I have often been accused, over the past few years, of being “unfeeling” and “cold.” These accusations are always of an emotional nature. What I mean by that is that those accusation weren’t based on fact, but rather how something I said made someone feel.
I want to be clear. I’m not excusing myself for being mean or whatever. I have often spoken to others in a demeaning way, using sarcasm and a rough tone of voice to verbally abuse others. That is a sin that I deal with on a regular basis. But that’s not what this is about. This is about our obsession, as a society, with how we feel. We are a weak and sensuous society. The “men” of our society are weak and sensuous. What I mean by sensuous is obsessed with our feelings. How do you feel about that…how does that make you feel…you hurt my feelings…I feel…You get the point. Again, I want to be clear. Feeling a certain way is not necessarily wrong. It’s what we do with said feelings, I believe, that matter. So many people walk around with “their hearts on their sleeves,” overly concerned about feelings. Let’s consider something together. As Christians, truth for us is a Person. Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, is the way, the truth, and the life. So, truth is not merely a set of propositions. There are things we should believe that are true as Christians. But, we should also understand that truth is also a Person. So, what has Jesus said about how we feel? Virtually nothing. About the closest thing I can find in all the Gospels to our Lord addressing feelings is when He repeatedly says, “Fear not.” Other than that, Jesus said nothing about how you or I feel. Ok, so you may ask, what does the Bible, as a whole, say about how we feel? Generally speaking, we would say that “the heart” is the seat of our emotions. This is, of course, medically untrue but okay. So, our hearts are the seat of our emotional experiences. So then, what does the Bible have to say about our hearts? Genesis 6:5 tells us that the “imagination of the thoughts” of man’s heart was only wicked. Now, one could argue that was then and this is now. We are much more “enlightened” now. I think a quick perusal of newspaper headlines and online articles will tell you that’s not true. Proverbs 10:20 tells us that the heart of the wicked is of little worth and Proverbs 28:26 says that “whoever trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” The Prophet Jeremiah also reminds us, in chapter 17, verse 9 that, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” The august preacher tells us in Ecclesiastes 9:3 that the heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness. Well, that’s not very encouraging and sounds nothing like what the world and ,frankly, many Christians say. Follow your heart, they say. Hmm, not sound advice, according to Holy Scripture. But that’s the “Old Testament” you may say. Fair enough. What does the New Testament have to say about our emotions and our hearts? Jesus tells us, in Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:” and again in Mark 7:21-23, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” That’s weird. It would seem, from reading these, that Jesus seems to think that the so-called seat of our emotions is wicked. Hmm… The Apostle Paul picks up on this as well. Romans 1:28-31 tells us what happens in our hearts and lives when we abandon God. Ephesians 4:17-18 tells us that our hearts are hardened and that we are ignorant because of it. So, if our hearts are hardened and we are ignorant, what does that say about our emotions and what does this mean for us as Christians? This means that we are to rule over our emotions, not allow our emotions to rule over us. The Fathers talk about this repeatedly. Over and over, they and the holy monastics tell us that we are to put to death our passions. Our passions are these emotions that are not based in truth. Our emotions lie to us; they are fickle and tempestuous. You know this. I know this. We are fooling ourselves is we think otherwise. And yet, the world thrives on these passions. Media appeals to all our base feelings and instincts; anger, resentfulness, lust, avarice, covetousness, and the list could go on. Don’t believe me? Start paying attention with a critical eye and pray for discernment. You will find this to be true. But why, we may ask? The Blessed Apostle John tells us that the “whole world lieth in wickedness.” (1 John 5:19) The NKJV translates this as “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” That’s why. Because the whole world (including our hearts and emotions) lies under the sway of the wicked one. So, what can we do? How do we not be so weak and sensuous? I’m glad you asked. There is so much in Holy Scripture about how we deal with this that I can’t type it all out. Instead, I will just list all the texts and you can look them up yourself. It starts, though, with our heart. Psalm 50 (51 in the Protestant version) is all about this. Verse 10 says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” This is where it starts. We must have a renewed heart that does not live by our wicked proclivities and feelings. Here are some texts that we may pray through and meditate on as it relates to our hearts. May God give us the grace to conquer our passions. Ezekiel 36:25-27 and 11:19 Isaiah 64:6 Joel 2:12-13 Proverbs 4:23, 10:8, 27:19 Countless verses in the Psalter Matthew 5:8 James 4:8 Hebrews 10:22 and 4:12 2 Timothy 2:22 Galatians 5:17 2 Corinthians 7:1 Philippians 4:7 Luke 6:45 1 John 3:3 Colossians 3:10 Romans 6:17
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On June 24, 2022, where were you? Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news that Roe v. Wade had been overturned?
