Being Angry Without Sin

It was quiet last evening at my house. The rustle of leaves from visiting deer was sadly absent. Life has changed. I miss my nightly visitation already.

Yesterday, I wrote about the death of "my" deer and my decision not to seek or confront the ones responsible. (This will make better sense if you've read that post first, so click on the link if you missed it.) I was hurt and grieved and, to a degree, angry. 

A friend of mine asked a very sensible question. "Isn't anger justified in this situation?" 

My answer is "Maybe." I don't know all the circumstances. I don't know what happened to cause such a poor shot, such a disabling shot. I don't know who shot my deer, nor the motive behind the shooting. 

Perhaps a child was hunting with his father for the first time. Maybe the child, excited and a little scared, fired his gun, but with poor aim. Or his aim was good but his hands were shaking. Or the shotgun was heavy and he couldn't keep it aimed at the target. 

Any number of scenarios are possible, and I have no way of knowing which was true.

Being angry over a misdeed is not wrong. Sinning because of that anger is wrong. 

If I had gone with my neighbor up the side road, anger beginning to boil, I might have found hunters in the area. If I had found the hunter who shot "Buck", that anger could have easily boiled over into hasty, harsh words that, once said, could not be recalled. 

If my goal is to honor Christ in all I do, I cannot give vent to passions in a way that dishonors Him.

Angry words might have made me "feel better" for a few minutes, but those angry words would have lodged in the neurons of the listener's brain and stayed there forever. When the object of my anger recalled my name, the words I'd spoken would be his first thought, not the Jesus in me.  

As an Ambassador for Christ, I must represent Christ well at all times. Even when I'm angry. Especially when I'm angry.

The question, then, becomes one of priority. What is most important to me? Proving my point, or proving the power of God in me? 

I choose to demonstrate the power of God in me, but it's not always easy. Words flitting through my brain (even unkind ones) are not sin. Letting harsh, unkind words flow like lava over unsuspecting listeners would be, even if I justified myself by saying I was "teaching" him to do better next time.

We are called to take every thought captive, including the thoughts that come with anger. If my thoughts are "captive", they are no longer free to fly out my mouth. 

Captured thoughts can best be dealt with in one way. Stop rehearsing them and give them to Jesus. 

Difficult situations will come our way, as will anger and frustration. Hurtful words may come to mind, but we don't have to speak them. Let's be sure we tame our tongue and capture our thoughts. 

We can show the world the Prince of Peace by our response to difficult times. If we will.

Be anger and sin not. Ephesians 4:26

"So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. James 2:12 nasb

See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity... But no one came tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God, from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be... James 3:5,68-10 nasb

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In case you missed one of this week's posts, here are the links:   Truth That Matters: God Sees,  The Importance of Light, A Little Good News: Working Together,  Things I've Learned: There is a God and I'm Not It, Cutting Down a Tree and Praying for Miracles, and The Tree That Preached a Sermon, and The Wounded Deer and the Unsaid Words
#anger #beangrybutsinnot #JesusChrist #Christian #disciple #tamethetongue

The Squeeze Chute of Distress

photo courtesy of freeimages.com

"I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!”

Luke 12:49-50 NASB

We have started a new series based on the last few verses in Luke 12. Jesus was speaking prophetically of things that were to come, not all in the distant future.

We started this series with a lesson about the fire of persecution. Previously, we've studied lessons from the life of Tyndale. Yesterday, we studied Christ's baptism of suffering.

Today we turn to the emotional impact of the coming baptism of suffering. The word translated as "distressed" is synechō and indicates the anguish of being "pressed in". The idea is that of a cow being pressed in by a cattle squeeze chute. The cow is led in and the sides of the chute are tightened against the cow's sides so that the cow cannot move. It is completely hemmed in. This allows care to be done safely, so that neither the animal nor the humans working with the animal are harmed. 

The interesting thing about the squeeze chute is that, for cows at least, the chute calms them. When it squeezes against the cow, all resistance fades. The cow settles and stands still. 

The prospect of His death loomed like a cattle squeeze chute for Jesus. It squeezed tighter and tighter against Him until the Cross was all He could see. He dreaded it. He hated it. He agonized about it. 

Despite the agony already building inside Him, Jesus poured love into His disciples, into the crowd following Him, and into all those who were desperate for His care. 

Jesus preached peace and forgiveness even as the squeeze chute of death tightened against Him.

The prospect of a frightening, painful future did not stop Jesus. He clearly didn't relish the job God had given Him to do, but He pressed on. He did what needed to be done and He did it with joy.

I could learn from His example, if I would. We all could.

