Shame Interrupted: How God Lifts the Pain of Worthlessness and Rejection (Welch)

Shame controls far too many of us. Worthless, inferior, rejected, weak, humiliated, failure...it all adds up to wishing we could get away from others and hide. We know what shame feels like. The way out, however, is harder to find. Time doesn't help, neither does confession, because shame is just as often from what others do to you as it is from what you have done. But the Bible is about shame from start to finish, and, if we are willing, God's beautiful words break through. Look at Jesus through the lens of shame and see how the marginalized and worthless are his favorites and become his people. God cares for the shamed. Through Jesus you are covered, adopted, cleansed, and healed.

Table of Contents: 

1. The Quiet Killer 

Shame Uncovered 

2. Shame Exposed 

3. Shame Through the Years 

4. Shame and Disgust 

Shame, before Christ 

5. Naked Without Shame 

6. Naked with Shame 

7. The Outcast 

8. Clean and Unclean, Holy and Common 

9. When God Is Your Tailor 

10. Touch and Cleansing 

11. ‘Their Faces Shall Never Be Ashamed’ 

Shame, Honor, and Jesus 

12. A Shameful Start 

13. The Boundary Violator 

14. When God Touches the Untouchables 

15. A New Code of Honor 

16. New Boundaries for a New Kingdom 

17. Mark 14: Shame, Betrayal, and Abandonment 

18. The Cross 

19. ‘Come and Eat’ 

20. The Way of the Kingdom 

Honor, after Jesus

21. Honored by God 

22. ‘You Will Receive Power’ 

23. The Sacraments 

24. Riches, Strength, and Beauty

25. The Apostle Paul on Shame 

26. Despising Shame 

27. ‘Don’t Be Ashamed’ 

28. Boasting 

29. Brides and Banquets 

Author  

Edward T. Welch, M.Div., Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and faculty member at the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF). He has counseled for thirty years and is the best-selling author of many books including When People Are Big and God Is Small; Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave; Blame It on the Brain?; Depression: A Stubborn Darkness; Crossroads: A Step-by-Step Guide Away from Addiction; Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest; and When I Am Afraid: A Step-by-Step Guide Away from Fear and Anxiety. He and his wife Sheri have two daughters, two sons-in-law, and four grandchildren.

Endorsements

 "This is more than an important and redemptive book; it is a labor that could open the field of counseling, soul care, and pastoral work to a vital reformation that comes when one has cut open a path that has laid dormant for too long." -- Dan B. Allender, PhD, Professor of Counseling Psychology and Founding President The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology; author of The Wounded Heart: Help for Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse

"Dr. Ed Welch is one of my favorite authors. His work is biblical, practical, helpful, insightful, and hopeful. This book on shame is one I will be buying many copies of and giving away." -- Pastor Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church; Acts 29 Network; Resurgence

"Many today are stained by a crushing sense of being not good enough - worthy only of rejection. Ed Welch understands the shame-based person so fluently that it is easy to forget that he is a professional counselor and theologian. He writes more like a friend and fellow sufferer, so his counsel is richly biblical and practical. This book filled me with confidence in the cleansing, adopting, and sanctifying work of the cross." -- Tara Klena Barthel, Author of Living the Gospel in Relationships and co-author of Peacemaking Women, and Redeeming Church Conflicts

"Ed Welch finds us hiding in our shame and draws us out to be re-clothed by Christ. He surprises us again with the deep relevance of God's Word - even Leviticus - to the secret fears that dominate our daily lives. This brutally honest book is for every one." -- Mike Wilkerson, Pastor and Director of Biblical Counseling at Mars Hill Church; Author, Redemption: Freed by Jesus from the Idols We Worship and the Wounds We Carry.

"Shame is everywhere. It is obvious on the faces of those who have been abused. But because of sin, it lies in the depths of every human heart. Ed Welch shines the light of the gospel of Christ into the dynamics of shame, and explains how it is overcome in the honor Christ obtained for us through his identification with our shame on the cross." -- Eric Johnson, Lawrence and Charlotte Hoover Professor of Pastoral Care, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Director of the Society for Christian Psychology