Tag: anger

Monday Kfirst Kickstart: Guest John Opalewski #dANGERseries

Have you ever noticed a sign on a restaurant or store that isn’t working properly? Sometimes the whole sign is out. Most of the time, it’s only a letter or two that is missing causing the sign to read completely different than what the owners intend. And that’s what I see with the word “danger.” But it is the letter “d” that keeps flickering in and out of sight. So in essence, What reads “anger” on the surface, only reveals the “danger” in the warning trying to be conveyed. God created all of our emotions, including anger. However, there are appropriate and inappropriate ways to express anger. We must learn to deal with anger in a healthy way so that it won’t control us and be a DANGER to us and the relationships in our lives. Unchecked anger doesn’t produce anything good or change anything for good. It only creates opportunity for evil to rule over us. Join us as we enter into a series where we want to understand this emotional experience so that the Holy Spirit can teach us how to express our anger appropriately. Because without His help, there is always a DANGER to our ANGER.

Check out the service from the website or from the Facebook livestream. 

Other thoughts from the Youversion notes from Sunday:

  • If we don’t tell anger where to go, it will take us to places we don’t want go.
  • 4 Fundamentals:
    • Anger is part of the human experience.
    • Anger is the right response sometimes.
    • Anger often calls attention to root issues we need to address.
    • Unmanaged and unprocessed anger is a key contributor to major depression.
  • “To refuse to forgive is to choose to self-destruct. In the shadow of my hurt, forgiveness feels like a decision to reward my enemy. In the shadow of the cross, it’s merely a gift from one undeserving soul to another.” Andy Stanley

Love you all. Have a great week.

BTW: Here’s a great song for the week…

Monday Kfirst Kickstart: “Purposeful > Prominence” #dANGERseries

Have you ever noticed a sign on a restaurant or store that isn’t working properly? Sometimes the whole sign is out. Most of the time, it’s only a letter or two that is missing causing the sign to read completely different than what the owners intend. And that’s what I see with the word “danger.” But it is the letter “d” that keeps flickering in and out of sight. So in essence, What reads “anger” on the surface, only reveals the “danger” in the warning trying to be conveyed. God created all of our emotions, including anger. However, there are appropriate and inappropriate ways to express anger. We must learn to deal with anger in a healthy way so that it won’t control us and be a DANGER to us and the relationships in our lives. Unchecked anger doesn’t produce anything good or change anything for good. It only creates opportunity for evil to rule over us. Join us as we enter into a series where we want to understand this emotional experience so that the Holy Spirit can teach us how to express our anger appropriately. Because without His help, there is always a DANGER to our ANGER.

Check out the service yesterday from the website or from the Facebook livestream. 

Other thoughts from the Youversion notes from Sunday:

  • Your RESPONSE (to anger) should be in alignment with your PURPOSE (in life).
  • God doesn’t stand in the way of joy; He’s the way to it. ‪He stands in the way of things that take your joy away.
  • Perhaps the presence of storms are only to remind you of what you ought to be trusting in.
  • When you build something out of anger, don’t be surprised when it becomes the instrument of your own destruction.
  • God does not save us for safety; He saves us that we might save others.
  • Your purpose is never anger; your purpose is to be the imago dei (image of God).

Love you all. Have a great week.

BTW: Here’s a great song for the week…

Monday Kfirst Kickstart: “Let it Settle” #dANGERseries

Have you ever noticed a sign on a restaurant or store that isn’t working properly? Sometimes the whole sign is out. Most of the time, it’s only a letter or two that is missing causing the sign to read completely different than what the owners intend. And that’s what I see with the word “danger.” But it is the letter “d” that keeps flickering in and out of sight. So in essence, What reads “anger” on the surface, only reveals the “danger” in the warning trying to be conveyed. God created all of our emotions, including anger. However, there are appropriate and inappropriate ways to express anger. We must learn to deal with anger in a healthy way so that it won’t control us and be a DANGER to us and the relationships in our lives. Unchecked anger doesn’t produce anything good or change anything for good. It only creates opportunity for evil to rule over us. Join us as we enter into a series where we want to understand this emotional experience so that the Holy Spirit can teach us how to express our anger appropriately. Because without His help, there is always a DANGER to our ANGER.

Check out the service yesterday from the website or from the Facebook livestream. 

Other thoughts from the Youversion notes from Sunday:

  • Surrendering my angry reactions is a glorious way to live Christ out in my responses.
  • How we react to anger is a crucial gauge of what’s really going on inside our hearts.
  • Don’t be so reactionary with your anger that your response holds no redemptive value.
  • Refuse to sacrifice your identity in Christ on the altar of “what I feel someone deserves.”
  • An UNHEALED person can find offense in pretty much anything someone does. A HEALED person understands that the actions of others have very little to do with them.
    • Each day you get to decide which one you will be.

Love you all. Have a great week.

BTW: Here’s a great song for the week…

 

Monday Kfirst Kickstart: “Hug the Cactus” #dANGERseries

Have you ever noticed a sign on a restaurant or store that isn’t working properly? Sometimes the whole sign is out. Most of the time, it’s only a letter or two that is missing causing the sign to read completely different than what the owners intend. And that’s what I see with the word “danger.” But it is the letter “d” that keeps flickering in and out of sight. So in essence, What reads “anger” on the surface, only reveals the “danger” in the warning trying to be conveyed. God created all of our emotions, including anger. However, there are appropriate and inappropriate ways to express anger. We must learn to deal with anger in a healthy way so that it won’t control us and be a DANGER to us and the relationships in our lives. Unchecked anger doesn’t produce anything good or change anything for good. It only creates opportunity for evil to rule over us. Join us as we enter into a series where we want to understand this emotional experience so that the Holy Spirit can teach us how to express our anger appropriately. Because without His help, there is always a DANGER to our ANGER.