With the worst possible situation looming before Him, Jesus still loved. Still served. Still reached out to those less fortunate. Still drew sinners to Himself.

What if we acted like Jesus, no matter the circumstances of our lives? What if we took the hard times in our lives and presented them as an offering to God? 

I'll tell you what would happen... If we would let go of our anger, our bitterness, our hate of the circumstances in our lives and the people we think are responsible, AND embraced the place God has allowed us to occupy on this earth, it would rock our world. We would soon be filled with the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. People would see the work of God in our lives. It would draw them to Christ. 

Why don't we?

We want our anger, our bitterness, our hate. We want it because we believe we deserve it.

What we don't seem to realize in the midst of the crisis of squeezing is the price we will pay for anger, bitterness, hate. Justified, or not, they steal our peace, steal our joy, steal our witness, and affect our health. Why would we want to lose peace, joy, and an effective witness when we are being squeezed by crisis? Why would we want our negative emotions to rob us of our health?

I've seen this crazy choosing many times, and I always ask WHY? I don't have a good answer, but I wonder if we choose anger, bitterness, hate because we don't believe God is powerful enough to give us something different. We don't believe God will give us peace in the midst of turmoil. We don't believe God can give us joy in the midst of sorrow.

I have great news. God can do it. He's up to the challenge and He gives more joy, more peace, more hope in worse circumstances than our own. He is able. 

We can see the power of God in overcoming the sheer terror of looming agony in the life of Christ. He demonstrated the transforming power of God during His entire ministry. The Cross loomed throughout His three years, yet He was a friend to sinners. Filled with joy. A paragon of peace. Despite the distress.

Something amazing happened to Jesus when the squeezing of his distress became most acute. He chose not to embrace His fear. He chose not to embrace anger, bitterness, or hate. He chose, instead, to relinquish His will to His Father's. 

When Jesus embraced "not My will but Thine be done," it was a great relief, as if the cattle squeeze chute of His distress had done its work. It brought calm and peace.

Not my will, but Thine be done will bring calm and peace to us all if we will embrace it like a life raft, cling to the hope of God, and abandon our so-called "rights" for the undeserved gifts of God.


He is able. He is enough. 

So let us cling to Him instead of to our emotional reaction toward the situation at hand. When we do, we will see the mighty deliverance of our God who loves us.

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Our Father, forgive us our sins, which are many, and help us to cling to You, trust You, abandon our roller-coaster emotions and trust You. In Jesus' name, Amen.

#peace #disciple #notmywillbutthinebedone

Choosing our direction

Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table.

Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering." When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say. (Luke 11:37, 52-54 NASB)

The trouble started in the most innocent of ways. Jesus had spoken to a crowd. One of the Pharisees was present and invited Jesus to have lunch with him. At that time, Jesus was wildly popular, gathering huge crowds everywhere He went. Having Jesus to lunch was a little like winning a prize, I imagine, and the Pharisee invited some of his friends to join him and meet Jesus.

From the start, there was conflict. The Pharisees were unhappy that Jesus did not obey the laws about ritual cleansing before meals. Jesus quickly explained that there was a difference between cleaning the outside of our bodies and allowing God to cleanse our hearts. The Pharisees had been so intent on obeying the rules of law (especially the manmade ones) that they had missed the Spirit of the law. They were like dead men walking, leaving the odor of death everywhere they went.

The lawyers present quickly complained. "You're talking about us, too." Jesus agreed. Yes, He was talking about them, too. The lawyers not only weighed people down with unnecessary rules that they did not follow themselves, but they had the key of knowledge that could have unlocked the kingdom of God. They had studied the Scriptures since childhood, knew the Messianic prophecies, yet refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. They actively prevented anyone else from knowing Him.

After Jesus left the luncheon, the Pharisees and lawyers began to be hostile. The wording implies that they weren't hostile while He was present. After He left, the enemy found a foothold and stirred up trouble. They seethed about the confrontation with Jesus, simmering like a pot of soup. Seething led to plotting. Plotting led to schemes, then, eventually, to murder. 

When God confronts us with our sin, we have two options. We can embrace His truth and allow Him to cleanse and change us or we can respond as the Pharisees did, with hostility and anger. Neither response is the end, however. When we respond with hostility and anger, rather than allowing Him to change us, it is only the beginning. Anger begets action. Action birthed in such inauspicious beginnings is never good, and it will take us places we never wanted to go. 

Our other option, the one I want to choose, is to embrace His truth and allow Him to change the broken parts of us. That response is not the end, either. When we allow God to change us, He makes us into something better. Someone more like Christ. That change, too, can allow Him to do things with us that we never imagined. 

