Are you embracing emotionalism? (Updated)

Having grown up in the church all of my life I have heard the challenge against “emotionalism.” This normally follows someone, who is a young believer, doing something that out of order. This “emotionalism” can be attached to a lot of unhealthy things that can happen in a church. I live in the wintry, upper Midwest of the USA where we are affectionately called the Frozen Chosen. We are definitely on the calm side of the calm/emotional spectrum.

But this idea of the calm/emotional spectrum leads me to a challenge that people in my neck of the woods struggle. Merriam-Webster.com has one of the definitions of emotionalism as, “undue indulgence in or display of emotion.” And those of us who have seen this in church say a hearty, “amen.” Actually where I live a hearty “amen” could be called emotionalism.

What if you move to far in the other direction? What if our fear of emotionalism causes us to disengage our heart completely? If some of us expressed our love to our spouses with the same emotion that we express toward God we would end up in marriage counseling. Jesus called us to love the Lord with all our heart and soul. I think that includes our emotions.

[tweetthis]I will love the Lord with all my heart and that includes my emotions![/tweetthis]

We can miss out on a lot if we do not engage our emotions. Charles Finney would go so far as to say that “excitements” are the only way for the church to grow.

David’s wife Michal was appalled at David’s dancing and I can be in danger of becoming like her. The answer, as in most cases, is an internal look. Ask yourself, “Which end of the spectrum am I?” If you find yourself in an emotionless religion then you must find new ways to engage your heart. It may be scary for a couple reasons. One: engaging our emotions before God does not always feel safe to start with because we are not used to it. Two: we may fear that our friends will charge us with “emotionalism”.

I want to challenge you that the journey will be worth it and may just bring new life to your walk with Jesus. It will also give us more grace for brothers and sisters who happen to slip into “emotionalism.” You may provide healthy models for others on how to express emotion in their seeking of God.

For thoughts on emotion and prayer watch this and if you want to engage your emotions and are having a hard time start here

Confessions of a short person: Lessons in pursuit by a wee little man.

For those who have never met me, you should know that I have never been accused of being tall. As a kid there was never a line to try to get me to sign up to be center for a basketball team. This might be why I have a draw to Zacchaeus. At one of the churches I was pastor they even had an ongoing joke about me and Zacchaeus. I mean it would be just like me to have the song I am known for be, “Zacchaeus was a wee little man…” I am still scarred by the song, “Short people don’t deserve to live.”

But Zacchaeus got something right. And he has some important thoughts for each of us no matter how tall we stand. Zacchaeus is a model of passionate pursuit of Jesus.

First think of the desire he must have had to climb a tree. He had an opportunity to see Jesus and he wouldn’t pass it up. We have a continual opportunity to meet with Jesus so sometimes we take it for granted. Zacchaeus didn’t wait for later to go after Jesus. How much effort will we put into spending time with Jesus?

[tweetthis]How much effort will we put into spending time with Jesus? Let’s go after Him![/tweetthis]

Second, he didn’t let his dignity get in the way. Zacchaeus worked with the Roman government. He didn’t allow the thought of, “What will the Romans think if they see me in a tree?” keep him from His pursuit. How many of the people he had to collect taxes from did he see as he climbed up the tree? What are the things that are keeping you from a passionate pursuit of Jesus?

Finally, he let his encounter impact his life. After Zacchaeus met with Jesus his heard was changed. His life was changed. Meeting with Jesus led to more than just a good feeling. Will you allow your time with Jesus to change the outflow of your life? I often need to capitalize on what God does in my life so it doesn’t slip away.

[tweetthis]I often need to capitalize on what God does in my life so it doesn’t slip away.[/tweetthis]

Let me encourage you to not let anything get in the way of your pursuit of Jesus. If we let it any moment could truly change our lives. That could even be today!

Moving from Palm Sunday to Change the World Monday

I grew up attending church. This was the era of flannel graphs in Sunday School. Palm Sunday was a time of kids with palm branches and conversations about donkeys. The shift then moves to Good Friday and Easter. But if we move too fast we miss a lesson that Jesus taught to change our world and rock our heart.

In Mark’s telling of the story he sandwiches the story of the clearing of the temple with the strange story of Jesus killing a fig tree. The depth of the message of Mark 11:12-25 is beyond what I can cover in this post, but let me challenge us with three lessons that could impact the world.

Be on your guard against hypocrisy

Jesus finds a tree that has lots of leaves, but without any fruit. Moving from there to seeing Jesus disrupting the religious establishment of the time makes the message clear. You can have a lot of the trappings of religious activity but not be producing any spiritual fruit. This is hypocrisy. The danger of hypocrisy is that it is easier to see in others and hard to see in ourselves. Hypocrisy insulates our heart from the humility we need to be hungry for more of God. We need to be desperate for God in order to produce fruit out of our connection to Him. I realize that even this post loses its power without the energy of God.

[tweetthis]Hypocrisy insulates our heart from the humility we need to be hungry for more of God.[/tweetthis]

Be aware of our own draw toward racism

In Jesus’ day a reference to a verse in the scripture is a reference to the whole chapter where it is found. Jesus’ reference to, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations” comes from Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56 is a word of encouragement to the immigrants living in the land. Jesus’ here matches the challenge that He and the early disciples gave to confront the ethnic superiority of the day. If we read carefully we see Jesus getting in trouble again and again for disrupting racial stereotypes. Speaking of immigrants and racism today may be read as a political statement of some kind.

Although I do see racism in both political parties that is too safe to point that out. Jesus wants to get closer to our heart. Rather than engage in arguments what if the church led the way by going in the opposite way of love? But even that is too safe. What about me? So I am committing right now to learning Spanish to a level that I can preach in Spanish. What about you? Will you let God’s word break through your heart to an actual change that may be uncomfortable?

[tweetthis]What if the church led the way against racism with radical love?[/tweetthis]

Prayer should not be a side dish

The story of the fig tree is explained by Jesus with a challenge to pray things that require faith. I wrote a book on simple ways to engage in conversation with God. But we must not forget that prayer also has great power to change things. Prayer invites us into a faith adventure with Jesus that should produce fruit. God invites us to change the world with our prayer.

Are you praying dangerous, audacious prayers? As Lisa Bevere says, “If you are not praying the kind of prayers that scare you, believe me, they are not scaring the enemy.” We need Christians who believe for a life that makes a difference. As Pete Grieg says, “We need to move from survival to revival.”   What are you going ask God for that will make a difference for Jesus’ kingdom?

[tweetthis]We need to move from survival to revival.-Pete Greig[/tweetthis]

I believe that if we really let these things past our guard and into our heart we could change the world. Are you with me?