Truth and Feelings are NOT Created Equal

Over the last 100 years, western culture has shifted away from commonly held understanding about how an individual sees himself in relationship to his society. The modern individual’s gaze is now directed inward.

“Religious man was born to be saved, psychological man is born to be pleased.”
[Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud]

Who hasn’t cried watching “Old Yeller” or reading “Where the Red Fern Grows?” C’mon man! Admit it, you cried your little eyes out. Just because tears and snot are flowing, does that make those stories true? Of course not, they are fiction! Our emotions don’t make something true. How you or I feel about something does not indicate whether it is true or not.

Understanding this cultural moment

Over the last 100 years, western culture has shifted away from commonly held understanding about how an individual sees himself in relationship to his society. The modern individual’s gaze is now directed inward. Modern man is a “Psychological Man on an inward quest for personal psychological happiness.” (Carl Trueman). This cultural shift did not happen over night. It’s been underway for a couple hundred years. We live in a post-modern culture where all human experience has been psychologized. The Christian nor the church is immune.

Today, many Christians place feelings (emotions) on equal footing as truth. Then, they construct a false equivalence to support their position. At best it’s mistake, at worst it’s an appeal to emotion.

“When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36)

Compassion” in the original Greek is σπλαγχνίζομαι, splanchnizomai – meaning, to have the bowels yearn, – to feel sympathy, to pity.

When emotion (e.g. compassion) is given equal footing as truth, it easily becomes a modern heresy. A psychologized hermeneutic that serves the psychological well-being of modern man results in moralistic weekly therapy sessions on Sunday mornings and we call it ‘church.’ In other words, we make the Bible all about ourselves. We unintentionally shift the story of the Bible away from God and toward ourselves to feel better about ourselves.

Truth is not an experience… Truth just is.

John 18:37 is crystal clear. Jesus was born to bear witness to the truth (not our emotions). “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.” The truth is Christ is King, not me.

In John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life…” Jesus did NOT say “I am the way, and the feeling, and the life…”

I’m convinced that Jesus “had compassion” (Mt 9:36) because he fully understood the ugly truth about sin, the fallen human condition and what he was going to do about it. His emotional reflex to reality was grounded in truth. Our emotions should be grounded in truth as well. Not the other way around. When I see a fallen situation for what it truly is, it should create in me a proportionate emotional response.

One danger we modern Christians face is unintentionally psychologizing scripture to align or validate our feelings. Then we claim “because I feel this way, this must be true!”

The good news is that we can point each other to the truth of God’s Word. His Word is the truth about reality. Nothing can or will ever change that. The truth we believe is grounded in an unchangeable God who loves us and sent His only Son to bear witness to the truth and save us from the ugly truth of sin. Jesus Christ demonstrated real and raw emotions – yet was without sin. His emotions were grounded in truth because that is who he is (he is the truth). We need to help each other remember that!

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

– John 1:14

*This is a personal blog. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of my employer or my church. The opinions of expressed by guest authors and commenters do not necessarily represent my opinions.

Podcast: “Her Faith Inspires” hosted by Shanda Fulbright w/ Guest Lance Cashion

Podcast: Her Faith Inspires with Shanda Fulbright & guest Lance Cashion

There’s a difference between knowing how to think versus being told what to think. But how do you know the difference?

Last month I had the privilege of being a guest on Shanda Fulbright’s Her Faith Inspires Podcast. We had a fantastic conversation. I definitely recommend adding her podcast to your list.

Link: Episode 91 “Do you know how to think or are you being told what to think?” With Lance Cashion

Summary from Shanda’s Episode Page:
There’s a difference between knowing how to think versus being told what to think. But how do you know the difference? We also discuss brainwashing, freethinking, and what the Bible says about trading your mind to think correctly.

For additional context, here is a link to my original blog post from 2013 here…

Please check out Shanda Fulbright’s website here…

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*This is a personal blog. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of my employer or my church. The opinions of expressed by guest authors and commenters do not necessarily represent my opinions.

Recovering GRIT in the Church

Recovering GRIT in the Church

While the secular world has its own vision of GRIT, I think True GRIT is rooted in who we are called to be as Christians.

There is something missing in the church today.

When I read my Bible and the biographies of good Christians of history, I notice that the modern church is missing something. The First Testament prophets and Second Testament disciples had character traits that we moderns seem to be lacking, particularly in the west. Given, there are exceptions but for the most part – something is missing. And when something is missing, the void is inevitably filled by something else.

I have been pondering the question, “what is missing?” for a couple years. It goes without saying that the church in the West is lacking in several areas. I am lacking in several areas. But, I keep landing on the same thing – the same answer to the question of what is missing.

G.R.I.T. is missing from the church both corporately and in the lives of individual Christ-followers. Of course, if you know me very well you are asking one of my favorite questions, “what do you mean by that?”