Every day, we stand at a decision point that will bring us closer to Jesus or take us further away. We need to keep our goal in sight. If what we want is to spend eternity with our Savior, our goal should be to steadily draw closer to Him. Every decision we make should be made with that goal in mind, especially when our own sin is concerned. 

Let's do what the Pharisee did. Invite Christ to spend some time with us today so we can get to know Him better. If He shows us something about ourselves that we didn't want to know, (and He almost certainly will) let's embrace His truth and allow Him to make us what He meant us to be, then allow Him to do more than we ever imagined with our lives.

Teach us to pray, part 37: Forgive as we forgive

And He said to them, "When you pray, say: ' Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. 'Give us each day our daily bread. 'And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.'" (Luke 11:2-4 NASB)

We come now to the section of the Model Prayer that may be the most difficult for many of us to pray. "And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us." This business of having our own sins forgiven is one we can all embrace. The task of forgiving others is one we are not quite so eager to accomplish, and I am not immune to this difficulty. 

When someone wrongs me in some way or, even worse, wrongs someone I love, my natural tendency is to respond with anger that easily translates to unforgiveness. Unforgiveness, however, leads to bitterness that does far more damage to me than to the one who wounded me. Not only does bitterness tend to seep out into every relationship and every situation in my life, but it taints my relationship with God, as well. If I want God to forgive me, I must be willing to forgive others. 

Jesus knew this was a difficult area for us, which is probably why He spoke so much about dealing with our enemies. "Be reconciled with your brother first." (Matt. 5:24) "Make friends quickly with your opponent." (Matt. 5:25) "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Nothing of loving our enemy comes easily to us, but it is not optional.

Jesus said for us to love our enemies and He meant it. It wasn't just a helpful suggestion.

I've learned a little about forgiveness over the years. Having seen the results of unforgiveness and bitterness, I do not want what those easily-embraced decisions offer. When hard times come my way, I have learned to take those burdens to our Lord first. Praying for the one who has injured me in some way does not mean that I like what has happened or that I feel "warm and fuzzy" toward the one who has hurt me. It simply means that I begin in obedience and, in doing that, I usually act my way into feeling like Jesus intended. 

Even when I haven't yet acted my way into feeling like Jesus intended, I still have to obey. That's the task that is definitely difficult. Obedience is a choice and, when I choose obedience in praying for the one who is (at least temporarily) my enemy, it helps me to move toward loving them. Unforgiveness is much easier, but it is in no way better. 

Corrie Ten Boom, who suffered in a Nazi prison camp, knew quite a bit about forgiving her enemies. She said, "Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart." Do you "feel" like forgiving? Do it anyway.

What about loving our enemies is optional? Nothing at all. If we want to be in right relationship with God, we must be in right relationship with our fellow man. The burden of unforgiveness is one we were never meant to carry. Why not join with me in taking those burdens of hurt and those difficulties of forgiving to our Lord? Offer a sacrifice of forgiveness, of blessing toward our enemies, and allow the Father to cleanse and heal the wound that unforgiveness has caused.                                                                

Praying like your life depends upon it

My very dear friend and sister in Christ stands in harm's way today, and I have to admit that I am terrified for her. I have often quoted that verse first penned by the Apostle Paul to his young protégée Timothy two thousand years ago. 

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. 

 2 Timothy 1:7

This time, It is hard to find a way past my fear. I trust God totally. It's my fellow man I'm not so sure about. My friend lives in St. Louis, MO and her city is full of unrest as they, the citizens of Ferguson, and the entire country await the decision of the grand jury in the Michael Brown shooting. Protests are already planned. The KKK stands at the ready for whatever horror they want to spread. Gun sales are at record levels, as are concealed carry permits. Tensions are high. 

A family grieves for their son and, if I could restore him to them, I would. No matter what I desire, no matter what I wish to do, no matter what the grand jury decides, the past cannot be undone. What, you may ask, about justice? We all want justice when we are wronged, myself included, don't we? 

What we often forget is that there is only One who has the authority to dispense justice. The psalmist tells us that righteousness and justice are the foundation of God's throne. Did you get that? The foundation of His rule, His authority is both righteousness and justice. Who among us dares to claim the same? Who among us dares to claim the right to execute justice? 

On the other hand, when I am wrong, when I have harmed someone (whether intentionally or unintentionally) what I want is not justice but mercy. I suspect mercy is what you want in those times, as well. You will not be surprised to know that the Bible also has something to say about mercy. 

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8 KJV)

This was my mother's favorite verse and I must had heard it hundreds of times during her life, always in this version. "Ah hah!" you might said, "There is all the reason we need to take justice into our own hands. God says to 'do justly.'" Do not deceive yourselves. This verse does not say to administer justice in God's place. What it says is do "mishpat", or what is right. 

