Anger Management

I meet for prayer and fellowship with a small group of my brothers from CLC once a week for an early breakfast.  We share laughs, encouragement, our blessings and our struggles as we break biscuits together, sometimes for three hours or more.  Two of my friends have shared their struggles with anger.  They describe how anger constantly lurked inside of them ready to burst to the surface with the least provocation.  All it took sometimes was an inconsiderate driver or a thoughtless word from someone (not to mention actual injustices) to set them off.

I have never had a problem with anger, but I understand their struggle because I have had my own battle lately (that’s a story for another time).  Each of us in our group has our own personality, experiences and DNA, but we share faith in Jesus Christ, and the promptings of the same Holy Spirit.  That family relationship allows us to support each other with encouragement and prayers.

Anger is a natural response to injustice or wrongdoing, but it should be focused and temporary.  When anger becomes our default reaction it also becomes dangerous.  Mark Twain once wrote, “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”  Elizabeth Kenny pointed out another danger of anger when she wrote, “He who angers you, controls you.”  Provoking our anger is a ploy used by the enemy to distract us from what God has called us to do.  It puts him in control of our thoughts and emotions for a while and that never ends well.

Scripture warns us about anger.  Jesus said, “But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.” (Matthew 5:22)  Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:26, “And don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry.”  James wrote, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” (James 1:19)

Love has become my default response to virtually every situation.  I find it is the solution to nearly every problem.  One of my friends decided to replace his anger with love.  Every day he would read aloud from the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, “Love is patient, love is kind”, etc.  That seemed to help but it was becoming a ritual rather than reminder and then God spoke to him through the Holy Spirit, “Yes, love is all of those things, but are you?”  He then began saying “I am patient, I am kind”, etc. and that helped him even more.  Then one day when he was saying that, the Holy Spirit spoke to him once again, “You really like that, don’t you?  Who made it possible for you to be all of those things?” From then on he always concludes with “I am all of these things, Lord, because you were all of those things to me.” That has released him from anger.  It has been gratifying to see the change in him and watch him share his experience with our brother still dealing with anger.  God does not give us victory just for our own benefit, but for us to allow His love to flow through us to help and bless others.

 

 

 

Demonization

When I was a boy, there was a civility in this country that allowed us to disagree without becoming disagreeable. We could even remain friendly with people whose opinions differed from ours. Our society has slowly evolved from that state to one in which it is acceptable to verbally attack those with whom we disagree and not just vilify them but demonize them. It is no longer enough to simply state your position and perhaps agree to disagree. You must destroy and silence anyone with a different point of view. This saddens me deeply.

I once posted a very respectful disagreement with one of President Obama’s policies on Face Book and was immediately labeled a racist, a Nazi and a hater, none of which were true, but that didn’t matter. They just wanted to eliminate all opposition even if it meant destroying the reputation of good people with a different point of view.

Christ tells us that, as His followers, we must love God, love our neighbors and even love our enemies. (Matthew 5:43-44) When we do that, we cannot take part in such attacks on others. Demonizing people distracts us from the real demons that are causing trouble from their realm. Jesus loved people who were demon possessed and set them free by attacking the demons not the people.

How can we overcome demonization when it comes our way?  We can overcome all forms of opposition by displaying the fruit of the Holy Spirit through our words and actions. “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. (Galatians 5:22) The true demons around us will be exposed in comparison.

What about defending our honor or “fighting back” when we are falsely accused; do we just let them get by with it? Our words and actions will display the truth for everyone to see or hear, but in addition to that we have God’s solemn promise in Isaiah 53:17 “But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord; their vindication will come from me. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

 

The Blame Game

The blame game dates all of the way back to the Garden of Eden when God accused Adam of eating the forbidden fruit.  He blamed Eve (and indirectly blamed God for creating her).  Eve blamed the serpent.  The serpent left Adam and Eve holding the bag (sin and guilt).  It didn’t work then (all three were punished by God) and it won’t work today, but that doesn’t stop people from trying.

Those of us old enough to remember the comedian Flip Wilson will never forget his character, Geraldine.  Her favorite expression was “The devil made me do it.”  That line always got a huge laugh because deep down we all realize how ridiculous it is to blame someone else (even the enemy) for our decisions and actions, yet the blame game is still popular today.

It is especially evident during an election year when politicians blame their opponents for everything under the sun.  However, the blame game is not limited to politics.  We find ourselves divided racially, ethnically, religiously, socially as well as politically.  The blame game is easy to play when we stereotype a whole group of people who are different from us and blame that group instead of blaming a person.  All stereotypes are false.  Each person is unique and not the same as others who happen to share a characteristic, so it is unjust and unfair to blame any person by association.

