HEBREWS 12:15
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.
The word bitterness came from the Greek Word: PIKRIA
The word Pikria came from the word pikros {pik-ros’} which means harsh, virulent (toxic, hostile violent). Interestingly the word pikros came from the word pegnumi {payg’-noo-mee} which means a pitch, like to fasten together and to build by fastening together.
SIMILAR WORDS IN THE OLD TESTAMENENT THAT CHARATERIZED AS A ROOT
DEUTERONOMY 29:18
Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
The word wormwood came from the Hebrew word: LA’ANAH
La’anah is translated as bitterness. The scripture uses a Metaphor (figure of speech) in reference to the “root that beareth bitter fruit and bitterness.”
Bitterness is a deep growing reality difficult to see or to dig out but always bring forth its destructive fruit. The very root word in Greek (pegnumi stated above) means a pitch or to fasten together which explains why bitterness can ruin a person who has it. It sticks very well until the person won’t realize bitterness is in his or her heart and became so common.
HOW PSYCHIATRIST CALLED IT?
Psychiatrists called it (PTED) Post-Traumatic Embitterment Disorder the newest Mental Illness. See the link below. http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2009/06/posttraumatic_embitterment_dis.php
Quoted from the link above Michael Linden, the German psychiatrist found that PTED patients also suffer from a suite of other emotional complaints: 68.8% of the patients fulfilled the criteria for adjustment disorders; 52.1% for major depression; 41.7% for dysthymia; and 35.4% for generalized anxiety disorders. This overlap in symptoms is known as comorbidity and serves to confuse diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.
ROOT OF BITTERNESS
GENESIS 4:4-8
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. 8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
* REJECTION
THE.TRUE.EASTER.SEAL_ JEFF.IN V-14 N-3 SUNDAY_ 61-0402
65 Now, in the boys, as they came to their altars, and made worship… Now, I was thinking then of how many altars this morning in churches that beautiful flowers is set upon the altars. And that’s all right. I have nothing against that. But that seems to be just about the end of the worship, is to put some flowers on the altar, or–or a pretty church, or fine decorations, or something, and that seems to end it.
And it was somewhat that way with Cain, because he brought in the fruits of the field and made his service to God; and it was rejected, because he did not come the right and precise way that God had ordained him to come. But he had made his offering, and done everything religiously just as his brother, but he was rejected. And because he was rejected on the spiritual side, then it caused a jealousy to rise in him, because he was greedy.
* JEALOUSY
VICTORY.DAY_ SIERRA.VISTA.AZ SUNDAY_ 63-0421
36 And his jealous brother, being jealous of him, slew righteous Abel. And that same reason has, just about, caused the shedding of all human blood upon the face of the earth. And the old earth is certainly soaked with it, of all across the world, human blood. We… There’s a reason for that. There is some reason that they would be, that this human blood was shed. And we find that the first reason was because of jealousy, that–that Cain was jealous of Abel because that God accepted Abel’s sacrifice. And Hebrews 11 tells us that–that–that, “Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than that of Cain, and God testifying by it.” And Cain, course, being jealous of this, because his sacrifice was rejected, and Abel’s accepted. And Abel did this by faith. The Bible said, that, “He did this by faith.”
* ANGER
THE.FAITH.THAT.WAS.ONCE.DELIVERED.TO.THE.SAINTS_ WEST.PALM.BEACH.FL SUNDAY_ 53-1129A
E-65 Here comes Cain. Then he looked around and he seen Abel’s sacrifice was accepted, he become jealous. Then we find a whole lot of that today. Don’t tell nobody, but it is. That’s right. Jealousy, “Oh, they’re a bunch of nitwits. There’s just nothing to them. They haven’t even got education. They don’t nothing about… How do you know? We got our degrees. We know what we’re doing.” Well, go ahead. Let the blind lead the blind; they’ll all fall in the ditch. That’s right. We know all about it.
