Undefiled: Redemption From Sexual Sin, Restoration For Broken Relationships [Paperback]

Harry Schaumburg (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 25, 2009

Amid the chaos of cybersex, impersonal sex, adultery, homosexuality, and sexual dissatisfaction in marriage, Undefiled calls readers toward a new kind of spiritual and sexual revolution. Sexual impurity creates a vicious circle, one that springs from misconceptions about Christ and further taints our understanding of Him. Yet another circle is available to men and women trapped in sexual sin, a circle of sexual redemption.

When practiced as God intends, spirituality and sexuality both draw us closer to Christ. Spiritual maturity and sexual maturity go hand-in-hand, and together they hold out the promise of redemption and restoration needed by everyone who has been damaged by sexual sin.

There is hope. Real change is possible; true intimacy is available. To the person who has failed time and time again sexually, God's message is simple: You, too, can be undefiled.

Editorial Reviews

Review

FOR INSIDE THE BOOK (Bold parts can be excerpted for the back cover if there is room)

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The often quoted saying, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." holds true in this recent work of Dr. Harry Schaumburg. The Church of Jesus Christ is thoroughly enmeshed in one moral crisis after the other, and we have been in desperate need for a truly biblical answer to this crisis. Several thousand years ago, someone said, "...Increased years should teach wisdom." It is evident that Dr. Schaumburg's years of experience and his commitment to a thoroughly biblical approach to dealing with this issue has produced a work that shines with penetrating light into the one of the darkest areas of 21st century Christian life. I commend this work as a handbook for study in every church, as a resource to every pastor who has or will face this matter in their ministry and as a diagnostic tool for personal evaluation of one's own life and walk. No pastor's library should be without this wonderful tool. If Undefiled is taken seriously, it could produce a sea change in Christian behavior.

Bishop Joseph L. Garlington, Sr.
Senior Pastor
Covenant Church of Pittsburgh
Presiding Bishop
Reconciliation Ministries International

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As the Church awakens to the mushrooming challenges of sexual sin and temptation, this book is important.  Not only does Dr.
Schaumburg capture hearts through compelling narrative, he addresses the real issues head on. The author integrates a much needed Biblical
view of sex into the fabric of everyday faith.  But most importantly, Dr. Schaumburg emphasizes the concept of sin, rather than the more
typical categorization of sexual sin as disease.  Because sin is thoroughly addressed here with the gospel of Jesus Christ, hope and
power are present.  Undefiled is substantial, but written in a way that people can comprehend.  It is my prayer that this work will be
widely read - leading to understanding, repentance and faith, and God's blessing for people and families.

Joseph Wheat
Pastor, PCA

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From a former client:
Before going to see Dr. Schaumburg, I was terrified. Not only had my world as I thought I knew it crumbled, but I was desperate for some answers to why my spouse had done these things: didn't he care about our marriage? Our family? What was so wrong with me that he had to go elsewhere? While reeling from the revelations, I faced the thought of what to do next: should we spend more money we didn't have on counseling that although it was "christian" hadn't helped in the past?

Now, as an alumni of Dr. Schaumberg's method, I can tell you that this book offers a real answer for the above questions facing so many broken marriages today.  The real solution is not about the counseling, the recovery programs, and finding who to blame for one's behavior--we tried those and they didn't bring true change. Dr. Schaumberg's method gets to the heart of the matter, literally. He guides each person to examine their own heart and see how it lines up with God's will for their life, step by step, just as if you were going through his program. You will not be the same person you were if you read and follow the instructions in this book; in it you will find the keys to sexual redemption.

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From a former client:
The resources Harry is making available to use in the local church will transform people's hearts and minds. I am confident that the truth contained in these new resources will begin to shatter the strongholds that have held many captive for years. If more people are exposed to this truth, hopefully the tide of self-help can be stemmed and the tide of clean heart, clean mind can begin to grow.

About the Author

HARRY W. SCHAUMBURG, MA, MS, DMin, LMFT, speaker, author and counselor, is the founder and Executive Director of Stone Gate Resources, Inc., a ministry that has addressed the problems of sexual sin within the church for more than eighteen years. Offering real change, his pioneering Brief Intensive CounselingSM program has drawn over two thousand five hundred laity and clergy from the U.S. and eighteen foreign countries. For nearly thirty years, Dr. Schaumburg has been involved in pointing people away from sexual sin to restored intimacy with God and others. He is the author of False Intimacy: Understanding the Struggle of Sexual Addiction, the first book on the subject from a biblical perspective, and Sexual Redemption. Married forty years to his wife Rosemary, they have two adult sons.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Moody Publishers; New Edition edition (August 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802460690
• ISBN-13: 978-0802460691
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.6 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Gender & Sexuality

More About the Author

Harry W. Schaumburg, MA, MS, DMin, LMFT, as a speaker, author and counselor, addresses the problems of sexual sin within the church. His pioneering Biblical Intensive Counseling program has drawn over three thousand laity and clergy from the U.S. and twenty foreign countries. For over thirty years, Dr. Schaumburg has been involved in pointing people away from sexual sin to restored intimacy with God and others. He is the bestselling author of False Intimacy: Understanding the Struggle of Sexual Addiction, the first book on the subject from a biblical perspective. It has been published in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Chinese, and Korean. His latest books are Undefiled: Redemption From Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships and personal study guide for individuals and couples, Sexual Redemption: Life Changing Spirituality & Sexuality (available exclusively at www.restoringsexualpurity.org. Married forty years to his wife Rosemary, they have two adult sons.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Sexuality Redeemed September 4, 2009