GRIT is an acronym for Guts, Resilience, Integrity and Tenacity. While the secular world has its own vision of GRIT, I think True GRIT is rooted in who we are called to be as Christians. I decided to provide my own simple definitions to help me remember what GRIT means and provide a few characters in the Bible who demonstrate some of those traits.

Guts:

Courage in the face of adversity, moral fortitude and fearlessness (David, Noah, Moses, Gideon, Esther, Stephen, Paul)

Resilience:

Ability to bounce back from failure, loss and/or setbacks. (David, Joseph, Mary Magdalene, Peter)

Integrity:

Consistent and uncompromising commitment to moral convictions and principles in private and public life – inner consistency. (Enoch, Joshua, Esther, Ruth, Nehemiah, Paul)

Tenacity:

Perseverance over time, determination – will-power. Never giving in. (Noah, Nehemiah, Elijah, David, Job, Daniel, Paul)

Throughout Christian history, we see people who demonstrated GRIT. Martin Luther, John Knox, William Wilberforce, Mother Theresa, Jackie Robinson, Joni Erickson-Tada, Corrie ten Boom, Rosa Parks, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Frederick Douglass and Elisabeth Elliot are just a handful of names that come to mind when I think about good old-fashioned Christian GRIT.

We saw the Clapham Sect in England and the Abolitionists in the States work to end slavery. The White Rose Resistance defied Hitler and the Nazis. In Roman times, Christians rescued unwanted Roman female infants thrown into dumps because girls were seen as worthless. During the Plague, Christians ran to the bedsides of the sick and dying. GRIT is a part of our Christian heritage!

Today, I see fear masquerading as courage and the pride-filled cowardice of online virtue-signaling. The pulse of popularity polls have overtaken the powerful pulse of Christ’s call to His church. The winds of culture are driving the church rather than the winds of God’s spirit. The result of the lack of Christian GRIT over the last 100 years has devastated our witness and contributed to the decay of culture.

The Great Recovery

Every great awakening and revival begins with a series of cultural convulsions. The Church is shaken out of its slumber by some great series of tribulations. Then a recovery begins. It begins with recovering God’s truth and renewing a commitment to follow Christ. This means we will come in direct conflict with the world and culture. We come to understand the sharp words of Christ when he says, “The world will hate you, because it hated me first.” To be Christian is be to a counter-cultural force of light and truth in the midst of darkness and lies.

I’m calling this the “Great Recovery”. I don’t know where or with whom this idea originated. However, the more I read my Bible, pray, talk with other committed Christians and attempt to “understand the times” (like the men of Issachar), I am convinced we must embark on a “Great Recovery”. While, I’ll discuss more in the future, let us begin with GRIT.

Whatever the committed Christ-follower who has counted the cost of discipleship and taken up his/her cross to follow Him may be, they must have GRIT. The days of microwave entertainment-based emotionally-driven cultural Christianity are over. Pastor Douglas Wilson said, “The church has gone from feeding the sheep to entertaining the goats.” Those words sting because they are true in a general sense. Not all churches are guilty but a good many are. We must repent of that and move on to walk with obedience and courage.

Every one of us will pay a price in the face of the zeitgeist (the spirit of the age). We need to pray and encourage each other in the faith and ask God for spirit-filled GRIT as we create Christian friction with a dark culture that hates the light.

We need to recover GRIT.

“Choose this day whom you will serve…” Christ or the zeitgeist.

There is no middle-ground. Christ does not allow for it. He spits from His mouth the lukewarm water of the Church in Laodicea. He separates the sheep from the goats and the wheat from the tares.

To truly proclaim, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!” will require Godly GRIT rooted in Christ’s power undergirded by Biblical truth.

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*This is a personal blog. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of my employer or my church. The opinions of expressed by guest authors and commenters do not necessarily represent my opinions.

Are you ready for the next six weeks?

Are you ready for the next six weeks?

For all my readers and subscribers.

Ready to take the next step in our journey?

Over the next 6 weeks, I’ll be sharing a series of posts, book reviews & other resources to help you develop a distinctly Christian vision for life, culture, relationships and service. If you are interested in a deeper understanding of the Christian worldview without being overly academic, I promise you will enjoy growing with me and others on this journey.

I will also be tackling some of the biggest issues in this cultural moment. We will help each other become men and women who understand the times and respond from the a biblical foundation.  Ready?  Let’s go!

1. Read my recently completed Critical Response and Worldview Analysis of the book “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo.

This is a sneak peek of the two part series that will be published next week.

Part 1: A Critical Response – White Fragility (Robin DiAngelo)

Part 2: A World View Analysis – White Fragility (Robin DiAngelo)

2. Recommended Resources to get us rolling:

Book: A Christian Manifesto by is A. Schaeffer
If you have not read this book yet or its been a few years, its time! Written in 1981, this volume was prophetic in that we’re seeing what Schaeffer was describing 40 years ago.