Check out the service yesterday from the website or from the Facebook livestream. 

Other thoughts from the Youversion notes from Sunday:

  • God’s fingerprints should be evident upon our lives even when our words are silent.
  • Anger functions as either a stumbling block or a stepping stone; it can lead to bitter nights or better days.
  • Grace doesn’t justify someone else’s actions; it frees you to live and love like Jesus.
  • Every problem is a platform for God’s providence.
  • When a forgiving spirit is in you, anger loses its power over you.

BTW: Here’s the new song we did yesterday…

Monday Kfirst Kickstart: “Bad Blood”

Today I want to give you a place to start your week. It’s Monday and in the wake of a great weekend and a workweek ahead, sometimes you just need a “kickstart” to get focused.  So grab some coffee let’s start a great week together.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, we continued our series at Kfirst. Last year, we took 6 weeks to bring a focus on something that far too many people do not understand: our emotions. It’s our emotional state that people can go into one of two extremes. On one hand, people can live completely in the wake of their emotions. They’ll operate not at a state of truth but in the pace of their passion for that day. On the other hand, there are those that completely disregard their emotions as if they were a curse or a weakness. It is as if emotions are something to endure in this life on earth instead of seeing them for which God sees them.

What I see in scripture is that our emotions are, first, a gift from God. They are part of our humanity. Second, if they are a gift, then we have a responsibility to steward (manage) them. This takes emotional discipleship; growing what we have deeper in the knowledge and passion for Christ.

 

Sunday, we dealt with ANGER. There has been a misunderstanding that anger is, in and of itself, sin. But the the more we understand anger, the more we can realize that anger can be a gift to utilize IF we approach it properly. If we don’t according to Ephesians 4, it can be a place we allow Satan to manipulate and destroy our lives.

I can identify two types of anger:

  • Sanctified (set apart) Anger: Anger experienced and expressed that is consistent with the heart and character of Jesus.
  • Sinful (missing the mark) Anger: Anger driven and/or expressed that is inconsistent with the heart and character of Jesus.

Check out the message here:

Other thoughts from Sunday:

  • What makes you angry, is a clue to your life’s mission. What directs your anger, is a clue to how you handle it.
  • Don’t be so reactionary with your anger that your response holds no redemptive value.
  • Just because anger knocks on the door of your heart doesn’t mean you need to let it in.
  • “Hope has two beautiful daughters: their names are anger and courage. Anger that things are the way they are. Courage to make them the way they ought to be.” St. Augustine

Love you all. Have an amazing week.

Monday Kfirst Kickstart: “Redemptive Anger” #CatchingFoxes

Today I want to give you a place to start your week. It’s Monday and in the wake of a great weekend and a workweek ahead, sometimes you just need a “kickstart” to get focused.  So grab some coffee let’s start a great week together.

A couple of weeks ago, we kicked off a series with our Kfirst community that focuses on how God wants to connect and use our emotions.  (Click here for yesterday’s notes.)

Our bodies have a physiological reactions to anger and it causes us to “feel” overwhelmed as if we cannot control our anger. But in the face of the physical reactions, we can control our responses. And it can be cone through a redemptive approach to anger.

Yesterday, we did a “flyover” of biblical anger. We did our best to help bring understanding that first, God has anger, and second, we do too. And if we can approach it the way God does, it has potential to change the world around us. From looking at the Old Testament, we can see that God’s anger always had a redemptive purpose for His people. His end-game was to bring about a positive, constructive outcome that would leave His people in a better place. Even in the New Testament, Jesus’ anger was to position the people in the blessing of God and not chase them away from it.

This is how we can approach anger. We don’t run from it; we harness it to have a redemptive outcome to it by being intentionally reasonable.

So we digested Philippians 4:5-9 and helped give a strategic approach to anger.

  1. Redemptive Thinking (v. 6-8)
    • Every thought is a train. And before I board it, I want to know if it’s heading in a direction that I want to be. If we expect a positive direction to your anger, you cannot be constantly fill your mind with the negative. Take command of your thinking.
  2. Redemptive Venting (v. 6)
    • Take all of the stuff driving your anger and turn it into a prayer; funnel it into praise. Let God give you the strength you need and the peace you crave. Let Him give you the meaning you’re after and He’ll help you to deal with the person you’re angry with.
  3. Redemptive Investigation (v. 9)
    • Get a better picture of the story than you currently possess. I love what author Lysa TerKeurst says, “There’s the story, then there’s the story we tell ourselves.” Instead of allowing your anger to “fill in the blanks” of your story, get the right information to make the proper decisions.
  4. Redemptive Response (v. 5, 9)
    • Anger was designed to be a visitor, not a resident.
    • My option #1 – Confront the matter.
      • You can be reasonable in love; give the truth in grace.
      • Your approach will stem from your view of God
    • My option #2 – Overlook the matter
      • Biblical Forbearance: Turning it over to God and refusing to be held captive to the wrong

Look at these four points and ask yourself, “What do I need to work on for me to have a redemptive response through my anger. Ask the Lord for help in not just revealing where you are being challenges but to help you grow through it.

Love you all.  This Sunday, we’ll wrap up “Chasing Foxes.”

BTW: Here’s a song for your week!

2 Minute Marriage Devo – Day 9

Welcome to our 2 Minute Devos. This month we are in our Annual Marriage Series at Kalamazoo First Assembly of God and we’re going through devotions for couples. Take the time to read through the passage of the day and listen to the 2 Minute Devo.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.