“I love humanity, but I wonder at myself. The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular. In my dreams I am ready to die by crucifixion for all mankind, but I cannot be kind and patient with a man staying with me for two days.” So says Madame H to Father Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov.
It is very easy for us to imagine how God loves all of humanity, for it is very easy for us to love all of humanity. We live in an age and culture that facilitates our love of humanity. However, it is very difficult for us to imagine God loving us individually for it is very difficult for us to love our fellow men as individuals.
To love mankind we make men into something they are not. We gloss over their sins and view them through rose colored glasses. We forget their flaws and exaggerate their goodness. In our minds we create reasons to love them, block out the reasons we should not love them so that we may love all men as one. I am not saying we shouldn’t love every man, of course we should! Every man is made in the image of God and has value beyond what we can comprehend. What I am saying is this little charade we play when we talk of loving mankind is not love.
How often does one worry about villages in Africa affected by AIDS while refusing to make eye contact with the AIDS infected junkie panhandling on the street? We lament the destruction inflicted upon Thailand by the tsunami, but are we only able to do this because we consciously forget the fact that Thailand is the world’s sex tourism capital? There are countless men in Thailand who kidnap and hold captive countless little girls and pimp them out to rich foreigners. When we consider their deaths do we mourn? We mourn the loss of indigenous cultures that have been wiped away by the cultural imperialism of the West. But are we only able to do so because we forget that the great cultures of the Mayans and Aztecs barbarically sacrificed alive countless men and woman and innocent children?
It is noble to give money for AIDS relief in Africa or victims in Thailand. And we can mourn some aspects of lost cultures, but all too often we only do so by treating them as less than human. We sugar-coat their failures and pretend that they are good so that we may deem them worthy of our love and honor. It is very easy to do this with people that live far away in space or time or with some generalized, conceptual picture of humanity. That is why it is so easy to ‘love’ mankind. There is nothing of man in it! It is a notion and not a person. It is ideal and not real. It never insults us or disrespects us as real men do.
It is impossible to idealize those that we know and that is why it is so difficult to love those closest to us. We cannot gloss over their flaws; we are reminded of their flaws every day. They hurt and insult us. We see that many times their predicaments are the consequences of their stupid and selfish choices—that makes it hard for us to feel sorry or merciful to them.
But true love does not look for reasons to love a man; it loves a man and by doing so finds the reasons a man is worth loving. Mercy does not require reason to give mercy; it is mercy precisely because it is undeserved. To truly love mankind one must begin by truly loving his neighbor. Once he loves the man closest to him, the one he knows best, the one’s faults he knows most intimately, only then can he truly love the man he has never and indeed this love will be easy. Loving one’s neighbor is difficult, far greater than loving ‘humanity’. This is why Christ commanded us to love our neighbor and not all of humanity, for in doing the former we do the latter.
God knows us deeply, He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows us faults and all and loves us in sin and brokenness. God does not begin by loving all of humanity in general and working his way down to us as individuals. He loves us deeply and personally as individuals and out of this personal love comes His great love of humanity.
God is not constrained by space as we are. We must never weaken God’s love for us (and in so weaken God) by conceiving his love for us as love for a part of humanity. For our notion of the love of humanity involves a watered down notion of both love and humanity. Instead we must imagine ourselves loving completely a person who we know fully. We must think of loving them in truth; loving them as they are and not as we wish they would be. Only then can we get a glimpse of how God loves each and every one of us.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Infinitely Available Love
Some of us have been loved greatly and sacrificially by our parents, but some of us have not. Some of us have had true and loyal life-long friends, but some of us have not. Some of us have had the admiring love of a child, but some of us have not. Some of us have known the passionate and complete love of a spouse, but some of us have not. Though it is rare for one to experience the depth of human love in all its forms I imagine that most people have had the blessing to experience true human love during at least one moment of their lives. But even if we have never been blessed with human love there is available to us True and Divine Love of which human love offers just a taste.
In all of human love, even the best or the truest, there comes a point when that love stops being available. All of us can imagine a betrayal so heinous to a friend or a dishonor so great to our parents that they, even if they were the best of men, would remove their love from us. The same is not true with God. God’s love is always available to us. In fact our sin, our rebellion against God, is more heinous a betrayal, more dishonorable an act than any man could ever do to another. God does not love us because we are good; God loves us in spite of our badness. It was while we were sinners that God performed the greatest act of love imaginable and became a man and died for us. Though there is much we can do to lose the love of our fellow man, there is nothing we can do to lose the love of God. The love of God is infinitely available to us.
