What the Bible Says About Anger

I suppose it should come as no surprise that the Bible has a great deal to say about anger. Anger is, after all, not only a result of sin but also a common cause of sin. Here is what the Bible has to say:

It is good to be slow to anger. Those who are quick to anger display a lack of wisdom.

 

Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. (Proverbs 14:29)

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. (James 1:19)

Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. (Ecclesiastes 7:9)

Anger should be addressed as soon as possible because it can easily turn to sin.

 

The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:6-7)

You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment …. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:21-24)

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. (Ephesians 4:26)   Continue at Tim Challies

If I Were the Devil: Paul Harvey (Warning for a Nation)

           

This speech was broadcast by legendary ABC Radio commentator Paul Harvey on  April 3, 1965:

If I were the Devil . . . I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. 

I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States. 

I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.” “Do as you please.”   

To the young, I would whisper, “The Bible is a myth.” I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. 

I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is “square”.  In the ears of the young marrieds, I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. 

I would caution them not to be extreme in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct. And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to say after me: “Our Father, which art in Washington” . . .

If I were the devil, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull an uninteresting. 

I’d threaten T.V. with dirtier movies and vice versa. And then, if I were the devil, I’d get organized. 

I’d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing and less work, because idle hands usually work for me. 

I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. And I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. 

If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions . . . let those run wild. 

I would designate an atheist to front for me before the highest courts in the land and I would get preachers to say “she’s right.” With flattery and promises of power, I could get the courts to rule what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography, and  thus, I would evict God from the courthouse, and then from the school house, and then from the houses of Congress and then, in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and I would deify science because that way men would become smart enough to create super weapons but not wise enough to control them.

If I were Satan, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas, a bottle. 

If  I were the devil, I would take from those who have and I would give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. 

And then, my police state would force everybody back to work. 

Then, I could separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines, and objectors in slave camps. 

In other words, if I were Satan, I’d just keep on doing what he’s doing.

Paul Harvey, Good Day.

HT: Fox Nation

Exchanging Fear for Fear

Why is the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom? Because the end of folly is the love of the praise of men. Or to say the same thing in a different way: there is no sin so prevalent, so insidious, and so deep as the sin of fearing people more than we fear God.

Think of Saul, that tall Benjaminite who became the first king of Israel. His downfall was the result of misplaced fear. As he explained to Samuel after the whole business with the bleating sheep, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice” (1 Sam. 15:24). Here’s this powerful, impressive looking king worried about what people think of him. And it’s not his enemies the Amalekites he’s worried about. Except for Agag, they were all dead. Saul wasn’t afraid of his enemies; he was scared of his friends—afraid that they would desert him, afraid they would revolt, afraid he would he be an unpopular King.  Saul was a head taller with more authority than anyone in the kingdom and yet he disobeyed a clear command from God because he feared people. He was the Lord’s cautionary tale for Proverbs 29:25 (“The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe”) and a preview of Christ’s indictment in John 12:42-43 (“but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God”). Saul is but one of many sad examples of those who counted it more precious to be acceptable and palatable and influential in the eyes of their peers, than to be honored and affirmed and found faithful in the sight of God.

It’s easy to see how foolish Saul was, but each one of us struggles with the same fear of man and love of the praise of man.

• Do you struggle with peer pressure?  Do you give in to things against your will just to go along with the crowd?  That’s the fear of man.  And it doesn’t get any easier when you get older.  Adults just find more creative ways to mask it and more socially acceptable ways to channel it.  We don’t set things on fire as much.  But we still feel peer pressure when gossip starts, or a raunchy movie is on, or bad mouthing someone begins.

• Are you over-committed?  Is it impossible for you to say no? Could be a sign that you love to be loved by others.   Continue at Kevin DeYoung

What Nazis & the Bible Agree is the Worst Resolution You Can Make

I plant my flag firmly on the side of those who believe Christians may make resolutions. As a tadpole seminoid I was inspired by the audacity and convictions of Jonathan Edwards’ famed 70 Resolutions. My heart thumps in time with over-the-top commitments like #22:

“Resolved: to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.”

But there is something I have learned from the Bible, history, research, and experience: the absolute worst resolution you could ever make at any time in your life.  It’s a truth the Nazis and the Bible agree on. And the sting in the tail is that it is probably the resolution you made this very New Year’s Day.

The only resolution you should never make is one that you won’t keep.

Let’s call resolutions what the Bible calls them: vows. And if there is one thing we know from the Bible about vows is they aren’t to be taken lightly. Just ask Jephthah’s daughter. Solomon’s ominous wisdom hangs over New Year’s day: Keep Reading >>>

Revealed Ethics

At the heart of Christian ethics is the conviction that our firm basis for knowing the true, the good, and the right is divine revelation. Christianity is not a life system that operates on the basis of speculative reason or pragmatic expediency. We assert boldly that God has revealed to us who He is, who we are, and how we are expected to relate to Him. He has revealed for us that which is pleasing to Him and commanded by Him. Revelation provides a supernatural aid in understanding the good. This point is so basic and so obvious that it has often been overlooked and obscured as we search for answers to particular questions.

