Greetings everyone,

I was having a hard time coming up with something to write about until youth group on Wednesday night. We saw a video by Greg Stier (Dare2Share) about anger. It really made me think and I thought that the church needed to hear something about this as well. Let me ask you a question, what are two things that make you angry? I could name a few myself, like disrespect or bullying, these just set me off. Let me ask you some more questions. Are the things that you get mad about have an eternal significance? When was the last time you got angry about sin? Let that sink in for a minute. When was the last time you got angry that the enemy was trying to trash a friend’s life through sin? I know that our “friends” make there own choices and we have consequences for these choices, but should we not still be angry at it. I think so many times we just let sin go by and it has no effect on us. Why is this? I think there are a number of reasons. Maybe we feel that if we say something that we will be a hypocrite because of things in our life. Well, I get that, but maybe that should spur us on to try to change those things in our lives. We will let others miss out on God’s abundant life because we are scared to be open to others? In all reality fear is the  most common source of not speaking to those around us.

In Acts 17, Paul is in Greece and he is walking around the city and he is noticing all the idols of gods that people worshiped. He saw all the people’s sin and it angered him. In the original language the word us tells us that he was outraged. So, what did he do? He went to the synagogue and found other believers and “reasoned” with them. He met them in all the places that people congregated and asked this question, “What are you all doing about this?” You see it is our (the church’s) responsibility to teach and disciple others – I believe we call this the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20). Many of us believe that we should not get angry at all. Well I don’t believe this, because anger is an emotion that God put in us and the Bible tells not to sin in our anger. You see it is our actions when we are angry that tell us if we are acting from the flesh or from the Spirit. Sometimes I think many of us are guilty of the sin of complacency and/or silence.

Now, I am not saying we need to go and shove the bible down our friends throat or stand on the street corner with a megaphone telling everyone that they are all going to hell – these never work! What I am saying is that in our relationships, we speak when God tells us. This means two things. One, we must be able to hear God and His instructions. Second, we must be open and vulnerable to those that God has put in our lives. This is having intimate relationships. Yes, this might mean you will get hurt but what does that really matter when we stack that up against eternity.

Here are some questions to think about.

When was the last time you got angry about sin?
When was the last time you were guilty of complacency or silence?
Are you able to hear God or maybe we should ask it this way, are you in a position to hear God?
What are you willing to give or do in order to see those in your life have eternity with God?