There are three facets of feeling I want to address in this fortnight's letter:

1. Feeling as it applies to worldly life.

2. Feeling as it applies spiritual life.

3. What does that mean for us as men of God?

1. Feeling as it Applies to Worldly Life

For our purposes in this monologue, Worldly Life refers to the day-to-day application of socio-cultural human life, and all of it's relevant ramifications.

Pop culture, from Hollywood to Washington, has been suffused with a pervasive drive of emotional thinking, fueled by taproots of Indoculture and Humanism. This unaversalist appeal appeal to the heartstrings is still abundantly observed by most Christian (Falsely so called) denominations all over the world, and the USA is no exception. This is Murica, for crying out loud. We got to be all inclusive. Jesus, John Wayne, AND Ghandi. Don't forget to include Buddha, because we wouldn't want to hurt feelings of the followers of the jolly, well-meaning fat man, right? And Muslims... Well... Let's just trust them until they give us a reason not to...

That's where our social culture is.

How about interpersonal relationships? Does anyone know how to be a proper member of a good family? SURE we do! We have The Simpsons, Seinfeld, and every other demented, family life TV show and movie to teach us how to backbite, bicker, rebel, handle correction abusively, or leave it out altogether, and (most importantly) feel happiness and love for each other at the end of the day. And don't forget, if you make your spouse mad or harm them in any way, women fix it with sex and men fix it with jewelry or flowers. Forget about the issues, just make them feel good again.

(I have just explained to you in a single paragraph why I do not own a television. It has nothing to do with media, but everything to do with rational decision making and protecting my own house.)

From the streets and stage, to the bedroom and dinner table, emotional decision making is a lymphatic cancer that is asphyxiating our worldly life. Why are there mass hordes of Millennials rioting in the streets all over the news? Because they're mad, they're hurt, and they can't (or won't) come up with any logical and appropriate response. It is an outrageous demonstration of emotions. Why is the model of the modern family a constantly baffled, unintelligent man who can't so much as dress and feed himself; a stupid, rebellious son following right in his footsteps; a dominating, commanding wife who decides when where how and why anyone gets to sleep in the bed or on the couch or do anything for that matter over the least divergence from the regularly scheduled program (Dad only has a say if he's speaking mom's mind); and the cocky, back-sassing, narcissistic teen daughter, quietly acting as a pseudo alpha who is her mother's clone to the tenth power? Even that model is under attack by the louder portions of our up and coming generation.

Somewhere along the rocks have been dropped our grasp of commitment, actuality, realism, and universal truth. We have gone to such lengths to replace affirmative statements with qualifiers like, "I believe", or "I think", or "For the Christian", and so on. For example, one may well say, "For the Christian, honesty is very important", in most circles, and it feels good. Simply stating facts is a lost art. Honesty is very important. We no longer rationalize our behavior, but rather go with what feels the best.

The same is true in marriage and other personal relationships. "I just feel like we need to spend more time praying together", is a weak, timid suggestion for a man to say to his wife when compared with a manly, affirmative, "We need to spend more time praying together." One feels good; the other is a statement of discipline.

Feelings are important, but feelings can never be given the wheel. Dreadfully, most of my own generation has been brought up in a culture that discourages reason and tells us to go with what feels best. All us kids who watched Disney movies growing up are now brainwashed to "follow your heart".

2. Feeling as it Applies to Spiritual Life

I am speaking as a Christian to Christians. For our purposes here, Spiritual Life refers to the practice of religion, as it may or may not overlap with anything already addressed.

I hear it. You hear it. I've said it. I'm sure you've said it. You've most likely at least thought it. "I didn't feel anything at that church." There are several things wrong with that line of thinking. I will break them down for you in three points:

A. It is unchristian.

Since when does God expect you to feel good every time things are right? I have heard so many preachers and teachers and lay persons alike proclaim that "When you're in the will of God, you'll know it because of how you feel." Wow, really? So there must have been something wrong with Gideon when he put out his fleeces, because he wasn't feeling it; or the prophet Elijah when he went and hid in a cave (not to mention the time he was even suicidal). Among other examples, consider Christ himself. "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." WHOA!! You mean to say that Jesus wasn't feeling it? He wasn't overcame by a sense of joy at the mere feeling of being in the will of God? That's right. No joy. No happiness. Not in that moment. We were born in sin so sin feels good and righteousness is unnatural. Sometimes all you have is a decision.

B. It is immature.

One mark of spiritual maturity is altruistic solidarity. We often think of ourselves and our church as mature, having put away childish things; when in all realism we are still spiritual toddlers. We aren't interested in the greater good of the church or even the kingdom of God. By and large, we don't go to church as service or sacrifice, we go to church to see what we can get out of it. I can not stand to hear a minister stand and ask, "Who came to get a blessing tonight?" and the congregation goes wild with cheer and applause. You know why? Because they are not at church for the Glory and worship of God, they are there to stuff their spiritual and emotional pockets with what feels good.

C. It can literally be heresy.

Heresy comes from an ancient Greek word pronounced hai.re.sis. It means to take, to choose, or to assign a purpose. That is exactly what the mainstream, modern church in America has done. We have taken what we wanted (from scripture, from Gandhism, from Buddhism, from Humanitarianism, from Universalism, and from Hedonism) and developed our own neo-Christ (also known as an Antichrist) who is diverse, versatile, palatable, ultra polite, totally excepting, non-judgmental, and just wants you to have joy and feel good. He loves you so much that he would never plan your suffering. It couldn't be his will for you to experience pain and hardship. There's a big problem though: That's not Jesus. If this is your god, you are a heathen and you are worshiping the idol, smelted in society's melting pot and cast by a satanic agenda. You are a heretic. But it feels good, right?

Whether you felt anything or not is irrelevant to other factors that may or may not determine anything substantive about a church, or minister, or anything else for that matter. I have sat through sermons where I didn't "feel" a thing, but the knowledge that was expounded out of the word of God has stuck with me eons longer than the time it would have taken a pious tear to have dried on my cheek.

3. What Does That Mean for Us as Men of God?

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Proverbs 14:12

"He who trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered." Proverbs 28:26

In Romans 12:1, Paul writes to the church that living out our faith as a sacrifice to God is our "Reasonable Service." The Greek word used for Reasonable in this verse is pronounced Lo.gee.kos. In Strong's New Testament Concordance, entry G3050, the word's meaning is described as, "Rational [...]; agreeable to reason, following reason, reasonable..." The Vulgate (an ancient Latin interpretation of scripture predating the KJV by 1200 years) translates the word to "rationabilis", which simply means capable of reason, or agreeable to reason. In other words, living the Christian life is reasonable and rational.

God has called us to be men. If you require a definition of what being a man is, that is another matter within itself. I will tell you here and now that it has hardly anything to do with yielding to feelings, and everything to do with decision, discipline, rational thinking, and commitment.

Whether in daily, "secular" life, or in spiritual practice and religious worship, be rational. Forget feelings and commit to God. Show me where the Bible affirmatively says to live the Christian life based on human feeling, and I will recant that statement. Walk by faith, and that of reason and the knowledge of the Holy. Faith - not feeling.

Blue Shepard
IG: @theblueshepard