Wearing Religious Masks Part 1 Series

Part #1 of 2.

WEARING RELIGIOUS MASKS

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.

Kyfingers@aol.com

I ponder: what do I do when I am hurt? How can I

handle injustice? How do you handle hurt?

I must learn to trust God,

God turns messes into messages.

God can turn great test into great testimonies.

With God chaos is curable.

God can, if we will let Him.

GOD HAS A PLAN!

I found this next part written in a Bible I retired five years ago. I retire a Bible when I run out of space to write.

It may be obvious you have been hurt, and the cards

life has given you are not fair.

The situations we are facing are not fair.

We seem so powerless and just thinking of our case

brings much pain and many tears.

There appears no resolve?

Often our enemy will have us to relive and revisit

our hurt over and over, the hurt seems to take on a

life of it’s own.

It becomes self feeding.

So the unjust treatment will become a life

threatening cancer.

What happens in me is far more important than what

happens to me.

Rarely can we change others opinions and the external

pressures that will mount against us.

So the best and most practical escape is to ask Jesus

to change what is within our heart.

We must remember when things get rough, it is the rubbing that polishes our hearts to bring out the shine.

There is no peace pill?

As we let the terrible hurt polish, the Jesus’ reflection in our daily life shines greater.

The Bible contains a record of a man that was critically hurt at least 7 times in his life.

The Bible records, how we should handle hurt.

We see the trail of tears that seem to follow this man.

His family was dysfunctional before his birth.

The dysfunctional family got worse after his birth and the birth of his baby brother.

This man had every excuse in the book to hate and develop a vengeful life style within his family.

This man made a willful choice to not allow the dysfunctional family and all the pain he faced to dictate his attitude.

He knew your attitude in life can determine your

altitude.

So Joseph becomes the great example and lesson on proper behavior when life mistreats you.

Again Joseph could do little to change the attitudes of his brothers.

His family could not speak peaceably to one another. (Gen. 37:4)

Remember they were a religious and God fearing family?

The family problems had dictated a spirit of hate in

the practice of religion.

Let me also say that Joseph’s family was not totally

to blame.

Joseph had an arrogant, overbearing attitude.

The trouble with being arrogant is you devalue

others.

Joseph’s dreams were good, they sustained him in hard times.

But the way he choose to tell others about his dreams

and how they would be humbled at his feet, while

true ---

Joseph was not modest and his attitude help worsen

the family’s woes.

Joseph’s lesson was after life mistreats,

you must focus your heart and concentrate your mind

and apply all your efforts to become a better person.

We must grow above the hurt.

Joseph taught you waste your efforts if you spend all

your time dwelling on the hurt or trying to undo

seasons of hurt.

Be the best person you can be.

I know many licking wounds that happened years ago.

You must get up and travel to a higher plane.

God had a plan for Joseph and his family, even when

the plan was not visible to the eye.

Down near the end of his life long of mistreatment,

Joseph says:

(Gen.50:19-20) Fear not: for am I in the place of

God? But as for you,

ye thought evil against me;

BUT GOD meant it unto good,

to bring to pass, as it is this day,

to save much people alive.

All the hurt was used by God to build a man and save a family.

We must be the best person we can be.

Dwelling over past hurt and disappointments will

never build better people.

Be the best person you can be, learn to overlook the

circumstances.

Can you see?

Can you see God has a plan?

The enemy cannot overcome you unless you play his

plan of bitterness and revenge.

Vengeance belongs to God.

To take revenge and to get even is stealing, and

stealing is breaking a command.

We must quit reacting to pain and hurt.

Faith does not react!

Faith acts!

If we always react in pain and hurt, we reveal the depth of our personal commitment to Jesus Christ is very shallow!

If you open and squeeze a tube of toothpaste, you

will get toothpaste?