Yes, and the first thing you know he goes over there. And–and what he does, he becomes jealous. He becomes angry. Where did that come from? That never come from God. That come from the devil, and he went out and murdered his brother.
Note:
I want to show you something in verse 7 on the same chapter of Genesis.The Lord said unto Cain, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?” Does that sounded like a correction to you? It sounded like, “if you do better, don’t you think I will not accept it?” And very often correction is being misinterpreted that the other person does not love you.
And Church is the place of correction, we are corrected by the Word of God.
* CORRECTION (Unable to stand correction)
THE.UNPARDONABLE.SIN_ JEFF.IN V-26 N-8 SUNDAY_ 54-1024
152 But if you’d get their head stuck up, say, “I don’t believe it. I just tell you; I don’t believe…” that shows right then there is something wrong with you. That’s wrong. There’s something wrong. You can’t stand correction. You know what I mean.
The Scripture says, “Mark those,” too. That’s right, if you can’t stand correction, you can’t stand in order, you can’t stand in the things of God, then you pull off. Paul said, “They went out from us because they wasn’t of us.” That’s right. And he said, “All these teachings, and the…” And he said, “When I come among you, there’s this, and there’s that, and there’s other.” Said, “Well, I hear there’s even contentions, and one man living with his own mother, and the next one getting drunk at the Lord’s table.” Said, “I hear all these things that ought not to be.” And when they went out, he said, “Well, they went out because they wasn’t of us.” That’s right. He said, “You eat at the tables of the devil, then eat at the table of the Lord, then try to call yourself Christians.”
He cut them. He sliced them. He loved them, but he told them the truth. And when that generation rise up, and Paul stands before them, Paul could say, “I’m free from all men’s blood. I never shunned to tell you the whole truth of God.”
GOD’S.COVENANT.WITH.ABRAHAM.AND.HIS.SEED_ SIOUX.FALLS.SD THURSDAY_ 56-0223
E-22 God doesn’t make any difference between His children. Every son that cometh to God must first be tried or chastised. You get it? First be tried, or chastened, corrected, child trained, schooled, everyone not one exception, every son… Have you went through trials? Have you went through tribulation? Have you suffered persecution? Then you’re endure these things, you are real children of God.
But when you can’t bear chastisement, when the rod comes down heavy, and you run off and back into the world, the Bible said you’re illegitimate children and not the children of God. For when a man’s born of the Spirit of God, he expects those things, and he loves those things.
And the Bible said that the trials that come upon us, fiery trials, is more precious than gold to us. Think of it.
Note:
The only reason a person could not stand correction is because PRIDE is present. And a wicked person with full of pride will not seek after God!
PSALM 10:4
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
* REBELLION
THE.GOD.OF.THIS.EVIL.AGE_ JEFF.IN V-4 N-9 SUNDAY_ 65-0801M
168 “Children of disobedient” means obedience… Disobedience means “rebellion.” I looked that up in the dictionary, to be sure. Rebellion, rebelling against (what?) the revealed Word of God. Like Cain revealed… rebelled against Abel’s revealed revelation, vindicated of God that it was righteous. And Cain rebelled against it, and slew his brother.
The Pharisees, with their own denominational knowledge of what the Word of God was, selected hand-picked man, rebelled against the vindicated Word of God made manifest for the day, Jesus Christ, and killed Him. That right?
That’s what “the children of disobedience” is, a rebellion against the Word of God.
Now see where they are? “Oh, days of miracles is past. Jesus Christ is not the same yet. There is no such a thing as the baptism of the Holy Ghost. All that stuff is nonsense!” See, rebellion! They don’t have to say two things; just have to say one, that’s all. That’s rebellion, right there. They can’t say you don’t have eyes, you don’t have ears; you got to take the whole body, the whole Word. See?
The Holy Spirit call, “Comes out of her, be not partakers of her denominational dogma,” as he laughs and scorns at the Word of God of this day.
