When is it okay to be angry?

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,--Eph.4:26 So when is it okay to be angry? This can be a slippery slope for human beings, even for those who are "in Christ." As we have learned in Romans chapter seven, the best of us still struggle with sin at times. So when we think it is okay and a righteous moment for us to be angry, we may be wrong as we do so from an imperfect heart. We do better to avoid the anger-train period. Yet, God will speak to us Spirit to spirit (Rom.8) at times about the injustices that grip Him and bring us along for His cause. But again, these are few and far between. Ultimately, He will deal with all the injustices of the world Himself(Rom.2). So when is it okay to be angry? We would be better served to say when it is not okay to be angry. ---The first easy answer is after sun-down. You better be over whatever it was by sun-down. You either need to truly forgive and forget or talk it out with the person you have had issue with. I have found that nearly 100% of the time that I have talked it out with someone that we figured out it was some kind of misunderstanding. I'm often reminded that (particularly dealing with Christians) we are praying to the same God, and He can't stand to see brothers and sisters divided. Cut a brother or sister some slack. Maybe they had a hard time, bad day or just forgot. There are a number of good explanations for the thing that got you mad or bugged you out. The issue is that Satan will highlight the one explanation that peeves you off, because he wants you to get angry. Satan knows that if he can take your anger into the next day, he can start to work division into a relationship, a family or even a church.--- As a pastor who has done enough funerals, it is a painful sight to watch families that can't get along. Somebody got mad at somebody over some thing long ago that they all have now forgotten about, and now they don't talk. ---It all started, because someone got angry and sinned by letting it go into the next day. --- Do you have someone you need to settle up with? They may not even know you're mad at them. (I've seen that one hundreds of times.)

Shipwrecked and Snake-bitten

Sometimes things in life happen that we just can’t explain. We find ourselves in a position of helplessness. We’re facing drama that we didn’t create. Life is out of control, and our feet aren’t even on the ground to where we can do anything about stabilizing the situation. The last couple chapters of Acts record that the Apostle Paul was being delivered as a prisoner to Rome by ship. Paul was fine with the free trip to go present the Gospel to new people. So he was able to look past the chains as his free ticket to ride. However, his transportation executives were gambling that they could beat the Hurricane season. Paul expressed his warning (but he was just a prisoner) claiming that God let him know this was not a safe time to travel (before TWC days). After a harrowing experience on the seas of a couple of weeks in hurricane winds, the ship finally crashed on an island. —- The ship was loaded with a crew, soldiers, and prisoners. All lives were spared by the grace of God. The official in charge of the prisoners commanded that none of them be killed prior to evacuating the ship, because he wanted to make sure Paul survived. So in a way, God saved all the prisoners just to make sure one was saved. Not only were men spared from the sword, but also from the ravenous waters. Swimmers and non-swimmers alike managed to safely make shore through the extreme surf. It was an All God Thing! —- The people of the island showed great hospitality and welcomed the stranded crash victims. While collecting firewood, Paul was seen by the natives with a poisonous snake latched onto his hand. Paul just shook the snake into the fire, and the natives waited to see him swell up and die. They figured he must have been a murderer to have escaped death by shipwreck only to have the “gods” deal with him individually with a snake bite. —- Much to their surprise Paul survived. He didn’t even swell up. This turned the tide of opinion. He must be a god, they thought. —-This miracle grew great attention, and God then used Paul to heal many people on the island. A potentially tragic story couldn’t have ended so well. We can only assume that for the three months Paul and company were on this island, he shared the Gospel with his captive audience. And when it came time to depart the island, the islanders gave their visitors everything they needed as far as supplies to finish their journey. —- The question formulates, “why this island?” Can God cause a shipwreck of inconvenience for His people to rescue another group of people? Would the Gospel been brought to this island any other way? Paul had Rome in mind, but God had Malta in mind. —- Sometimes we are on our way to do what we think is the “big thing” that God wants us to do, and He has little detours along the way. I think that even though it is not mentioned, Paul probably had to get the guts up to go to Rome. He probably had a good idea that he would end up dying for the Gospel there. Now, that he was finally headed there, a place like Malta wouldn’t be on his map. But it was on God’s map!—- We have no idea what God has planned for today, just go with it. Be who you are in Christ where you are…even if it’s on a side-street leading to the “big thing He has called you to.” Whether shipwrecked or snake-bitten, you’re a survivor. What would God have you do in the storm and after the storm?(Acts 27&28)

Not The Perfect Parents

Let me preface this by saying that my wife and I do not consider ourselves the perfect parents, nor do we consider our children perfect. But my hair is gray and we have survived nursery, adolescence and are just about done with college; so maybe it’s time to share an ounce of wisdom. You can take it or leave it, because that’s what people do. —-We had enough folks brag on our kids in the child-rearing days to suggest that they were well-behaved, and a pleasure to be around. Did we have anything to do with that as parents? We didn’t have a master plan or anything like that, but just in case we had something to do with it; I thought it would be good to share something. Since I want to help the growing number of parents that seem to struggle with this whole parenting thing, I was trying to narrow down what I would say to a new parent if they would remotely be interested in advice. ( I have to be honest I really cleaned that up. What I was going to say wasn’t very nice.)—- We were not regimented or legalistic in our approach to parenting, but we were consistent. And if I can narrow it down to one thing, it is this: be the parent from the beginning and stay the parent until they have children, and then become the grandparent. Be the parent. Start out that way. If you start out that way (it is a mind-set), you’ll never lose it. The day you lose it, it’s hard to make a comeback. Yes, all children are different. Some little bundles of joy are more challenging than others. Some have to be disciplined in different ways than the others. We figured that out by trial and error. But never, ever give in. Stay consistent through the various ages of child-development in your child-rearing, and it will be all they know. Aside from the war of the worlds known as the “terrible twos”, they likely won’t challenge again until thirteen. During the “terrible twos” they are pushing you hard for the head of the house position. Don’t cave in! Stay strong. At thirteen they’ll make another big push, but you show them once again that you are the parent; and you don’t care what other parents let there kids do. You aren’t being mean. You are showing your children boundaries. More importantly, you are showing them that you love them. Oh yeah, when they turn fourteen, don’t act like you’re fourteen, because that can bring in a whole set of other problems. —-If you really want more of my humble opinion on parenting, holla. We, the people, really want your children to be a pleasure to be around.