Summarizing our journey of talking to our feelings

•  We must hear the voice of God speaking to us through His Word
•  We pause to speak to ourselves about what we know to be true
•  We speak the language of obedience to our emotions
•  We build friendships that endure and strengthen us when we are weak
•  We draw from the strength of the church to sustain us
•  We enjoy the sound and the inspiration of music that God has given to His people

"Listen" to the words of this song --

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In every change, He faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake

To guide the future, as He has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know

His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,

And all is darkened in the vale of tears,

Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,

Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.

Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay

From His own fullness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on

When we shall be forever with the Lord.

When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,

Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.

Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise

On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;

Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,

So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.

Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine

Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/mid/f/i/n/finlandia.mid

Fifth source of communication: The Language of the Church

There is no doubt that the place of the church is in caring for its people and in undergirding those in need.



There are two languages that I really like.

1.The church is a place for inner healing and restoration



 When a person stumbles or is taken in sin it is the privileged call of the church of Christ to reach out and to help restore.

When one struggles with feelings that God is so far away, the arms of those who are part of the church will be the only arms God has to draw such people near.

When someone feels abandoned, the hearts of the people of God may be the only hearts God can tap to feel with this person

Nothing brings back feelings of being cared for as much as being in a community that feels

Nothing will speak to our society as much as a community that reaches out with the love of Christ

2.The church is a place where the role of music provides powerful and yet vulnerability in controlling feelings

Music plays a greater role in consolation and inspiration than it does in vibration and ecstasy.  Over time, the heart gives way to certain cries: the cry for peace and tranquility, the search for solace and help, the cry that does not just carry hope for the future but reflects the past – music has the capacity to strike at the core of our beings in a way that God has designed our beings to respond.  Music will bring either harmony or discord and more often, reveals the harmony or discord in a life.

How else can you explain driving down the 401 towards London, Integrity music in the CD player and then in a sudden moment - tears, big alligator tears for about 30 minutes as I absorbed the love of God in the car - haven't had that happen in a while - haven't been loved like that in a while.

Fourth source of communication: The Language of Friends

This communication type comes as part of God's gift of grace because I have seen it manifested even when the recipient is undeserving.

I enjoy more than anything the opportunity of serving and then find that those I serve with end up as my friends - no greater feeling in the world.

Paul shared these exact thoughts to the church in Philippi

“It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus”

David would show the other side of times when our friends have hurt us so much that the pain, sometimes, never goes away.  Remember when Absalom betrayed his father, Ahithophel, a one-time confidant of David’s stayed with Absalom, rejecting David.  Chech out David's feelings –

“If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God”

A	Always Funny
B	Beautiful Personality
C	Common Interests
D	Delightfully Entertaining
E	Exciting Person
F	Fashionable
G	Good Taste
H	Happy Times Together
I	Intelligent Person
J	Jolly Laughter
K	Kind
L	Listens Well
M	Makes Jokes
N	Never Mean or Cruel
O	Original
P	People Person
Q	Quality Time
R	Real Person
S	Secret Keeper
T	Terrific Sense of Humor
U	Understanding
V	Very Special
W	Works Hard
X	Xciting Person
Y	You Are The Best
Z	Zero flaws

Third source of communication: Language of Obedience

This is the language that builds and strengthens faith.

Faith results in works, however, works can also result in faith.

One of the fundamental differences between the Greek way of thinking and the Hebrew way of thinking was that for the Greeks truth came by reason, and for the Hebrews truth came by obedience. 

A classic demonstration of this principle was seen in the encounter between God and Moses. When Moses demanded proof that God had indeed called him, God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain” (Ex.3:12)

The proof of God’s call was after the obedience, not before.

The second source of communication: The Language of Self

Just as God’s Word speaks to us, there must also be the word that we speak to ourselves.

Listen to what Oswald Chambers shares in My Utmost for His Highest --

"There are certain things we must not pray about – moods for instance. Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking. A mood nearly always has its seat in the physical condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not to listen to the moods which arise from a physical condition, never to submit to them for a second. We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not. The curse with most of us is that we won’t. The Christian life is one if incarnate spiritual pluck.  Unless we train our emotions they will lead us around by the nose, and we will be captives to every passing impulse or reaction. But once faith is trained to control the emotions and knows how to lean resolutely against weaknesses of character, another entry-way of doubt is sealed shut forever. Much of our distress as Christians comes not because of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature.”

