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  • ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 3

    ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 3

    Christians can safely presume that anything wrong in our person-to-Person relationship with God is OUR problem, NOT HIS.

    ANGRY children of God who remain a prodigal son or daughter do NOT look to God for ANY solution for their anger.

    By contrast, Christians pray.

    ANGRY relationships between two ANGRY children of God are quite another matter.  In all likelihood, we are BOTH probably wrong in this person-to-person love-hate relationship.

    The unbeliever or disobedient believer hides in the darkness of their sin.

    Other hidden issues boil beneath the surface of their anger, fueled by a hardened heart against the love of Christ – HATRED for the celebrated Son of the Father.

    Consider your own SELF from Jesus’ Parable of the Angry Brother.

    Are YOU the brother who will NOT let go of grace for another?

    Christ’s caution to the heart of the faithful son, however, is that we must set aside our anger and rejoice in the love of the Father for all.  You know His example:

    FORGIVE US our trespasses, AS WE FORGIVE those who TRESPASS AGAINST US.

    “Do ANGRY children of a forgiving Father really have any right to NOT forgive ANY other?

    [To be continued…]

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 12

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 12

    A moment of silence…

    We were asked to stand as the music began once more in our surroundings of the darkened church. It seemed sadder than before.

    I looked toward a glimmer of sun breaking through a window and reflecting off the brass cross on the altar.

    I looked down at a hymnal … to a somber lyric, crying out to me:

    Let all mortal flesh keep silence,

    And with fear and trembling stand;

    Ponder nothing earthly minded, 

    For with blessing in His hand,

    Christ our God to earth descendeth
    Our full homage to demand…

    Lord of lords, in human vesture,
    In the body and the blood;
    He will give to all the faithful
    His own self for heavenly food…

    As the Light of light descendeth
    From the realms of endless day…

    ‘Is Heaven really endless day?’ I thought, as my mind wandered upward.

    That the powers of hell may vanish
    As the darkness clears away…

    —

    At sometime during the hymn I had sunk into the pew and hung my head in shame.

    My eyes flooded with tears.

    I recalled from somewhere in my past, my hearing of Reverend Birney’s booming voice from the back of the church to begin our worship service. (I think it was from one of the Prophets.)

    THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE.

    LET ALL THE EARTH KEEP SILENCE BEFORE HIM! [Habakkuk 2:20]

    At His feet …with ceaseless voice they cry:
    Al-le-lu-u-ia–,

    Al-le-e-e-lu-ia—
    Alleluia, Lord- Most- High!

    —

    I saw it suddenly – in a little girl’s Picture of Heaven.

    All of the hidden glory of the cross, glorified in Heaven!

    Then I realized that I was the only one brought to my knees – the only one not standing.

    I sheepishly stood once more, as eight men dressed in black began to roll the casket down the aisle beside me toward the doors at the rear of the church.

    —

  • 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.

    +

    • 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…]