I use the phrase ‘always available love’ where many use the term ‘unconditional love.’ This phrasing is intentional. In one sense the love of God is unconditional in that we need not meet certain conditions to merit it (for indeed no man could meet the perfect standards of an infinitely perfect God). Also, as I have mentioned above, nothing we can do can stop God’s love from being available to us. However, all this does not take away from the fact that God’s love takes on different responses to us depending on how we respond to Him.
God is personable and for this reason His response to us, though always loving, changes depending on our response to Him. Imagine being on trial for patricide. You are accused of one of the worst possible crimes. Your reputation is tarnished and sullied in the eyes of the public. The evidence is inconclusive and divides the people into two camps. One group believes in your guilt and thinks of you as a monster. The other believes in your good character and innocence. The trial concludes and you are acquitted of all charges. At this point can your relationship be the same with those who believed in you and those who disbelieved? You may (and should) continue to love both groups, but the way you express your love will differ based on their response and faith in you. If love is completely unresponsive at some point it stops becoming love and instead becomes the mindless response of an automaton.
In the same way modern man has put God on trial. We see a world full of evil and suffering and demand an explanation of Him. Yet in the midst of this accusation some hold firm in their faith of God. After this life is passed all will be laid bear and we will have our explanation. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. And every voice will cry out in unison: Holy are you Lord God Almighty and True and Just are your judgments. At that point, how can God respond in love the same way to those who had faith in him ‘while the jury was still out’ (during life) as those who only believed once disbelief became impossible? The expectation of an identical response takes away any personable aspect of God and makes Him into some sort of unthinkable ‘loving machine.’
Is our response set at death? There seem to be some indications of this given in the Bible but I will not speak in ignorance in something I make no pretenses of knowing. What I do know is this: God’s love is available right now to every man, woman, and child on earth. It is a love so great we cannot comprehend it. A love that gives to us eternal happiness and eternal life. A love that allows us to be once again the people we were created to be (at one with God and man alike) and a love that allows us to live out our purpose: to love and be loved.
Today is the day of our salvation. The Lord calls: come. He says, let all who are thirsty, come. Let us drink together of this living water so that we may never thirst again. It is God’s will that all be saved. Come let us join in that Fountain of Life and Love which we were made to joined.
In all of human love, even the best or the truest, there comes a point when that love stops being available. All of us can imagine a betrayal so heinous to a friend or a dishonor so great to our parents that they, even if they were the best of men, would remove their love from us. The same is not true with God. God’s love is always available to us. In fact our sin, our rebellion against God, is more heinous a betrayal, more dishonorable an act than any man could ever do to another. God does not love us because we are good; God loves us in spite of our badness. It was while we were sinners that God performed the greatest act of love imaginable and became a man and died for us. Though there is much we can do to lose the love of our fellow man, there is nothing we can do to lose the love of God. The love of God is infinitely available to us.
I use the phrase ‘always available love’ where many use the term ‘unconditional love.’ This phrasing is intentional. In one sense the love of God is unconditional in that we need not meet certain conditions to merit it (for indeed no man could meet the perfect standards of an infinitely perfect God). Also, as I have mentioned above, nothing we can do can stop God’s love from being available to us. However, all this does not take away from the fact that God’s love takes on different responses to us depending on how we respond to Him.
God is personable and for this reason His response to us, though always loving, changes depending on our response to Him. Imagine being on trial for patricide. You are accused of one of the worst possible crimes. Your reputation is tarnished and sullied in the eyes of the public. The evidence is inconclusive and divides the people into two camps. One group believes in your guilt and thinks of you as a monster. The other believes in your good character and innocence. The trial concludes and you are acquitted of all charges. At this point can your relationship be the same with those who believed in you and those who disbelieved? You may (and should) continue to love both groups, but the way you express your love will differ based on their response and faith in you. If love is completely unresponsive at some point it stops becoming love and instead becomes the mindless response of an automaton.
