Anger, Bitterness, and Cults of Personality - Purity 1199
Purity 1199 11/16/2023 Purity 1199 Podcast
Purity 1199 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a winding asphalt pathway cutting through
a sunbathed late autumn forest comes to us from Fred Dimmick who shared this
scene that he captured while visiting Caney Creek, near Murphy NC on
Monday.
Well, It’s Thursday and I share Fred’s photo of a
highway pathway because of its scenic beauty and as a visual reminder to myself
and you to get on or to stay on the path of Christian Discipleship because I know
how difficult that can be, especially when we forget who we are in Christ and
when we let anger and temptation consume us.
Recently, I have encountered a few fellow travelers
on the road to recovery who unfortunately have taken a detour into relapse and
the underlying causes seemed to be very similar if not the same: anger! Or the
bitterness of unforgiveness. In one
case, the person involved had made the decision to go into recovery because of
difficulties in their marriage. Their secret drinking was increasingly a
problem and eventually, it led to an ultimatum – stop drinking or get divorced. This person chose their marriage and family
and started on the shaky road to recovery.
They struggled initially but soon they had days, and weeks of success
and recently had reached the milestone of a full month of sobriety. But apparently
last week, due to a busy schedule they missed checking into their normal meetings,
but all seemed well, and they would resume their normal meetings next
week. The good news is that they did go
back to their meetings but the bad news is that even though they made it
through last weekend and reported that it was a “good weekend” when Monday came
calling the stress of the world and the spiritual forces of darkness rushed in
to drive them into despair and into relapse and they are currently struggling with
the question of do they want their marriage and family or do they want to be “free
to drink”. After a month of success,
they are right back to square one – asking the questions that should have been
resolved, from day one.
But let’s give them some grace. Recovery is not
easy. Changing the way you have lived for so long is not easy. Having the “rules” changed later in life doesn’t
seem fair. And let’s be honest, this “compelled”
or “coerced” entrance into recovery is not the best way to find success. From day one, I have encouraged this person to
choose recovery for themselves, and ideally as an expression of their faith – a
natural outflowing of your decision to live for God and follow Jesus, because
if we only choose to sober up because of someone else, because of the negative
relational consequences our drinking has caused, we will end up resenting the
very person we made the decision to go into recovery for. “I can’t drink anymore because of “THEM”!” or “Can’t I just have a few drinks?!!? Can’t I
be free to do what I want!?”
No, you can’t. We can choose what we want but we are
subject to those choices. Choose to sin,
choose to suffer, as the old adage goes.
Also, the fact that the past clearly demonstrates
that, no, you can’t just have a few drinks, more often than not you get drunk,
and you do things that cause problems.
Also the fact that you continually go back to the bottle
shows that you are a slave to it. That’s not “freedom”, That’s bondage. Real freedom is being able to choose to become
the person God created you to be. A person who solves problems and loves
others, not a person who causes problems and drives people away.
So standing up for your selfish right to get drunk
and making the people you love suffer through it is not the life God wants you
to have. He wants you to be free.
Another relapse that happened recently was driven by
unforgiveness and bitterness. This
person was in recovery and had a betrayal befall them – leading them to relapse
and to be placed in rehab for a month.
While in rehab, they listened to good counsel and made the decision to
forgive the person who had betrayed them and resolved to stay in the
relationship. They went home and
everything was good again… for a time.
But then, I saw this person share a social media post whose content
highlighted the desire to seek revenge. It was a movie clip from a Ben Affleck
movie where he enlists a friend’s help to not ask questions and just to agree
to go with him to “go hurt some people”.
I knew that was a bad sign and sure less than a week later they relapsed
and have broken relationships with the person they had “forgiven” in an angry
outburst that has caused collateral damage to their children.
With forgiveness, we need to forgive from the heart
and take people off of our hook and put them on God’s hook, and not seek
revenge. Forgiving from the heart means never bringing up the person’s past
offenses and using them against them again. Also forgiving from the heart is a
conscious decision that will need to be made and recommitted to as some of sin’s
consequences are delayed and we will have to deal with some fall out from the
past as we go into the future. So we have to choose to forgive and keep on
forgiving in some cases. This person didn’t
continue in forgiveness. Instead, they entertained thoughts about revenge, and
it led to relapse.
In both cases, the magic elixir of alcohol that was
supposed to soothe their hurt and calm their souls drove them into hurting
themselves and others. Instead of putting out the fires of anger, it was like
they threw gasoline on the smoldering anger and bitterness that was just below
the surface, despite their outward façade that told the world “everything is
just fine”.
So what do you do?
Well you go back to God, always. You ask for forgiveness and resolve to follow
Jesus in the pathways of peace. Instead of isolating yourself in your anger,
you study His word to renew your mind and you talk to Him in prayer to receive
wisdom, strength, and healing. You start walking and talking with God and follow
Jesus’ example. You forgive from the heart,
and you embrace the truth that addiction to anything is NOT Freedom and that
you believed a whole pack of lies to think that drunkenness, gluttony, or
sexual immorality were “good things”.
God will lead you out of the darkness, but you have
to choose to follow Him freely and to adapt his righteous, forgiving, and
loving ways more and more each day.
When you repent and start living as the Christian you
claim to be, the Lord blesses your path and even though it may be difficult and
frustrating at times the consequences of walking in his ways will lead to good.
Romans 8:28 (NKJV) says
28 And we know that all
things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the
called according to His purpose.
God has called you to His purpose: to
live a simple good righteous life that represents His kingdom – to be more and
more like Jesus. And when we walk toward
that purpose, God works all things together for good to who? To those who love
God! – So love Him and follow Him out of the darkness of anger and the bitterness
of unforgiveness and find peace that comes from living with and for God.
