7/44 Walking away to your own Pigpen when we Reject the Church
For some people, the whole church scene seems way too hard. They have ‘served’ to the best of their ability and been labelled as ‘not good enough’ or maybe burnt-out in trying to meet expectations. Perhaps they have run into controlling, abusive leadership and been broken in the middle of their journey.
Some jumped into another ‘system church’ or even drop out all together. Then there are a group of people who ‘returned to Egypt’; they go back to the world they left when they found Jesus. I am one of those who spent time away from the church scheme; I went into my ‘pigpen experience’. See Luke 15 with the story of the Prodigal son as the background for this post.
I accepted the Lord when I was 16 and even when to Bible school for 2 years. University followed where I went into Home Economics based as the Lord’s words from Titus 2:3 where I was instructed as older women to teach the younger women.
About my third year, roommates changed and I soon found myself surrounded by people who were into ‘parties and boys’. My walk with Jesus was further pushed aside when the youth leader at the church I was then attending was more interested in me as ‘a physical distraction’ rather helping me grow in Jesus.
Finding someone I thought loved me and was chosen by Jesus as my future husband deeply cut into my heart when he turned away from my insistence for us to ‘….wait until the proper time to become sexual involved’. My heart was deeply wounded by those I trusted …. And here was the world offering me something glittering and appealing; boys and parties was my ‘Egypt’. It took me 10 years to get back to where I knew I wanted to be with the Lord.
During that time, He worked so much out of my heart that I have never been tempted to return to ‘my Egypt’, the world’s ways of finding fun. I also re-established a relationship with Jesus, a much deeper and growing path that I will never turned away from ever.
I think sometimes people in the church still have these ‘heart desires’ they have never faced and worked out of their heart … so it was not a wasted journey for me. As the Prodigal daughter, I returned to my waiting Father …. and was gladly accepted back. I have used this testimony many, many times in the counselling rooms to help others work through their own ‘Pigpen experience’. It is out of this experience I can identify with those who have chosen to walk away from the Lord.
So, if you are in your Pigpen right now, come and find the real, living Jesus! He will never reject you! That is the goal for anyone who has walked away from Him, to find the real Jesus of Nazareth. Only with this dealt with can we go onto the next stage of our growth, to being a real steward and then onto becoming that precious child of the living God.
Susanne Fengler, Blog Author
www.christianfoundations.jesus-treeoflife.info
Tags: My pigpen time
Filed under: From Slave to Sonship
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