In the same way modern man has put God on trial. We see a world full of evil and suffering and demand an explanation of Him. Yet in the midst of this accusation some hold firm in their faith of God. After this life is passed all will be laid bear and we will have our explanation. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. And every voice will cry out in unison: Holy are you Lord God Almighty and True and Just are your judgments. At that point, how can God respond in love the same way to those who had faith in him ‘while the jury was still out’ (during life) as those who only believed once disbelief became impossible? The expectation of an identical response takes away any personable aspect of God and makes Him into some sort of unthinkable ‘loving machine.’
Is our response set at death? There seem to be some indications of this given in the Bible but I will not speak in ignorance in something I make no pretenses of knowing. What I do know is this: God’s love is available right now to every man, woman, and child on earth. It is a love so great we cannot comprehend it. A love that gives to us eternal happiness and eternal life. A love that allows us to be once again the people we were created to be (at one with God and man alike) and a love that allows us to live out our purpose: to love and be loved.
Today is the day of our salvation. The Lord calls: come. He says, let all who are thirsty, come. Let us drink together of this living water so that we may never thirst again. It is God’s will that all be saved. Come let us join in that Fountain of Life and Love which we were made to joined.
What is the Gospel?
The God of all creation, the Ruler of the Cosmos, infinite and everlasting, the King of kings, the painter of every sunset and night sky, a being more powerful than we can comprehend. Full of love beyond comprehension—so high above me that I don’t realize how low I am. This God knows me by name, cares for me and has in fact numbered the very hairs on my head. This God knows me better than I know myself, faults and all, and yet loves me passionately: This is the Gospel!
He loved me, and yet I spat on Him, mocked His Holy Name, and rejected His love. I separated myself from that which is Good, that which is Love. Though I was made to be with Him, I became far from Him. I was too small to climb those heights to know Him, but He was great enough (and loved me enough) to descend from His glorious throne and pick me up and take me to Him: That is the Gospel!
That I have to Him a debt so great that I could never repay it all eternity, yet I am given all of eternity to respond in love and try: That is the Gospel!
Deserving death and worse, but being united with Life. Earning an end, but getting life without end. Doing bad, but getting good. Warranting hate, but getting love: That is the Gospel!
He loved me, and yet I spat on Him, mocked His Holy Name, and rejected His love. I separated myself from that which is Good, that which is Love. Though I was made to be with Him, I became far from Him. I was too small to climb those heights to know Him, but He was great enough (and loved me enough) to descend from His glorious throne and pick me up and take me to Him: That is the Gospel!
That I have to Him a debt so great that I could never repay it all eternity, yet I am given all of eternity to respond in love and try: That is the Gospel!
Deserving death and worse, but being united with Life. Earning an end, but getting life without end. Doing bad, but getting good. Warranting hate, but getting love: That is the Gospel!
Monday, January 28, 2008
The Grand Mystery
As I was reading The Brothers Karamazov I came across a passage that struck me as rather odd. Father Zossima is discussing his younger years and mentions his affection with the Book of Job. Father Zossima says that the Book of Job is the most beautiful book in all of scripture for in that book the mystery of God is greatest. In fact, he explains that even in his old age, after all his years in the church he is still moved to tears every time he reads or even thinks about the Book of Job.
What is this mystery? What is so great about this story? It seems as if it is mere tragedy that Job suffers so much. For what did he suffer? He is never told. The book seems to accuse God and make Job look like a fool for believing so strongly in God for no apparent reason. And after all this, after all Job goes through in the very least couldn’t God have given him an explanation?
As I think through these frustrations it comes to me at once: that is the grand mystery of Job. God does not explain why Job suffered because neither Job nor any of us would be able to understand this explanation. God’s ways are not our ways and they are in fact so far above our ways that they are beyond our comprehension. It would be like me watching Bobby Fischer play chess and criticizing him for a move and demanding that he explain himself for doing something that did not understand and in fact took to be stupid. How could explain his move to me? He is thinking sixty moves ahead and is aware of so much that I am ignorant of. It is foolish of me to demand an explanation for the explanation would be far beyond me.
And isn’t God far greater than Bobby Fischer? We weren’t there when He laid the foundations of the earth. We cannot comprehend how He holds all the molecules in the universe together. So how are we to understand what He is doing in our lives? Is there not far more at work than what we see and understand?
