Category: Ministry

Anger

Ephesians 4:26-27 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, ²⁷ nor give place to the devil.” (NKJV)

This passage of Scripture tells the reader several things about anger.

Depending on what happens we will experience anger, but we should not allow anger to cause us to sin. The passage then tells the reader to deal with the anger as soon as possible. This passage also includes a warning about how this can be an opportunity for the devil to have influence on how we may act on the anger that we are feeling.

Anger can be a complicated emotion that has profound effects on a person, and can also have an effect on the people around that person. Anger can be a feeling that a person can experiences without warning at any time. Sometimes we might see anger coming and sometimes we might not, and can be easily caught off guard.

Anger often causes people to act in ways we may not be proud of, and can cause us to make mistakes that will have consequences in our lives that we may later regret. Anger can be difficult to control at times, and can develop into madness or uncontrollable rage.

A person experiencing anger may often experience physical effects, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and increased levels of adrenaline.

Anger is a way that we can give gratification to the flesh if we are not careful, and if the anger is not dealt with correctly, and in a reasonable amount of time, it can lead to that anger bearing fruit. That fruit can be identified as feelings of anxiety, hurt, despair, rejection, financial loss or broken relationships.

Proverbs 15:1-2 “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.“

The way we respond when we get angry can determine if we are allowing anger to control us, or if we are controlling the anger.

Proverbs 16:32 “Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.” (NIV)

Lord Jesus, give your people wisdom to recognize anger when it happens, and strength to control any feelings of the anger they are experiencing, in Jesus name…Amen!

Continuing in His service…Rev

Un-forgiveness

Colossians 3:13 “Be tolerant of one another and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you also should forgive.” (Good News Translation)

Many people will harbor the feeling of unforgiveness sometimes for lifetime, not knowing or understanding that they are only hurting themselves and not the person that they have unforgiveness towards.

When someone has unforgiveness, that unforgiveness can consume that person and hold them in an emotional bondage that can lead to a person having;

• having a grudge against someone who has offended them
• bitterness
• resentment
• anger
• rage
• revenge

These feelings can spew out on others around you, that have nothing to do with your feelings of unforgiveness towards someone that they may not even know. Emotional bondage can subject a person to a type external power or control, and can literally control our inner feelings.

Many times the person that is having a grudge held against them, are not aware that someone feels this way towards them.

Hebrews 10:30 “For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

Many times unforgivness can be a persons way of “getting even or getting back” at someone.

Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall”

Pride can destroy the possibility of having a healthy relationship with another person. Pride can also hinder forgiveness, and give way to growth of unforgiveness.

Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (KJV)

When a person forgives someone, that forgiveness becomes a release to the person who is forgiving, and now that person can experience freedom from any type of bondage that they have been experiencing.

Matthew 6:14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”(NKJV)

When a person forgives, it opens up the way for our heavenly Father to forgive us.

Matthew 18:21 “Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? 22 Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

Once we forgive someone, it’s a possibility that it won’t stop there, and we may have to forgive that person again, and again. We have to be in a continuous state of mind to forgive others.

Ephesians 4:26-27 “Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set while you are still angry, and do not give the devil an opportunity to work.“

Lord Jesus, thank for you making a way out of the bondage of unforgiveness by giving your people the strength to forgive, in Jesus name…Amen!

Continuing in His service…Rev

When a little becomes much

“Feeding the 5000”

Matthew 14:20 “So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Vs.21 Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.”

Each of the four gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand plus people with five loaves of bread and two fish.

God is the author of all math; God knows when to:

• Add…to give increase
• Subtract…to take away what is not needed
• Divide…to give evenly
• Multiply…to provide

God knows when to use:

• Algebra
• Geometry
• Trigonometry
• Calculus

Little can become much in God’s hands when He intervenes in any given situation.

Malachi 3:10 “I will open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”

God not only gives enough, but can give more than enough to the point of a person not having room enough to receive what is given.

Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

God is able to provide and give unlimited increase because He has unlimited resources to give from. God’s resources are infinite.

Father in heaven, I thank you for making provision for the needs of your people, in Jesus name…Amen!

Continuing in His service…Rev

 

Unchanging

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (NKJV)

Depending on the location where a person is living, they will experience a change in the weather according to the season. This change of weather gives some individuals an opportunity to enjoy different activities outdoors. Sometimes a change can be for the good, and sometimes a change can be bad. 

Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” (NKJV) 

Christians serve the one God who is unchanging. The same grace, peace, mercy and long-suffering that God has given His people all down thru history, is still available today. That is because God is unchanging.

Psalm 102:27 “But You are the same, And Your years will have no end.” (NKJV)

God is eternal, and His people can count on him to always do what he says He will do. The past, the present, and the future are all equally known to Him. He is the Alpha and the Omega.

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (NKJV)

Every gift that comes from God is good, perfect and unchanging. God’s gifts will always be adequate, complete, lacking nothing and beneficial to those that are receiving. There is no variation of God’s gifts.   

Hebrews 7:24 “But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.” (NKJV)

Believers can have the certainty of Jesus not changing and being the high priest forever. Jesus remains the same yesterday, today and forever.

Hebrews 1:10-12 And: “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. ¹¹ They will perish, but You remain; And they will all grow old like a garment;¹² Like a cloak You will fold them up, And they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not fail.”(NKJV)

O God, in the world today, things are constantly changing. Thank you for being the one and only God that remains unchanging, in Jesus name…Amen!

Continuing in His service…Rev