How Do You Study The Bible After Someone Has Bludgeoned You With It?

Cognitive Dissonance and Bible Study Difficulties
After Spiritual Abuse

Posts originally appearing on Under Much Grace Blog in January 2010

Part I

I’ve been reluctant to share my personal experience, as I have concern that many readers will interpret what I did as a standard of sorts. For the Christian, the path to wholeness comes through knowing Jesus, and the primary way we know Him comes through reading His Word. Jesus is the Living Word. I want the reader to read, hear, and know well that I would have done anything to be able to read and study like I had before the crushing blow of realization of spiritual abuse knocked me flat. I had to develop an entirely new relationship with the Word and Bible Study (based upon purer motives), and this did not come easily or quickly for me.