How to put emotions aside and trust in God

When God talked to Cain right before he killed his brother, he said, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?" (Gen 4:6 NIV) Cain was angry, miserably so, feeding on his jealousy. At that moment he was unwilling to even listen to what God was saying. All that was on his mind was that he done what he was suppose to do and God's blessing had only come to his brother, Able.

A lot of people have stated that the reason God respected and blessed Able was because Able gave a blood sacrifice while Cain's was simply an offering of fruit and vegetables. Genesis chapter four illustrates both brothers' sacrifices, what they brought to God, but in that description Able's sacrifice is detailed. The Bible states, "But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock (Gen 44 NIV)." Another translation put it this way, "And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof (Gen 4:4 KJV)." It is evident that Cain was simply performing a duty and Able's heart was beyond the duty, giving out of the very best that he had to give God.

But when God was standing there and talking to Cain and asking him about how he felt, he loved Cain just as much as he loved his brother. God asked Cain how he felt and then stated, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it (Gen 4:6 NIV)." God was concerned for both Abel and Cain.

In this we have a clue. We might only think of our emotions when they are peaked at some point when they feel uncontrollable. Whether it is in anger, our fist clenched, our jaw set, and somebody is going to pay, or whether it is with the fluffy, I can tip toe across clouds, feeling that takes place between a man and a woman. God made us with emotions but discovering a purpose in them takes looking at the motivations of our hearts. Maybe that fluffy feeling we call love is about to lead us into having an affair or compromise our values.

Before the feelings is the attitude of our heart. Yet when we are at a place where it feels like our feelings our uncontrollable, where "sin is crouching at our doors desiring to have us," God is right there saying, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" We can listen; we can discover our intentions and change our course. We can believe that God not only has our best interest in mind, but also the best interest of the people in our lives. Otherwise we will have to live with the consequence, which often means that we lose a lot more then we could have ever imagined.

originally published on Helium here

Is the Body of Christ an epileptic?

If I tell you that I am an Old Earth Creationalist, support Obama, believe in a Post Tribulation, and that I believe Christians today need to know the Torah, how many different controversies have I covered?

I am not writing this to negotiate a debate. I am writing this to point out that Christianity is divided in more ways than just the few things I mentioned. Denominations and non denominations are already doing quite well with the educated best guess called Theology. I have no idea of the actual number of different branches that have come into existence since Martin Luther nailed his thoughts to a door five hundred years ago. Ever since that moment, the splintering effect of his decision has been increasingly rapid.

No. I am not saying we all need to become Catholic. Believe me, the gravity of our division has deep roots in many different areas and Church history, the kind that has been traditionally detailed in our Educational Institutions, is just one more area that can spark great debate. The Protestant Catholic divide brings many legitimate questions and what exactly Church History is in the first place could be the title for thesis. In recent times there has been the rise of people looking into the Hebrew roots of our Faith, often with the hope that what is being discovered is somehow closer and more pure in its truth. It does not take a lot of looking into this movement before the sign of even more division is seen taking place there as well. And it does not take a lot of looking around to find others who are willing to point fingers and call it legalism.

I have asked why before. I have gone and asked pastors and anyone I could find why. Usually one of the first answers I have been given to this question is from I Corinthians chapter 12, that we are all one body with different parts. There are Baptist and snake wielding Pentecostals, Presbyterians and cautious Lutherans, and so the basic answer is that these are the parts of the body… But is Christ the head? How can a body decide to have the arms play basketball while the legs are diligently hooking up for bunji cord jumping?

The problem is that our human minds and our human thinking can never discover unity. Oh we say we then just practice love and go on from there, but the reality of this is that we put limits on how much tolerance we have for doctrines and dogma that strays too far from what we believe.

Where are our inter faith picnics or softball leagues? I know that many of us will fellowship with our neighbors when our specific faiths do not perfectly line up, but even without thinking about it we are doing much more to create walls then we are “having all things in common.”

And the world sees it. The world is telling us that our Bible is filled contradictions and we can argue all we want because we are living contradictions. Are we ready to set aside all we think we know yet? Can we bow our heads together no matter what is we think should believe and ask Christ to really be our head?  What if ever person who calls themselves a Christian would honestly seek God together in this?

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