When You Resign or Retire as Pastor

Filings

“Make an official handwritten record of all the junk you’ve suffered and put up with in this church….Name names. Use bold print, underline, and add exclamation points. Then, take this official document, this masterpiece, and shred it. Then burn the shredding.” - David Brumbelow

Discussion

Hurt by a church? Resist the urge to withdraw

Filings

“Don’t let those who’ve sinned against you determine your future. …You can move toward others with trust and hope again, not because your next community won’t fail you, but because God will never fail you, and he often ministers to us through others.” - TGC

Discussion

Bitter Circumstances

Filings

Steven Viars: “we do not have to give bitter circumstances the final say. Wise Solomon warned us that “the heart knows its own bitterness” (Proverbs 14:10). In the power of Christ, we can learn to process these episodes of suffering in our hearts in ways that moves us toward the Lord in greater dependence and faith.” - Challies

Discussion

Curbing Our Complaints: Lessons for the Church in the Desert

Filings

“Because the water was bitter, everything was viewed through the spectacles of bitterness…. Pessimism is where one takes the worst perspective on a situation and then from that perspective extrapolates out their entire disposition, their worldview, and even their understanding of God. For Israel, bitterness not only defines the water or the region, it defines them.” - Ref21

Discussion

From the Archives: Smartest Man in the World

Will Varner

Following David’s awful sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the ensuing arranged murder of her husband, Uriah, he was confronted by Nathan the prophet. Among the consequences of his sins were that from his own household enemies would arise against him (2 Sam 12:10-11). Three of his sons—Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah—each caused serious problems for him and his successor, Solomon (2 Sam 13; 14-17; 2 Kings 1-2). There was another person, whose name also began with an “A,” who rose up against him as a betrayer.

Discussion

Six Ways Bitterness Can Poison Our Lives

Aaron Blumer

Read Part 1.

Bitterness can be a good thing. Hannah’s bitter disappointment led her to earnest prayer. Peter’s bitter weeping moved him toward repentance. Job’s bitter ordeal has been a source of comfort for untold millions. And God commanded Ezekiel to weep bitterly as a means of warning his people of coming judgment (Ezek. 21:11-12).

But for us sinners bitterness is perilous.

At best, continuing bitterness becomes part of a toxic spiritual stew that includes “wrath, anger, clamor and slander” as well as “malice” (ESV, Eph. 4:31). At worst, unchecked bitterness breeds unbelief to the point of life-altering, faithless choices (Deut. 29:18, Heb. 12:15).

Here we’ll consider six ways self-indulgent bitterness poisons us.

Discussion

Bitterness Happens

Aaron Blumer

(Read the series.)

Bitterness is a cup we all have to drink sometimes, though some taste it far more often than others and some mixes are far more noxious than others. The bitterest afflictions are those that are continuous—an irreversible decision with seemingly unending consequences, an irreparable but inescapable relationship, the loss of someone so close to us we can’t figure out who we are without them, a gradual ebbing of health and with it both the grief of lost vitality and the resentment of feeling that it happened too soon and wasn’t fair.

In these cases and many more, bouts of bitterness are unavoidable. But with each perfectly normal attack of spiritual and emotional heartburn comes a temptation to indulge and harm ourselves.

I wish I could title this post “I Beat Bitterness and You Can Too,” but my battle with bitterness is ongoing—almost daily. The struggle has led to study, though, and the truths of Scripture have often proved to be powerful medicine. I need to review them, and the exercise may also help you or someone you know.

Discussion