Hi gb9,
I thought about talking to Peter but it seems like a waste of time today.
Personally I dont think you have a "legalistic cynical outlook".
I agree that we should seek God's reality and truth about scripture. Our emotions just reflect the state our hearts are currently in. They are constantly changing, but God's truths are eternal.
However we can only pray for folks who think making a straw man of God is acceptable practice.
God isn't a straw man. A creation of our mind. Neither is the world God created dependent on our feelings.
God is real. The world separate from our minds and emotions are real.
We need to tear down any spiritual strongholds any false belief any strawmen that war against the knowledge of God.
Anyway. I think I will just say a prayer today and go about life.
Language is a strange thing.
How do you know if you are a sinner or a saint? By a conviction of sin. And what is this
conviction based on? Ones emotional understanding of your relationships with others and God.
We are founded on these relationships. We know how deep they go when someone close to
us dies or has something difficult or brilliant happen to them.
Does God care about us? People say it is whether God exists is the problem but it is actually
does He care? This is why the law was given, to show a path to Him, the Holy of Hollies.
Jesus on the cross was the most intimate, earth shattering statement of His commitment
and forgiveness to us, if we walk in His ways.
Emotions are just flags telling us what is going on inside. They do not determine truth but they
do tell us where we are and what is a block or a problem in our lives. Shut them out, we shut
out our hearts and who we are. Most of our addictions and aberrant behaviour is to resolve
these emotions, so to not address them is not to face what Jesus came to talk about.
And the west is all about individualism and the exalting of desire and ambition above anything
else, fulfill your dreams, become a success and not a failure. Trouble is the dream of success
is only for the truly gifted in that area, and partaking and giving your best is not praised.
I grew up in this society, and truly hate its self destructive fruit, and the posing aspect of which
facebook is a prime example. Some feel facebook only creates in them is a desire to do something
else and create envy in others.
Even here on cc, I wonder if we are here to prove things, or to be vulnerable, to share, to encourage
and grow in the Lord. As I have said before, I am not here to stick to one way of expressing the
beauty of the glory of Christ in my life, but every aspect of it. It is funny how those who preach they
are not bound by rules or boundaries actually cannot change their way of talking or seeing things, lol.