The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Cruel Wrath"
Part 1
Mark Twain once said, brilliantly, "Anger is an acid that eats away at the container in which it is stored more than the object on which it is poured."
Or, in Scriptural terms, the Apostle Paul wrote, "Be ye angry, and sin not" (Ephesians 4:26).
Certainly, in a fallen world, a proper place often exists for indignation. The Lord Jesus Chris expressed anger on occasions, perhaps most vividly when He drove the moneychangers from the temple (John 2:13-18). We will often rightly feel the emotions that should arise within us when we see that which conflicts with the glory of God and the best interests of people. However, Scripture clearly counsels us against lingering bitterness and resentment, which both Paul and Twain referenced in their eloquent warnings.
Solomon persuasively joins the discussion: "Anger resteth in the bosom of fools" (Ecclesiastes 7:9). Our spiritual enemies seek to deceive us into making a comfortable home for bitterness, knowing how damaging the acid will be as it eats away both soul and body. Harboring grudges requires much mental, emotional, and physical energy. Most importantly, our spiritual experience of God's peace and joy suffer in the environment of bitterness. Paul adjures us to allow no trace of resentment to lodge within us: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice" (Ephesians 4:31).
The warning and commands regarding anger lead us to the question, "How?" That is, how do we keep anger from becoming the guest who won't leave, and the tenant hard to evict? We will consider this in tomorrow's message, allowing for now the mandate to sink deeply into our hearts and minds, and the warning to splash the cold water of God's truth upon us…
"A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both. Wrath is cruel."
(Proverbs 27:3-4)
Weekly Memory Verse
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.
(Philippians 1:9)
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