It All Begins With God-Who-is-Love
It All Begins with God-Who-Is-Love So God created all humankind in God's image in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:8 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 1 John 3:16 Twenty-odd years ago I taught an adult Sunday School class based on the book Faith that Hurts, Faith that Heals: Understanding the Fine Line between Healthy Faith and Spiritual Abuse ( Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton: Thomas Nelson Press, 1993). Even though the class was comprised solely of church attenders, nearly everyone had a story to tell, and many were still caught up in grieving the wounds real spiritual abuse had left behind. Nearly everyone, it seems, has a story to tell about feeling misled or abused by others in the name of religion. Yet, spiritual abuse can also happen without ever invoking religion. When our loved on