Anger [Aftermath of 9/11/01 -- part 2 of 5]
by Preston Gillham
 
Also read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

My Dear Friend:

Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson interviewed a prominent religious leader this morning and asked him some difficult questions. Overall, the minister did a fine job, but among his comments he said, "We must not be angry."

I respectfully disagree.

The Bible states, "Be angry, and yet do not sin" (Ps. 4:4; Eph. 4:26).

We should all be angry-profoundly angry-about the horrific abominations thrust upon us this week! Senator John McCain said he felt "controlled fury." I think that is an apt description.

We are angry, and this is as it should be. In addition, we are feeling incredible stress and phenomenal trauma on multiple fronts. These are blunt, ugly emotions, and in their current intensity they are like receiving a bludgeoning from mace and chain.

Because of their ugliness and ungraciousness we attach the strongest words we possess to describe these emotions, and often we mislabel them as hate, bitterness, and revenge. But this is not what we are dealing with, at least, not yet. These most-destructive emotions take time to develop, and Tuesday is not far enough away.

Why is it important to accurately label what we are feeling? For the same reason it is important to accurately determine who foisted this evil upon us Tuesday.

Anger is healthy, and if handled properly, will ultimately be productive. On the other hand, hate, revenge, and bitterness will destroy us. Anger is God-given, and designed with a purpose in mind. Hatred and bitterness are Satanic perversions of anger.

Anger arises when we are discounted. In other words, if someone diminishes our value, or the importance of someone we love, or the worth of something we feel is meaningful, then a discount occurs and anger results.

On a small scale, you get angry when your child discounts your parental authority by disobeying. You get angry when your opinion is not valued during a discussion at work. Anger surfaces when someone cuts in front of you and takes your place.

On a monumental scale, you get angry when your right to security, life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness is discounted by death, mayhem, and destruction perpetrated by terrorists in stolen airliners!

Believe me! On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, we were discounted as Americans and lovers of freedom. We are angry, and we should be!

Anger is intended to be productive. God gave it to us to fuel a positive outcome from within a negative circumstance and ultimately reestablish value.

The notion that Christians should not be angry, or that anger is inappropriate, is irrational and unbiblical. Have you considered how Jesus responded when the Pharisees discounted Him and His teaching? The same way He reacted when the money changers discounted the sanctity of the temple. He got really mad. He lashed out, spoke harshly, turned over tables, and cracked His whip on people's backs until He had satisfied His anger!

If Jesus Christ exhibited anger, then anger cannot be sin.

But Scripture does not end with the imperative to be angry. We are to be angry, but we are not to sin in the process.

There must be an inherent danger associated with being angry and sinning. If this were not a real possibility, God would not counsel us as He does in Scripture.

When does anger become sin?

Anger becomes sin when you hold onto it as if it belongs to you. It does not!

Returning to the fact that anger arises when we are discounted, and picking up on an earlier example, when your child disobeys, you are angry because he discounted your parental authority. What do you do with your anger? You discipline your child. In other words, through discipline, you give the child responsibility for his disobedience. You turn the pain he caused you into an incentive for change in his life through discipline. This teaches him responsibility and forms in him the character necessary to be a responsible adult. The energy you feel to discipline your child is anger.*

Taking this a step further, should your child discount your authority, and you allow him to get by with it, you sin by keeping anger for yourself and robbing your child of what is rightfully his.

Anger does not belong to you. Anger belongs to the person who discounts.

This is why the Bible says, when addressing the issue of discipline, that the parent who does not discipline their child actually shows disdain for the child (Heb. 12:8). By not giving a child responsibility for his discount of you as a parent, you demonstrate hate for your child because you rob him of God's developmental plan for him as a person.

Just to be sure we are communicating, it is the testimony of Scripture that we sin when we keep anger to ourselves rather than returning it to the instigator of the discounting offense. And this sin is not only against God, it is a sin against ourselves and against the perpetrator of the discount.

So what about the anger you and I feel in response to the grievous outrage forced upon us Tuesday, September 11, 2001?