Perhaps the words of Jesus will clarify this a little further. "Treat others the same way you want them to treat you." (Luke 6:31 NASB) Is that clear? In case it's not, let's look at how the Good News Translation says it. "Do for others just what you want them to do for you." (Luke 6:31 GNTD) 

I know you understand this, but just in case, let me reiterate. We have neither the right nor the authority to take matters of justice into our own hands. Our Lord has given us clear direction to treat others as we want to be treated. No matter how they treat you, treat them back in the way you want to be treated. Our behavior is not dependent on what other people do or fail to do. 

This "doing right" is what people should do. It is what should happen in Ferguson and in St. Louis in the coming days. Will it? I pray so. If tensions erupt into violence, the temptation to share in their anger and chaos will be pressing, the risk to spread chaos across our nation will be both real and high, but I pray we do not embrace the hate, the fear, the violence. Nothing good can come of it. 

Are you wondering why I am so passionate about this situation? It is because I know the solution, and His name is Jesus. 

Dear ones, healing our land begins only when the people of God humble themselves, pray, and repent of their sin. Undoubtedly, healing is needed in this situation. Catastrophe threatens without it. This is a call to action. Let each of us get on our knees, humble ourselves, and repent of the sin to which we have clung. 

Oh, dear ones, pray for mercy, pray that peace will reign, pray that the flames of hatred will be smothered by the love of Christ, and that further needless, pointless death will be avoided. 

Pray for my precious friend. Though her skin is a little darker than mine, our hearts are just alike and we both belong to Jesus. So it is in Ferguson and St. Louis. 

Hit your knees and raise your hands in prayer. 

Pray as if the entire world were riding on those prayers. It just may be that our nation depends upon the faithfulness of God's people to do what only we can do. Repent and pray. 

Body of Christ, a nation depends upon your faithfulness. Don't fail Him now. 

Maggie the Wonder Dog is Confounded by Tragedy (part2)

Being a Wonder Dog has been hard again today. That brown furry THING is still at my house. It is in MY kitchen. You might not believe this, but the THING actually got on my bed and snuggled in like it was it's bed and not mine. It has been snuggling with my mama! My mama said, "Come on Maggie. Snuggle with us!" Ha! I want to snuggle with my mama, not with my mama AND the THING! 

Last night, when bedtime came, my mama said, "Come on, Maggie. Let's go upstairs and get ready for bed." I hurried up the stairs. There are no furry things up there. Yet. She put my pajamas on for me and helped me up to her bed. I always sleep on the end of her bed. That way, if I wake up in the night and need to snuggle, she is right there. I love sleeping with my mama! Last night, though, I kept thinking about the THING and I couldn't stay. I had to just sleep on the chair all by myself. I was so alone. 

My mama came and sat in the chair with me. Mamas are really nice, aren't they? Even when you are mad at them. She said, "Sweet Maggie, I still love you. You would like Mamie if you got to know her. She is really nice." I couldn't say a thing. I don't want to get to know her. I want my mama to myself. 

Today, my mama said, "Come on Maggie. Ride with me to the barn to take the feed." At last! I hopped in the truck and the next thing I knew, she had put the THING on the seat next to me! I had to stand on the very edge of the window and keep looking out to keep from seeing it! Do you know how hard it is to stand on the edge of the truck window? It's terrible. 

I have not known what to do, but I know I do not want any more of those brown furry things coming in our house. I have been standing guard at the upstairs window. No more have come, but a Wonder Dog can't be too careful. I still don't know how my mama let this one in!

My mama came and sat by me at the window. She said, "Now Maggie, I know this feels like the worst thing in the world, but it's really not. There are lots worse things than having an apprentice wonder puppy!" She said she had some hard things in her life before, and she always thought it was the worst thing that could possibly happen, but it really wasn't. That was because she didn't get an apprentice wonder puppy. 

She told me, "Maggie, you can choose to make this better if you will. I have already asked Jesus to help you. He always answers prayers, so He is trying to help you, but you are going to have to take His help!" She told me that being angry and pouty is unbecoming for a young lady and for Wonder Dogs, and that Jesus doesn't like it either. 

She said sometimes people don't like what comes their way, but that the Bible said those trials (that's what people call them) are really gifts from God. She said they feel like getting slashed to pieces but, if we let them, all the stuff inside us that isn't like Jesus will leak out those slashes. After it's all over, we will be more like Jesus than we were before. My mama is really big on being like Jesus. She even thinks Wonder Dogs should act like Jesus. Sometimes I have to reminder her that I may be a Wonder Dog, but I am still just a dog. 

