser.
6 Resources on Healing from Spiritual Abuse
Resource #1: Definitions and Signs of Spiritual Abuse
Spiritual abuse is a frequent topic of research, blog posts, books, and social media discussions. But What is spiritual abuse? What are signs of spiritual abuse? In this post, I provide working definitions of spiritual abuse. I also share 8 signs of spiritual abuse.
Resource #2: 7 Scriptural Signs of a Spiritually Abusive Toxic “Leader”
In this post, I more fully develop biblical signs of spiritual abuse so we can identify the toxic “leader.”
Resource #3: What Does the Bible Teach About Spiritual Abuse?
I’ve been speaking and writing about spiritual abuse for a long time. Back in 2011, Tim Challies interviewed me about this topic. This post is Part 1 of the two-part interview that Tim did with me.
Resource #4: Practical Biblical Responses to Spiritual Abuse
This post is Part 2 of the two-part interview that Tim Challies did with me.
Resource #5: 20 Biblical Passages on Spiritual Abuse
The Bible has a great deal to say about spiritually abusive false shepherds and toxic leaders. This post collates and quotes from 20 primary biblical passages about spiritual abuse.
Resource #6: 46 Resources on Spiritual Abuse
This list is not, per se, a list of “biblical counseling” resources on spiritual abuse. Not all of the authors would self-identify as “biblical counselors.” This is a list of resources that can help us to define, understand, think through, respond to, and counsel others about spiritual abuse.
8 Resources for a Biblical “Sufferology”
I’ve spent the past four decades writing about and ministry in the area of biblical grief, suffering, trauma, and healing. I could list 100s of resources. However, I’ve selected a more manageable amount. These are introductory/foundational resources on the general topic of suffering or sufferology—a biblical theology of suffering.
Resource #1: The Gospels and Traumatic Suffering
This resource links to a free 50-page PDF. Here’s what you’ find in this free resource: A Blog Post About Jesus’s Suffering: The Chronic Suffering of Jesus: Your Sympathetic High Priest. A Comprehensive Collation of Every Gospel Passage Where Jesus Suffered: 256 Passages from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. A Blog Post About Jesus Healing the Suffering: Jesus: Soul Physician of Embodied-Souls. A Comprehensive Collation of Every Gospel Passage Where Jesus Healed the Suffering: 102 Gospel Passages from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. A Blog Post Jesus As Our Sympathetic High Priest: Jesus Empathizes with Your Traumatic Suffering. A Blog Post About Jesus and Solitude: 48 Gospel Passages About Jesus and Solitude: Rest, Renewal, Withdrawal for Reflection, and Prayer to His Father.
Resource #2: 8 Wisdom Literature Resources for Biblical Counseling, Trauma, and Embodied-Souls
I’ve been examining the Bible cover-to-cover, Genesis-to-Revelation, studying what God’s sufficient Scriptures say about traumatic-suffering and embodied-souls. This post provides eight resources distilled from Old Testament wisdom literature. 1. When Your Counselor Makes Your Life Worse! 2. How Not to Empathize: Job’s Miserable Counselors. 3. 3 Major Problems with Elihu’s Counseling of Job. 4. Psalm 88: “The Dark Night of the Soul.” If Heman Saw a Miserable Counselor… 5. If Heman Saw a Comforting Counselor. 6. Proverbs & Biblical Counseling: Wisdom for Life & Wisdom from Life. 7. What Does Ecclesiastes Teach Us About How We View Traumatic Suffering? 8. The Body Keeps the Score; The Embodied-Soul Calculates the Cost.
Resource #3: 50 Biblical Counseling Resources on Trauma and Trauma Care
“Trauma” is a word, and an experience, that every Christian and every biblical counselor must reckon with. Because of this reality, I’ve collated the following resources on trauma, traumatic-suffering, and biblical counseling.
Resource #4: 22 Biblical Counseling Resources on Suffering and Trials
I excerpted this post from my Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources. It provides direct links to and summary introductions for nearly two dozen biblical counseling resources related to suffering and trials.
Resource #5: How Do Spiritually Mature Christians Handle Suffering?
Here’s my premise in this post: Much of our thinking about suffering is unbiblical. Read the post to find out what I mean…
Resource #6: How Do You View God in Your Suffering?
This brief post highlights the most important aspect about our response to our suffering—our view of God.
Resource #7: Experiencing Peace While Enduring Chronic Suffering
This post further develops the importance of our view of God in the midst of our suffering. In our suffering, here are core questions we must ask ourselves: What is my image of God? How do I view God? In my suffering, do I view God through the lens of my circumstances or through the lens of the cross of Christ? Do I view the cross through the lens of my circumstances; or do I view my circumstances through the lens of the cross?
Resource #8: A Trilogy on Grieving with Hope: 3 Resources for Experiencing God’s Healing Hope
This final resource provides links to and summary information about my three books on grief. 1. God’s Healing for Life’s Losses. 2. Grief: Waling with Jesus. 3. Grief and Your Child.