Martin Lloyd-Jones says something along the same lines --

“The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand. You have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. The essence of this matter is to understand that this self of ours, this other man within us, has got to be handled. Do not listen to him; turn on him; speak to him; condemn him; upbraid him; exhort him; encourage him; remind him of what you know instead of placidly listening to him and allowing him to drag you down and depress you.”

 Well, I guess the question is -- can we find someone in the Bible who shared some similar thoughts?

I guess Paul and David might be two characters that would help us understand this truth.

Paul -- "For my part, I run with a clear goal before me; I am like a boxer who does not beat the air; I bruise my own body and make it know its master" - 1Corinthians 9:26, 27

David -- "Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you" - Psalm 116:7

In another place Paul wants to see us speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs as an encouragement and influence to others - surely the same must apply to ourselves - making melody in our hearts to the Lord is an encouraging word to ourselves!

First source of communication: Language of God

One of the first expressions of communication from God is that He describes Himself as a God who feels - Genesis begins with an expression of grieving and a heart filled with pain by chapter 6. For those acquainted with God having such intense emotion, we are sometimes tempted to humanize God at such times.  We need to be very, very cautious that we do not take the terms in their human limitations and with connotations of finitude, but we will be equally in error to deem these words as purely metaphorical with no real emotion behind them.  At the end of the day, I believe we are intended to grieve over evil and to rejoice over good.

John also started off with a description of God's word and being as identical - the incarnate Son of God felt, wept, laughed and hoped. In the beginning was a thinking, feeling God.

But this is where our difficulty begins. As godlike in their origin as feelings are, we must also learn to put them in perspective and protect ourselves from the glorification of feelings as the final affirmation of truth.

God feels with perfect knowledge, and His feeling is in conformity with what is true. He does not act because He feels as much as He acts because He knows.

Nothing is so important to the nature of a word as the truth, and truth is the property of propositions not feelings. Feelings are never described as true or false. Feelings may be legitimate or illegitimate, understandable or incomprehensible; but they are not true or false.

This is where we often get bogged down, longing for feelings when indeed those very feelings could be the most seductive force to take us away from the truth.

The apostle Peter learned this lesson the hard way when he revelled in the glorious feeling of witnessing the transfiguration - how inexpressible must have been the awe when they saw and experienced…
the whitest white the eye could ever contain -
the purest bliss the mind could ever imagine -
the greatest theophany one could ever describe -
the most esteemed human personages the Jewish person could ever have wanted to see – Moses and Elijah -
the grandest ecstasy of spirit the heart could ever yearn for -
the noblest sound the ears could ever desire when the voice came from heaven, “This is my Son. Listen to Him.”

Yet it was in the context of this experience that Peter said what he did about the superiority of the Word --

“For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Peter saw the experience and the feeling as secondary to the certainty of God’s Word.

Knowing then that His Word is constant and eternal and personally applied, let us discipline our wills and minds to hear from Him each day --

•“Early will I seek thee” (Ps 63:1)
•“Search me, O God, and know . . . my thoughts” (Ps 139:23)
•“Speak Lord, for your servant is listening” (1Sam 3:9)
•What do you want me to do? (Acts 9:6)

Paul  says something about this as well -- “That I might know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (Phil 3:10).Obviously it was not feeling that drove Paul but the knowledge of Christ.

Even Samuel -- his message was one that broke his heart because he had a message of judgement to give his predecessor and mentor, Eli.  I know that God had given me a word for someone and I did not give it because I knew this couple would be extremely angry.  God had to use someone else in the church, that person knew to speak the truth, the couple were angry for months, but at the end, they thanked him for there was no way they could have dealt with the tragedy if it were not for his word he gave earlier.  I learn a valuable lesson on how my feeling has nothing to do with what God wants for or from me.

"Listen" to these words penned by William Runyan --

1. Lord, I have shut the door,
Speak now the word
Which in the din and throng
Could not be heard;
Hushed now my inner heart,
Whisper Thy will,
While I have come apart,
While all is still.

2. Lord, I have shut the door,
Here do I bow;
Speak, for my soul attend
Turns to Thee now.
Rebuke Thou what is vain,
Counsel my soul,
Thy holy will reveal,
My will control.