We have a moral obligation to let the appropriate parties know-in no uncertain terms, and for their own good-that we are angry about them running hijacked airplanes into our important buildings and killing our friends and loved ones. For us to do anything less would be an act of hate, and we recognize that hatred only brings destruction upon us.

In order to accept our responsibility for Tuesday's tragedy, we must devise means by which to communicate to the perpetrators their responsibility for the discounting actions they chose to take against America. To fail in this responsibility would be irresponsible, and to do less than our best in delivering this communiqué would be equally irresponsible. We are morally obligated to do everything within our national ability to communicate our anger, and to see to it that the intensity of our anger is understood and accepted.

We must "be angry." In this case, we must be profoundly angry, blood-boiling mad, deeply moved with indignant, controlled fury, and we must not sin against God, ourselves, or our enemies by failing to help them take responsibility for discounting us.

How long should we be angry? Until we are satisfied the perpetrators of this brutality assume unconditional responsibility for their poor choices against America, and indeed the free world.

As I review my words, I realize I have not dealt with bitterness, hate, resentment, or revenge. These too are closely related to anger, but fundamentally different. Again, as I close my own journal entries oftentimes,

More later,

Preston Gillham
President, Lifetime Guarantee

* At its heart, anger is a loving and positive response. Revenge, on the other hand, is abusive and destructive. When disciplining a child, the parent who determines to get even with his child-by determining to do unto the child as the child did unto him-abuses his little one and fosters hate in the child and the destruction of his parental authority. Anger is not about getting even. It is about establishing clear boundaries of responsibility.

Also read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

© Lifetime Guarantee Ministries [published: 2001-09-18]
These articles are written for your spiritual growth. Copying, printing, and distribution are encouraged. Thank you for crediting Lifetime Guarantee Ministries and our website (www.lifetime.org) as the source.

Revenge [Aftermath of 9/11/01 -- part 3 of 5]
by Preston Gillham
 
Also read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Dear Friend:

I am mad! Blood-boiling, infuriated anger is coursing through my mind, tear ducts, hand motions, pace, jaws, eyebrows, and tongue. I feel this livid passion most poignantly when touched by the human loss and destruction around me.

But revenge becomes my contemplation when I’m alone, walking the dog, riding my bike, or sitting in my chair staring out the window at the American flag drifting in the breeze from its place on the porch pillar. And what of it?! Am I not justified?

Revenge!

Does this ugly, soul-demanding disposition have a rightful place in our hearts as we consider this most horrid of warlike offenses foisted upon us and those we love—and those we miss?

Our anger is justified and honorable. It must be given safe harbor in our hearts. We must acknowledge and direct our anger to bring confident focus and hold us accountable to all that we hold dear and the actions required of us. Our wrath must motivate us to ensure that those who committed and supported these dastardly acts accept full responsibility for the error of their ways.

How long should we be angry? Until we are satisfied those who offended us admit their culpability and offer humble pledges—even if from their mourning, ashes, and destruction—to join our intolerance of terrorism in any form or fashion.

There are times to be understanding, patient, tolerant, and peaceable. But make no mistake. Now is not one of those times!

Is this controlled fury and determination to inflict punishment and deliberate retribution synonymous with revenge?

No! It is not.

Anger and revenge are different. Both inflict pain and suffering, but anger’s affliction is productive and satisfying. Revenge is destructive and debilitating. Anger disciplines the offender. Revenge further destroys the offended.

Revenge seeks to make our offender hurt as badly as we are hurting. But this is a limited vision! Anger assumes the distinct possibility that the offender may ultimately suffer far more profoundly than we are currently hurting. Revenge seeks to get even, and this is an unattainable goal.

Anger’s punishment transfers responsibility for the wrong back to its rightful owner—the perpetrator of the offense—until a change of heart occurs or destruction is achieved. Anger clarifies, and appropriately places, responsibility.

But when taken into our own hands, revenge is irresponsible.

Revenge has its place, but only with a righteous and impartial judge who can give vent to retribution with equanimity. There is only one judge with these characteristics, and none of us are He.