Tonight, I'm reminding myself that I am just a dog. I don't know if I want to be a wonder dog anymore. It's awful hard. I'm not sure I want to act like Jesus, either. If it's hard for people to do, it's worse for Wonder Dogs! 

I don't want to make friends with the THING.  Even if it's the right thing. 

I don't want to do right. 

Have you ever felt like that? 

To be continued...

Anger: More than Grumpy

We were waiting for the nurses to put patients in the rooms and had a few minutes of down time. It wasn't enough time to do medical records, so we had stopped to chat within ear shot of the television. I'm not sure which channel was on, but it had one of those "talking head" programs going. The problems with a prominent country music star caught my eye. There was something about an angry confrontation that didn't end well. The next two stories were about people having angry episodes. Three news stories in a row about angry people. When did anger become trendy and newsworthy?

That triggered a conversation about the futility of anger. I can get as frustrated as the next person, and am probably too easily irritated by trivial things, but I don't remember the last time I was truly angry. That's a good thing, because the Bible has some pretty hard words about anger. 

Just to clarify, I'm not talking about "irritated and grumpy".  Anger is a strong emotion that involves displeasure and hostility and can spiral out of control if left unchecked. We like to justify anger with the "be angry and sin not" verse (Ephesians 4:26), but how many of us actually "sin not" when we are angry?  Sometimes we forget that the rest of that verse says, "Don't let the sun go down on your wrath". Of course that means thst we are not to hold on to anger. We are to let it go. The problem is not anger. The problem is hoarding anger like it was some kind of prize. If it is a prize, it's the booby prize. When we allow anger to take up residence in our lives, it can be deadly. That's what happened in one of those news stories today. Here's what Ecclesiastes 7:9 has to say about anger-in-residence. "Anger resides in the bosom of fools."  Ouch!  Did you get that? If you hang on to anger, you are a fool. I didn't make that up. It's a quote from the Bible!

I've dealt with patients of all kinds for more than thirty years, and I've seen enough angry people to last me a lifetime. I've noticed an odd thing. Both sexes can, and do, get angry. Don't get me wrong about that. It's women, however, who have the business of holding anger down to a fine science. I have seen women hold on to a slight for decades and keep the slight as fresh in their mind as the day it happened because of how often they rehearse it in their minds. ESPN replay has nothing in comparison to an angry woman. 

Ladies, I know you've had your husband ask, "What's wrong?" and given him the standard reply, "Nothing. I am fine." Of course "I am fine" is code for "there is big trouble here and you'd better watch out. A storm is just over the horizon." We laugh about these things, but I have bad news. The Bible says this is not a laughing matter. When we hold on to anger like this, we are fools and the act of holding the anger is sin.  Jesus had to die on the cross to pay for it. 

Well, that changes the perspective a little, doesn't it?  Let's look at anger and the resentment that builds when we hold onto it the same way God does. Of course, if we see it the way God does, we will have to respond the way He wants us to respond, won't we?  Let's release our anger, make a choice to calm ourselves, and demonstrate the sweetness of spirit that draws others to Jesus. What we will find is that, when anger is gone, there's lots more room for love, joy, and peace, and how great is that? 

Let it go!

Shalom. Peace. 

The heart revealed

and they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went His way. (Luke 4:29, 30 NASB)

We saw the angry crowd yesterday, but here we see their anger progressing to murderous rage. What is amazing to me is that they were in church when their anger progressed to murderous rage!! You may remember that the synagogue was a local gathering place where the men met to pray corporately and study the Scripture. It's hard to imagine taking that step toward murder while praying or studying Scripture, but that's how it happened. They clearly didn't have their minds focused on the business at hand!

The men chased Jesus out of the city and to the edge of a hill, planning to shove Him down. With all the pushing and shoving, Jesus managed to quietly move through their midst and walk away. He was right from the beginning. No miracles would happen in Nazareth.

The people in the synagogue looked like they belonged there. They had done everything that outwardly indicated they were godly. They were in the synagogue at the appropriate time and they participated in prayer and studying the Scripture just as if they meant it. Their hearts, however, were not fixed on God at all. When Jesus confronted them, they quickly revealed their hearts that were full of pride, greed, anger, and murder. Yuck. What an ungodly mess!

The question for us is what would our hearts reveal if Jesus confronted us in church today? Are our hearts focused on Christ or our own desires? Do we listen to the Scripture and teaching or just sit quietly while we compose to-do lists in our heads?

Pray today that we and our loved ones would see our hearts the way Jesus sees them and that it would trigger a desire to change.