Cover

Bob Dutko
by MDM4M Staff

FLINT
Interviewed
by MDM4M Staff

Transforming
a Man's Emotions
by Warwick Cooper

Review:
Rock Stars on God
by Ryan Richardson

The Addiction
by David Chipp-Smith

Health & Fitness
by Jeff Consiglio

Review:
Following Jesus
by Stephen Barkley

God's Promises
Part II
by Colin Michael

Review: Welcome
To Diverse City
by Ryan Richardson



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HOME CHURCHES
What are Home Churches, and why are they so prevalent today?

by Warwick Cooper

My first inquiry as I greet another man is likely to be "How are you?" Feelings clamor for attention. They need no justification, no argument, they are just there. Feelings are natural and powerful, and I shudder when I encounter someone who apparently lacks them

Feeling is natural and essential to life. Feelings move me, and I enjoy being so moved. Feelings give me a sense of being alive. Without feelings I would have no interest in things, no inclination to action.

A recent theme in art and literature is that of angels wishing to know what it is like to have a fleshly body and feel what humans feel. In the film "City of Angels", Nicholas cage's character makes the switch from angel to human. Asked if it was worth it, he replies, "I would rather have had…one kiss of her lips, one touch of her hand, than an eternity without it." The film closes with the angel-human frolicking in the surf at sunset and the landscape full of angels, now including Meg Ryan, watching with either envy or delight at his pleasure. The theology of angelology is pretty weak, but the story clearly demonstrates the idolatry of feeling that is current today. Feelings today have almost become a moral absolute.

The first thing I want to point out to you about feelings is: they are messy. We live in a world suspicious of the patterns, forms and disciplines of the past. In this world, feeling exercises almost total mastery over the individual. We constantly have to decide what we want, and feeling is all they have we have go on. Men are overwhelmed with decisions and can only make those decisions on the basis of feeling. We are immersed therefore in a world of pointless activity portrayed in such staples of contemporary consciousness as television's Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends and Will and Grace.

Men want to feel and to feel strongly. We emphasize 'spontaneity' and 'enjoying the rush or the buzz of feeling. Abandoning ourselves to feeling, allowing ourselves to be carried away is exhilarating. Feeling is sought for its own sake, and as feeling fades, stronger feeling and greater stimulus is demanded. Feelings seem to offer an escape from the situation described by Thoreau where 'the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."

This simple point is what explains the powerful grip of addiction in the modern world, including various forms of sexual perversion, violence, alcohol or drug abuse, and self-aggrandizement. Addiction is a feeling phenomenon. Addicts are those who, in one way or another, have given in to feelings of one kind or another, and placed them in the position of ultimate value in their lives. They have ultimately conceded the final word to some feeling, emotion, sensation or desire. They may fear or even hate that feeling, but they can see no way out, and the feeling demands to be satisfied. Habit and chemical dependency can make a tragic mess of ordinary lives.

Our obsession with feeling is directly contrary to the wisdom of the past

It is in fact another way of characterizing the lost, those who make themselves 'god' in this world. To such, the idea that they should not honor their feeling is an insult. Paul put it this way: 'their god is their stomach (Phil 3:19)

I need to remind myself as a man that my feelings have meaning. Jesus talked about this subject in a story- the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10. It was the good Samaritan who, confronted by human need, acted to help out the man who had been attacked 'when he saw him, he took pity on him.'

The Samaritan was moved by the plight of the man half-dead beside the road. Did the priest and the Levite have no feelings? Of course not! They had feelings, perhaps fear of a similar fate to that of the man lying there, perhaps a sense of urgency as they thought of the need to get to their destination, perhaps the awareness that the precious opportunity of serving in the temple would be forfeited if they were to touch anything unclean, especially what looked like a corpse. Whatever they might have thought, their feelings motivated them to abandon the man. They acted in what was ultimately a selfish manner because they put their own desires before the obvious need of the man lying beside the road. But the Samaritan acted as a neighbor to him. There are then, feelings that produce good actions, and feelings that produce ultimately selfish and destructive actions.

I cannot afford to ignore my feelings as a man because they motivate me to live. How can I better deal with my feelings? The answer is not repression. The proper course of action is to replace destructive feelings with others that are good. It is part of divine and human wisdom to realize that feelings are central to my existence and to make sure that they are good, strong and healthy feelings. Feelings are with a few exceptions, good servants but disastrous masters. What God is trying to accomplish in my life is to transform my feelings by His grace.


The recipe for Christ-likeness PAGE TWO ---->