Archive for February, 2023
The Root of the Fruit
“As a man thinks so he is.” (Proverbs 23: 7)
We translate into reality our attitude of mind. What you think, you become.
Attitudes, like pipelines, can get clogged and need cleaning out. Ephesians 4: 30 – 32 notes some of the most common clogs preventing the free flow of an attitude pleasing to the Lord and profitable for the person. Let’s survey them and if at all applicable ask our Lord’s help to remove them.
“Bitterness” refers to a settled hostility that poisons the whole inner person. It develops when a person does something we don’t like and we harbor ill will toward them. This root of bitterness may grow for years before sprouting. However, if the root is allowed to remain it will inevitably sprout. There is a horticultural law which states: “The shoot is proportional to the root.” If you see a little bitterness expressed by a person there is a little bitterness in life. If you see a lot of bitterness expressed, there is a big root of bitterness in life.
The text notes the next sequential step. Bitterness leads to “wrath.” Wrath is an outward explosion of inward feelings.
Anger results from wrath. Anger is an emotional arousal caused by something that displeases us. Most major cities and increasingly smaller towns, have experienced an epidemic of murders. Many of these involve family members or friends. They are called “crimes of passion.”
Horace, the Latin lyric poet, was right when he wrote: “Anger is momentary insanity.”
A person trying to defend a bad temper said, “I explode and then it is all over with.”
“Yes,” replied a friend, “just like a shotgun — but look at the damage that’s left behind.”
Solomon wisely wrote: “A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.” (Prov. 15: 1)
Carol Travis in “Anger – The Misunderstood Emotion” observes: “The psychological rationale for venting anger does not stand up under scrutiny. The weight of the evidence indicates precisely the opposite. Expressing anger makes you angrier, solidifies an angry attitude, and establishes a hostile habit.
If you keep quiet about momentary irritations and distract yourself with pleasant activities until your fury simmers down, chances are you will feel better, and feel better faster, than if you let yourself go in a shouting match. A ‘ventilationist’ society pays no attention to the social glue of kindness and empathy — and is in danger of disintegrating from within.”
In Ephesians 4: 31 anger is shown to lead to “clamor.” That is a good Bible word for brawling. It means “a tumult of controversy.” It means all pandemonium breaks out. What causes it? Anger. What causes anger? Wrath. What causes wrath? Bitterness. There, exposed, is the root.
No person can ever have the attitude approved by Christ with any stage of that progression alive in his or her life.
Ephesians 4: 32 is the verse that follows and offers a solution: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.
What Is Your Attitude?
On April 3, 1977 two 747 jets collided on the runway at Tenerife in the Canary Islands. 575 people died. Why?
It was a busy and foggy morning. The main airport was closed and this smaller one had to be used. Instead of moving into position on a taxiway, planes had to use the main runway. The Dutch pilot, for some unknown reason, started his take off without clearance from the control tower. The other plane was on the runway and the collision resulted in hundreds of deaths.
One basic lesson taught pilots is that in an air traffic control zone, you do not do what seems right to you, you do what the control tower tells you. The reason is obvious. The tower knows things you don’t. They have better information and everyone’s welfare in mind. To act independently causes disaster.
That is not only true in aviation, but in life. A thick moral fog has moved over our society. Old reliable landmarks are no longer visible. Spiritual visibility is nil. Everyone seems to want to fly by the seat of their pants. Such moral and ethical relativism is degrading and dehumanizing. As a society we are terribly confused morally and spiritually. The basis for judging right and wrong has been obscured.
Those who demand the right to do their own thing need to remember: “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.” (II Peter 2:19)
Many are in bondage to immorality.
Three absolutes are needed for guidance.
1. Our God is a holy God, who has absolute standards of right and wrong.
2. God has revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
3. God has revealed His truths in Scripture. Scripture is absolutely and unconditionally reliable.
Those who order their lives by it are perfectly equipped to operate successfully in the fog.
Those factors should cause us to approach life with enthusiasm.
The derivation of the word “enthusiasm” comes from two Greek words. The prefix “en” means “within.” The Greek word “theos” means “God.” Enthusiasm means “the God within.” When Christ is the God within your enthusiasm it is in direct proportion to the extent of control He is allowed over your life. Enthusiasm is faith that has been set on fire.
Everyone has enthusiasm at some time. Some for only 30 minutes in a lifetime. Others for a lifetime. The latter group consists of those who achieve and succeed.
Steadfast Servants – Part Three
Galatians 5: 22, 23
Jesus is said to have come to serve and not be served.
Regardless of the office we hold, how prominent we are in society, how lofty our position in the business world, we are to be servants of God.
To check your self-concept as a servant, note how you respond the next time someone treats you like a servant. If your attitude is, perhaps unspoken but felt, “Who do you think I am your servant,” you have reason for growth.
It eases the burden if we consider ourselves the servants of Jesus, engaged in serving others in His name. That we are charged to be: “Let a man so consider us, as servants of God….” (I Corinthians 4: 1)
The term translated “servants” was well known in the era of the writing. It was used to describe the people who rowed large ships. Those who remember the movie “Ben Hur” can never forget the rank of rowers in the ship. There were two deck levels of rowers. The term translated “servants” was the term used for those on the lower level. They were called the “under-rowers.” We are the under-rowers of our Lord. He is our captain, we His servants, His under-rowers.