The Lord God Almighty—Yahweh, the Great “I Am,�?the First and the Last, our Creator, and the Lover of our Souls—He alone possesses the capacity to superintend the responsibility for taking revenge.

Not only is God the only one qualified to discharge revenge, God reserves the right to take revenge solely for Himself. “Vengeance is mine,�?He declares (Deut. 32:35).

My friend and fellow sufferer, let’s not be fools and get in God’s way when there is just cause for Him to take revenge.

As in all things, to take responsibility for what is God’s burden will break us beyond repair. Horror of horrors, should we adopt revenge as our justified crusade, we will find that we have destroyed ourselves attempting to achieve what only God can accomplish.

In the defining moments of recovery from our wounds, we must let God be God. We have a clear opportunity in this trauma center of life to take captive the fundamental lesson that He is the powerful one, we are His loved ones, and this great evil against us is truly an offense to God. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,�?the Lord God pledges and promises again in Romans 12:19.

Anger is our responsibility. In His omnipotent wisdom, recognizing our need to martial appropriate responses to those who discount our viability, God gave us the capacity for anger. We must embrace our anger as a gift from Him.

But do not be deceived, accepting responsibility for our anger is a sufficient task to drive us to our knees for divine wisdom, steadfast endurance, and relentless determination. And when we call upon Him in our time of desperation and dark nights, we will discover that not only has He made provision for our response, but He will be the substance of our wisdom, endurance, and determination.

So what about this terrible offense—this act of war—perpetrated against us? Is the Scripture teaching that we clean up the mess dealt us and wait for God to deal retribution on our enemies through means that may or may not be apparent to us?

Absolutely not!

As those who are mature, intelligent, sophisticated, and more powerful than our offenders, we must bring all of our mutual resources together to respond to our anger decisively, deliberately, with discipline, and with sufficient, sustained force so as to communicate clearly to our enemies. This is our God-given responsibility!

And what message should we deliver?

“Your actions, accommodations, and philosophy of beliefs are unconscionable and horrific! These must not survive.

“We will not relent until we have inflicted enough pain and suffering to ensure that you assume full and unconditional responsibility for your decisions and behavior. Further, we will not retreat from delivering our message to you until you offer satisfactory pledges that you will not do anything of this sort again, and that you will join us in working against those who might make the mistake of repeating your tragic decisions in the future.�?

Successful and effective delivery of this communiqué is anger loosed as our Creator intended. It is the resolve to dare the daunting, and not shrink from the courage necessary, to deliver an unpleasant message that goes against our desire for peace. Unequivocal, uncompromising communication with the instigators and supporters of this great offense will make possible the positive outcome associated with responsible anger.

But my friends, of this we must be clear: Revenge is God’s responsibility! And lest we destroy ourselves attempting to carry that which does not belong to us, we must leave revenge to Him. After all, He is God, and we are not!

And now, I pray that God will comfort our wounded souls and spread the healing balm of His compassionate care with His hand through so many of our hands. Bless you, my friend.

More later,

Preston Gillham
President, Lifetime Guarantee

Also read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

© Lifetime Guarantee Ministries [published: 2001-09-24]
These articles are written for your spiritual growth. Copying, printing, and distribution are encouraged. Thank you for crediting Lifetime Guarantee Ministries and our website (www.lifetime.org) as the source.

Fear [Aftermath of 9/11/01 -- part 4 of 5]
by Preston Gillham
 
Also read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Hello my friend:

How are you doing managing your fears?

Ignoring them, or denying their existence, doesn’t count as a management style. They are still there whether you acknowledge them or are aware of them. Saying you don’t struggle with fears because you deny their existence in your life is like saying the sun didn’t come up because you have your hands over your eyes.

Fear assumes the absence of God. Fear is the belief that God either isn’t there for you, or that you are capable apart from God based upon your inventory of personal resources. Walking after the flesh is synonymous with walking in fear. If walking after the flesh is living independently of God, then it is what you do when you play god instead of letting God be God in your life. Flesh, like fear, is the absence of God.

