The Millstone Orphans

Luke 17:1Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. (NIV)

This message could have been called "The Soul Stealers" if the focus of the message was upon those who hurt, abuse, and molest children. However, the focus is not upon the person who has or will be begging to be cast into the sea with a millstone around their neck. The focus is upon the children…those children who were made, or who are being made spiritual orphans or millstone orphans, as we will call them. The focus of this message is upon children who have been or are being molested, abused, or hurt by others.

Childhood should be a time of growth and nurture where each of us learns to find safety and security. If you are a millstone orphan, learning to be safe and secure is one lesson you never learned. If you were intentionly hurt, abused, or molested as a child you never learned to trust. You never learned that you could feel secure. You never learned you could feel safe. What you learned is fear, doubt, distrust, and anxiety. What you learned as a child is that you would always be helpless and hopeless. Or, what you learned as a child is to hurt others as you were hurt. No wonder Jesus pronounced the wrath of God upon those who damaged your soul. No wonder Jesus pronounced the wrath of God upon those who took advantage of you. If you are a millstone orphan your ability to believe in God in the way non-orphans believe has been torn away.

A fellow minister, with whom I have had contact, was to take a short assignment in a state mental hospital. This minister was given a warning by the staff. The staff knew and appreciated how healing the love of God can be, but warned the minister that at no time should the minister refer to God as a man, nor should the minister refer to Jesus as a man. The warning was given because so many of those persons on the wards of this hospital had been raped, beaten, or molested by men. Their souls had been stolen as children.

The verse about the millstone is repeated three times in the New Testament. What many people do not understand in these verses is that when a child is an orphan of the millstone the child repeats the sin that was done to them. What Christ is clearly teaching here is that children are of God and are to be preserved, nurtured, and cared for in healthy ways just as if they belong to Him, because they DO belong to Him.

If you are a millstone orphan, it is highly unlikely that you are reading this message. If you are a child or a grandchild of a millstone orphan, it is also highly unlikely that you are reading this message. In working with people who are millstone orphans, or their descendants, I have found that they stay very far away from anything resembling faith, the gospel, God, Jesus, salvation, repentance, or anything related to religious practice. Most often, millstone orphans, or their descendents are terrified of being emotionally raped by anything or anyone having anything to do with the Christian faith.

To The Pastor Or Christian Worker

If you are a pastor or a Christian worker in any capacity, it is crucial and vital that you come to understand the nature of the soul of a millstone orphan. It is crucial that you understand the orphan person is terrified of you and what you represent. These persons are afraid you will do to them on an emotional level what has been done to them in the past on both an emotional level and a physical level.

An orphan's soul has been scarred over and damaged at a vulnerable age. As much as you want to believe that every person has the innate capacity to come to Christ as you did, some people may not be able to jump through your hoops toward Christ. Some people have a soul, mind, and heart so covered over with scars or wrapped in terror they cannot see Christ as loving them as you see Christ as loving you. Some millstone orphans may never be able to trust anyone, ever. The childhood of these orphans has been full of emotional hurt and pain. Trusting anyone is next to impossible. If you are a pastor or Christian worker, you now have verse after verse to quote to me about the healing of Christ. You now have a verse for me about how all things are possible, how faith breaks down every barrier, how we are all responsible, how we have all sinned, and I could go on with the theology for pages. However, most of our Christian constructions and our easy jargon fail for a millstone orphan. The person who is an orphan, is too damaged, too broken, as well as too frightened of what we teach and preach to go near what we call the gospel. This is why Jesus admonished us not to judge others. God holds each person fully responsible and fully accountable. God, however, has ways of looking at each person's heart that we cannot fathom. You, if you are in the faith, might want to proclaim hell fire upon anyone outside the faith. However, the millstone orphan has lived in hell fire here on earth. Perhaps our loving God has ways of touching or rescuing those who have lived in a hell on earth in ways you do not know. Perhaps the love of God knows how to touch and measure a person's faith and heart so there is a heavenly rest for a millstone orphan.

