Lust and anger

Allender in his seminar showed us how lust and anger are related in Mtt 5:21-28. He shared with us about the need to acknowledge sin in our world. Two key related sins—lust and anger

• Lust is desire gone mad
• Lust is demanding that you have a husband, children, job, money NOW
• Whenever desire becomes a demand, we have lust
• Every lust is an effort to fill a core emptiness in us that we demand to be filled NOW!
• Anger is a form of vengeance
• Anger is making someone else suffer for your emptiness
• Mtt 5:21-28 describes our universal struggle with lust and sin. If we don’t admit our sin, there will be hurt

She says, “I am lonely” and he says, “I am a failure.”

One of the most interesting parts of Dan Allender’s seminar on “Loving Your Story” was his section on the results of the fall.

Genesis 3 and curses

Woman “Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.”

• Describes the desire or desperation within the heart of every woman
• Men respond to this desire within women by shame, contempt, anger and intimidation
• Women are shaped by God to reveal His tender heart
• Woman will suffer in all relationships. Her desire will feel too much for her.
• This is why all cultures and marriages find ways to silence women, telling them that there emotional needs are illegitimate. The tragedy is that many women believe this lie
• Women are always seeking to help insecure men from feeling inadequate

Man “Cursed is the ground…thorns and thistles…painful toil …to dust you will return

· For man the fruit of the earth will not come easily

· Man will suffer a world that does not make it easy for him

· Nothing a man builds will last, all will return to dust

After the fall

• Women say “I am lonely, I have too much desire or desperation, I am too much.”
• Men say, “I am a failure, I cannot be exposed, I am not enough.”
• If women feel lonely and men feel like a failure, how do we come together under grace to get back home to Eden? Owning, knowing and telling our story?

Experiences of shalom

Wanted to finish up a post I started last week on shalom, from Dan Allender’s seminar, “Learning to Love Your Story”

Where or when have I know shalom in my life? (It fits, I fit and all the pieces fit together) “the way life should be” (to use Plantinga’s phrase about shalom). Challenging–would like to do more on this.

• Fishing off the lake dock with my grandmother and aunt. Playing scrabble or canasta with them. Life was simple and I was able to live in the present for those few moments, not worrying about what would come next.
• Being with my Uncle Red and seeing tears come down his Lou Gherig’s ravaged face as I shared Christ with him.
• A family counseling session with my wife, son and daughter in which for a moment everything came together
• Learning to relax and just enjoy my experience of Scuba diving