“For God is not mocked,” just remember. She’ll get it. Don’t be worry. She’ll get it. The Bible, in Ephesians 4:30, if you want to put that down, Ephesians 4:30, said. “God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” They can’t mock and make fun, and say these things, and get by with it. “Like bread upon the water, it’ll return.”
NOTE:
Cain shows the progression of bitterness. Rejection brought jealousy then came anger and followed by unable to stand correction then comes rebellion and slew his brother Abel. Bitterness develops overtime from a very tiny hurt feeling inside after a rejection from anyone around you. It could be somebody in your family or someone at church, school or workplace. Anyone could also be God, for people sometimes blame God for everything what’s going on in their lives. It’s sad to say, but it’s the fact.
HOW TO AVOID BITTERNESS?
Love and fellowship with one another, hold no malice and grudges, confess and forgive.
THE.PERGAMEAN.CHURCH.AGE_ JEFF.IN ROJC 229-285 WEDNESDAY_ 60-1207
20 And just always keep humble. Now, everyone in the church has something to do; but don’t never pull it aside for something else. Let it blend in with the rest of the church; It’s for God, all things. See, see? Don’t everybody want to speak with tongues, everybody interpret.
Try to do something good and just keep being good; hold no malice, no grudges; don’t let any bitterness. No matter how bad the person is and how bad they talk about you, don’t you never think evil in your heart against them; ’cause right there the devil will set right in, work up something right there. Just keep it all covered up with godly love, confession, and making right, and do good to those who do evil to you. “If you only do good to those who do good to you, why,” Jesus said, “don’t the Publicans the same?” See, the sinners, anybody can be good to those that’s good to them. But be good to those who are not good to you; do something for those that would not do nothing for you. Speak a good word for the man that would speak evil against you, and that way you keep all the bitterness out of your heart; and you’re always in love with everybody then. As long as you stay in love…
THE.LAODICEAN.CHURCH.AGE_ JEFF.IN ROJC 493-550 SUNDAY_ 60-1211E
32 And I never want any bitterness or indifference, though we could firmly disagree. If we was setting at a table and one eating one kind of pie, and one, another, that’d be just as much as right here. See? When it comes to fellowship with one another, we love one another. And if we don’t do that, then we should do that. And if–we’ll never go no farther in God until we do do that.
Just don’t forget; don’t forget that the greatest gift of all gifts is love. “Though I speak with tongue of men and Angels, have my body to be burned as a sacrifice, understand all knowledge, so forth, I am nothing. So… But when that which is perfect, which is love…” If all of the spiritual gifts isn’t mortared together with love, it won’t hold. Any other mortar will break away, “But love continueth forever.” See, that is I Corinthians 13.
HEALING.LINE_ CHICAGO.IL MONDAY_ 53-0907E
E-40 And, Christian friends I’m as sincere as I know how to be before Him, because some of these people it’s somebody’s mother. Here perhaps stands someone’s mother now. What if that was my mother, and some man was praying for my mother? I’d sure want him to be sincere. I’d sure want him to do… And as I do to God’s people, I am serving God. “Insomuch as you have done it unto the least of these My little ones, you have did it onto Me.” Is that right?
Listen, here’s a lovely thing, as you serve one another, you’re serving God. See? The love of God is in every Christian heart. And be kind to one another. Forgive one another. If you don’t see the Scriptures just alike, well, you believe anyhow and–and pray for the other person and just love one another. You’ll find there’s no greater evidence of a Christian in the world, than love.
1. Love one another
JOHN 13:34-35
JOHN 15:12; 17
EPHESIANS 4:2
I THESSALONIANS 3:12
I THESSALONIANS 4:9
I PETER 1:22
I PETER 3:8
I JOHN 3:11; 23
I JOHN 4:7; 11; 12
II JOHN 1:5
2. Be kind and affectionate
ROMANS 12:10
3. Owe no man anything
ROMANS 13:8
4. Love and serve one another
GALATIANS 5:13
HOW TO DEFEAT BITTERNESS?
LOVE, REPENT, FORGIVE THEN FORGET