3. In this blest quietness Clamouring cease;
Here in Thy presence dwells
Infinite peace;
Yonder, the strife and cry,
Yonder, the sin:
Lord, I have shut the door,
Thou art within.

4. Lord, I have shut the door,
Strengthen my heart;
Yonder awaits the task--
I share apart.
Only through grace bestowed
May I be true;
Here, while alone with Thee,
My strength renew.

An Upward Look

•  Isn't it amazing to realize that of all the descriptions God could have given of Himself when referring to His own eternal nature, He chose the metaphor of language.

When John begins his Gospel with the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” he without a doubt echoed the very first words of Genesis, “In the beginning God.”

And at the very doorstep - we also read, “And God said.”

Clarke's Commentary offers these insights --
 

The original word אלהים Elohim, God, is certainly the plural form of אל El, or אלה Eloah, and has long been supposed, by the most eminently learned and pious men, to imply a plurality of Persons in the Divine nature. As this plurality appears in so many parts of the sacred writings to be confined to three Persons, hence the doctrine of the Trinity, which has formed a part of the creed of all those who have been deemed sound in the faith, from the earliest ages of Christianity. Nor are the Christians singular in receiving this doctrine, and in deriving it from the first words of Divine revelation. 

An eminent Jewish rabbi, Simeon ben Joachi, in his comment on the sixth section of Leviticus, has these remarkable words: "Come and see the mystery of the word Elohim; there are three degrees, and each degree by itself alone, and yet notwithstanding they are all one, and joined together in one, and are not divided from each other." See Ainsworth. 

He must be strangely prejudiced indeed who cannot see that the doctrine of a Trinity, and of a Trinity in unity, is expressed in the above words. The verb ברא bara, he created, being joined in the singular number with this plural noun, has been considered as pointing out, and not obscurely, the unity of the Divine Persons in this work of creation. In the ever-blessed Trinity, from the infinite and indivisible unity of the persons, there can be but one will, one purpose, and one infinite and uncontrollable energy.

We have seen that the word אלהים Elohim is plural; we have traced our term God to its source, and have seen its signification; and also a general definition of the thing or being included under this term, has been tremblingly attempted. We should now trace the original to its root, but this root does not appear in the Hebrew Bible. Were the Hebrew a complete language, a pious reason might be given for this omission, viz., "As God is without beginning and without cause, as his being is infinite and underived, the Hebrew language consults strict propriety in giving no root whence his name can be deduced." 

Mr. Parkhurst, to whose pious and learned labors in Hebrew literature most Biblical students are indebted, thinks he has found the root in אלה alah, he swore, bound himself by oath; and hence he calls the ever-blessed Trinity אלהים Elohim, as being bound by a conditional oath to redeem man, etc., etc. Most pious minds will revolt from such a definition, and will be glad with me to find both the noun and the root preserved in Arabic. Allah is the common name for God in the Arabic tongue, and often the emphatic is used. Now both these words are derived from the root alaha, he worshipped, adored, was struck with astonishment, fear, or terror; and hence, he adored with sacred horror and veneration, cum sacro horrore ac veneratione coluit, adoravit - Wilmet. 

Hence ilahon, fear, veneration, and also the object of religious fear, the Deity, the supreme God, the tremendous Being. This is not a new idea; God was considered in the same light among the ancient Hebrews; and hence Jacob swears by the fear of his father Isaac, Genesis 31:53. 

To complete the definition, Golius renders alaha, juvit, liberavit, et tutatus fuit, "he succoured, liberated, kept in safety, or defended." Thus from the ideal meaning of this most expressive root, we acquire the most correct notion of the Divine nature; for we learn that God is the sole object of adoration; that the perfections of his nature are such as must astonish all those who piously contemplate them, and fill with horror all who would dare to give his glory to another, or break his commandments; that consequently he should be worshipped with reverence and religious fear; and that every sincere worshipper may expect from him help in all his weaknesses, trials, difficulties, temptations, etc.,; freedom from the power, guilt, nature, and consequences of sin; and to be supported, defended, and saved to the uttermost, and to the end.

Here then is one proof, among multitudes which shall be adduced in the course of this work, of the importance, utility, and necessity of tracing up these sacred words to their sources; and a proof also, that subjects which are supposed to be out of the reach of the common people may, with a little difficulty, be brought on a level with the most ordinary capacity.