Podcast: Theology Pugcast – A Tale of Two Revolutions (July 27, 2020)
In this episode, Glenn contrasts the secular, Enlightenment-inspired French Revolution with the spiritual revolution that transformed England at roughly the same time. The French Enlightenment was an anti-Christian project that provided a radical critique of society and theorized about how to fix it. Once the French internalized Enlightenment ideas, the Revolution became inevitable, though it took a government debt crisis to trigger it. The elite’s theories didn’t solve the problem, resulting in chaos and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of French citizens. In contrast, the spiritual revolution in England from the Evangelical Revivals reached deep into the lower classes and prevented England from degenerating into the violence of the French Revolution. It also led to Wilberforce and the Clapham sect and the spiritual and moral transformation of English society. Chris and Tom chime in about the philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment and the parallels with America today.
Link:  Theology Pugcast – A Tale of Two Revolutions

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Is Virtue Signaling sinful?

Is Virtue Signaling sinful?

I’m addressing the Church (the body of believers redeemed and reconciled to God through Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection).

Virtue Signaling is the secular world’s version of repentance. Everyone, and I mean everyone with a social media account is expected, pressured or coerced to virtue signal. Should Christians be caught up in this? I’m guilty of folding under cultural pressure at times. So, I’ll let you be the judge of your own heart and draw your own conclusions.  The following is aimed toward my heart as much as your’s.  I wrote about Hashtag Culture in 2018 and that accomplishes very little.

What the culture says:

Virtue Signaling Defined: the sharing of one’s point of view on a social or political issue, often on social media, in order to garner praise or acknowledgment of one’s righteousness from others who share that point of view, or to passively rebuke those who do not.
The term virtue signaling is often used to accuse someone of trying to win praise for showing support for a social cause without actually doing anything meaningful to advance it. This charge is often used against people for being self-righteously “woke” on social media.
The Conspicuous expression of moral values

Let’s look at some key characteristics of Virtue Signaling:

Social media (where)
sharing (how)
garner praise (why)
one’s righteousness (who)
passively rebuke others (who)
trying to win praise (why)
Social cause (what)
Without actually doing anything meaningful (when)
self-righteously “woke” (why)
social media (where)

The “whys” above point to our motives…

What the Bible says:

Matthew 6:1-4 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

QUESTION: What is the motivation of your heart?

Proverbs 3:27 “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.”

QUESTION: Do you actually DO GOOD works? Or just virtue signal good intentions?

Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”

QUESTION: Does what you say or signal bring about unity or discord?

Proverbs 12:22 “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.”

QUESTION: Are you faithfully taking actions in line with your words that bring honor to God and point people to Christ?

Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting!

Romans 12:17-21 “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

QUESTION: Ask God to search your heart, are you seeking God’s justice or vengeance or something else?

Romans 16:17-18 “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.”

QUESTION: Are you orientating yourself to the truth of God’s word or the falsehoods of the world?

What is the solution?

Repent!

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Romans 2:4 “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”

Renew your mind!

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Take action!

Luke 8:15 “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”

James 1:22-25 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

In conclusion, Biblical faith is faith is rooted in words from scripture, animated by the Holy Spirt and expressed in actions by individual obedient believers.  We don’t just signal the problems with the broken world, we have a cultural mandate that commands us to DO something about it.

One of the most effective ways to bring restoration is to serve those around you; the poor, the needy, the prisoner, the widow and the orphan.


Read previous post: “The Justice Impulse – what it means
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Martin Luther King Jr.’s challenge to the church today

Martin Luther King Jr.’s challenge to the church today

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” continues to be relevant in our cultural moment. His words challenge the church to embrace it’s full purpose. The extent to which the Gospel of the Kingdom is proclaimed and integrated into the life of the church is the extent to which the church is relevant and effective in society.

The quiescent church is the gateway to injustice, brokenness and disorder. The witness of the church should be felt throughout the culture as the Gospel message empowers believers to pursue justice and reconciliation, serve the needy, create beauty and restore what is broken.  The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin transforms the believer.  This Gospel, rightly lived out will teach, sanctify and transform the society in which believers dwell.  It will be distinctly ‘sacrificial’, restorative and bold in its expression.

Martin Luther King Jr. operated from a distinctly Christian worldview.  It informed his purpose, his view of reality and drove his behavior.  This nation has benefited from his worldview and his actions.  His challenge to the church echoes today.  Dr. King knew what he was about.  Do you know what you are about?

We know what our salvation saved us from (eternal separation from God’s presence, goodness and joy).

But a better question is;

What is our salvation for?

[Put another way, what is the purpose of our salvation?]

Read: Martin Luther King Jr. ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’


Read previous post: Dear Mr. President – We are their only hope [Kurds]
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