Dealing With Temper Tantrums - Part Two

Identifying Anger

Yesterday, I introduced the topic of temper tantrums, not in children, in mommies. 

To correctly deal with tantrums, we need to have a Biblical definition and understanding of anger.

We think of anger as getting mad. This is only partially true.  In the Bible, it is referring to a strong feeling against sin; a righteous judgement against sin.  Anger is not a sin, uncontrollable anger is. Correct anger has a cause.

The Scriptures don't tell us NOT to get angry, the Lord Jesus expressed anger, as it related to his grief over sin. 

Mark 3:5

And when He had looked round about on them with anger,

being grieved for the hardness of their hearts,

The Lord Jesus acted in righteous anger when He removed sin from the Temple. It wasn't a quiet scene that day, with animals bleating and stampeding, the coins and tables flying through the air.

John 2:15

And when he had made a scourge of small cords,

he drove them all out of the temple,

and the sheep, and the oxen;

and poured out the changers’ money,

and overthrew the tables;

The Bible tells us how and when to be angry.

Ephesians 4:26

Be angry, and sin not:

let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Incorrect anger needs to be removed.

Colossians 3:8

But now you yourselves are to put off all these:

anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 

Need help in judging what anger needs to be removed?  Look at the companions of incorrect anger, malice, blasphemy, and filthy language. We might not be spouting off foul words, but we might use unkind, harmful  or damaging words.

Understanding the Biblical definition of anger, let's apply this to parenting.  Correct anger would be used to judge our children's sin. It would also be correct to be angry when someone else sins against our children or exposes them to sin. We can be angry at situations or people that blaspheme the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The error comes in how we handle the anger. Used correctly, anger is discerning and wise, desiring only the best for our own spiritual lives and the lives of others around us.

Pray for spiritual understanding as you study the passages in Scripture that deal with anger.

 Ask for wisdom as you parent, so that you will know how to be angry, but sin not.

MM Meditation - The Scourge of the Crucifixion

As our Lord walked this earth, He came in touch with three items that He would encounter again on His day of crucifixion - the scourge, the thorns and the robe.

As He encounters each item, He attacks the lies and the false relgion that it represents.

Each of these items revisited Him in a painful way, yet He died, was buried and rose victorious over the symbols and the sin,  and presented a simple way for mankind to shed off all the man-made trappings of religion and approach the God of Heavens for salvation,  simply by faith.

SCOURGE

Religion for Profit

Twice in the Scriptures Jesus was in the presence of a scourge. The first time it was one He made to drive away the sin that had been brought into His Father's house.

John 2:15, "And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables."

He didn't grab a scourge from a nearby Roman soldier, He deliberately wove it together in planned vengeance to clean out His Father's house from the sinful practice of  profitting financially from the God-given command to sacrifice animals to cover the sins of the people.

One family would come with a lamb to sacrifice, it would be refused, and another lamb would be sold to them at a high price.   The temple workers would take the family's lamb and resell it to another family.

The sacrifices were foreshadowing  the Lamb of God who would die to take away the sins of the world.  Greed was ruining this beautiful picture, by charging for the blood that had to be shed.

The second time it is recorded that the Lord Jesus is in the presence of a scourge, it was used by the Romans to mutilate His body, so that He was unrecognizable and marred more than any man, to the satisfaction of the highest Jewish leaders of the day.   Isaiah 52:14

The scourge was wrongly used to punish the One who knew their sin, rebuked their sin, offered forgiveness for their sin, and was about to die for their sin.

Do you think when they watched Him being scourged, the Jews remembered the scourge He created and used stop their money-making? Did the temple workers have to nail the tables back together? Did they have to round up the animals? Did they fight over the scattered coins on the marble floor? They were selling their religion, taking advantage of the rich and the poor that were bringing sacrifices to atone for their sin. The Lord Jesus offers full atonement for free.

The Lord Jesus used a scourge to clean out the temple, then the scourge was used on the only Man who could clean out their hearts. Did their hardened hearts see the marks of the scourge as His face, His back, and His body  as vengeance?

Is a scourge needed in the Church of God today?  We must be careful that we do not offer religion for profit, that the Gospel is offered as freely as the blood of Jesus was shed.