Monthly Archives: October 2014

"And He looked around them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart." Mark 3:5

Few topics are more misunderstood than God's anger. We tend to make it very human-like and want to think that God's anger must be like our anger. This happens in a couple of common ways.

When I hear or read someone addressing the subject, I often sense that just beneath the surface is the author's justification for his or her own anger. Thus, someone speaking about "7 Things the Lord Hates" (from Proverbs 6:16-19) has probably been the recent victim of haughty eyes, a lying tongue, a man who sows discord, etc. We feel justified in "hating what God hates" and want to let everyone know how we feel.

Related to this passive-aggressive theology is the chronic "indignation at sin." This kind of anger is purely self-righteous, with the angry person adeptly identifying targets around him. Identifying sinners is no real challenge. We're all over the place. And if you want to find a reason to justify your anger then the next person you meet will provide plenty of ammunition. Some people seem to want to be angry. I truly believe some Christians look forward to the second coming of Christ (with all the judgments and bowls of wrath) because they don't much care for the tone of the first coming.

But is our anger really like God's anger? Because we live in an angry age, we should spend a few moments thinking about what makes God angry, and Jesus provides us a clear example.

The passage for this week's GraceWaves comes from the story of Jesus' healing a man with a withered hand on a Sabbath. The Pharisees were watching Him carefully to see if He would violate the Sabbath rules by performing the miracle. So the scene has the feel of a set-up, and Jesus knew it, and it made Him angry.

We should note first that Jesus did get angry. He was not anger-less. The inability or unwillingness to feel anger is no virtue. Anger has a place in our lives. Jesus was not "meek and mild," but challenging, confident, and willing to become sternly angry with opponents (as in this episode) and disciples (in several episodes). The Gospel of Mark particularly shows us this side of Jesus' personality. He was no cringing sparrow of a man, but more like C. S. Lewis' lion.

So did He get angry at sin? Of course He did, but at the same time He was a friend to sinners! In fact, He was so well-liked by sinners and spent so much time with them that His opponents called Him a drunkard and a glutton. Make no mistake, Jesus came because of our sin problem and died for our sins. He did not wave off the issue as if it made no difference. His solution was to give His life for our sins, not just became angry about them.

The real source of Jesus' anger, especially clear in this passage, is "hardness of heart." The Pharisees who conceived the trap were unwilling to lay aside traditions and see the work of God before them. More than that, they used their legalism to object to Jesus' healing a poor man.

Plainly throughout the gospels, Jesus' anger is aimed at the most religious people of the day. As a religious person, this observation has always given me pause. I can bloviate, pontificate, and fulminate myself into a storm of anger, but am I angry because of my own offended nature? Do I long to become an agent of God's condemnation and even punishment? Do I use religion as a justification for my anger? Honestly, I can be very religious, and I can very wrong when it comes to anger.

The key to "good anger" is the word grieved. Jesus was grieved at their hardness of heart. The word also means sorrow. Jesus was saddened by what He saw in the Pharisees. As the Son of God He knew what man could become, and He saw what these religious people had become. It saddened Him. His anger was not conceived in a fury to punish but more the result of seeing people He loved go down the wrong road. He saw the damage they did to others and to themselves. The Pharisees were merciless and censorious. Jesus came to give grace, and the people who were most "wired" to hear and respond turned their backs and even plotted His death (3:6).

So be very careful with anger. Your goal is not to be without anger, but don't let it be self-righteous in any way. You're wired for grace, to receive it and give it. The next time you feel the fury stirring, simply ask yourself a basic question: "would God be angry in this situation?" If the answer is no, then leave it alone.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

October 26, 2014

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1

Penned by Solomon perhaps 3000 years ago, put to music by Pete Seeger in the 1950's, and The Byrds in 1965, this text from Ecclesiastes holds the distinction of being the most ancient text to become a #1 hit on The Hot 100. You might need that information on Jeopardy someday.

But what does it mean? And what are we to learn from it?

Many interpreters see it as an expression of fatalism, that is, everything that happens has been appointed, and will happen in its time. So there is a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to harvest, etc. Solomon could have been saying that all of our efforts won't change a thing. Fate.

Kushner called Ecclesiastes "the most dangerous book in the Bible" because Solomon spews a lot of very fatalistic ideas in it. What sounds rather beautiful (a time for all things), and even hopeful (be happy and enjoy yourself as long as you live; 3:12), crashes to the ground of Solomon's harsh reality. So all of our days may be nothing more than "striving after the wind" (4:4).

Does God want us to embrace this bleak pessimism? I don't think so. Solomon obviously wrote this book later in life, his low T days. He had lost zest, hope, and balance. He saw everything through the lens of his own disappointment. For him, good and bad followed one another inevitably, and there is nothing we can do about it. He essentially gave up.

Not so for us! We have the full revelation of God through Christ that we are created for joy and abundant life. So what can we learn from the ceaseless changing of times and seasons? Two things.

First, we are to live fully in the present. I'm not sure which delusion is more destructive: the unrealistic expectation that everything will be wonderful all of the time or the unrelenting fear that catastrophe is always around the corner. The truth is, life is a mixture of what we want and what we get. Good and bad, blessing and challenge, life and death are all part of life.

Solomon had virtually unlimited earthly power and a legendary wisdom in his early years, but he was never able to bend life to permanently bend life to his will. He reluctantly realized that in spite of his best efforts, there would be a time to love and a time to hate.

We have the potential for a tremendous freedom of accepting the reality of life. We cannot afford to be stunned into inaction or unbelief when something terrible happens. And we cannot indulge the fantasy of thinking we have arrived at unending sweetness when something good happens. Blessing and challenge follow one another.

Lincoln captured the meaning of this chapter in a speech in 1859. "It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"

Are you enduring a terrible struggle? It will pass. Perhaps like a kidney stone, but it will pass. God gives us the sacred present. Embracing it means we will neither regret the past nor fear the future. Our expectations will be realistic as we begin to think more and more like Christ. We live fully in the present.

Second, we live fully in "the presence." God's abiding presence is the FACT we can rely on. It fulfills our true and deepest longing. God's presence with you right now, Christ in you always from first to last, is the ONE THING you most desperately need, and, thankfully, can never lose.

Solomon spent a lifetime casting about for something he could cling to. I believe in all of his wisdom he overanalyzed everything and lost sight of the main thing (a paralysis by analysis). He ended his life in gray resignation.

His father, David, had a better creed, one that I claim this week as I face the time to weep or the time to laugh. "Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Ps. 37:4). I now know what I really desire. Thank God for being with me now and always, whatever the times bring.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

October 12, 2014

You have not received GraceWaves in your e-mail for the last few weeks because some server somewhere considers it spam. I know it's hard to believe that anything or anyone would consider my writing to be spam, but it's true. I cannot begin to explain the problem, but trust me that the entire international GraceWaves IT department is working non-stop to fix the problem.

Thanks for your patience, and please pray for mine.

Dr. Terry Ellis

October 5, 2014