Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: anger

  • ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 5

    ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 5

    Should ANGRY children of a loving God remain angry with anyone?

    Mathew 18:15 “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense.

    17 If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.

    23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him…

     32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

    35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

    Are YOU humble enough to FORGIVE the one nearest your heart who has ANGERED you most?

    • LOVE and do not hate.
    • Take your anger to God.
    • Let Him deal with your anger.
    • He will repay.
    • And He will change your heart, IF you let Him.

    This is the command of Jesus:

    “LOVE the LORD your God with ALL your heart, AND your neighbor as yourself. 

    Closing consideration for ALL ANGRY children of a loving God:

    “Christ suffered and died for our sins. Jesus IS redemption for our beloved soul from the deserved anger of our loving God.

  • ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 4

    ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 4

    “IF we harden our hearts in ANY hatred, we distance the love of ANY who come near – any loved one, even Jesus.

    IF I entertain any anger of my wife, or my child, or my parents, or my boss, or my brothers or sisters or friends; I try to seek their forgiveness and forgive what I hate in their hatred.

    Rather, I give my anger to God.

    “Let’s talk about this, Lord.  I have a complaint here.  I am probably wrong, but You will have to tell me how.”

    I rant and I rave in person-to-Person prayer, releasing my anger to the healing of the Lord.

    I try to stop long enough in silence to listen to His answer of love.  I could never hate the Lord, but I sometimes hate that He does not answer.

    Sometimes I hate His answer; but then… eventually I admit, I am wrong… and will learn to love His answer.  That is hard… but a softening of my heart is necessary to prevent a hardening of the hearts of others.

    ANGRY children of a loving God must bow down in humility to a loving Father who does discipline those He loves.

    It would not do us well to provoke a loving God to anger.

    There is no soundness in my flesh
    Because of Your anger,
    Nor any health in my bones
    Because of my sin. – Psalm 38:3

    Ephesians 4: 25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.

    Communication: person-to-person truthful relationship.

    This reference is to real relationship between the brothers and sisters of Christ’s body, His church.

    It is ALSO a person-to-Person relationship with Christ Jesus.

     26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

     31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.

    32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

    We spoke earlier of Ephesians 4:26 – Do NOT let the sun go down on your ANGER.

    (A link to Christian Anger, in case you missed it.)

    [To be continued…]

  • ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 2

    ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 2

    Here’s part of another story of Jesus  (familiar by a different heading).

    PARABLE OF THE ANGRY BROTHER

    Luke 15: Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons…  So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons…

    … the older son was in the fields working. … he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

    28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in.

    His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

    31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

    Have you ever considered, good brother (sister) in Christ, how we have no right to ever be ANGRY children of a loving Father?  We understand the love-hate relationships here.  Brothers, Samaritans, spouses, bosses, and friends –

    ”ANY relationship of nearness in love also risks the resentment of hate.

    We want justice to be weighed in our favor, yet mercy has already blessed us so abundantly.

    No Christian can begrudge our Heavenly Father for having more grace for another, when without His grace we would fall well short of the price of redemption paid for our own sins on the cross.

    The complexities of our love-hate relationships require communication between the persons of that relationship.

    So how do we apply the love of our Loving God to the love-hate relationships of our close-knit lives?  And what happens when we become ANGRY children who will not let go of our hatred?

    Once again, some answers are common to both believer and unbeliever; yet the real solutions are weighed on the sensitive scales of scripture, balanced by the Son of our grace.

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    • I once knew a man whose daughter died young.  He neglected his son and his wife and himself.  He was an ANGRY child of a merciful Father – a God who had other plans.
    • I once knew a man whose boss fired him. His wife wanted to take her anger and turn it on him.  The man would have not been welcomed back to his former career.  God had other plans.
    • I once knew a man who lost his house. His wife wanted to have a new house like the one he had lost.  God had other plans.
    • I once knew a woman who gave in to her sin.  She loved the darkness and hated the light.  She was an ANGRY child, disobedient to a loving God.  She had hated her life and loved only her SELF.

    WHAT does each of these love-hate relationships have in common?

    1. OUR relationship to a loving God, AND
    2. OUR relationships of other loved ones.

    Does any scripture come to mind here?

    Do we so soon forget the summary of the Law pointed out by Jesus?

    Love God. Love one another.

    – Pretty straight-forward, yet NOT so easy to do.

    Why?  Again an often overlooked obvious answer:

    ANY relationship involves another person.

    [To be continued…]