"Satan The Opportunist" Series

Do I need to point out that unrelieved and sustained anger, like falsehood, is diametrically opposed to the character of the God we are joined to?

With some people I might. There are many who think that is exactly what God is like. Angry, vengeful, wrathful, vicious.

That’s why I detest even some of the innocent and well-intentioned but shallow expressions of God that Christians make publicly. On billboards, bumper stickers, t-shirts, forwarded emails…

…may I suggest something to you here before we go on? We’ve found ourselves in a day of the instant message, the convenience of email…of rapidly reading a message we’ve received, getting a favorable first impression of it, and without any careful thought given, just clicking a mouse button and sending that message on its merry way to everyone we know…who will then send it on to everyone they know…

Think about this if you will; how simple it has become for the common man to communicate around the world in a flash.

So please bear with me and let me give you a small bit of counsel concerning that ability; please, please, Christians, be careful what you forward. Think before clicking, and be careful that you are not sending a message to someone that belies how you really feel and what you really believe.

There is one I have received several times over the past few years from different people and always from Christians, and it is comprised of little bumper-sticker-type sayings attributed to God…things that He has not said in scripture. I’ve even seen these things on cards in a Bible book store.

Examples: “If you think it’s hot here…” -God “What part of ‘Thou shalt not…’ didn’t you understand?” - God “Keep using My name in vain, I’ll make rush hour longer.” - God

Some of you may remember seeing those either on your computer or at the store. If you read them and think about the spirit behind them, you will see that they portray God as angry, as vindictive, as legalistic and even arrogant.

Jesus said, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father” And the times I see Jesus angry in the scriptures, it is at deliberate unbelief and lack of compassion. Never do we see a picture of a God who holds a grudge. He chastens, forgives, reinstates, blesses. Over and over again.

His forgiveness and loving kindness and patience are evident throughout the Old Testament and in the New we see Jesus meeting Peter on the sea shore, giving him breakfast, and loving him back into fellowship, then giving him a commission.

The greatest expression of God’s willingness to forgive and His desire to redeem and restore relationships is in the cross of Christ and His resurrection.

As members of one another, the same willingness and the same desire should be visibly evident among us.

Another kind of anger that is sinful is an habitual outburst at the slightest inconvenience or imagined slight. What we generally call a bad temper.

We’ll occasionally hear someone excuse this type of behavior as just an element of their cultural heritage. “He just got my Irish up”. Give me a break. You were born and raised in the United States, you don’t have an accent, you don’t even have red hair for goodness’ sake! Call it sin and repent!