The departure from divine revelation has brought our culture to chaos in the area of ethics. We have lost our basis of knowledge, our epistemological foundation, for discovering the good. This is not to suggest that God has given us a codebook that is so detailed in its precepts that all ethical decisions are easy. That would be a vast oversimplification of the truth. God has not given us specific instructions for each and every possible ethical issue we face, but neither are we left to grope in the dark and to make our decisions on the basis of mere opinion. This is an important comfort to the Christian because it assures us that in dealing with ethical questions, we are never working in a vacuum. The ethical decisions that we make touch the lives of people, and mold and shape human personality and character. It is precisely at this point that we need the assistance of God’s superior wisdom.  Keep Reading >>>

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The Greatest Fight in the World

…the Word is like its Author, infinite, immeasurable, without end. If you were ordained to be a preacher throughout eternity, you would have before you a theme equal to everlasting demands. Brothers, shall we each have a pulpit somewhere amidst the spheres? Shall we have a parish of millions of leagues? Shall we have voices so strengthened as to reach attentive constellations? Shall we be witnesses for the Lord of grace to myriads of worlds which will be wonder-struck when they hear of the incarnate God? Shall we be surrounded by pure intelligences enquiring and searching into the mystery of God manifest in the flesh? Will the unfallen worlds desire to be instructed in the glorious gospel of the blessed God? And will each one of us have his own tale to tell of our experience of infinite love? I think so, since the Lord has saved us "to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church of the manifold wisdom of God." If such be the case, our Bibles will suffice for ages to come for new themes every morning, and for fresh songs and discourses world without end.

We are resolved, then, since we have this arsenal supplied for us of the Lord, and since we want no other, to use the Word of God only, and to use it with greater energy. We are resolved—and I hope there is no dissentient among us—to know our Bibles better. Do we know the sacred volume half so well as we should know it? Have we laboured after as complete a knowledge of the Word of God as many a critic has obtained of his favourite classic? Is it not possible that we still meet with passages of Scripture which are new to us? Should it be so? Is there any part of what the Lord has written which you have never read? I was struck with my brother Archibald Brown's observation, that he bethought himself that unless he read the Scriptures through from end to end there might be inspired teachings which had never been known to him, and so he resolved to read the books in their order; and having done so once, he continued the habit. Have we, any of us, omitted to do this? Let us begin at once. I love to see how readily certain of our brethren turn up an appropriate passage, and then quote its fellow, and crown all with a third. They seem to know exactly the passage which strikes the nail on the head. They have their Bibles, not only in their hearts, but at their fingers' ends. This is a most valuable attainment for a minister. A good textuary is a good theologian. Certain others, whom I esteem for other things, are yet weak on this point, and seldom quote a text of Scripture correctly: indeed, their alterations jar on the ear of the Bible reader. It is sadly common among ministers to add a word or subtract a word from the passage, or in some way to debase the language of sacred writ. How often have I heard brethren speak about making "your calling and salvation" sure! Possibly they hardly enjoyed so much as we do the Calvinistic word "election", and therefore they allowed the meaning; nay, in some cases contradict it. Our reverence for the great Author of Scripture should forbid all mauling of his words. No alteration of Scripture can by any possibility be an improvement. Believers in verbal inspiration should be studiously careful to be verbally correct. The gentlemen who see errors in Scripture may think themselves competent to amend the language of the Lord of hosts; but we who believe God, and accept the very words he uses, may not make so presumptuous an attempt. Let us quote the words as they stand in the best possible translation, and it will be better still if we know the original, and can tell if our version fails to give the sense. How much mischief may arise out of an accidental alteration of the Word! Blessed are they who are in accord with the divine teaching, and receive its true meaning, as the Holy Ghost teaches them! Oh, that we might know the Spirit of Holy Scripture thoroughly, drinking it in, til we are saturated with it! This is the blessing which we resolve to obtain.    Keep Reading>>>

Adding to the Word?

Here’s one more great section from Packer’s Fundamentalism and the Word of God. In the concluding section Packer mentions how salvation from sin is a gift of divine grace alone through faith alone, “and faith is no more than an activity of reception, contributing nothing to that which it receives.”  Since Christ’s work is perfect and completed, there is nothing for the Christian to add.  However, pride creeps in and we often want to find a way to claim credit in salvation by some sort of contribution.  Sometimes we start to think our works play a part in our justification, which should lead us to repent and remember Paul’s sharp words against such unchristian thoughts (see Galatians for example).  Packer notes another way we may want to contribute something to our salvation: by “explicating and qualifying God’s revealed truth.”  What does that mean?  He uses the liberalism of 100 years ago for an example. Keep Reading....

What Does the Cross Demonstrate?

Wisdom From the Spirit from Possessing the Treasure

THOUGHTS FOR YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN...words of wisdom and warning from a father to his children

Being a parent is not easy today.

There are many curve balls thrown our way that makes the daily investment in our children seem overwhelming. We do live in a very troubled world and it is only by God's grace that we see our children protected and equipped to meet it head on to God's glory.

I have five sons and daughters who are no longer kids, but teenagers or young adults. This time in their lives is very exciting, yet so unpredictable. Their bodies and emotions are changing at the speed of light; they are struggling to "find themselves"; wanting their freedom; and at the same time desiring to please their parents and live for the Lord. It is a crucible of grace we find ourselves in each day.

I pray for wisdom every day to give them the space they are wanting to discover new things in their world, but with the discipline and boundaries they so desperately need and may not recognize or desire.

To that end, I came across this powerful book by J.C. Ryle entitled, "Thoughts for Young Men." It is an excellent collection of practical biblical wisdom from the heart of a father to his sons (though in principle, they can be applied from "a mother to their daughters" as well). I offer it to you today that J.C. Ryle's words may encourage you as parents in the discipleship of your children.

I know that I certainly haven't arrived at this in my life; but what a great Lord we serve who knows the hearts, minds, dreams, desires, longings, struggles, frustrations and contentments of all our children. May we offer them afresh everyday to the Lord and His sovereign purpose for each of them.

From a father's heart,
Steve Camp