If You Are A Millstone Orphan

If you are a millstone orphan, my heart breaks and my soul aches for you. There is so much healing you have to do. Some or most of you who are millstone orphans will be on the healing path your whole life. Every day will be a battle with the inner turmoil and darkness you carry. Some of you will battle a beast in the darkness until you die. Some of you will walk alone in the darkness and never find the true Light or the true Love of God. How I ache for you. I want to find soothing words and comfort for you. I want to show you how to wrap your life around the Love force of the universe. I want to infuse the wonderful words of Life into you so you will not hurt any more. I want to help you find peace, joy, love, harmony, and grace. However, if you are a millstone orphan, it is likely you do not believe me, and I understand. It is likely that if you do believe that I want to give you all these marvelous things, because you do not believe these things are possible for you. So what do I say now?

As dim a picture as I just painted you might think there is no hope that the One who created the universe and created you would ever meet in this life. Perhaps for you the starting point of all inner healing of the hurts and scars of life is trust. Trust is the biggest barrier you will have to overcome to deal with the effects of being a millstone orphan. Millstone orphans, when they are able to trust, usually point the trust in the wrong direction. Generally, you typically trust people who will or do hurt you. This misdirected trust keeps the cycle of distrust going. It sounds a little strange to say you trust people so you can keep on distrusting but that is what happens.

When you are alone, which for some of you is unbearable, please try to invest your emotional center in the great Force of Love in the universe. The universe has only one great Force of Love. This force moves through all things and is within you. No matter how much darkness and pain you have had to deal with in the past, and no matter how much you have to deal with now, you have this Force of Love within you.

Things would be a lot easier if the Force of Love was visible. However, Love is not visible. Only the results of Love are visible. The problem of invisibility is both good and bad. The bad thing about the Force of Love being invisible is that few people believe…because the Force of Love is not visible. To make this more understandable, would other people believe you existed if you were invisible? Chances are slim to none that anyone who knows you now would believe you exist now or ever existed if you had always been invisible. The Force of Love exists but is invisible. The Force of Love is also a Light but the Light is also invisible. I realize that if you are a millstone orphan I am digging myself into a deeper and deeper hole here.

The good thing about the Force of Love and Light being invisible is that you must learn to trust. This is where trust comes in. You must trust the Force of Love and the Light in order for the Love and Light to materialize within you. The Force of Love and the Light want you to know they exist. The Force of Love and the Light want to materialize or well up from within you and be a guide, a shield, and a comfort to you. The Force of Love and the Light want to be constantly in your consciousness and in your heart. As difficult as it may seem, you have a way already available to you to open the door of your life to the Force of Love and the Light. The Force of Love and the Light are alive within you this minute and have always been alive within you. Even when you were or are now in the darkness, and you were lost and could not find your way, the Force of Love and the Light were within you. They have always been there and they will always be there.

The Force of Love and the Light within you are like laughter. Laughter (sort of) springs out of you from nowhere. Something tickles you and you laugh. The Force of Love and the Light emerges from within you in the same way laughter emerges but the Force of Love is more profound, more moving, and more healing than laughter. In the invisible center of the universe, there lives the great Force of Love and Light. All cultures have recognized the great Force, because the great Force is in all of us, you included.

To trust is, in many respects, an act of holding. The Force of Love must be held within you BY YOU…even when the Force is already there. The Force of Love requires that your spirit and your will hold Love and Light. This is because when you hold Love and Light then the Love and Light of the world become real. It is not enough to want to hold the Love and the Light. You have to actually trust and hold them within your inner being.

As I write this message, it is December 6, 2000. We are 19 days away from Christmas. The Force of Love, two thousand years ago, felt the need to be visible. Consequently, the Force of Love caused a male baby to be born. This baby was unlike any baby before or since because this baby had the Force of Love as a father. To help you heal the hurts, scars, traumas, fears, and all the dark plagues upon your life, the Force of Love would like you to hold this baby in your arms. A certain melting on your part is required here. You must be willing to trust the Force of Love because a melting of all your hurts, fears, pain, and scars is required to hold this baby. This baby was and is pure love. Although the baby is invisible, you can still hold this child. If you are willing to melt just a little, this baby of pure love, will touch your heart, your soul, and your spirit and help your inner healing begin.

It does not make any difference when you read this message. You can still hold the baby in your arms and you can still melt. The Force of Love and the Light want you to let your inner being to melt down. They also want all the darkness put upon you to disappear forever. The will of the Force of Love and the Light do not want you to be plagued by an inner being full of darkness from your past or present. It is the will of the Force of Love and the Light that you hold the baby in your arms and in your heart, every minute of every day of your life.