Mara

Mark: “I understand people may be hurt or hurting by abuse but we should be careful we do not let sin creep into our lives with this hurt. Sin is a disease and and will harbour bitterness if we are not quick to recognise it. Jesus commanded us to forgive- are people doing this?”

Mark, we cross posted. I didn’t see yours that is right above mine until after I posted.

Let me tell you something. My real name is not Mara. It’s my internet name I use for the sake of protecting my family, yet being able to be real.
Mara means bitterness. I’m an expert. At both being bitter and getting out of it. My blog is me helping others find healing from bitterness.
My last name, for internet use, is Reid, which is symbolic of Jesus being the Bruised Reed, and also in reference to the story of Moses throwing the branch into the bitter waters at Marah and the waters being made sweet.

The point of me telling you all this is so that you know that I am very aware of bitterness, a root of bitterness, and what can be done to make the bitter waters sweet.

Patriarchy and some forms of comp (if not all) are bitter waters men (and some women) give women to drink. The pushers of Patriarchy
declare that the bitter waters they present are sweet and that if a woman refuses to drink these bitter waters but rather spits them out, she is guilty of rejecting Christ.
But women who hold their noses and drink the bitter waters anyway are no better off. Do you know why? Because drinking bitter waters make you bitter.

There is most definitly a time for forgiveness. But just about before the forgiveness process can even begin, women have had to wake up, realize the bitter waters people were giving them were, indeed, bitter, and they had to stop drinking it. They needed to find the real, true, sweet water that Jesus offers that has nothing to do with who is the head of whom. Then once they start drinking it straight from the Master’s hand rather from the bitter hands of the bitter teachers obsessing over who gets to be the boss, the healing, forgiveness and escape from bitterness can begin in earnest.

You can forgive and forgive and forgive for years and still be bitter, if you keep taking in bitter waters and never get to the freedom Christ really has for you.

If I sound angry, I’m not. If I sound like I’m judging you, I really am not. All I’m trying to do is help you to see that there is more to bitterness than not forgiving those who have wronged you. And many women are bitter, not just because they don’t forgive (many try and fail and try some more), but because all the water they are offered by the church is bitter.

I thought my anti-spam word was ‘love’ (out of the corner of my eye) but it is actually ‘live’. I like them both. I’m not telling you this because I don’t love you or think you don’t love me. You have always been gracious on this blog and I have no reason to not love you by your words. But I want to live, wild and free, in the grace and love God gives me freely. I don’t want it tainted by the doctrines or traditions of men. God’s grace, tempered by the restrictions men place on it threaten to make people bitter.
The church is full of those people, men and women. And sometimes the bitterness comes from a bad root in a doctrine rather than a root of unforgiveness.

Blessings Mark.
If I’ve not made myself clear, may God give you an understanding of what I’m trying to say, even if you don’t care to agree with it.