And yet, in our pride we demand God make an explanation for Himself. The ancients approached God as an accused before his judge. They understood their fallen nature and need for mercy. For the moderns the situation is reversed. We position ourselves as the judges of God. We demand that He explain suffering and evil in the world and only if we deem His explanation satisfactory will we accept Him.
Consider what James writes. He says that we should consider it pure joy whenever we face trials. In the midst of these trials we should not, in our pride, ask for understanding, demand that God explain Himself; rather we should ask God for wisdom on how we should proceed and act in the midst of our trials.
But explanation of suffering is what the world calls peace. It is a counterfeit of our peace. The world only finds peace after it has received an adequate explanation, but Paul says that true peace, the peace that we Christians have, is a peace that transcends understanding. We may be at peace even when we are unable to understand.
That is the beauty of the Book of Job. God never explained Job’s suffering to him, but He did comfort Job in the midst of his suffering. We too may not get an explanation of our suffering, but the wonderful thing is that we do not need an explanation. We may be at peace and comforted in the midst of suffering, even when we cannot understand why we suffer. What a grand mystery this is. Yes we will suffer just as the world suffers and yes we too will not always be able to understand why we suffer, but unlike the world we can be at peace even when faced with situations that surpass our understanding.
What is this mystery? What is so great about this story? It seems as if it is mere tragedy that Job suffers so much. For what did he suffer? He is never told. The book seems to accuse God and make Job look like a fool for believing so strongly in God for no apparent reason. And after all this, after all Job goes through in the very least couldn’t God have given him an explanation?
As I think through these frustrations it comes to me at once: that is the grand mystery of Job. God does not explain why Job suffered because neither Job nor any of us would be able to understand this explanation. God’s ways are not our ways and they are in fact so far above our ways that they are beyond our comprehension. It would be like me watching Bobby Fischer play chess and criticizing him for a move and demanding that he explain himself for doing something that did not understand and in fact took to be stupid. How could explain his move to me? He is thinking sixty moves ahead and is aware of so much that I am ignorant of. It is foolish of me to demand an explanation for the explanation would be far beyond me.
And isn’t God far greater than Bobby Fischer? We weren’t there when He laid the foundations of the earth. We cannot comprehend how He holds all the molecules in the universe together. So how are we to understand what He is doing in our lives? Is there not far more at work than what we see and understand?
And yet, in our pride we demand God make an explanation for Himself. The ancients approached God as an accused before his judge. They understood their fallen nature and need for mercy. For the moderns the situation is reversed. We position ourselves as the judges of God. We demand that He explain suffering and evil in the world and only if we deem His explanation satisfactory will we accept Him.
Consider what James writes. He says that we should consider it pure joy whenever we face trials. In the midst of these trials we should not, in our pride, ask for understanding, demand that God explain Himself; rather we should ask God for wisdom on how we should proceed and act in the midst of our trials.
But explanation of suffering is what the world calls peace. It is a counterfeit of our peace. The world only finds peace after it has received an adequate explanation, but Paul says that true peace, the peace that we Christians have, is a peace that transcends understanding. We may be at peace even when we are unable to understand.
That is the beauty of the Book of Job. God never explained Job’s suffering to him, but He did comfort Job in the midst of his suffering. We too may not get an explanation of our suffering, but the wonderful thing is that we do not need an explanation. We may be at peace and comforted in the midst of suffering, even when we cannot understand why we suffer. What a grand mystery this is. Yes we will suffer just as the world suffers and yes we too will not always be able to understand why we suffer, but unlike the world we can be at peace even when faced with situations that surpass our understanding.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Humility and Pride
Pride demands an explanation of God. It accuses God and asks Him such questions as: how could You do this to me! Or, how could You allow this pain or evil in my life?
Humility asks for wisdom in trial. Humility takes joy in every trial for through trials we mature. Humility heads the advice of James and asks God for wisdom. Knowing that evil is a part of life it asks God how to victoriously navigate through the evils of this world.
Pride asks of God: what can You do for me? How can you make my life better? It goes to church simply to have a better marriage, have more money, or more happiness. It uses the Almighty, Eternal God as a means to their finite, selfish end.
Humility asks God: how can I best serve You? How can I use my gifts to best encourage and uplift your Bride the Church? It seeks not to be served by all, but to serve all.
