God’s Perspective – Page 16 – Three Minute Bible

March 10, 2020March 10, 2020

James 3: 9-12 — Gob and Nob

Twin boys with blond hair. One is smiling the other looks afraid.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Purity of speech is a beautiful thing. To speak only what the Father wants us to say is to speak light into the world. Sadly, our world is hopelessly corrupt. No one is righteous… (Romans 3: 10)

Imagine for a moment, two children that happen to be identical twins. Both are boys. Both look alike. But inside they are different. One is very good, and the other is very bad. Let’s call the good twin, Gob and the bad twin, Nob. How are their worlds different?

March 8, 2020March 8, 2020

James 3: 5-6 – The Demon in Your Mouth

Fire dancer sprays fire from the mouth up in the air.

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

STOP!

Do not proceed until you have calibrated your brain to think like James.

Each of us speaks from a unique point of view. As much as we would like to think that everyone agrees with us on this or that topic, the fact is that no one agrees with you on everything. God made us so that we are each unique and dependent on Him.

Yes, there are a lot of things we have in common. But there are more things we disagree on. The challenge with reading the Bible is not to fit the words of the Bible into our world view, but to get our heads around God’s view. I suspect that he purposely wrote the Bible the way he did to keep us on our toes.

March 6, 2020March 6, 2020

Anger’s Summary – James 1: 19-20

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Thank you for bearing with me as I wandered through this topical detour about anger. I have learned a lot. I hope you have picked up something valuable as well.

To review, we began with “Anger’s Cause” asking the question: Is it right to be angry? We answered that question with an, “It depends.” It depends on why a person is angry. Then we defined anger as a secondary emotion and described its origin this way:

“Anger is the feeling that results from an imbalance between our expectations and the situation we find ourselves in.”

March 5, 2020March 5, 2020

The Other Anger – Psalm 2:12

Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

In yesterday’s post, “Three Angry Men,” we looked at three men in scripture who were angry for the same basic reason. They all expect life to happen the way that they wanted it to happen. They wanted to get their way.

The prodigal’s older brother figured his little brother was out of the way. Being the only son he “owned” his dad and everything else would be his. When the prodigal comes home, big brother is put out. This isn’t the way it was supposed to work.

March 4, 2020March 5, 2020

Three Angry Men – Proverbs 15:1

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

In the story of the Parable of the Prodigal Son,* there is a minor character that we don’t get to meet until the end of the story. After the prodigal is welcomed home by his father, his dad throws a party for him. The older brother is out in the field and is incensed that his wayward brother should be honored in this way. Even when his father comes out to him to beg him to come into the party he refuses. I think it is safe to say that the older brother was angry.

Our definition of anger in “Anger’s Cause” goes like this:

“Anger is the feeling that results from an imbalance between our expectations and the situation we find ourselves in.”

The older brother expected that the younger brother would get what is coming to him. After all, he had demanded that his father give him half the estate and then ran off and squandered it. Who knows what he did with all that money! Then he has the nerve to come home and ask for a job from his dad.

March 3, 2020March 3, 2020

Anger’s Harbor – Leviticus 19: 15

Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.

How do we tell the difference between anger that has been harbored in someone’s heart and anger that is served up fresh each day?

Rich raised this question in response to yesterday’s post, “Hyperopia.” He posits a person who harbors “anger, revenge, [and/or] bad feelings toward someone in our family or inner circle.”

What does it mean to “harbor” something? A boat in a harbor has a place to stay protected from outside forces. The idea of harboring a feeling suggests that the person wants to keep the angry feeling alive. This kind of person nurtures a grudge and as Rich points out stews their bad feelings with thoughts of revenge.

February 28, 2020March 1, 2020

Anger’s Power – Zechariah 1:14-15

Then the angel who was speaking to me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, and I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.’”

Yesterday in “Anger’s Cause” we talked a little about where anger comes from. But anger is not like a light switch. We do not simply become angry. There are many degrees of anger, just as there are many degrees of happiness.

When things in our life do not match our expectations (here I should add that we are talking about those things that are worse than what we expect) we start to become irritated. Irritation leads to frustration, and frustration can lead to anger. As we see in today’s verse, anger can range from a little angry to very angry.

Sometimes the change from happy to angry happens so fast that we miss all the warning signs along the way. And that is what irritations and frustrations are; warning signs. They tell us that there is danger ahead. If we heed the warnings, sometimes we can avoid the anger. The main point today though is that there are degrees of anger.

Where does this power for being very angry come from?

February 27, 2020March 1, 2020

Anger’s Cause — Jonah 4:4

But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

Today we are going to change gears for a while and talk about a topic that affects everyone’s life at some point or another: Anger.

People tend to think anger is a bad thing but actually, anger itself is nothing more than an indicator like a gauge on the dashboard of your car. The problems that we have with anger are manifested in how people react to it.

So what causes anger?

February 23, 2020May 21, 2021

Psalm Sunday – Heart Exam

The Lord is in his holy temple;
the Lord is on his heavenly throne.
He observes everyone on earth;
his eyes examine them.

— Psalm 11: 4

I like this verse from Psalm 11 because it reminds us that God is watching. More than that, more than being just a casual observer of the human race, God examines us.

In Luke 12:7 Jesus tells us that God has numbered the “very hairs of your head.” (I realize that for some of us, that may not seem like much of a challenge.) Think about the detail that represents. Then think about the fact that God operates at the molecular level. Psalm 139:13 tells us that God knits us together in our mother’s womb.

What else does God see?

February 7, 2020February 7, 2020

Hearts and Deeds – James 2: 12-13

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.

Some people have told me that they feel put off by James’ letter because of his emphasis on what they call “works.” There seems to be a lot of confusion on this point. Paul spends a lot of time in his writings defending the Gentile Christians against the demands of Jewish law. Time and again he returns to this theme which is summed up in his letter to the Ephesians:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2: 8-9)

The “works” that Paul refers to are a kind of righteousness defined by the laws of Moses. These are the laws of the covenant or agreement God made with the Israelites through Moses. (If you would like to know more about this covenant in general terms read Deuteronomy, chapters 27-30.) Under this agreement, the Israelites were to remain faithful to God. Not just in their actions, but in their hearts as well. God taught the Israelites the difference between right and wrong actions in the hope that their hearts would follow.

Sadly, that didn’t work.