IntElecS
Infinite Never-ending Trinity Everlasting Lord Excellent Christ Savior

Once a small company that served control systems, now a couple that serves the All Powerful God.

To navigate the pages for this site, Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select the page you want to view.  Some pages have sub-pages as the seven sayings series so you must be on that page to scroll down and pick its sub-pages.

All of life's answers are found in His book.

Be Happy

Ephesians 4:26, “xBe ye angry, and sin not: ylet not zthe sun go down upon your wrath:” [1]

I.   Be Mad

     A. Who

     B. You

II. Get Glad

     A. Stay

     B. Pray

III. Leave The Bad

     A. Let It Lay

     B. A New Day


Introduction:  We discussed the difference between Clinical Professional Counseling and Christian Counseling.  The world is steaming along toward self-destruction and it seems that nobody is looking within themselves to see how their role in the world might make things better for others.  As long as a person can find someone else to blame for the problems that they are not willing to accept as their own decision, the less the world will improve.

Can Christians still change things?  Apparently many people feel that the only ones responsible for the bad in the world is someone else.  NOT ME!  We raised four daughters.  Something would happen and we would ask who did it.  It was always the same person.  NOT ME!

If I could have ever found the “NOT ME” I might have been able to get something changed.  Finally after all these years I get the reason for that test.  When God asked me why I did what I did knowing better my answer was the same every time too.  NOT ME!

Somebody else!  NOT ME!  I imagine God really gets tired of hearing that from me.  Looks like I could find a doctor who can fix me.  No way have I caused any of this myself.  What can somebody else do to help me feel better; happier again?  NOT ME!  NOT ME!

What have I go to look forward to?  If I could do as Paul and keep my eye on the prize I would be happy.  My eye is on what I can see.  We talk a lot about the light of the world.  There is a saying that many use in place of saying, “in conclusion.”  I don’t know about you but I grew tired long ago hearing people say, “At the end of the day.”  Just say in conclusion!  What happens at the end of the day?  It gets dark!  Unless you live in a polar region of this planet the same thing happens at the end of every day.  But that is not the conclusion.  Thank God!

What does happen when it gets dark?  If darkness is something to be avoided why does it happen every night here near the center longitude of this planet?  What are we to learn from darkness?  Listen to the beginning of this devotional excerpt from “My Utmost For His Highest” for January 19th.

“January 19th

Vision and darkness

An horror of great darkness fell upon him. Genesis 15:12.

Whenever God gives a vision to a saint, He puts him, as it were, in the shadow of His hand, and the saint’s duty is to be still and listen. There is a darkness which comes from excess of light, and then is the time to listen. Genesis 16 is an illustration of listening to good advice when it is dark instead of waiting for God to send the light. When God gives a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will make you in accordance with the vision He has given if you will wait His time.” [2]

Scripture:  Today’s focal text is Ephesians 4:26.

Prayer:  Let us pray.  Be seated.

Message:  It seems that this world is in a dark place.  Maybe it is because of the personal things in the life of each of us in this church that we love.  Merry Oaks seems to be under attack and as we look back this church has a history of attack.  Today we are in a dark place of not knowing what is in store for our buildings.  Many and maybe most of us are under a cloud of physical attack.  Other local churches are also in a dark place and we are waiting to see what is to come.

We know that Jesus is coming and we look forward to that.  We look with anticipation for His return because we long to see Jesus.  If we are truthful though, we also must admit that we wait with selfish reasons.  We selfishly want this time to pass because this is a dark place that we want to be behind us.  This is not and never has been our time, it is God’s time.  God’s speed!

So what is it that we so much want behind us?  What is the thing that Jesus was so tired of when He came down from the Mount of Transfiguration?  Mark 9: 19, “He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.” [3]  Jesus’ disciples could not cast out a demon from the man’s son.  They could not be counted on because they lacked faith.

We studied Paul’s explanation of putting off the things that we once felt were important.  In order to have a new spirit, The Holy Spirit, within us we must be willing to admit the Holy Spirit.  Therefore we need to give Him a clean place.  Once that is done we must take on that new man which will only get newer.  Only then will we be Christians worthy of His presence.  Only then will Jesus be able to count on me.

In verse twenty-five, the very next verse, Paul says that because we are now new Creations, we must put away lying.  Ephesians 4:25, “Wherefore kputting away lying, uspeak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are wmembers one of another.” [4]  Does that say that everybody who is not a Christian is a liar?  Let that sink in.  Who is your neighbor?  Is Paul speaking only of Christians as your neighbors?  If they are not Christian and they are liars is it OK for you to lie to your neighbor?  What is somebody lied to you?  Now we are at our focal verse.

