Angry or Bitter?

From the Salvation Army, you're listening to Wonderful Words of Life.

Welcome back to Wonderful Words of Life. I'm Major Cheryl Gillum. And I'm Bernie Dake. We are so glad you're here. I think Cheryl's doing a great job. Thanks, Bernie.

Keep it coming. Today we begin Holy Week, everybody. So Bernie, tell us a little bit about what Holy Week entails. Well, for me, I think Holy Week is a look back, a reflection of what we know of the life of Christ and the events that we read about in the Bible.

Certainly this is where we usually start Maundy Thursday. You celebrate the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper and Good Friday. I don't know why it's called Good Friday, because what we do is kind of reflect on the crucifixion of Jesus, the pain that He bared for us. And then Easter Sunday, which is my absolute favorite. I think we are Easter people. Amen. And we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the entire reason as Christian people that we are free to be who God has created us to be.

Right. So Bernie, what does this week mean to you? I think for me, because of that idea that we are Easter people, it's almost like a reset for me.

We purposely stop on Thursdays to just take a moment and begin to reflect on what will happen over the next 24 hours. And then we, on Friday, reflect on that crucifixion. And I heard a message one time where someone said, if you can imagine Christ is alive in every aspect of your day-to-day life, then when you're sinning, it's like you should be able to hear the sound of the hammers hitting the nails into His hands and feet. And that just is humbling to me, just the thought that He's still suffering from my inability to live a holy life.

And that's what I'm trying to do, of course. So Easter is like a reset for me. That's what that week means. Right. And in the Salvation Army, we typically celebrate it with Holy Week meetings, right?

Absolutely. Beginning with Palm Sunday, but then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. And then, of course, Good Friday. And Good Friday, it's a paradox in regards to its meaning, though, right? Because it's sorrow for our own sin that Christ bore on the cross. I mean, that's the sorrow, but the good in it is that because of what Jesus did, then we can be alive in Him and we have victory over sin, right?

That's the goodness of it. And then, of course, like you said, on Resurrection Sunday, we gather together to celebrate the risen Christ. Absolutely. And what that means in our lives as followers of Jesus, we too are resurrection people. Amen.

Resurrected from the dead. Well, sadly, we're nearing the end of our Easter series with Ken and Amy. And in this series, we're revisiting the topic of mental health, but we are honored and grateful that the Argots have been so vulnerable with us to share the struggles they've been dealing with recently when it comes to their own mental health. Absolutely. And in this episode, Ken shares a thought that depression doesn't necessarily begin with sadness, but it can often begin with actually bitterness. In the life and example of Jesus, we see someone who is peaceful and gentle and somewhat meek in certain situations, but we know that Jesus was a mighty force and that He stood for justice. And He doesn't want us just to be a doormat. No way.

It's hard because when we learn the idea of turning the other cheek, people think that can mean you want me to be a doormat. Right. That's not the case.

Absolutely not. We were talking to our producer, Chris Benjamin, about this. And he was saying, when Jesus didn't like what he saw at the temple, he didn't just ask everybody to move these things outside. He flipped the tables over. He was angry. Right.

But for the record, I'm not asking anyone to go to their local church and flip over tables. But it was a righteous anger. There was a righteous anger.

And in my case, we talked about a scenario that someone had come to me with anger about a situation that I had no control over. And when I shared that with a family member, she reminded me of something that my grandfather used to say. And when she wrote the response to me, she said, the longer I live, the more I realize how important it is to separate one's spiritual life and wellbeing from the soulish life of emotions and feelings.

And apparently my grandfather used to say that we should live above feelings because that's where victory is. Right. And I'm grateful for that kind of godly example in my own life. Yeah. We need people to speak that to us too, don't we? Amen. Again, I go back to every single one of us are dealing with these things. This is where the enemy gets us right in the mind.

And that's where the battlefield is. Yeah. And so we need people to be speaking life into us in truth. Amen. Amen.

Yeah. We hope that this series has been a blessing to you. God bless you and your families during this week as we meditate on the final week of the life of Jesus as a man.

