#5seasons Of Testing Series

#5 of a 5 part series: SEASONS OF TESTING

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.

Kyfingers@aol.com

If you lack any part of the series, have a comment or a point to add contact me: Kyfingers@aol.com

This is part #5 on Being tested.

TEXT:

Gal. 5:15 warns of this testing process -- But if you bite and devour one another, TAKE HEED THAT YE BE NOT CONSUMED ONE OF ANOTHER.

James 1:19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath --

Proverbs 15:1 A SOFT ANSWER TURNS AWAY WRATH.

"Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man ... or you may learn his ways" (Prov. 22:24-25).

Even God is slow to anger -- Neh. 9:17.

Proverbs 15:18 warns -- a man full of anger stirs up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeases strife.

33. WE CAN BE TESTED BY NOT UNDERSTANDING NOR GETTING THE FACTS STRAIGHT.

Often we don’t communicate clearly, this can be accidental or purposely, but either way it can be deadly.

Frozen communication lines have destroyed many families and churches.

We need to know how to communicate.

Good communication lines can help keep peace and control fires that brew in anger.

A good coach keeps his team informed, else there be an undermining anger that creeps and brings disunity.

Anger can be contagious?

In his autobiography, Number 1, Billy Martin told about hunting in Texas with Mickey Mantle. Mickey had a friend who would let them hunt on his ranch.

When they reached the ranch, Mickey told Billy to wait in the car while he checked in with his friend.

Mantle’s friend quickly gave them permission to hunt, but he asked Mickey a favor.

He had a pet mule in the barn who was going blind, and he didn’t have the heart to put him out of his misery. He asked Mickey to shoot the mule for him.

When Mickey came back to the car, he pretended to be angry. He scowled and slammed the door.

Billy asked him what was wrong, and Mickey said his friend wouldn’t let them hunt. "I’m so mad at that guy," Mantle said, "I’m going out to his barn and shoot one of his mules!"

Mantle drove like a maniac to the barn. Martin protested, "We can’t do that!" But Mickey was adamant. "Just watch me," he shouted.

When they got to the barn, Mantle jumped out of the car with his rifle, ran inside, and shot the mule.

As he was leaving, though, he heard two shots, and he ran back to the car. He saw that Martin had taken out his rifle, too.

"What are you doing, Martin?" he yelled. Martin yelled back, face red with anger,

"We’ll show that son of a gun! I just killed two of his cows!"

Anger can be dangerously contagious.

As Proverbs puts it, "Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man ... or you may learn his ways" (Prov. 22:24-25). -- Scott Bowerman, Bishopville, South Carolina. Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 1.

34. THE BIG TEST OF TEMPERS, KEEP YOUR TEMPER, NOBODY ELSE WANTS IT. WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR MOUTH WHILE YOU ARE ANGRY WILL BE A BIGGER TEST!

Often slander and cruel words come because someone has failed the temper test.

The Holy Spirit would love to control many uncertain tempers. Even God is slow to anger -- Neh. 9:17.

Proverbs 15:18 warns -- a man full of anger stirs up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeases strife.

We have a serious failure of the testing process of anger.

We must identify the root of the problem, the root is often anger.

We can never lower strife until we get healing to the source of the anger.

Anger is a seedling that soon grows into the tree of hatred.

Have you heard it said, count to 10 before you speak when you are angry, this truth is good; but maybe it be wiser to count to 100.

The Bible states: Proverbs 15:1 A SOFT ANSWER TURNS AWAY WRATH.

Would not nature teach that anger shortens life as well as lowering the quality of living.

Temper often causes a man to speak his mind when he ought to be minding his speech. If your anger is in gear, put your mouth in neutral.

Eccles. 7:9 Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools.

Hotheads often set the world on fire. Then the flames get out of control.

James 1:19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath --

When we talk too much and listen too little, we fail the test before us, we communicate to others that we think our ideas are much more important than theirs.