I must be honest with you, I never thought I would see that happen in my lifetime. I mean, I hoped it would be overturned but I didn’t actually see that coming. Roe was decided the year I was born, 1973. For almost 50 years now, we’ve been gleefully murdering babies in this country (and our tax dollars help pay for it). I want to be very clear. I am very pro-life. I find it hideous, monstrous, and completely unthinkable to murder a child. But I also disagree with the death penalty and euthanasia and all other forms of the taking of life. Lest you want to argue with me about self-defense, I’m putting that in a separate category right now. Not only am I pro-life but I am also a firm proponent in “states rights.” I think the states should be able to decide for themselves (via the voters of that state) how they want to live their lives. I do not think the federal government has any business telling any of us what we can and cannot do with our own bodies, nor do they have the authority to tell individual states how they should and should not be doing business. I have to also add this: If you claim to be a Christian and are “pro-choice,” may I humbly suggest that you re-evaluate your so-called faith? There is no room for murder in Christianity. Full stop. I’ve heard all the arguments. Murder is murder and has been expressly forbidden in Holy Scripture. And make no mistake; abortion is murder. It is not a “choice.” It is a human being that is being murdered at their most vulnerable. If you ever questioned in your mind whether people who support abortion are Christians, just consider the question you are asking yourself. Look at what these bloodthirsty barbarians have done over the last fifty years. Since 1973, conservative estimates are that over 63 million abortions have been performed in the United States. If we have any brains, we know this number is higher because many of them go unreported. And that is just in the United States. This does not include the rest of the world. May God have mercy on us. Look at the reaction of the death mongers since the Supreme Court recently, and rightly, overturned Roe v. Wade. They are freaking out. These murderous barbarians hold sacrosanct the right for women to have their babies chopped into pieces, sucked out, dismembered and God only knows what else. They are so desperate to preserve their murder that our president (who claims to be a devout Catholic, which is a laughable claim at best) wants to have our legislators codify Roe so that access to abortion becomes a “right” under federal law. Let’s be clear. The Constitution in no way affirms the right of someone to murder a child. You do not have that constitutional right in this country. You never have, despite the political wranglings of the Supreme Court back in the 70s, had the right to murder anyone. But this ain’t over yet. We have more praying to do. We have more soul searching to do. We have more repenting to do. We have more loving to do as we love and wrap our arms around those women who have suffered because of the killing industry. There is more to do. We cannot stop now. The so-called culture wars have been a thing for a very long time. In the history of God’s people, the culture wars have been going on since the beginning. Our great enemy began this long ago when he lied to our first parents and manipulated the truth of what God had said to suit his own agenda. The culture of our enemy has always been lying, cheating, deception, manipulation, and death. He knew what would come of Adam and Eve’s sin. Later, God’s people would be given explicit guidelines for how they were to live their lives in faithfulness to God and in contrast to the world. As time went on, God’s people turned from their fidelity to God and embraced the culture of the people around them. All manner of evil ensued, and they were eventually punished by God. Even after God graciously brought them out from exile and restored them (as a foreshadowing of what was to come in Christ), they still turned away again and embraced the world. They turned from the faith and began to look for success according to the world. That was their dream of a messiah. They wanted for their messiah to overthrow the world order and give them the kingdom they believed they had been promised, abundance and prominence and the death of their ”enemies.” They failed to see that their greatest enemy was the sin and death that plagued their souls and bodies. Then the Lord Jesus was born, incarnate of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit. He was no more well received by a people who had become lost and self-absorbed than we receive Him today. We are no different really. We have become like the culture of death, and the culture of ease and comfort that surrounds us. The enemy is still lying to us. He says, “Do you really have to live a holy life? Did God really say you have to do all these things? You don’t have to be the crazy Christian. It’s fine, just relax. It’s not like you’re killing people.” Oh, but we are. And we are killing our own souls (and bodies) in the process. We have much work to do, brothers and sisters. The war rages on. We dare not give in now. While we rightly celebrate the overturning of the death manifesto, let us turn the gaze of our hearts inward. Have we embraced the culture of our day? Is there any real difference in our lives and the lives of those who pant so hard after the death of our children that they won’t stop at abortion!? No, the enemy has infected our education system, our entertainment industry, everything. The war rages on. The struggle begins within us. We dare not shirk our duty. Do not give in now. It’s not over yet. |
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