 Posted on Wed, Jul 14, 2010 I like Chinese food. I like egg rolls and the chicken and beef on a stick. Oh and pork or shrimp fried rice. OK, ok, I need to stop here I am making myself hungry and maybe some of you too. I don't need you running out to get food before I even get to the meat (pun intended) of my blog today. Traditionally, for us Americans, at the end of a good Chinese meal there comes the ever popular fortune cookie. Now personally I like the cookie. Sure it is a little short and taste but I like it all the same. But I think the most fun is that little slip of paper that is somehow is magically placed inside the cookie. Now for those of you who have watched one of those cable shows that explains how this is done; don't write in the comment section telling me. I still have a little of my innerchild left and HE doesn't want to know! No! What I want to know is what words of great universal wisdom is written on that tiny, tiny slip of paper. Something like, "At the end of the road your are traveling on is your destination", or "If you look up you will see that which is over your head". Hey, you know what I think I could get a job writting for these things! But here is my favorite one, "Be angry and sin not". Now that you have just spit your morning coffee all over your computer screen let me explain this one as you are cleaning up the mess. Yes, I know that this is Scripture, the very Word of God and I have every intension to treat it as such. But admit it if you got this on that little slip of paper out of your fortune cookie you would blow it off as nonsense. You would be asking yourself how could you "Be angry and not sin?" I know I would and even knowing that this this verse is found in Psalm 4:4 and again in Ephesians 4:26 I still have a hard time getting my little pea brain wrapped around this idea. I admit I have anger issuses. Have most of my adult life. The sin my anger caused was not so much in my actions but in my words. From sly putdowns to out and out foulmouth name calling. But even when I could gain control of my anger enough and could find the proper words to use there still was a sinful aspect to them. They were harsh and more importantly UNLOVING. The best analogy I can use is I was trying to fix a wrist watch with a sledgehammer instead of using jeweler's tools. Well this has been the trend until recently when one day God used a blog I was writing to show me something. My last blog, 'Good For What Ails You', was birthed out of anger. I had got some very disturbing news about some Christian people I know and proceeded to get up on my high horse and began banging out my thoughts and feeling on the matter. I was going to tell the internet world what I thought of people like that and I was taking no prisoners. But as I got further into my typing the thing that usually happens, happened. The Holy Spirit began to do some editing of what I was typing. As I would go back and re-read the last few lines that I had just typed He would ask if I meant to say that or maybe it would be better if I said it this way. By the time I was done with the blog and read it over again I found that what I wanted to say was said. But more importantly it was how God wanted it to be said, and there was much more love in the words than what I had intended to use. So this is a long way to tell a short story. You CAN be angry and not sin. But this can not be done in your own strength. You must willing to let God have your anger and then let Him use it in such a way that He sees fit to accomplish what He needs to be done.
In His Majesty's Service
Kingschyld No messages have been posted. You must first create an account to post.
|
