ANGER

ANGER

1. My dear brothers and sister, take a  note of this: 

"Everyone should be quick to Listen, 

Slow to speak and slow to become angry,

for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life 

that God desires."

- James 1:19-20

2. Anger is a momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you.                       - Horace

3. anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. 

- Source Unknown

4. When you meet up with a disagreeable person, never allow yourself to be upset. Say to yourself, if a dowdy like that can stand himself all his life, surely I can stand him for a few minutes.                - Source Unknown

5. Anger begins with folly, and ends with Repentance. 

                                            -H.G Bohn    

6. The greatest remedy for anger is delay.       -  Seneca

7. There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.     -Proverb

8. Man should forget his anger, before he lies down to sleep.   

     - Thomas De Quincey

9. Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame. 

       - Benjamin Franklin

10. The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life. 

        - Samurai maxim

EXAMPLE SPEAKS LOUDEST

EXAMPLE SPEAKS LOUDEST

Some young Christians were attending an international summer camp. One of the projects set before them was to discuss and explore ideas for spreading the Gospel in the world.

The discussing was wide and varied. It included the use of television and radio programmes, newspaper articles, notices in magazines, and so on. Finally, when they were out of ideas an African girl stood up and gave her opinion:

“In my country when we think that a pagan village is ready for Christianity, we don’t send them books and missionaries. We send them a good Christian family. The family’s example is a more powerful proclamation of the gospel than all the books in the world.

v     “You shall be my witnesses,” says Jesus (Acts 1:8)

v     “By this shall men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another?” (John 13:35)

v     The witness value of Christianity is central. A Christian is in the business of attracting, not promoting. 

PERSEVERANCE

PERSEVERANCE

Wilma Rudolph was a disaster from birth. She was a tiny premature baby, who caught pneumonia, then scarlet fever, and finally polio. The polio left one leg bodily crippled, with her foot twisted inward.

Until the age of eleven, Wilma hobbled around on metal braces. Then she asked her sister to keep watch while she practiced walking without the braces. She kept this up every day, afraid that her parents might discover what she was doing and she might be compelled to stop. Eventually feeling guilty she told her doctor, who was flabbergasted. However he gave her permission to continue as she was, but only for a short period of time.

Anyhow to make a long story short, Wilma worked away at it until she eventually threw away her crutches for good. She progressed to running and by the time she was sixteen she won a bronze medal in a relay race in the Melbourne Olympics. Four years later in the Roma Olympics she became the first woman in history to win three gold medals in track and field.

She returned to  a ticker tape welcome in the US had a private meeting with President Kennedy, and received the Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athlete.

v     We can grow in faith, love, patience, etc. by day-in-day-out practice and perseverance.

THE LEAST OF THESE

THE LEAST OF THESE

A king who had no son to succeed him posted a notice inviting young men to come along and apply for adoption into his family. The two qualifications were love of God and love of neighbour.

A poor peasant boy was tempted to apply, but fell unable to do so because of the rags he wore. He worked hard, earned some money, bought some new clothes, and headed off to try his luck at being adopted into the king’s family.

He was halfway there, however, when he met a poor beggar on the road, who was shivering with the cold. The young man felt sorry for him and he exchanged clothes with him. There was hardly much point in going any further toward the king’s palace at this stage, now that he was back in rags again. However, the young man felt that having come this far, he might as well finish the journey.

He arrived at the palace and despite the sneers and jibes of the courtiers; he was finally admitted into the presence of the king. Imagine his amazement to see that the king was the old beggar man he had met on the road, and he was actually wearing the good clothes the young man had given! The king got down form his throne, embraced the young man, and said, “Welcome, my son!”

v     There is a direct lesson in this story to show the welcome of God for king kind and the good when they come before him after death.

v     Whatever you do to the least of these, that’s what you do unto me. (Mt. 25:40)

FOR OR AGAINST

FOR OR AGAINST

It was during the Mexican war. Thoreau, the philosopher and writer, vehemently opposed to the war, because he believed it to be an attempt to expand slaveholding territories. He refused to pay taxes, because the money was going to the work effort. He ended up in jail, rather than pay taxes.

Emerson, another philosopher and writer, a friend of his, and someone who was also strongly opposed to the war and to slavery visited him in prison. Emerson asked Thoreau, “Henry, why are you in prison?” Thoreau looked straight in the eye, and quickly asked him, “Waldo, why are you not here?”

v     Happy are they who dream dreams, and are prepared to pay the price to make their dreams come true.

v     The acid test of our conviction about anything is our willingness to be faithful to it, no matter what the consequences.

GETTING OUR OWN BACK

GETTING OUR OWN BACK

A foolish man heard that Buddha taught that you should never return evil for evil. One day the man met Buddha, and decided to test him to see if he practiced what he taught others to do. The man began to heap all kinds of verbal abuse upon the great teacher, shouting at him, and calling him all kinds of names.

All the while Buddha listened quietly. When the man had run out of things to say, Buddha said to him “My son, if a man declines to accept a gift from another, to whom does the gift go?” “Any fool knows that,” sneered the man, “the gift goes back to the giver.” “My son,” said Buddha, “you have just given me much verbal abuse. I decided to accept your gift.” The man made no reply.

Buddha continued, “My son, a man who slanders a virtuous person is like a man who spits at the sky. The spit doesn’t soil the sky, it returns to soil the face of the one who spat.”

v     The “law of the echo” said the teacher, whether you shout, curse, sing or laugh into an echo chamber – that’s what will come to you!

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM FRIEND

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM FRIEND

Mt Ranier is a 14, 000 – foot mountain in Washington state. Some years ago, nine physically handicapped people succeeded in climbing to summit.

One had an artificial leg, five were blind, two were deaf, and one was an epileptic. In spite of all this, they climbed the mountain, and came down together, without a mishap. When asked how they achieved such an extraordinary feat, one of the blind men said, “We got a lot of help form each other.”

v     That must surely rank as one of the understatement of the century.

v     A good example of the body of Christ in action, where the blind could see with someone else’s eyes, the deaf could hear with someone else’s ears etc.