By Tim Challies TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

Very often when I do radio interviews to support my book The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment the host will ask me, "Is this a particular low point for discernment in the history of the church?" And usually I answer, "I would tend to think so, and yet I think Christians from any period of history would answer the same way. Things always look darkest to our own eyes." This is as true of sex as it is of discernment, I am sure. We look at this sexualized culture with its mainstream acceptance of pornography, we look at a culture that more than ever seems surrendered to sex, and we despair. Yet we need only pick up the Bible to read of other cultures in other times where ritual prostitution was normal and where even churches accepted outrageous sexual sin to realize that this has always been a problem and will, in all likelihood, always be a problem. But it is in our particular cultural context that Dr. Harry Schaumburg brings his new book Undefiled. For decades Dr. Schaumburg has been counseling Christian couples and much of what he has learned in all those years is distilled into the pages of this book.

The subtitle of Undefiled is Redemption from Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships. I think the word "redemption" is particularly instructive and particularly important. Today the vast majority of people enter marriage with a complex and often extensive sexual history, whether that involves only one partner or hundreds, whether it involves abuse or pornography or anything else. It is the rare couple, even the rare Christian couple, who can attest on their wedding night that this sexual experience is their first. This means that almost every sexual relationship is in need of redemption, in need of God's grace to heal it, to renew it, to strengthen it. Thankfully we know that God is able and willing and eager to do this, to redeem sexuality that has strayed far from his purposes for it. But it is not only fresh, new marriages that suffer; many long-term marriages are rocked by confessions of adultery or pornography addiction. These marriages are in need of both redemption and restoration. And that is exactly the purpose of this book, to give the reader the tools to begin to rebuild what has been broken, to restore what has been lost.

One of the great strengths of this book is that Schaumburg never allows sexual sin to become a kind of psychological disorder. He does not shy away from calling a spade a spade, or calling a sin a sin. He avoids the all-too-popular therapeutic "disease" approach and focuses instead on the sinful human heart and its evil desires. And having laid bear the heart he is ready to shine upon it the light of the gospel. This he does with precision and with grace, with a gentle forcefulness strengthened by the truths of Scripture.

Woven throughout the book is the story of a couple named Jim and Carrie whose story is all-too-typical with one spouse betraying the other. From chapter-to-chapter Schaumburg tells of how he counseled them, how he brought the gospel to bear on their awful situation. And he tells of the redemption of their relationship. This story provides a framework of sorts, to give examples of what he teaches. Of course the book contains many other stories and anecdotes, collected during many years of dealing with couples as they face their deepest troubles. And yet so often we see how God can and does restore those relationships by extending grace to the hurting.

The book includes a list of helpful appendices that deal with topics such as masturbation, how to react to marital unfaithfulness, sexual dysfunction, divorce, modesty and the like. I just noticed as well that at [...] Schaumburg now offers a study guide called Sexual Redemption. It is "a fifteen week program for individuals, couples and groups. It guides the reader through each chapter of Undefiled providing Bible study, questions for personal reflection, resources for further study, a section for women, and a section for men." I am sure this will prove useful as supplementary material.

In the opening pages of Undefiled Schaumburg says, "To be spiritually mature, you must be sexually mature; to be sexually mature, you must be spiritually mature." This book seeks to achieve both of those goals, to help Christians grow up both in spiritual maturity and in their understanding of God's great gift of sex. This is a book that, when read by those in the midst of dark days, will bring comfort and reassurance that God can make all things new. It is a book that will also be of benefit to those who have never faced such dark days. Not only will it equip them to bring comfort to the hurting but it will also arm them with Scriptural truths about God's plan for sex. It is a book for anyone who wants to know redemption from sexual sin.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If you can only buy one book on this subject, THIS IS THE ONE January 6, 2010

By Open Book in Alabama

Format:Paperback

This past summer (July 09) I learned that my husband, a devoted family man and church leader, was involved in an illicit sexual relationship with a woman in our church. One week after this revelation I learned that there had been a previous affair, several months earlier, with another woman (who was like a sister to me) in our small church. Both of these women were regularly attending a Bible study I was leading at the time. I was devastated beyond imagination.

Since then I have read more than a dozen books on this topic. Most were Christian in perspective but not all. Although many were helpful, none spoke to the essence of the issue of sexual sin. Nothing I read addressed this topic at its core until Undefiled. Undefiled is a comprehensive and insightful resource to clarify the myths of our sexual behavior. I have not found any other resource like it.

My husband and I have been tremendously enlightened by Dr. Schaumburg's timely wisdom. This book is helpful and healing on so many levels. The information contained is the result of many years of counseling. It is founded upon the Biblical scriptures and compellingly conveys the heart of God in regard to our human sexuality. Dr. Schaumburg's passion for seeing people live in authentic relationship with God and in freedom from sexual bondage is apparent on every page. If you can only buy one book on this subject, without question it should be UNDEFILED.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The gospel, honestly and gently October 14, 2009

By James P. Kress

Format:Paperback

Dr. Schaumburg honestly and gently articulates the truth of God's Word about the human condition and as a result, he offers hope for real, lasting change.

Though the context of the book is sexual brokenness, the truths in this book can be applied to all forms of behavior. Hope is offered for real and lasting change by going beyond behavior management and clinical therapy models to the timeless and relevant biblical models of brokenness and restoration by the cross of Jesus Christ.

The message is for all. "Undefiled" will greatly strengthen those who have tried the shallow and typical church programs and found them lacking.

The gospel is good news. You will find it here.