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For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google
search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s
work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Church, Communion of the
Saints.
1 Corinthians 1:10-17 (ESV)
10 I appeal to you, brothers,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be
no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same
judgment.
11 For it has been
reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my
brothers.
12 What I mean is that each
one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,”
or “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was
Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
14 I thank God that I
baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15 so that no one may say
that you were baptized in my name.
16 (I did baptize also the
household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone
else.)
17 For Christ did not send me
to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom,
lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Today’s
verses fall under the fourth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Church,
Communion of the Saints.
4. Keep the unity of believers; don’t follow men, but Christ.
Today’s verses highlight the fact that division can even happen in the “church of Acts” and that we are not to follow men, but we are to follow God.
Christians are supposed to display the fruit of the spirit – peace – but when we put our allegiances into a person or a system that causes division rather than in God and the truth of His word that should result in peace and love, we know we have gone astray.
As the Lord would have it, Crossexamined.org’s, John Ferrer shares a blog post this week that talks about “Personality Cults” – where even Biblically based Christian gatherings can be subverted to the following of “the head man” – a narcissistic charismatic leader that rules their flock with a “lone wolf” approach to decision making, inflicting vindictive punishments on those who don’t follow their edicts” showing us the dangers of putting a Pastor or Minister as the Lord of your life rather than following Jesus. I am sharing the link to Ferrer’s article on the blog today if you want to check it out and to examine whether or not you may be in a “Cult of Personality.
So as today’s passage says – ”there be no divisions among you” and “seek to be united in the same mind and the same judgment” that makes Jesus the One and Only Lord of your life.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we are sharing from A. W. Pink’s – The Arthur
Pink Anthology - a collection of A.W.
Pink’s tracts brought together in one book and dispersed here on the blog for
your encouragement.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for free as a PDF at many sites, but printed copies of collections of A.W.
Pink’s books are available for purchase wherever Christian books are sold.
The Arthur Pink Anthology – 6
Christian Fools –
Part 3 of 8
Yes, but there are
many Calvinists who equally come under the rebuke of our text. They believe in
the sovereignty of God, but they refuse to believe in the responsibility of
man. I read a book by a hyper-Calvinist only a few weeks ago, by a man whose
shoe-latchet the present speaker in many things is not fit to stoop down and
unloose—a man of God, a faithful servant of His, one from whom I have learned
not a little—and yet he had the effrontery to say, that responsibility is the
most awful word in the English language, and then went on to tirade against
human responsibility. They cannot understand how that it is possible for God to
fix the smallest and the greatest events, and yet not to infringe upon man’s
accountability—men themselves choosing the evil and rejecting the good—and
therefore because they cannot see both they will only believe in one.
Listen! If man were
nothing more than clay in the hands of the Potter there would be no difficulty.
Scripture affirms in Romans 9 that man is clay in the hands of the Potter, but
that only gives you one aspect of the truth. That emphasizes the absoluteness
of God’s control over all the works and creatures of His hands; but from other
Scriptures we learn that man is something more than lifeless clay. Man has been
endowed with understanding; man has been given a will. Yes, I freely admit that
his understanding is darkened; I fully allow that his will is in bondage; but
they are still there; they have not been destroyed. If man was nothing more
than a block of wood or a block of stone, it would be easy to understand how
that God could fix the place that he was to occupy and the purpose that he was
to fulfil; but, my friends, it is very far from easy to understand how that God
can shape and direct all history and yet leave man fully responsible and not
infringe upon his accountability.
Now there are some
who have devised a very simple but a most unsatisfactory method of getting rid
of the difficulty, and that is to deny its existence. There are Arminians who
have presented the “free-will” of man in such a way as to virtually dethrone God,
and I have no sympathy whatever with their system. On the other hand, there
have been some Calvinists who have presented a kind of fatalism (I know not
what else to term it) reducing man to nothing more than a block of wood,
exonerating him of all blame and excusing him for his unbelief. But they are
both equally wrong, and I scarcely know which is the more mischievous of the
two. When the Calvinist says, All things happen according to the predestination
of God. I heartily say Amen, and I am willing to be called a Calvinist; but if
the Arminian says that when a man sins the sin is his own, and that if he
continues sinning he will surely perish, and that if he perishes his blood is
on his own head, then I believe the Arminian speaks according to God’s truth;
though I am not willing to be called an Arminian. The trouble is when we tie
ourselves down to a theological system.
Now listen a little
more closely still. When the Calvinist says that faith is the gift of God and
that no sinner ever does or can believe until God gives him that faith, I
heartily say Amen; but when the Arminian says that the gospel commands all who
hear it to believe, and that it is the duty of every sinner to believe, I also
say Amen. What? you say, You are going to stand up and preach
faith-duty-duty-faith? I know that is jolting to some of you. Now bear with me
patiently for a moment and I will try and not shock you too badly. Whose is the
gospel? It is God’s. Whose voice is it that is heard speaking in the gospel? It
is God’s. To whom has God commanded the gospel to be preached? To every
creature. What does the gospel say to every creature? It says, “Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ.” It says, “Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life.” It says, “The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth.” God commands, not invites. God commands every
man, woman and child that hears that gospel to believe it, for the gospel is
true; therefore it is the duty of every man to believe what God has said. Let
me give you the alternative. If it is not the duty of every sinner to believe
the gospel, then it is his duty not to believe it—one or the other. Do you mean
to tell me it is the duty of an unconverted sinner to reject the gospel? I am
not talking now about his ability to believe it.[1]
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
