We Christians are great at shouting what we believe.  We pray for each other and people outside the church and make all the claims about God and the Bible, all the while rebuking the devil and commanding him to adhere to Biblical admonishments. We are taught from a great many places that there are certain characteristics we should all exhibit, like love, joy, peace, patience, etc. etc. etc.  And unfortunately, we are also taught that there are certain things that we may exhibit that condemn us like anger, fear, grief, sickness, confusion, hesitation, and on and on it goes. This all comes without an inkling of consideration that we are all human, including the most famous of preachers who have ever before and still today preach to millions of people. In fact, over the last couple of decades with instant access to information, we have seen their humanity and weakness all too vividly.

Did you know that if you (or someone else) get angry that it does not mean you have lost your relationship with God, have backslid, are unusually carnal, or most things that are claimed by the most heavenly brained among us? In fact, anger is not necessarily a sin if handled and expressed correctly. Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down upon your wrath.” This clearly recognizes anger and the inevitability and even necessity of it sometimes. What it does is tells the believer how to handle it correctly.

Did you know that if you are under pressure and you, your life, your family, marriage, finances, job, business, ministry …… whatever, is threatened and you fear what is responsible, it does not make you less of a Christian or indicate cowardice in you? It means you are human. I’ve seen the most determined of preachers fold or nearly fold under severe life pressure after years of telling other people what they must do or not do. All because these preachers were not ready for a view into their own frail humanity. Spending more time doing what Paul wrote in I Corinthians 12 “ ….the members should have the same care for one another.” would prepare more Christians for more productive times walking people through their difficult times recognizing those times could come upon them.

And get this: If you get sick it does not mean you are in sin, carnal, without faith, non-biblical in your living, out of contact with God, or any other thing that preaching Christians will many times lay on a person who is ill. The apostle Paul, in Philippians chapter 2 mentions Epaphroditus, a “fellow soldier” and said this great man became sick near to death. And in his statements Paul did not presume upon God, or claim to have required something of Him as many modern day Christians do, siting the Word and insisting that God abide by it as though He wouldn’t without their style of praying. But Paul said “God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.” Paul here, didn’t “claim” anything or demand anything from God.  He was just thankful for God’s mercy in allowing the health of his fellow believer to return. And there were no disparaging words laid upon Epaphroditus for his sickness.

There have been a great many insights into Biblical truth over a 25 year period. But predictably, much of that has been taken, distorted, used to promote preachers rather than Christ, used as a vehicle to extract millions of dollars from believers, and now has developed into a whole generation of Christians who don’t know how to simply dedicate themselves to the most important organization on earth, a local church. They don’t know how to keep their heads down, tend to the business God has given them, and own the advancement of their church under the guidance of its Biblical leaders. “God told me” has become the most common statement among many “full gospel” Christians, when in fact the only thing that told them anything was their own carnal desires and their imagination.

None of this is to say that God does not communicate directly with us in assigning us certain things. It is not to say we need to dwell in any of the negative conditions listed and refuse to seek and take good, experienced, Godly counsel. What it does say is that to be human is not to instill guilt when we experience the emotions that all humans are born with. And times when we are not at our best are not times to instill permanent guilt in us, but times to learn from our mistakes, brace up under the hand of God, and go forward stronger than we have ever been ……. and a bit wiser too.

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