Rightful Stimulation: Rightful Emotions

When I was a child, I spake as a child, 

I understood as a child, I thought as a child:

 but when I became a man, I put away childish 

things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; 

but then face to face: now I know in part; 

but then shall I know even as also I am known. 

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; 

but the greatest of these is charity.

1Chorinthians 13:11-13

    Human growth is from the beginning as a one cell organism and continues to grow unto maturity. Knowledge begins at conception and continues unto maturity, from little understanding unto a greater understanding. This is life and cannot be denied and the only understanding we have of this universe, life itself, is incomplete, we see things darkly, as looking through a murky window. We grow in knowledge but we do not come to a complete understanding. This is true of Christians: they begin as a babe and see things through the eyes of a babe that has yet to have enough information to give an honest and better complete understanding. This is where study comes to the forefront: we study to gain not just knowledge but understanding and this takes research, examination, and a desire to know the truth. Life is a journey and we do not know all the consequences of our life and far too often those consequences quench the desire to go further in our journey. To give aid to us in this journey we need to come to understand the alternatives, and how to resolve conflicting statements, effects, consequences so that a person can complete successfully their journey. You might at times feel the need to quit, and yet to quit is to invite dangers into the equation and the finish line loses its focus and the vision we might have had or have, loses is power to tap into unused potential.

     Spiritual life and its dynamics with all its flaws and weaknesses are part of Christian life and our Christian journey. We are reminded of the danger of neglecting this task, this journey, this adventure, an adventure of supreme importance. Yes, we need knowledge, but more than knowledge, we need motivation and that motivation comes from emotional influence so that we do what needs doing. A sane person will acknowledge that they do not always do what we know needs doing, in fact we often do not do those things we need to do. We will do what we are adequately motivated to do, therefore, emotions supply the extra impetus to move us into action. 

     This is a fact: our knowledge of Jesus Christ who is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity alone is adequate to cause us to live holy lives. We know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. We know that His suffering on the cross was enough to pay this debt owed to God and to be the propitiation for our sins. Question: Is the suffering of Jesus Christ for our sins to cause us to rid ourselves of anything that hinders our wholehearted devotion to Him? Apparently not! We must admit even with all this knowledge we still sin. Have you been brought to the point where you have experienced Authentic Christian Faith for Jesus. Has the knowledge of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross penetrated your mind and has made its way to your heart? Do you have genuine gratitude towards Jesus Christ and have developed Authentic Christian Faith? If so then you have a new set or resources that can motivate. These resources motivate us to obey and to trust Jesus and are not these responses reasonable? What would be unreasonable is to have no feelings whatsoever about God's love and mercy and grace. 

     People often make statements to the fact that to have emotions for an invisible being, to have a relationship with an invisible being, not only makes no sense but are construed to have a mental defect. A difficulty does not make the reality impossible. Temporal emotions do not always respond according to some fixed set of criteria. Example: we often have more sadness and pity for the death of an individual than for the death of a mass of humanity, slaughtered as has been seen around the earth. That is not rational! Another example is that we often have emotions that are responding to a story, a story in a novel, that which is fiction, than when we see a scene, as in a news report, of a battle that is actually taking place where people are being killed, maimed, and are not move much or at all. What this teaches us is that emotions are unpredictable. There must be another way to stimulate our emotions in regard to Jesus Christ and His teachings, His commands. There is no way to touch, to have physical contact with Jesus Christ, to be in proximity to hear Him speak. Question: are sight and touch and hearing and any other instrument to be in contact with Jesus Christ the only resources to generate emotion, an emotion that motivates our spiritual life? NO! Authentic Christian Faith knows of an entirely different set of dynamics that makes it possible to experience the unseen. 

     Jesus Christ is not some abstract idea, and abstract construct or concept: HE IS A PERSON! Yes, Jesus is God, but He is also Man, the only God/Man, the incarnate God and He is not out somewhere in the great universe; He is present. We may not see Him but that does not change the fact that He is present, here in the present and we can know that He is present. How? Authentic Christian Faith has others ways of making contact. We can study His word, His revelation to us about Himself and we can by our study, come to know that He is Truth and that truth gives us the ability to see Him, to know He exists so that when He says that a day is coming that we will know fully we can believe: "Now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known" (1Corithians 13:12). Let me not pass this by: You will be known as you are known: this should give to you impetus to follow Jesus Christ and all that He said to do in the work that He has given to His children, to Authentic Christians. 

The thoughts of the wicked are an
    abomination to the LORD: but the
words of the pure are pleasant words.
                       Proverbs 15:26

Be stimulated by the truth

Richard L. Crumb