In uncertain times, you can be certain of this. The Salvation Army is serving those most in need with help and hope. Thanks to your donations, the Salvation Army is helping those affected by COVID-19. Those who've lost wages, who have no home to retreat to, who need food, help with utilities, and most of all, hope.

To see how you can continue to make a difference, visit SalvationArmyUSA.org. People say that depression is sadness. Really, depression is anger. Yeah. That there is this injustice that's being done and you can't get out of it. In fact, suicide is often a result of this, just this idea of that, I need to show somebody how angry and how unjust this is.

Yeah. And it's a very difficult time for people to walk through that. And I can't imagine right now, if you're listening to this, how you are feeling. Satan wants us to feel victimized. He wants us to feel like there is nothing we can do to change the circumstances. And you have a really good scripture, Amy.

I do. And the Lord just gave this to me just last week. And it's in Isaiah chapter 61, and going down, starting with verse 3. To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. So this is after the exile, and the Lord is bringing them back.

And there's some of them who are still saying, well, Jerusalem's gone, I don't even know what we're going back to. So what does that mean, though? Well, let me start what this means to me personally. A couple weeks ago, as I was coming back from an unplanned trip from Maryland, to help with my mother, when I go back to visit her, it's not as I remember now. My mother's help has taken a turn, and it's not visiting the thrift stores, it's not going out for breakfast. Basically, when I go home now, it is helping her around the house, just sitting, the ministry of presence, just being with her. And as I was coming home, driving home, 13-hour trip, I had a lot of time to myself and thought about, Amy, you have a choice. You have a choice either to be woe is me, when I go home, it's not going to be fun anymore, but I have a choice. And then the next day, this is when the Lord gave me the scripture about choice. I can choose to sit and wallow and think about what was when I go back to Maryland to visit, or I have a choice now to just give the Lord thanks for the time with my mom, when I have these moments, and that I'm going to choose to put on the crown of beauty, instead of putting the ashes over my head. I'm going to choose to put on the oil, rub on that oil of gladness, and rejoice and celebrate my mother's life, instead of mourning it.

And I'm going to put on that garment of praise, and thank the Lord for the life that my mother has given to me. So when we look at the story of Jonah, the prophet Jonah, we always talk about how he ran from God, almost like he was afraid to go. Quite frankly, the reason he didn't want to go is he hated the Assyrians and what the Assyrians had done. And he didn't want to provide a way of forgiveness for these people who he hated.

And he went out and hid under a vine and cursed God. And God comes to him and says, Jonah, do you have a right to be angry? And Jonah says, yes, I have a right to be angry. I have enough right to be angry that I am willing to die just right here. And that's that choice, right? God was sort of testing with a question, as God always does, do you really have a right to be angry, considering all that I've done for you, Jonah?

Considering that all I've done in your past, are you going to let this one thing overwhelm you? I mean, Christ Himself, from the cross, said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Like, that's His true words. He's been forsaken in the garden. He's been betrayed, denied, and He's on a cross. And the only thing that He can think about is this psalm that David once wrote about God forsaking Him. But by the time you get to the end of that psalm, He's come to terms with that anger and whether that anger was true anger towards somebody or was something He was dealing with internally. Jonah, Jonah's anger is based on this external anger towards the Assyrians and an unforgiving spirit.

Jesus's anger on the cross is turned to acceptance because He knows that He's giving up His rights on behalf of others so that all of us can experience forgiveness. I'm so grateful to Ken and Amy for bringing this series to us and for being willing to share some very vulnerable aspects of their own walk. Thanks, guys. And I hope that for you, if you are struggling with depression on any mental health crisis, we want to encourage you to reach out to someone, your local church or the Salvation Army, or your local church or the Salvation Army will be glad to help and even come alongside you as you walk through this season. But if you need someone to talk to immediately, please call 1-800-273-8255. That's 1-800-273-TALK. God bless you.

And we'll see you again next week. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with mental health issues, helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support.

And we would love to hear from you. Email us at radio at uss.salvationarmy.org. Call 1-800-229-9965 write us at P.O.

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