Thanks Phil I look forward to the follow up article.

Love,
Malcolm.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 5:21 AM
Subject: Anger


> Recently, the Lord has shown me a great deal more on this topic.  He 
> showed
> me when anger entered my life for the first time and where it came from. 
> He
> also showed me a number of places the Enemy used against me related to
> anger.  I have been working on the below article for a couple of week so
> based upon new information the Holy Spirit just showed me in the last few
> days, there will be a follow up article explaining things in more detail
> about how anger is used and how it blinds us from hearing the truth of 
> God's
> voice.  I thought this much would be a good place to stop so I can explain
> what recently happened to me in more detail at a later time without 
> writing
> a book.  I can write a book very easily on my personal experiences with my
> anger.
>
>
> Killing The Spider And Eliminating Anger Management
>
>
> By Phil Scovell
>
>
>
>
>
>
>     A few years ago, I recall hearing about the small toys sold
> for personal anger management.  They were soft toys that one
> could pick up from their desk, or which they could pull from a
> drawer, when they felt anger or frustration, stress or pressure,
> and throw them against a nearby wall.  The soft toy would then say
> something such as, "Oh, that felt good," or, "What a relief."
> They sometimes just made a noise like breaking glass or a groaning
> sound.  This was advertised to assist office workers to passively
> diminish, or otherwise, manage their feelings of anger.  Did it
> work?  Sure, to a point but the anger never went away.
>
>     My favorite all time Christian joke is about the little boy
> who had the right theological idea.  The story goes this way.
>
>     Every Sunday night, the pastor of the small church would call
> on elderly Brother Jones to close in prayer.  the man prayed
> eloquently, with flowing glowing words of majesty, and then, just
> before saying, "Amen," he would say, "And Lord, just clean all
> those spider webs out of our lives."  Sunday night after Sunday
> night, these exact words by the same Godly man were spoken in his
> closing prayer.
>
>     finally, one night Johnny, now 10 years of age, and who had
> heard this same prayer for literally years, couldn't stand it any
> longer and following the closing prayer by Brother Jones, went to
> speak with the elderly man.  "Brother Jones," he said honestly and
> sincerely, "instead of cleaning out all those spider webs from
> our lives each week, why don't we just find that spider and kill
> him."
>
>     I tell this story so many times, the people in my church
> grown every time they hear it now.  The story has such great
> spiritual application, though, I use it every chance I get because
> it proves a very good point.  It also fits this topic of our
> problems with anger.
>
>     Anger is a natural, or should I say, unnatural, coping
> mechanism.  Throwing a soft toy against the wall that squeaks or
> says something funny upon impact, slamming a door hard, smacking
> your fist into your palm, throwing something, swearing, honking
> the car horn and screaming in your car at someone getting in your
> way, giving someone the finger, kicking a chair across the room,
> are just a few of the more mild forms of released anger.
> Slapping your child or your wife, driving recklessly, committing
> road rage, getting stone drunk, throwing a chair through a window,
> kicking the family dog into unconsciousness, punching the guy out
> at the ball game because he is in your way, punching a hole in the
> sheet rock, for which you'll have to repair later, unless, of
> course, your fist hit a stud and you broke your hand, waving your
> unloaded handgun around and acting like you are going to shoot
> your wife, are a few of the more violent forms of anger release.
> All, however, are indications of something much deeper and that is
> exactly where you are going to have to go, that is, deeper, if you
> want to be totally free from anger.  That's right.  I said you can
> be totally free from anger.
>
>     Now, lest the reader think I am perfect, I have kicked a
> door down, pounded my hands on the table top so hard, the bruises
> hurt for a couple of weeks, thrown a small hand held tape recorder
> across the room, threw a glass of water at the wall, kicked a few
> things until they were broken, slammed doors so hard glass broke,
> and a few other things I don't even specifically recall now.  I
> never thought I had a temper or a problem with anger either.  In
> fact, whenever I did such things, the anger felt good.  I was
> remorseful afterwards, of course, but I figured, since I was a
> Godly Christian, that was a good thing because it meant I must not
> really have meant it in the first place.  Plus, I used to always
> say, "It takes me a long time to get mad but when I do, I really
> get mad.  Once it is over, it's over and it is ok."  Yeah, sure it
> was.  Besides, I always confessed my anger as sin to the Lord so
> that made everything ok.  Right?  I was being Biblical, wasn't I?
> So, if you said you were sorry later, it was ok to release a
> little anger once and awhile.  Right?  Sure, of course.  Let me
> ask you a question.  How much is too much, or not enough, anger?