Is it OK to be angry?  Back there in Mark 9:19 we find Jesus who is at least perturbed with the disciples who were unable to be trusted with His ministry while Jesus was preoccupied.  That is OK then if it’s OK for Jesus.  It was OK for Jesus.  Paul said in our focal verse, “Be Ye angry.”

Just because you have a reason to be upset over a thing does not mean that you should incite a riot.  Remember, Jesus could have called legions of angels to fight for Him but He went to the cross instead.  If there is a reason for you to be angry then be angry but it is your anger.  Otherwise let it go and allow history to show how it turned out.

If you attempt to bring someone else around to your way of thinking about a thing, what you are really doing is looking to have someone follow you.  Jesus invited the disciples that He knew would follow Him and yet Judas turned Him over to be crucified.  We are here to make disciples of Jesus, not to our way of thinking.  If we are angry about something that makes God angry then the Holy Spirit will do His job.  It is one thing to get yourself mad.  God doesn’t need your help to make someone else feel bad.

Paul said to sin not.  How do you deal with anger and yet stay away from sin?  We have been talking about happiness as an attitude rather than a destination.  The pursuit of happiness is not something that someone else can take away from you.  If you decide to be unhappy nobody can take you to a place to find happiness.  It is up to you to be content where God has allowed you to be.  Who can make you glad?  Only you can get you happy.  Get glad and you won’t sin.

Get happy and stay happy.  If you are truly a Christian that is enough.  You have reached a destination where you will be with Jesus and your journey has already started.  Where you are there in that happy place; Stay there, Pray there.

Remember that saying about the end of the day and what happens?  It gets dark?  Maybe you are already in a dark angry place.  Maybe you think it would feel better to be stay bitter.  You won’t rest.  At the end of the day let it rest.  Give in to the anger so it doesn’t keep you from the rest that God promised.  Leave the bad behind and move on.

When you lie down let the anger lay down too.  How can a person do that?  A normal person cannot do that.  A Christian armed with the peace that comes with the Holy Spirit can rest assured without tossing and turning and trying to figure out how to pay back that person for what you have decided to think about them.  They probably don’t even know that you are thinking about them at all.  Let is lay.  Leave the anger behind and get over it.

Tomorrow will come if God wills.  When tomorrow does come the sun will come back just like it did yesterday or it won’t.  You staying awake fretting all night about what you will do tomorrow will not get you one more minute of sleep.  Take my word for that.

Matthew 6:34, “mTake therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” [5]  That is hard to translate.  The KJV reads as if tomorrow might be worse than today.  This particular verse bothered me as I would read it before the light appeared.  This is the last verse of the “Do not worry” speech in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  He explained that worry doesn’t gain us anything.  If we consider the evils that might take us by surprise tomorrow we will lose sight of today.  It is enough to consider what is going on now.  Let tomorrow bring its own considerations.

It falls in with the rest of the narrative.  Leave worry to God.  When God brings a new day, deal with that day in the way that God equips you to deal with that day and trust that He will equip you to do the same tomorrow.  Tomorrow is a new day.  You trusted Him yesterday, He can be trusted tomorrow and every day!

Prayer: 

Invitation:  The invitation today is for each Christian.  Let us stand firm on faith that God has us in the palm of His hand.  Sometimes that seems to be a dark place and we can’t see where we are or where we’re going.  We get angry at people and situations and attempt to change things to our liking without considering that God is and always will be in control.

Our part in this is to continue to trust and do the things that we know will show the love of God to this lost and dying world.  We will get angry when we see things that we know are the things that make God angry.  We read the Bible and we know what abomination means.

Our part is to continue in the knowledge that God has us here now because He trusts us with His ministry here now.  So let us put off the anger and the fear of mankind knowing that we will finish the race and take the prize that God has stored up for us in heaven.  He will do that in His time.  My prayer is that we watch and see God at work in everything as we wait in happiness knowing that He is God.

x Cited from Ps. 4:4 (Gk.).
y So Ps. 37:8.
z Deut. 24:15.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Eph 4:26). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[2] Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest: Selections for the year. Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering.
[3] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Mk 9:19). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
k Col. 3:8. So ver. 25. Heb. 12:1. James 1:21. 1 Pet. 2:1 in the Gk. So Col. 2:11. & 3:9.
u Zech. 8:16. So ver. 15. Col. 3:9.
w Rom. 12:5.
[4] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Eph 4:25). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
m ver. 27, 28, 31, 34. See 1 Sam. 9:5 (English). So Ps. 55:22. Phil. 4:6. Heb. 13:5. 1 Pet. 5:7.
[5] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Mt 6:34). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.