"vince" <vowens@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
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~ Cindy wrote:

THE FALLACY OF FEELINGS
By Paul Proctor
August 15, 2005

NewsWithViews.com

http://www.newswithviews.com/PaulProctor/proctor75.htm

If you ask a Christian today about his or her faith, chances are they
will
talk about their church, their music, their pastor, their programs and
all
their friends there; or share with you their own thoughts, feelings
and/or
personal experiences on an assortment of related religious topics and
issues; and maybe even their favorite contemporary Christian band, book,
movie or conference; but little or nothing from the Word of God, which,
if
you ask me, is a pretty sad commentary on the postmodern church and why
so
many of us today are powerless against this wicked world and its willful
ways.

In fact, thanks to all of the "expert" help and encouragement from
various
"Christian" consultants, commentators, psychologists and celebrities,
the
church has been persuaded by and large that to achieve its "divine"
purpose
here on Earth it needs to stir a little leaven into the loaf to help it
rise
to the occasion and achieve it's full potential.

And so they give us the wisdom of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Maslow,
Rogers, Jung and Freud, saying: "All truth is God's truth." Yes, and all
lies are Satan's Lies, which is why Jesus referred to him as the "father
of
lies."

Were not all the trees in the Garden of Eden God's trees?

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own
understanding." - Proverbs 3:5

This speaks volumes about the current direction of the church, its new
spirituality and the overall apathy of today's "converts" toward God's
Word.
Did the Lord, the prophets or any of the apostles ever share their own
thoughts and feelings with the masses concerning the things of God? Did
they
ever begin a sentence with "I think," "I feel" or "In my opinion" when
addressing the ignorant, errant or unwashed about the Almighty and His
Will
for their lives? If they did, I have yet to find it in scripture. No,
their
recorded statements began with words like: "Thus saith the Lord.The Lord
hath said/spoken/commanded. It is written.and "Verily I say unto you."

In weakness, humility, sacrifice and suffering, they witnessed and
proclaimed to the world around them with Authority and conviction what
they
saw and heard: the Power of God and His Word. They did not cunningly
market
themselves to the flesh or present their own thoughts, feelings,
opinions,
experiences and products for sale with salvation as an afterthought or
bonus.

Quite a stark contrast to today's Christian "ministry," wouldn't you
say?
They trusted the Lord for their every need, not in the marketability of
their gifts, talents, innovations, intellect, influence and image. They
were, for the most part, societal rejects whom the Lord raised up unto a
righteousness they could not achieve, empowering them with His Holy
Spirit
to glorify the Lord by preaching His Word and calling on the lost to
repent.

To look at the church today, one would think that faith comes by
feelings
and feelings by the appetites, adulation and amusement of men; but
that's
not what the bible teaches, is it?

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." -
Romans
10:17

In my last article, The Test of Faith, I addressed "the two Rs:" Results
and
Relationships, those age-old temptations that so successfully seduce us
into
setting aside the Word of God for self. In fact, there are many "Rs"
readily
available to us at the expense of Truth which are in effect components
of
Results and Relationships, including, but not limited to, Ratings,
Reciprocation, Recognition, Reputation, Resources, Respect, Returns,
Revenge, Rewards and Ritual; but in the eyes of God, are all Rebellion;
an
inexcusable exercise in self-esteem, i.e., pride; asserting oneself over
the
Sovereignty and Authority of God and His Word for the gratification and
glorification of that unholy trinity we've come to know as "me, myself
and
I."

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than
your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." - Isaiah 55:9

Liberals, being infamous for their innate tendency to follow their
feelings
and romance evil in order to somehow find the good in it, regularly
receive
the wrath of conscientious conservatives, who themselves, all too often,
rely on their own Reasoning skills and Rationale to persuade; but the
end is
still the same: death.

"There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are
the
ways of death." - Proverbs 16:25

Moreover, in the absence of God's absolutes and our faithful adherence
to
them, a majority of Christians in and around the church today are
learning
to dialectically synthesize good and evil so as to find common ground
with
the enemies of Christ in the interest of evangelism; compromising their
convictions for the sake of "unity in diversity" and calling it "love"
in
order to achieve a universal, be it manufactured peace and oneness with
the
world through "personal experience," thereby accommodating everyone's
appetites, including their own; and satisfying as many senses as
possible
for fun and profit under the grand and glorious guise of "Experiencing
God,"
whomever yours may happen to be beneath the U.N.'s big tent of
tolerance.

This is the "new spirituality" my friends; a humorous hodgepodge of
humanism, happenstance, hobby and heresy, laced with just enough
paraphrased
scripture to give it a Christian taste. After all, who is going to hand
over
a fist full of cash these days for a book titled "Obeying God?" or show
up
for a seminar on dying to self?

"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but
unto
us which are saved it is the power of God." - 1st Corinthians
=============

It is not about the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of "good and
evil", it is all about the tree of "Life" which is our living in and
expressing Christ.

I pondered this for quite some time and found it confusing. For one thing
it is not about our living in the Lord. It is all about our inviting Him
into us and allowing Him to live out His life in and for us. After all it
was His life of loving faith and obedience to the Father unto death that
saved us. The more we allow Him to form our characters to become as His
is, the more we express Him.