Pride sees itself as indispensable. Being wiser or better than all, it fails to learn from any. It views itself as the greatest gift to the Kingdom of God and therefore seeks to lead.
Humility recognizes that God can do all on His own. It is out of God’s mercy, not need, that God graciously allows us to partner with Him in His glorious work of bringing about His Kingdom on earth.
Pride wants recognition.
Humility asks for a freedom from the need of recognition so that it can be free to use its gifts for the Glory of God.
Pride seeks to teach and correct. Viewing itself as right it seeks to deprive people of their freedom in order to mold them into the people that it wrongly thinks they should be.
Humility seeks to be taught and corrected and thereby comes to possess true knowledge and wisdom. For only in being open to correction can one be purged of falsehood and walk in the light. Pride closes its eyes to all the world, thinking it alone knows what is best, and therefore stumbles in darkness.
Humility asks for wisdom in trial. Humility takes joy in every trial for through trials we mature. Humility heads the advice of James and asks God for wisdom. Knowing that evil is a part of life it asks God how to victoriously navigate through the evils of this world.
Pride asks of God: what can You do for me? How can you make my life better? It goes to church simply to have a better marriage, have more money, or more happiness. It uses the Almighty, Eternal God as a means to their finite, selfish end.
Humility asks God: how can I best serve You? How can I use my gifts to best encourage and uplift your Bride the Church? It seeks not to be served by all, but to serve all.
Pride sees itself as indispensable. Being wiser or better than all, it fails to learn from any. It views itself as the greatest gift to the Kingdom of God and therefore seeks to lead.
Humility recognizes that God can do all on His own. It is out of God’s mercy, not need, that God graciously allows us to partner with Him in His glorious work of bringing about His Kingdom on earth.
Pride wants recognition.
Humility asks for a freedom from the need of recognition so that it can be free to use its gifts for the Glory of God.
Pride seeks to teach and correct. Viewing itself as right it seeks to deprive people of their freedom in order to mold them into the people that it wrongly thinks they should be.
Humility seeks to be taught and corrected and thereby comes to possess true knowledge and wisdom. For only in being open to correction can one be purged of falsehood and walk in the light. Pride closes its eyes to all the world, thinking it alone knows what is best, and therefore stumbles in darkness.
Emotions/Real Religion
What are we to make of emotions? On the one hand they are natural and powerful. They show us things about ourselves we may not have known before. Is it true that it is unhealthy to attempt to control them or repress them as modern psychiatrists tell us? It feels unnatural, is it dishonest to try to keep them in check?
Outside of Christianity there are two types of religions in this world. One affirms our natural instincts, the other denies them. The former is composed with nature worship religions, a significant segment of Hinduism, and today’s modern religion: hedonism. Buddhism and Stoicism are good examples of the latter, nature denying religions. The former tells us that all we feel is good and we should therefore do it. They say in effect don’t restrain our sexual urges; rather we have sex with a temple prostitute as a means. Buddhists tell us all pleasure is illusory, our body is a curse, and that death is liberation.
Hinduism is a bit different for on the one hand it has self denying monks (nature denying), but on the other hand it has cultic prostitution (nature affirming). These contradictions exist side by side in harmony for it is a disjointed religion. It both affirms and denies our instincts.
One of the many proofs for the truth of Christianity is that it tells us something outside of our nature. For example, on the one hand it tells us sex is good but only within marriage. It neither denies nor affirms our natural instincts but rather guides us on how we ought to live. How does this relate to our emotions? The Bible teaches us how we should interact with each and every of our emotions.
Grief. On the one hand we are told that death is an unnatural curse, but we are also instructed to not grieve like the pagans grieve who have no hope. This is quite different from both the natural fear of death and the Stoic indifference to it.
Anger. It is natural to get angry, but we are instructed to not sin in our anger to deal with our anger so that it does not grow into bitterness.
Fear. God commands us not to fear, but to trust in Him.
Worry. We are to not be anxious in anything, but in everything in prayer and with thanksgiving in our hearts, present our requests to God.
Greed. Many righteous men were blessed with money; we are not to deny all wealth and live in poverty to be holy. But we are to be on guard for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
Think of the consequences that any emotion has if it is left unchecked. Depression and fear paralyze, anger destroys others, and lust destroys self. We need to control these, but we cannot react too sharply and simply deny them outright.
