Anger – Freedom Fighters

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Jude 20-21

What I am about to share reflects the struggle that I am facing increasingly as the President of America’s Keswick. What I am about to share my shock you and I trust that you will prayerfully hear my heart.

I really am at the point where I think our Board should call it quits and get out of the addiction recovery ministry. We are fighting a losing battle.

We have a record number of men who are graduating that are overdosing on heroin. Dying after one injection. Men who have graduated from the program who are relapsing in 48 hours and many of them are calling to come back to the program.

But there is an even greater concern. We have been encouraging our grads for years to connect with Bible believing churches so that they can grow in their walk with the Lord and continue to walk in victory.

Sounds like a great plan, doesn’t it? But in many cases, I owe the men a huge apology for setting them up for failure.

I just heard a report of a Christian addiction recovery ministry that raised $100,000 to help men and women come out of addiction. The money was raised by selling alcohol which was sold by young female bartenders that were asked to volunteer their services. So apparently we need to encourage men who are alcoholics to get the victory, but apparently one of the best fundraising tactics is to get people to sell the addictive –home/life destroying product and find people who want to help see addicts free to “contribute” by buying the product.

Yesterday I read an article about a new group of churches being raised up that are setting up shop in bars. The new evangelism initiative is called “Jesus and Beer.” The plan is to invited seekers to attend a “service” in a bar, serve the best beer, and have dialog about Jesus.

So I guess if we are going to be able to most effectively serve our grads in transitioning back to the “real” world, we need to educate them that it still isn’t ok for them to go to a bar and drink on their own and with their old friends. It is ok to go to the bar and drink as long as you are joining other Christians who have learned to drink responsibly and at the same time are able committed to studying the Bible and sharing Christ.

I have yet to see a post of Facebook posted by my Christian friends that shows them in the bar gathering for church or a Bible study. I have rarely been in the company of “Christian” drinkers where someone hasn’t left the party inebriated and out of control.

But even more disturbing is that the with this new norm we’ve swung the pendulum the other way in that you can’t hold a different position. It doesn’t matter if you have a history of alcohol in your background, it doesn’t matter is you choose to not drink, it doesn’t matter if you are concerned about offending a weaker brother or sister, you either join on or you are ridiculed.

I have left several functions where people have been in my face because I wouldn’t drink a beer. After all, if I am not at America’s Keswick, who is going to know? Really? So what happened to the passages in the New Testament about the weaker brother/sister or not doing something because it might hinder ones testimony? Or suppose your insistence on someone drinking leads them on a downward spiral or even worse, they do leave the party under the influence and face getting a DUI all in the name of “I’m free in Christ to do this so you need to do it too?”

This is a hot button topic and I am sure that I am going to get some humdinger responses. I welcome your comments. But I believe that we have opened the door to some pretty serious issues that are already coming back to bite us.

The same Pastors that refuse to preach both sides of this issue because they can’t nail total abstinence from the Scriptures, and I agree, are the ones that are ticked off at us when a believer in their church has lost everything because of the effects of alcohol, and “What do you mean there is waiting list?” We have a problem, guys.

I will write more about this in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, the next time I am at Applebees, I plan to take a picture of me and the guys enjoying our unsweetened iced teas and diet sodas.

Written by Dr. Bill Welte is President/CEO of America’s Keswick: He has been married to his child sweetheart for 40+ years, and has three married kids, one that is engaged, and 10 amazing grand kids. He loves music and is an avid reader.

The Daily Bible Reading: Psalm 129; Proverbs 10

Daily Quote: Liberty is turned to license by self. – Walter Chantry

This Week’s Verse to Memorize:

¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. ~2 Corinthians 4:16

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Sharp words make more wounds than surgeons can heal. ~Chinese Proverb

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. ~James 1:19-20

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. ~from Colossians 3

Oh beloved, it is true. There is a reason that anger is a bad idea. And it is not just because it will get you into trouble. Yes, anger can get us into hot water. But, that is not its worst effect.

Anger saps the life out of its targets.

This fool of a writer knows the reality of this from both perspectives. I am indeed a man with an anger problem. I have hurt many in the past, and i may just hurt some people in the future if i am not yielded to His Spirit for the grace to be gracious. And the only way

that i have ever begun to get a handle on it is to realize that it is a problem and to begin to allow G_d to show me that i nearly never have the right to even get angry.

However, my knowledge of anger is not just because i have some of it in me. My knowledge is because i have been the target of anger for much of my life. Many of those close to me had not (or still have not) seen the light on the issue. Fear and want and a sense of being out of control have had many near me pour out their stuff on me.

The result has been a dulling of the brightness in my being. So much of me had hope for this life, but the anger of others has driven this hope beyond this life and into the next. And while i am learning that this is OK – and even something for which i should be exceedingly glad – a part of me moans in anguish.

I am not alone. Nor do i ask for pity. For He has made me strong in Himself. Still, the soul of the one who has been the target of so much anger is smaller than it could be. There is an ebbing of strength and a wishing that things could have been different.

Beloved, may this fool preach for a moment to those who still struggle in this area? Do you have any idea how badly some people are hurt by your anger and fear? May i testify that many people do not see the world as you do. Some people have not one resentful and hurtful bone in their body. Oh yes, we all are fallen.

But, the failures of others do not make them fair game to the mess in your soul. So yeah, i am just gonna say it. Anger is very, very dangerous. And one of the main reasons it is so dangerous is that the people who have the biggest problem with it, don’t think that it is that big of a deal.

So, is anger one of your shortcomings? It is one of mine, and i often lay it at the feet of my King. Maybe it is time for you to work on it too; and not just so you can stay out of trouble. Maybe you should begin working on the issue so that those closest to you can begin to heal as well.

Tonight is your night. Time to give up the right to something you could never handle anyway.

Written by Makala (Mak) Doulos: Makala Doulos is a child of God, a husband to his wife, a father to his children, and a teacher to his students. But mostly, he is a prisoner set free by Jesus. Love has invaded his life, crushed it, and made it new. Now, God’s Love is what constrains him to live in full surrender to the freedom The Father and Son and Holy Spirit have bought for us all. Grace and Peace to you all.

The Daily Bible Reading: Psalm 71; Proverbs 11

Click Here to Download our 2016 Daily Bible Reading Plan

Daily Quote: Whenever I allow anything but tenderness and compassion to dictate my response to life–be it self-righteous anger, moralizing, defensiveness, the pressing need to change others…I am alienated from my true self. My identity as Abba’s child [a child of God] becomes ambiguous, tentative and confused ~Brennan Manning

This Week’s Verse to Memorize:

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;

In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

But you would not, ~ Isaiah 30:15 (NKJV)

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