Stupid arguments

It's amazing the silly things that we can get angry over.  I remember fighting with my brother when I was little about pencils, plates, who got to sit in the front seat, who washed and who dried the dishes, and who got the bigger slice of cake.  Anything you can think of; you name it, we probably fought over it.  Even these days, when I like to think of myself as so much older and wiser, I still fight about silly things.  Sometimes it seems important at the time, sometimes it doesn't; always after the fact I feel foolish for going off about such a stupid little thing.

But all of us struggle with anger.  Some more than others, naturally; but I seriously doubt that any of us haven't gotten upset when we feel that we've been wronged, no matter how slight the wrong may actually be.  Many people think that anger is automatically bad.  But I don't think there's anything wrong with anger in itself.  Jesus himself was angry multiple times in the Bible, for example when he drove out the money changers in the temple of Jerusalem (Matthew 21).

The key is that you have a just cause to be angry.  That you have "righteous anger."  And that, in your anger, you do not sin.  It's perfectly legitimate to be angry if someone hurts another person; but if, in your anger, you retaliate and hurt that person back, you are just as guilty as they are.

So many of us pray and ask the Lord to help us get rid of our anger.  I know I did for years, and still do occasionally.  But perhaps we are asking for the wrong thing.  Perhaps it would be better to ask, not that our anger disappear, but that our propensity to engage in foolish and stupid arguments would disappear.  Because that's the real sickness, the cancer that clings to our bones and threatens to destroy every relationship that we have if we let it.  Run away from foolish arguments.  Don't be the one that starts - or even participates in - all of those silly little quarrels that can would so deeply.  

Matthew 21:12-13

 ¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

 2 Timothy 2:22-24

 ²² Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. ²³ Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. ²⁴ And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.

Live the Scriptures

Having grown up in the church, I've had Bible passages read to me my entire life.  But outside of the church service, it's easy to forget that those same verses still apply.  The New Testament is chock-full of references to the Old Testament.  Take today's passage, for example.  

The margins of my Bible are crammed with study references to other Old Testament verses that are referenced in Matthew 21.  In verse 5 Jesus quotes Isaiah 62:11 and Zechariah 9:9; just a few sentences later, in verse 9, He quotes Psalm 118:26, and then in verse 13, when He rids the temple of the money changers, Jesus again quoted the Old Testament, this time Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11.  The dramatic apex comes in verse 16, when Jesus, quoting Psalm 8:2, rebukes the Pharisees, asking them rather ironically if they had ever read the Scriptures.

Of course they had read the Scriptures.  Their entire lives revolved around knowing the Scriptures.  They were the ones who were supposed to know it better than anyone else in the world.  But to them, the Word of the Lord was simply words on paper.  The holy text was only an incriminating and inconvenient set of rules to be followed.  The God-breathed Scripture was just a dead document. 

The Pharisees thought of the Bible as simply words on paper.  But Jesus wanted them - and us - to see it as a living, breathing document.  It affects us personally; it's not just a set of rules.  God's word is as true today as it was when it was written.  If you don't see the proof of the Scriptures everywhere around you, if you don't see that God's word is coming true every single day, if your life doesn't change based on the principles that you've learned from the Bible....then you haven't really read it. 

Matthew 21:1-17

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

 ¹ As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

 ⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

 ⁵ “Say to Daughter Zion, 
   ‘See, your king comes to you, 
gentle and riding on a donkey, 
   and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

 ⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

   “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

   “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

   “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

 ¹⁰ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

 ¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Jesus at the Temple

 ¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

 ¹⁴ The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵ But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

 ¹⁶ “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

   “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,

   “‘From the lips of children and infants 
   you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”

 ¹⁷ And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

Be the friend you want to have

I think I've hit upon why I was so lonely at the start of this semester.  I went into this semester with the mindset that I wasn't going to invest in any new friends; with just 3 months left at school, it just wasn't worth the investment.  Well, most of my old friends are no longer at Berry, and those who remain are very busy and I rarely see them.  But, when you combine a lack of old friends with an unwillingness to invest in new ones, it's hard to predict any result other than loneliness.  Combine that with the fact that I had not been getting to know God like I should have been, and it was a very solitary few months, indeed.

But to have friends, you must be a friend.  You have to be willing to spend time with people, to stay up late talking with them, to pray for them, to send them encouraging messages, whatever the case may be.  These past few weeks (since I've started really seeking God, actually), I've become closer to people I never would have expected would have ever entered my life.  They were people that I knew, but I knew them on a first-name basis only, and rarely if ever talked to them.  But I started seeking God, and asking Him to put godly people in my life, and here they came out of nowhere....and it's been such a wild, incredible ride!

Last night I was up until almost 2:00 am talking to a new friend of mine who has already become quite dear to me.  Today I spent the afternoon in Atlanta with two others whom I have known for a while, but have only recently began to really get to know.  And I am so grateful to God for blessing me with these wonderful people.  Matthew 21:22 says, "ask, and you shall receive."  Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work.  If one falls down, his friend can help him up.  But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!  Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.  But how can one keep warm alone?  Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."  Proverbs 27:6 - Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.