We all remember the childhood retort, “When you point a finger at me there are three fingers pointing back at you.”  Whenever we feel the urge to blame an individual or a group for something, we should first take a hard look in the mirror.  Psychologists are familiar with the term transference.  It is a defense mechanism that projects our bad characteristics onto others. When someone falsely accuses me of anything, I always suspect they may be secretly struggling with that problem themselves and attempting to project it onto someone else.

What does God’s word say about passing the blame?  God issued this warning in Hosea 4:4 “Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! My complaint, you priests, is with you.” After all of the suffering Job endured the scripture says, “In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.” (Job 1:22)

I have written before about Satan’s con game of comparison.  The blame game is just another one of his cons.  If he can get us to participate, we will always lose and he will always win.

Faith of an Atheist

It has become clear to me over the years, that being an atheist requires just as much faith as I had when I became a believer in Jesus Christ.  The problem is that theirs is a misguided faith in human wisdom and ability while ignoring God’s power and handiwork in the world and universe around them. Proverbs 21:30 says, “No human wisdom or understanding or plan can stand against the Lord.”

A friend of mine was given a small pamphlet titled “What People Have to Say About God”. She thought it was a positive piece until she began to read it. When she questioned why it was given to her the person said it was to show her the truth. It was filled with quotes from noted atheists along with a few selected quotes from other famous people obviously meant to give it more credibility. One that caught my eye was a quote from James Madison. It is from a letter he wrote and is the quote used by non-believers to try to separate church and state by keeping faith out of all government activities and off all government property. They will never tell you that it is taken from a letter Madison wrote to a Christian Pastor about a sermon he preached. Madison’s concern was obviously keeping government out of the church, not the other way around. In that same letter he wrote, “Christianity is the purest and best religion.” That quote wouldn’t support their religion of humanism so they ignore it.

They tout science as the source of truth, unless it conflicts with the other tenants of their humanistic beliefs. They believe a mother has the right to abortion ignoring biological scientists who agree that life begins at conception. They believe in man made climate change based on scientific conclusions using “adjusted” temperatures instead of actual temperatures. Did men tip the earth on its axis at the precise angle to sustain life? Did men put the earth in an orbit around the sun at a distance that allows life to exist? Did men unexpectedly create a carbon molecule on earth without which life would not exist? Yet they fully believe men can undo what God has done. They must, in order to cling to their humanist beliefs. Genetic scientists have discovered that the DNA in a single living cell is so complex the first living cell could not have come into existence by chance as the theory of evolution would ask us to believe. Like that other inconvenient line in James Madison’s letter, facts that cannot be challenged or erased will simply be ignored. They must ignore so much that their “wisdom” has made them “ignorant”.

Mark Twain wrote, “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” That may be true, but what is difficult for man is a snap for God. C.S. Lewis was an atheist professor who read the scriptures to disprove God and came away not only a believer but one of the greatest apologists of the Christian faith. Lee Strobel was an atheist award winning journalist who set out to prove that his wife’s Christian faith was baseless. In his research, he discovered the truth and became a believer. His book and the movie “A Case for Faith” document his search and the faith he found. They have touched the lives of many other seekers. God is good.

Unfailing Love

One of my favorite passages of scripture is Matthew 22:36-40.  Where Jesus said, “’You must love the lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Can obeying those two commandments be a shortcut to obedience to God?  It certainly sounds much easier than trying to keep every commandment and demand to the letter.  However, as long as we have the sinful nature we inherited from Adam, keeping those two commandments is just as impossible as keeping them all.

I don’t know about you, but on my own I would have a serious problem aligning all my heart, all my soul and my entire mind behind anything, even my love for God. The enemy would work to harden my heart, wound my soul and distract my mind.  I might be able to love my neighbor as myself if self-love is the same as selfishness.  But when Jesus points out in Luke 10:30-37 that my neighbor may be someone who is unacceptable, forget about it.

Jesus knew that I couldn’t do it on my own.  It would take His life, death (in my place) and resurrection to provide me with forgiveness, salvation and eternal life. Only His sacrifice on the cross could give me access to Abba Father when I pray in Jesus’ name.  It is only through those gifts of God’s grace and love and the presence of the Holy Spirit within me that make it possible for me to love God with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind and to love my neighbors (all of them) as myself.

We often sing during worship, “It is amazing grace. It is unfailing love, that you should take my place that you should bear my cross.” My eyes fill with tears every time I think of how God demonstrated his love for a lost world (including me) by sending His Son to pay the price for our sins by shedding His life’s blood as the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God.

The term “unfailing love” is found in the NLT 164 times. Not once does it refer to my love for God, how I love others or even how I love myself.  It is only God’s love for me that is unfailing.  PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME!

Things Learned in Crisis

As I watch the devastation of hurricanes and earthquakes on the news, with homes and belongings being completely destroyed, I am reminded of what it feels like to lose everything.