> Of course, you realize I am not asking you that question but Jesus
> is.
>
>     Today we have specialists, highly educated professionals,
> getting thousands of dollars an hour to come to corporations to
> conduct management anger classes.  It almost always focuses on how
> to defuse, or otherwise short circuit, the anger when it begins to
> surface.  Quite simply, lets side track the anger before it is
> released.  Sounds great.  Does it work?  It helps, most likely,
> but why not kill the spider so we don't have all those sticky
> disgusting spider webs around in the first place.  At your next
> anger management class, ask your instructor or therapist about
> killing the spider and see what they say.  If they don't
> understand, tell them the joke I just told you and ask them for
> comments.  You won't like what they say.  The bottom line is,
> they don't believe it is that easy and they don't believe you can
> be anger free.
>
>     A few years ago, during a very desperate time of my life,
> thinking I was going crazy due to anxiety and panic attacks that
> were off the scale, I had a single sessions with a psychologist.
> she told me, whenever I felt the anxiety attack coming, to picture
> a huge stop sign in my mind and focus on it.  Did it work?  What
> do you think?  Do these government and private industry anger
> management classes help?  That is, do their management coping
> techniques work?  Sure they help.  The real question is, does it
> kill the spider?  Maybe the question should be, which do you
> prefer; coping or eliminating your anger?
>
>     Back in the late seventies, I was an assistant pastor in a
> small town in western Colorado.  Just before moving to this small
> town, someone gave my wife a box of canning jars all packed very
> nicely.  In the small church we were working in, a lady called me
> one day and asked if I would find that box of canning jars for
> her.  She said she would come over, they didn't live far away, and
> pick them up and do some canning for my wife and I.  I went out
> into our attached garage, dug around until I found the large box
> and as I began pulling it free in order to carry it into the
> house, my hands came in contact with some spider webbing.  It felt
> totally different than any spider web I had ever felt.  It was
> tough, strong, and when I tried pulling it off the box and away
> from my fingers, it felt almost as if it were made of elastic.  I
> thought nothing more about it.  The box had hand holes cut into
> the side of either end so sticking my hand into one end, I pulled
> the box free and carried it into the house.  I sat the box on our
> counter top and a few minutes later, the lady stopped by and
> picked up the box.  About a half an hour later, our phone rang and
> I answered it.  Jo Ann said, "Phil, I am unpacking the canning
> jars.  Did you know there was a black widow spider inside?"  I
> told her about the spider webbing I had pulled away from the box
> and she informed me to stop screwing around with stuff in the
> garage because those types of webs were characteristic of black
> widows.  I was indeed careful from then on.  Let me ask you this
> question.  Do you think just knowing there was a spider got rid of
> it?  Of course not and just knowing you have anger, and ripping
> away the cobwebs won't make the spider go away either.
>
>     Anger isn't the problem.  Anger means something hurts some
> place deep down inside.  The display of outward anger allows for
> some emotional relief but anger, carefully guarded, suppressed and
> repressed, and held in, can, and does, create physical problems.
> In other words, the anger dumps into the body somewhere and there
> are physical responses to that anger.
>
>     $A few years ago, I was attending a small church.  The pastor
> invited me to sort of work as his assistant pastor.  I did so.  As
> I got to know him, I really grew to love him.  His preaching and
> teaching was as good as any I had ever heard and he seemed to like
> people.  He was humorous and enjoyed having a good time even in
> church.  He could sing well, was excellent at leading worship, and
> I felt he should have been pastoring a church of 500 people
> instead of 20 or so we had in this particular church.  He had one
> problem, though, and that was anger and he didn't know it.
>
>     As I got to know him and learned about his early life as a
> child, I learned why he was angry.  He used his anger to push
> people away.  Yes, it worked every time.  His anger was right down
> alarming at times.  He had taken a church of about 100 people and
> in 12 years, he was down to about 6 members.  The church bills
> were not being paid, the pastor wasn't getting enough to live on,
> and he began blaming his own church.  He also experience horrible
> back pain at times which would, on occasion, take him out of
> ministry for several weeks at a time.  Was this due to anger?  I
> know it was for a fact based upon things he would tell me
> personally.
>
>     Eventually, since he was using me as a sounding board for his
> anger and he was literally naming individuals in the church to me
> privately, I felt, as his brother in the Lord, the need for
> accountability.  During one of his angry displays one day, I
> pointed out to him what he was doing to him and his own people.
> This man prided himself on knowing the Word.  In order to allow a
> place for anger to exist in his life as a pastor, he insisted
> upon arguing from a strictly Biblical standpoint.  Let me
> illustrate what I mean.
