Saturday, July 17, 2010

Something came over me...

He looked me in the eyes and said, "I don't know what happened. It was like something came over me. I was so angry."

As a Pastor I talk with a lot of people about struggles in their lives and they quickly trust me with issues that they would not talk about even with their closets friends. Most of the time people don't want medical, legal, or financial advice even though these are big issues in their lives. I'm no doctor, lawyer, or banker so I couldn't give advice on those issue anyways. What they really want to know is how to deal with debilitating emotions that hold them back and hinder moving forward.

First, a quick observation. It seems to me that emotions choose us. People describe it as 'something' that overcomes them. They may not want to feel a certain way or be prompted by the emotion to do a certain thing, but are often powerless to resist. All they can do is agree with what the emotion is saying, many times without any hesitation although they hate the result.

Anger, fear, depression, grief, and many others are just a few that people share as being in control of their lives. They could face death, cancer, and even loss of the most precious things in their lives if these feelings weren't so powerful.

Second, I noticed that of all these emotions that choose us, there is one response we must choose and does not over come us without invitation. It's not an emotion but it impacts the emotions in powerful and positive ways. When we choose FAITH in God for the issue we face we can keep the other emotions from running away with our lives.

It's not hard to experience a powerful emotion coming over us, especially the welcomed kind. We can fight back by realizing we have a choice and don't have to comply to the emotion choosing us. We can do this by choosing Faith in God, trusting Him to help us overcome and work out the issue we are facing today.

As soon as I say that to a person who is struggling with a powerful emotion I often get a polite chagrin and disbelief. When these powerful forces come over us and beat us up so often, it is hard to believe that anything could make a difference.

But have we considered where these forceful and aggressive emotions get their power. If we were able to break down the process that takes only a few seconds we would begin to understand what is actually happening.

The first step is not emotion but a suggestion. We see what might happen and it is usually very negative. An image, or an idea that suggests that something horrible is about to take place in our life comes as an unwelcome guest in our mind. In that moment we either decide to accept that suggestion or reject it. Most people simply accept the suggestion without question, and think that the idea is their own creation.

In the split second we make that choice we give ourselves over to the conclusion and the emotions of fear, dread, and many others begin to take over our thoughts, and our actions. Often we experience paralysis saying to our friends, "I just don't know what to do, I'm so afraid."

If this is the case then making a different choice, choosing to believe another possibility could deliver us from the powerful forces that take over our lives. Once these emotions have chosen us we feel enslaved to their power and unable to make any other choice or see any other possibilities except what the suggestion first made to our minds.

Although these emotions choose you, you can respond by choosing faith. How you use your will over these forces is by making a choice that makes a difference. The critical tool in this strengthening of our will is our voice. We must speak up verbally and act out our decision physically. If we can claim the promises God has made to us with our voice then our will is strengthened against the suggestions that were made to our mind. In the end you always have a choice to chose what you want to believe. I have found that when we choose to believe the promises of God found in the Bible, we are better able to deal with crisis then if we follow the scary visions in our minds. Such faith brings the gift of mental health, clear vision of the actual situation, and moves us to act with hope and purpose in something greater than ourselves.

When you consider the alternatives: medication, isolation, and depression, then faith sounds like a much better choice giving us more freedom in what seem impossible situations.

So why not open your Bible, and start looking up the promises He has made to you today? Start with John 3 and move to Romans 8. Don't just read, claim them with your mouth, out loud as yours in Christ Jesus.

Let me know what comes over you when you do this!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Are you a Confessional Theologian?

Wednesday nights is an informal Question and Answer time at the First Church of God, in which I try to tackle some of the tough issues that people want to deal with.

One of my favorite invitations to people who want to talk about the great mysteries about God is to join the “Confessional Theologian” community. I’m a “Confessional Theologian” which means that I confess that I am not God but only a human being trying to understand God. Therefore, anything I am about to say or conclusion I am about to draw will only be a limited understanding of God, and not God Himself.

I wish to invite you to the community of “Confessional Theologians” as well. This humble community of people who don’t think to much about what they think are primarily on a search of a functional truth that enables us to relate to God while not being to arrogant about making God conform to our agendas.

Some would be fearful about such a simple practical approach to our conversations about God, but that does not mean anything goes. A ‘confessional theologian’ is bound by reason, universal truth, and the revelation of God’s word as found in the Holy Bible. We are true to our Lord Jesus Christ and lean heavily upon the Holy Spirit to open our minds to the vastness of God’s glory.

If we are going to take God seriously, we are going to have to take ourselves less seriously. Our attempts to define Him will always fall short of His true self.

Yet I believe, even as humans, we can grasp some of the vastness of God, enough to have a personal relationship with Him.

During the Easter season I marvel that Christ could lay aside his might, power and glory to reduce Him self to a man and walk among us even to death on the cross. He was fully God and fully man. What we saw in Christ was the essence of God’s nature which does not depend on upon ultimate power for His sense of self. Christ could lay all that aside and still be fully God.

I don’t think I will ever understand what all knowing, all powerful, and all present means since I’m rather limited in these areas. But I know better what real love, hope and faith since Jesus came and revealed it in His life and death. That is good confessional theology.

Have a blessed Easter walking humbly before the Lord and led by the Holy Spirit.