The year was 1952, but I can close my eyes and remember it as if it happened only yesterday. I was nine years old and at home recovering from the measles. I heard someone pecking at our back door so I called out to my mom and when she opened the door the yard was filled with smoke. What I had heard were actually flames crackling on the roof. A spark had blown up the flue from our coal furnace onto the roof of that old farm house my parents were renting setting the wood shingles on fire.

My mother took me by the hand and we felt our way through the smoke and the trees to our nearest neighbor’s house taking nothing with us but the clothes we were wearing. When we got there my mother asked the neighbor to call the fire department and then call our doctor to see if there were any precautions needed for me. She headed back toward the house to untie our dog from the clothes line and get him out of harm’s way.

As I sat by the window watching my world go up in flames, I heard the neighbor finally get through to the doctor. She excitedly exclaimed, “I’m calling for Mrs. Anderson. Their house is burning down and she wants to know if Jimmy can go outside.” I laughed until tears were rolling down my cheeks. I told my mother about the call when she returned. She smiled and said, “I hope he said yes”.  That was one of the most stressful days of my life, but I cannot think about it without smiling about that phone call and that has greatly softened the impact of that traumatic memory.

Laughter may or may not be the best medicine, but God taught me that day it is definitely one of the best stress relievers in existence. He taught me other lessons from that traumatic experience. I learned that things can be replaced but people cannot. I became so thankful to God that my mother and I got out of that house in time.  Five years later, I would learn the other half of that lesson when my mother died from leukemia. I also learned that mankind has a soft, more generous side that doesn’t get enough attention. Money, clothing, furniture and housewares came pouring in from neighbors, people at our church, people at the plant where my father worked and even total strangers who read about the fire in the newspaper. I remember helping my parents sort through everything, keeping what we could use and donating the rest to local charities for others to use.

Whether they are as traumatic as that experience or minor in comparison, each trial we face is a learning experience that can make us wiser and stronger if we allow God to show us.

 

Let There Be Light

“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” Genesis 1:3

Science has discovered that everything in the universe is made up of tiny particles of energy called atoms (including you and me).  Whether or not you accept the “big bang theory”, I have to believe that when God spoke those countless particles of energy into existence it must have been the ultimate light show.

Just as God gave physical light to His creation, He brought full spiritual light into the world through His Son. “The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9) “The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it.” (John 1:4-5) Jesus said to us, “You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”  (Matthew 5:14-16)  There are many other scripture passages about light. I couldn’t begin to list them all here, but I’m sure you have your favorites, as I do.

There is a story that has circulated for years about a student’s response to an atheist professor. It has falsely been attributed to Albert Einstein, but it is a defense of faith that is worth another look.

A University professor  challenged his students with this question. “Did God create everything that exists?” A student bravely replied, “Yes he did!” “God created everything?” The professor asked. “Yes sir, he certainly did,” the student replied. The professor answered, “If God created everything; then God created evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil.” The student became quiet and did not answer the professor’s hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth. Another student raised his hand and said, “May I ask you a question, professor?” “Of course”, replied the professor. The student stood up and asked, “Professor does cold exist?” “What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?”  The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.” The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?” The professor responded, “Of course it does.” The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.” Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?” Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course, as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily examples of man’s Inhumanity to man. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.” To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light.” The professor sat down.            

Socrates said something very interesting around 400 years before Jesus’ birth, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”

Elisabeth KüblerRoss, who spent her career studying death and dying wrote, “People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in; their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”

May the light of God’s Spirit shine from within us displaying His true beauty as we give honor and glory to our Father for all that we accomplish while walking in His light.

 

 

Be A Funnel

As believers of Jesus Christ, we become wide open funnels between God and those around us. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 tells us, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

It isn’t just comfort God wants us to receive and to give. In Genesis 12:2 God told Abram (later known as Abraham), “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous and you will be a blessing to others.” It is abundantly clear throughout God’s word that whatever God gives us isn’t just for us, but for someone around us as well and it is our duty and privilege to pass it on to them. We are to forgive as we have been forgiven; love as God loves us and provide for others as God has provided for us. Whether it is our time, prayers, provisions or simply the joy that only comes only from Him, we are to share what God has poured into us.

The more God’s love and blessings flow through us, the more He graciously pours into us. The more we give, the more we will receive. Being a funnel focuses our attention on God from whom all blessings flow and on the needs of others instead of focusing on ourselves. If we do become self-centered and feel we deserve God’s blessings for ourselves, we will become a clogged funnel that is no longer useful. We will soon fill up and the flow of blessings from God will cease. Not only will we no longer receive new blessings from God, those we have received will start to evaporate or become stagnant like the manna from heaven that could not be stored or horded.

Does all of this mean we must give up all of our blessings to others? Of course not! It means we are doubly blessed. Blessed when we receive them from God and blessed again as they pass through us to bless others.