Wearing Religious Masks Part 1

Part #1 of 2.
WEARING RELIGIOUS MASKS
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com

I ponder: what do I do when I am hurt? How can I
handle injustice? How do you handle hurt?

I must learn to trust God,
God turns messes into messages.
God can turn great test into great testimonies.
With God chaos is curable.
God can, if we will let Him.
GOD HAS A PLAN!

I found this next part written in a Bible I retired five years ago. I retire a Bible when I run out of space to write.

It may be obvious you have been hurt, and the cards
life has given you are not fair.
The situations we are facing are not fair.
We seem so powerless and just thinking of our case
brings much pain and many tears.
There appears no resolve?

Often our enemy will have us to relive and revisit
our hurt over and over, the hurt seems to take on a
life of it’s own.
It becomes self feeding.
So the unjust treatment will become a life
threatening cancer.

What happens in me is far more important than what
happens to me.

Rarely can we change others opinions and the external
pressures that will mount against us.
So the best and most practical escape is to ask Jesus
to change what is within our heart.

We must remember when things get rough, it is the rubbing that polishes our hearts to bring out the shine.

There is no peace pill?

As we let the terrible hurt polish, the Jesus’ reflection in our daily life shines greater.

The Bible contains a record of a man that was critically hurt at least 7 times in his life.

The Bible records, how we should handle hurt.
We see the trail of tears that seem to follow this man.

His family was dysfunctional before his birth.
The dysfunctional family got worse after his birth and the birth of his baby brother.

This man had every excuse in the book to hate and develop a vengeful life style within his family.

This man made a willful choice to not allow the dysfunctional family and all the pain he faced to dictate his attitude.
He knew your attitude in life can determine your
altitude.

So Joseph becomes the great example and lesson on proper behavior when life mistreats you.

Again Joseph could do little to change the attitudes of his brothers.

His family could not speak peaceably to one another. (Gen. 37:4)

Remember they were a religious and God fearing family?
The family problems had dictated a spirit of hate in
the practice of religion.

Let me also say that Joseph’s family was not totally
to blame.
Joseph had an arrogant, overbearing attitude.
The trouble with being arrogant is you devalue
others.

Joseph’s dreams were good, they sustained him in hard times.
But the way he choose to tell others about his dreams
and how they would be humbled at his feet, while
true ---
Joseph was not modest and his attitude help worsen
the family’s woes.

Joseph’s lesson was after life mistreats,
you must focus your heart and concentrate your mind
and apply all your efforts to become a better person.

We must grow above the hurt.
Joseph taught you waste your efforts if you spend all
your time dwelling on the hurt or trying to undo
seasons of hurt.

Be the best person you can be.
I know many licking wounds that happened years ago.
You must get up and travel