I was reminded recently that the first thing Adam said to God after he and Eve declared independence and sinned was, “I was afraid.�?It is noteworthy that the first thing God said when Christ was born was, “Fear not.�?

In simple terms, the struggle in our lives is between independence and dependence, fear and love, flesh and Spirit, self-sufficiency and reliance upon the Father. When we live independently, we are controlled by our fears. Walking in the Spirit, depending upon our Heavenly Father, is living beyond our fears in perfect love, and the Bible says, “Perfect love casts out all fear.�?

To narrowly define fear as the physiological reaction you have when you barely miss a car wreck is a definition that is too narrow. To add to the definition, the intangible and hypothetical anxiety you experience is still a definition that doesn’t encompass fear’s reaches.

If fear is the absence of God, then all you do in response to God’s absence constitutes fear. Your self-confidence, quest for competency, control, determination to be a wise manager of your finances, your effort to do the right thing, and your care for those around you can all be encompassed in fear. If these efforts—no matter how praise-worthy—have been crafted to control your environment, gain acceptance for yourself, maintain your lifestyle, and please others then they are fear and flesh because God is not your source.

Depending upon your Heavenly Father is living in perfect love, and perfect love casts out fear. In other words, either you place God in control or you live in fear. There are only two choices before you: You can live in fear, or you can live in perfect love. You can walk after the flesh, or you can walk in the Spirit. You can live legalistically, or find your resource in grace. I have said the same thing several different ways, but fundamentally, these are our only two choices.

So when I ask how you are doing at managing your fears, I’m asking you how you are doing at walking in the Spirit; how you are doing living in perfect love; how you are doing thriving in grace; how you are doing residing in Christ’s sufficiency; how you are doing basking in Father’s love.

When you get right down to it, at the heart of every fear is the presupposition that God is not present, not in control, and not sufficient. This is a contradiction of who God is and how he designed you to live. You are no more designed to live in flesh and fear than Adam was, and your Heavenly Father has made provision for the fears that plague you. He announced His plan through the angels on the night of Christ’s incarnation in Bethlehem’s manger: “Fear not!�?Jesus echoed His Father’s declaration when He said to His disciples, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.�?He went on to promise, “I will never leave you.�?And if perfect love casts out fear, as the Bible asserts, then John sums it all up for us when he says, “God is love,�?and “God so loved.�?

My dear friend, our challenge is clear: If we cling to our fears, we declare to ourselves and all who observe our lives that God is neither sufficient nor worthy. We must live in perfect love, and let perfect love be reflected in our lives. This is the only real choice we have as people whose hearts desire to please our Father. This is the only real choice that will bring freedom from fear.

Whether your fears are for today, tomorrow, the kids, your job, your emotional strength, mental well-being, spiritual courage, acceptance with others, war, or loss, “Perfect love casts out fear.�?Living in Christ is the only way to manage fear. Living in Christ’s strength is the only option other than the flesh.

During the Gulf War, we were all but guaranteed we were safe as long as we stayed on American soil. During the conflicts in the Balkans, Somalia, Panama, Grenada, and the ongoing issues in Iraq, we have felt little threat. But today is different. Almost 7,000 of our American family lie in fresh graves and our government has told us to prepare for additional attacks. There are no guarantees!

Save one! Regardless of what transpires, what mess we find ourselves enmeshed in, or what loss we are faced with, our Father promises to sufficient and to never leave us or abandon us. There is nothing, no place, no one, and no concern that is greater than He is. We are secure in the knowledge and fact of His love. Period! What is there to fear?

God bless you, friend. More later,

Preston Gillham
President, Lifetime Guarantee

Also read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

© Lifetime Guarantee Ministries [published: 2001-10-09]
These articles are written for your spiritual growth. Copying, printing, and distribution are encouraged. Thank you for crediting Lifetime Guarantee Ministries and our website (www.lifetime.org) as the source.