Every heresy is a simplification. Some couldn’t deal with the complexities of a triune God or the intricacies of a living relationship with the almighty God (and the instructions He gives us regarding our emotions and actions), so they invented a single God named Allah and drew up five simple pillars. We need to be careful that we don’t make simplifications (for it is natural to want to do so) and find moral platitudes in the Bible were there are none. For example: we are to turn the other cheek. But how can one say the Bible advocates pacificism when God Himself waged war?
Culture influences religion. It was easy for Medieval peasants to believe their lot in life was fixed and God ordained for the social structure of there day made it so. In the same way it was quite easy for a bunch of misogynists to believe the teachings of Joseph Smith that woman’s salvation came only through man and a man could therefore have multiple wives.
We live in a culture where emotions are viewed as being all natural and all good and therefore worthy of being given complete free reign. We need to guard are self from this tide. We are at little risk of giving too little credence to our emotions; on the contrary the modern trend is to put far too much stock in them.
Instead of looking to modern ‘science’ or opinion we should consult the Word of God. There we will learn to take every thought captive and make it obedient to God’s Truth. Our emotions are not all bad, but they aren’t all good either that is why we must control them in the way God instructs us to so that we can use them for His Kingdom and Glory.
Outside of Christianity there are two types of religions in this world. One affirms our natural instincts, the other denies them. The former is composed with nature worship religions, a significant segment of Hinduism, and today’s modern religion: hedonism. Buddhism and Stoicism are good examples of the latter, nature denying religions. The former tells us that all we feel is good and we should therefore do it. They say in effect don’t restrain our sexual urges; rather we have sex with a temple prostitute as a means. Buddhists tell us all pleasure is illusory, our body is a curse, and that death is liberation.
Hinduism is a bit different for on the one hand it has self denying monks (nature denying), but on the other hand it has cultic prostitution (nature affirming). These contradictions exist side by side in harmony for it is a disjointed religion. It both affirms and denies our instincts.
One of the many proofs for the truth of Christianity is that it tells us something outside of our nature. For example, on the one hand it tells us sex is good but only within marriage. It neither denies nor affirms our natural instincts but rather guides us on how we ought to live. How does this relate to our emotions? The Bible teaches us how we should interact with each and every of our emotions.
Grief. On the one hand we are told that death is an unnatural curse, but we are also instructed to not grieve like the pagans grieve who have no hope. This is quite different from both the natural fear of death and the Stoic indifference to it.
Anger. It is natural to get angry, but we are instructed to not sin in our anger to deal with our anger so that it does not grow into bitterness.
Fear. God commands us not to fear, but to trust in Him.
Worry. We are to not be anxious in anything, but in everything in prayer and with thanksgiving in our hearts, present our requests to God.
Greed. Many righteous men were blessed with money; we are not to deny all wealth and live in poverty to be holy. But we are to be on guard for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
Think of the consequences that any emotion has if it is left unchecked. Depression and fear paralyze, anger destroys others, and lust destroys self. We need to control these, but we cannot react too sharply and simply deny them outright.
Every heresy is a simplification. Some couldn’t deal with the complexities of a triune God or the intricacies of a living relationship with the almighty God (and the instructions He gives us regarding our emotions and actions), so they invented a single God named Allah and drew up five simple pillars. We need to be careful that we don’t make simplifications (for it is natural to want to do so) and find moral platitudes in the Bible were there are none. For example: we are to turn the other cheek. But how can one say the Bible advocates pacificism when God Himself waged war?
Culture influences religion. It was easy for Medieval peasants to believe their lot in life was fixed and God ordained for the social structure of there day made it so. In the same way it was quite easy for a bunch of misogynists to believe the teachings of Joseph Smith that woman’s salvation came only through man and a man could therefore have multiple wives.
We live in a culture where emotions are viewed as being all natural and all good and therefore worthy of being given complete free reign. We need to guard are self from this tide. We are at little risk of giving too little credence to our emotions; on the contrary the modern trend is to put far too much stock in them.
Instead of looking to modern ‘science’ or opinion we should consult the Word of God. There we will learn to take every thought captive and make it obedient to God’s Truth. Our emotions are not all bad, but they aren’t all good either that is why we must control them in the way God instructs us to so that we can use them for His Kingdom and Glory.
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