>
>     during one of his down times due to his back being out, I was
> taking his place.  He had called and told me to tell the handful
> of people we still had at that time, that we needed about 250
> dollars for church expenses.  His wife played the piano and she
> was there that day.  I felt led for all of us to gather around her
> and to lay hands on her to pray for her, the pastor, and their
> physical and financial needs.  I think she had a cold herself that
> day.  I then said, after we prayed, that I had 160 dollars left
> from my income tax return that I would put toward the church
> financial need.  Others began saying what they would put in.  My
> youngest son and his wife, for example, spoke up and he said he
> would cover the balance.  Others spoke up and said they would put
> in certain dollar amounts and we ended up with over 300 dollars.
>
>     Later, the pastor was complaining to me over the phone that
> people were not giving enough and that was our problem.  Our
> problem wasn't that at all.  You cannot have six members in your
> church, three of which are in their seventies and living on social
> security, and have big Sunday offerings.  The problem was we were
> not reaching anyone with the Gospel.  The church, in other words,
> was spiritually dead.  Yes, can you believe that?  A spiritually
> dead Charismatic church?  By the way, the number of people you
> have does not determine if your church is alive or dead.  We have
> had Holy Ghost worship and praise and shouting times in the living
> room of my home many times.  You don't even need, for that matter,
> a church building.  Why?  Because, if you are born again, you are
> a part of the Body of Christ and where 2 or 3 are gathered
> together, Christ is in their midst.
>
>     During this angry outburst my pastor was experiencing, he
> said, "Nobody even came and offered to pray for me and anoint me
> with oil."  The tone to his voice was harsh, bitter, and hostile.
> He said this right after he complained that we, the church, were
> not giving enough to the church financially.  I pointed out to him
> his attitude was wrong.  I told him that I personally thought of
> having my son drive out to his home, which was 30 minutes from the
> church, to anoint him with oil and to lay hands on him but I
> didn't for two reasons.  First, the pastor never asked.  Secondly,
> I didn't think, even if I went, he would allow me to pray for him
> based upon his attitude.  Yes, I told him both things.  He wanted
> me to prove what I said from the Bible so read the following
> instructions given to us by James.
>
> "14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the
> church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the
> name of the Lord:  15  And the prayer of faith shall save the
> sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committee
> sins, they shall be forgiven him.  16  Confess your faults one to
> another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The
> effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," (James
> 5:14-16).
>
>     Do you see it?  If you are sick, you are to call for the
> elders of the church.  Our pastor was too proud to call for the
> elders of his church to anoint him with oil.  I pointed out to him
> that it was his responsibility to call for us to come and pray for
> him and not the other way around.  He backed down and admitted
> that was Biblically right but his pride kept his anger in place.
>
>     That is another element of anger which is rarely seen, that
> is, pride.  You will always find pride under anger.  How do I
> know?  I have experienced it myself following an almost fit of
> rage I had one evening arguing with my youngest son.  I said
> things, and thought things, that were so unchristian, when my son
> left, I sat in my office and cried like a baby and tried to figure
> out why I had exploded in cataclysmic rage.  As I prayed, sobbing,
> begging God to show me what was wrong, He told me it was caused by
> pride.  I was so emotionally upset, I was unable to pray about
> this one by myself.  Two days later, as I sat in a man's office
> and we shared a prayer session together, the Lord healed me in
> many places I never knew existed.  If you want to read about this
> experience of healing, read my personal testimony called, "I Flew
> Kites With Jesus."
>
>     I have learned from both personal experience, and through
> praying with others, anger is used to cover the truth.  What
> truth?  The truth about how we really feel about ourselves, the
> fear that frightens us so much, we has suppressed it almost out of
> our consciousness, The doubts we have about how others see us, the
> guilt that we maybe just aren't good enough and God isn't happy,
> and the fear the somebody, maybe even in the church, is going to
> find out what we are really like and if they do, they won't like
> us.  The fear generated by rejection alone is Titanic and we will
> do anything to keep that from happening.
>
>     Fortunately, there is a way of living free from anger and
> from the fear of anger.  No, there is not a single answer because
> everybody is different.  Yes, there are common elements to anger
> and frankly, most people, when prayed with, discover they have
> anger that they never knew was there.  Like me, for example.
>
>     How about you, now?  Isn't it time you let Jesus show you the
> truth about who He is and who you are so you can be anger free?
> Let Jesus show you how to kill the spider creating all those webs
> in your life that are trying to hinder your intimate relationship
> with Him.
>
>
> It Sounds Like God To Me.
> www.SafePlaceFellowship.com
>
>