Forgiveness [Aftermath of 9/11/01 -- part 5 of 5]
by Preston Gillham
 
Also read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Dear Friend:

Are you ready to forgive and forget? Let bygones by bygones? Have you decided yet that the sooner you forgive, the quicker you can forget?

Nope, me either!

But I do think it is time to forgive, even the terrorists of September 11. When the subject of forgiveness is broached, it is often associated with forgetting, no longer holding responsible, concluding that everything is OK, and that all offense has been rectified. This is an unfortunate association, because forgiveness has little, if anything, to do with these other dynamics.

There is an interesting verse in Isaiah 43:25. God says, “I, even I, am the One who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake.�?Paul emulates God’s action when he says, “I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you in sorrow again�?(2 Cor. 2:1).

Notice that both of these verses use the common phrase, “for my own sake.�?It is a fascinating thing to amplify God’s quote out of Isaiah. God makes a determination based upon His self-awareness. He decides that for His own good, and the benefit of His own soul, He will forgive. And Paul employs the same logic as he reflects upon his earlier interactions with the Corinthian church.

Forgiveness is something we do for ourselves, not for the person who offended us. This truism empowers the act of forgiveness. I don’t know about you, but when I think of absolving the terrorists in my life—whether that be the suicide pilots of September 11, or the joker who cut me off at the exit ramp to the airport—I feel recalcitrant!

Forgiveness is often positioned as turning the other cheek, speaking softly, going the extra mile, or not complaining. This philosophy works as long as the offenses I suffer are not too profound. However, let something big happen, and my will to forgive suffers a lack of resolve.

Furthermore, if the old adage, “forgive and forget,�?is the barometer used to test whether or not forgiveness has occurred, the greater the offense, the harder and more illusive forgiveness becomes. Americans can no more forget the atrocities of September 11 than we can forget the attack of December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor.

Forgiveness is not about forgetting, granting absolution, or considering the offense to be like water gone under the bridge. Neither is forgiveness what I hope to hear after saying, “I’m sorry.�?This is the transaction of reconciliation, which has a decision of forgiveness associated with it, yet is different. Reconciliation requires the agreement of two parties, the offender and the offended. But you can forgive sitting all by yourself.

In fact, you can forgive whether the person who offended you ever apologizes or not. You can forgive someone—or a group of folks—who offend you, and who you may not have ever met. You can forgive a movement, such as abortion rights. You can forgive a government. You can even forgive a dead person. Forgiveness is a choice you make, for yourself, that initially benefits you.

Forgiveness uproots the offense that could give rise to bitterness, resentment, and hatred if left untended. Forgiveness is the determination to live life differently than you have been under the offense perpetrated against you. Forgiveness establishes a protective boundary around your soul, and eliminates the foothold the enemy seeks to use in assaulting your life. Choosing to forgive—for your own sake—is a decision to model your response to the ungraciousness foisted against you after your Heavenly Father’s response.

If we hang on to the offense brought against us, whether for revenge, hatred, or as our just due, we join the terrorists in our lives and assist them in bringing destruction to our world. Choosing not to forgive is a self-destructive, suicidal decision.

Forgiveness is a gift God gave to Himself—for His own good—modeled for us, and granted to us. It is an act of self-care, freeing us from the ongoing tyranny of the terror thrust upon us. Forgiveness does not absolve our offenders, but leaves them in position to suffer the response stemming from our anger as well as the consequences of their actions.

I’m ready to forgive!

Bless you, my friend.

Preston Gillham
President, Lifetime Guarantee

PS If we want to talk about the responsibilities that belong to those who offend us, we need to revisit our discussion on anger from the website. (Contact us if you do not have web access and would like a copy of this article.) On the other hand, if we want to live beyond the yoke of the offenses we feel, we must chose to forgive, just as God did, for His own sake.

Also read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

© Lifetime Guarantee Ministries [published: 2001-10-15]
These articles are written for your spiritual growth. Copying, printing, and distribution are encouraged. Thank you for crediting Lifetime Guarantee Ministries and our website (www.lifetime.org) as the source.