The ministry to which God has called us is truly that of binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners. We do that through counseling individuals and couples, speaking at churches, and being available wherever He opens up the opportunities. We are seeing lives transformed as they begin to understand the message of Galatians 2:20.

Recently a young woman was referred to me (Cherri) because she was shattered after finding out that her husband was addicted to pornography. She shared with me that she “felt dirty” and had no idea how to relate to her husband anymore. In the process of the conversation, I realized that she had never accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior and was able to lead her through that process. It was exciting to help her realize that in God’s eyes she was a princess, daughter of the Most High, and not dirty at all, no matter what her husband had done. Another woman came to us in pain from being abandoned by her husband. Because she had made some wrong choices in dealing with the pain, she felt as if God had rejected her and saw her as unworthy of His love. She had been raised in the “doing in order to be” legalistic atmosphere and was desperate to find her acceptance in God’s grace. It was an amazing time of breaking the bonds of “trying harder” and teaching her to trust Jesus to live His life through her.

We talk with so many people who feel that they were saved by grace but need to live by legalism (rules, trying harder, working to be spiritual). These people are often feeling defeated, that they can never do enough to make God like them. Feelings of shame and inadequacy often drive people into some sort of addiction, not only to drugs and alcohol but also to other forms of addiction such as shopping, eating, video games, etc. Finding the truth of the unconditional love of God is the first step in breaking the bonds of those addictions…