Ridgell's Originals

 Here are few excerpts from my newest book, Wounds into Scars:  Turning your Sin Wounds into Spiritual Scars.

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From the Introduction.

Write what you know about.  That’s what they say.  So I suppose it was inevitable that someday I would write a book about sin.  And a book about following Jesus.  A book about Jesus followers who struggle with sin.  Jesus followers who do not want to be unfaithful to their calling as Christians.  Followers who love Jesus… yet struggle with temptation.  Believers addicted to sin.  Christians who sin and repent.  And sin again. 

I know what it is to love Jesus and battle sin.  I have felt the damage to my relationship with Jesus.  I have seen the damage my sin inflicted on others.  I know the pain of wounds that seem too deep to heal. 

But I also know the healing power of forgiveness and restoration. 

I have seen my wounds become scars. 

So I will tell you what I have told hundreds of struggling Christians.  I know what the wounds of sin look like.  But even more, I know what it looks like when your wounds stop bleeding and turn into scars.  

My wife Marsha and I have walked with a lot of people through a lot of crisis situations.  People who loved Jesus, or thought they loved him, or wanted to love him.  People who blew their life up, or who were addicted to sin, or who had a secret sin they never wanted anyone to know about.  Christians who came to their crisis point.  Decided to confess, or were caught in their sin, or confronted by someone that knew about their sin.  Desperate believers that showed up on our doorstep, or blurted it out in the church foyer.  Christians we met in our living room, or in a coffee shop, or in prison. 

Jesus followers who needed to get up after their fall, or climb out of the ditch.  We have waded into the mess of lives wounded by sin.  Into the blood and the filth. 

Because I’ve been there.  And got out.  Sometimes the message is just to say…

“Here is your living proof that God can fix this.  Can fix you.  He fixed us.  He fixed me.”

Wounds into scars.

So Who Should Read This Book?

You.  If you are an elder, elder’s wife, minister, parent, friend of someone struggling to get past their sin.  It is for Christians who want to really do life in community.  Doing life in the hard times, really being there for the brother or sister in trouble.  You will find resources to offer real help when someone you love is in a fight for spiritual survival. 

Maybe this book is for you if you have blown up your life with sin.  Or if you are hiding a sin cancer deep in your soul, or if you find yourself caught in a cycle of fall, get up, fall, get up… and you desperately want to break that cycle.  So you can watch your sin wounds become scars that reflect the healing you have experienced.  So you can help others do it too.

# posted by Steve @ 5:00 AM