A servant lives to serve. Are you living to serve the Lord? Don’t allow yourself to stagnate or become arrested in your spiritual growth.
In 1924 George Leigh Mallory and some other Englishmen set out to climb the world’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest. At the altitude of 25,000 feet they established a base camp. From there they started their assault on the summit. They failed and to this day they lie buried on that Himalayan peak under tons of ice.
The others returned to London to tell their story. One who did stood before a large picture of Mount Everest as he addressed a large audience. Concluding his speech he turned to the picture and addressed it as though it had personality. “Everest,” he said, “we tried to conquer you once, but you overpowered us. We tried a second time but you were too much for us.” Then he said with great resolve: “But I want you to know we are going to conquer you, because you can’t grow any bigger and we can.”
It is with this same resolve we face life. Our problems remain as large as ever, but we can grow and conquer them.
A leader in an imminent office can find great fulfillment by assuming the role of a servant/leader. A leader is who he is. He leads as a servant.
An individual in the lowest role of all can find great fulfillment by realizing that therein he is serving the Lord. Thus, both can find purpose and fulfillment. “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men….” (Colossians 3: 23)
Awaiting the obedient servant/steward of our Lord is the fulfillment of His promise: “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2: 10)
Steadfast Servants – Part Two
Galatians 5: 22, 23
This text identifies three areas regarding which we should be faithful. The first is ourselves. That dramatically impacts the other two.
Wisely the poet, Shakespeare, said, “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3, Line 65).
Inconsistency incriminates individuals. One reason there is so little faithfulness to God and people is there is little basic faithfulness to our own higher self.
We are created in the image of God. If we are unfaithful to that image we are less than we were created to be, and are living an unfulfilled life. That inevitably results in a feeling of frustration which deteriorates into bitterness, resentment, and eventually hate.
Who are you anyway? You are the person you have chosen to be. Sure, we are modified by genes and genealogy, but each of us chooses what we will commit. Some choose to become a slave to their thyroid or pituitary glands. They let their emotions or feelings control them. Some choose to be driven by testosterone or adrenalin. At birth you came equipped with a perpetually developing asset that can override all these glandular drives. It is called a mind and a free will. You are the person you choose to be. Choose to be controlled by Jesus and you will be.
J.L. Singer of Yale University states: “The outlook of any moral value can be changed through TV viewing.” Considering that the average American watches TV 3.3 hours a day, that is important. We must be careful who gets in our head to conform our way of thinking to theirs.
One Hollywood producer said, “My primary objective is to manipulate you. I’m only successful if I can get you to cry, to laugh, to ache, and be thrilled exactly when I want you to. All the years I’ve trained, all the dialogue I write, every camera angle I choose, and all the music I use is designed for one reason and one reason only: to manipulate your emotions…You will not go away unaffected. We’ve gotten too good at what we do.”
The marvel of life is we can change. Will James, father of modern psychology in the western world said, “The greatest discovery of the Twentieth Century is that a man can change his life by changing his mind.
Don’t overlook the phrase “And such were some of you.” Distill that sentence into a word of importance and it is “were.”
Past tense, they were, but they changed. How? I Corinthians 6: 11: “But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
You too can change and become even more faithful to your better self.
God Bless America
God bless America, why? Certainly not because we deserve it. Please bless us, oh Lord, because without it we can’t survive.
With so much emphasis on diversity and so little on unity we are coming apart at the very seams that formerly held us together.
God never has blessed America because of a collective virtue. Consider the following in considering God blessing us now.
What always has been is not what is always going to be. Therefore, it is imperative to evaluate traits that have been stable in the past to determine if they are still basic in future planning. In evaluating the political and economic future of our nation consider some past elements embodied in what America has been.
Does the same work ethic still prevail? Are people inclined to give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay? Is there ambition driving citizens to want to work for what they get?
Is personal and corporate integrity still alive? Does virtue still trump greed? Will deals cut in the dark prevail in the light of public scrutiny or long to stay hidden like vermin exposed to sunlight? Are people now inclined to be as good as their word and their word as good as they, or is the excuse of “what I meant” a harbor in the storm?
Are there absolutes based on right always being right and wrong always being wrong? Is there integrity like that evidenced by a character in Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.” When offered a compromising solution in order to be delivered from prison he said: “I will stay in this prison till the moss grows out of my eyebrows before I will make a butchery of my conscious or a slaughterhouse of my convictions.”
Has public morality changed? One of the darkest days in the life of ancient Israel is described as a time when everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Have sensuality and carnality eroded our morality? Has lewd become the new cool and vulgarity the in style? Has pornography imposed on marital fidelity and led to greater family instability?
Does public education teach economics and history? Are the values and virtues of our past extolled or are vices emphasized? Are we given to excessive self-flagellation which can lead to self-defeat?
In our changing milieu will personality take precedence over policy, will character capitulate to charm? Will frugality, thrift, economy, conservation and moderation make a comeback?
Are we more given to feeding our entertainment and recreational appetites than cultivating our spiritual nature? Have our houses of worship given in to the culture proclaiming health, wealth, and prosperity rather than challenging people to live out the spiritual requirements of their God?
Pray a prayer of personal commitment, and then pray:
“God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above.”