Time to Appreciate Our Shepherds

Two October developments have made the news.  I think there is an important connection.  First, October is highlighted as “Pastor Appreciation Month” in many churches across America.  Meanwhile, President Trump has just addressed our nation to outline his multi-front initiative against the opioid crisis.  Can you see a possible connection between honoring the pastors of our churches and the scourge of drugs in America?  Thankfully, President Trump’s proposed approach hints that he has already made the connection.

The Swafford family illustrate a key solution to opioid crisis.

President Trump’s proposed multi-million dollar effort involves multiple federal and local agencies.  But there is much more to his plan.  The president has also challenged American families and communities to participate.  To emphasize the important role of family and community, Mr. Trump recognized Jessie and Cyndi Swafford of Dayton, Ohio.  The Swafford’s are one among many couples who have been providing foster and adoptive care to babies born addicted to drugs.  Mr. Trump noted that

[the Swafford’s] Have provided a loving and stable home to children affected by the opioid crisis.  I am calling on every American to join the ranks of guardian angels…Who help lift up the people of our great nation.

Thankfully, the president realizes that multiple federal agencies and millions of dollars alone will not solve the opiate crisis.  Nor will government programs alone solve the larger crisis of moral decline in America (See Are There Lessons for America from the 1950’s?).  And here is where the connection between a national drug program and “pastor appreciation” becomes more sharply defined.

This month’s invitation to honor our pastors provides a fitting context for an emphasis on the importance of family and community in the battle against drugs.  Why?  Because the biblical account of creation, the fall of humankind, and God’s redemptive plan through faith in Christ is linked throughout by the narrative of God as a Shepherd seeking rebellious mankind who has wandered astray and become lost.  Today, God’s Spirit still guides us into Truth and moral living as sheep within His fold, and He calls to other sheep who are still lost.  His plan remains intact—“to seek and to save the lost” through Christ and to establish local churches as “local flocks” which are each led by one or more elders, or overseers (also called pastors).  Pastoral leadership in local churches is central to God’s Great Commission aimed at transforming the world.  It is God’s plan that His sheep gather regularly as local churches for worship, fellowship, instruction from the Bible, and preparation for Christ-like living in our daily life.  All the while, marriages are formed and strengthened; and, families and communities flourish.

Because our culture is so secularized and drenched in multiculturalism, God’s church needs to awaken afresh to a fundamental truth—there is only One God and human beings are His offspring.  We are created in His image and designed to worship and serve God and live a morally ordered existence.  There is no alternative moral code or mandate by which we may be saved and prosper in a civilized manner on this planet.  The Apostle Paul boldly expressed this truth to the first century Greek scholars in the midst of a pagan culture (emphasis mine):

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;  for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.' – Acts 17: 24-28

God created man and woman and presided over the first marriage (Genesis 2).  God also extended grace when humankind rebelled and sought to elevate human reason above godly wisdom (Genesis 3)…professing to be wise, they became fools and… exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen (Romans 1:  22, 25).

Throughout Scripture, humans are characterized as sheep that wandered astray (Isaiah 53: 6).  As an expression of His redemptive love, God pursues His wayward sheep as a loving Shepherd.  Near the end of his life, Jacob, whom God had named Israel, gives tribute to His God as, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day… (Genesis 48: 15). 

Godly pastors have a wonderful role model
and the power of His Spirit to guide them.

Throughout Old Testament Bible history the descendants of Jacob, the Jewish nation, understood God’s nature through the metaphor of the shepherd.  Jewish King David, the father of the kingly line that led eventually to the birth of Christ, was a shepherd boy whom God chose to be His king to shepherd Israel.  It was David who wrote Psalm 23 which begins with the claim, “The Lord is my shepherd.”  Israel’s understanding of themselves as the sheep of God’s pasture finds its expression later in the nation’s history in a call to worship:

Come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture
and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you would hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts… - Psalm 95: 6-8a

The Good Shepherd offered Himself as the Sacrificial Lamb

The New Testament Gospel writers introduce Jesus Christ as both “the Good Shepherd” (John 10) and as the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1: 29)!   Jesus, the Messiah, the “Son of David,” declares His rightful claim to deity, saying, I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.  The “sheep” for whom Christ, the Good Shepherd laid down His life includes, in His words, other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd (John  10: 16).  Within a few days of making this claim, Jesus gave Himself as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the whole world.  Three days after His crucifixion, Jesus arose from the grave and was observed by hundreds of witnesses included Peter and His disciples.  Jesus commissioned Peter to “Shepherd My sheep (John 21: 17).”

Years later, the Apostle Peter, himself an elder (or “overseer”), gave this exhortation to his fellow shepherds or “pastors” (from the Latin, pascere, "to lead to pasture, set to grazing, cause to eat," with the notion of tending, guarding, and protecting).  Peter wrote (emphasis mine):

Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;  nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.  And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. – 1 Peter 5: 1-4

Notice the character qualities of a Christ-following pastor-shepherd.  He is a loving leader, unselfish, and without impure motives.  He serves eagerly while not “lording his authority over us,” but rather proves himself an example of the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ whose return he eagerly awaits.  In 1 Timothy 3: 2-5, we read similar qualifications of a pastor:

[He] must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.  He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity…

During our 48 years of marriage, Abby and I have been blessed to worship and serve under a number of excellent pastor-shepherds who demonstrated these qualities:

Rev. Douglas Miller, Christian Missionary Alliance Church, Morgantown, WV
Rev. Gerald Wheatley, Bowie Bible Church, Bowie, MD
Rev. W. Paul Jackson, Grace Baptist Church, Cedarville, Ohio
Rev. David Graham, Grace Baptist Church, Cedarville, Ohio
Rev. Craig Miller, Grace Baptist Church, Cedarville, Ohio

Pastor Dan Wingate and wife, Karen

Currently, we are blessed to be a part of God’s flock at West Hill Baptist Church, in Wooster, Ohio, led by senior pastor Dan Wingate; and co-pastor, Mark Davenport who has provided valuable counsel to us in our transition into retirement.  Pastor Dan Wingate has humbly and wisely led for nearly 43 years as senior pastor of West Hill Baptist Church, a period that spans nearly the entire duration of time we served under the ministries of all our previous pastors listed above.  Currently, we are praying for Pastor Dan and his wife, Karen, as they will soon transition into a new phase of ministry in which Dan is making his time available to preach and teach as God provides opportunities in local churches and on college campuses.

I hope readers can appreciate my connection between the moral climate of our nation and the important role of local churches throughout America.  The moral fortitude of the American family and community has historically depended upon the ministry of godly pastor-shepherds according to God’s plan.  Therefore, it is only fitting that “Pastor Appreciation” become our habit as we, the sheep who need a shepherd obey the Scripture which calls us to

 …appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work.  Live in peace with one another (1 Thessalonians 5: 12-13).

I hope you are blessed to be a part of a local flock that is led by one or more pastors who according to the concluding verse (1) work hard among you and (2) give you spiritual guidance consistent in an attitude of godliness.  After all, it is not God’s plan that anyone should …neglect meeting together as is the habit of some (Hebrews 10: 25).  Instead, we are called to meet together so that we may encourage one another and all the more as we see the day [of Christ’s return] drawing near.  Finally, as members of the local flock, may we (1) appreciate those who work hard to lead; and (2) may we esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Pastor Steve Salyers, Mindy, Caleb, Kiara, and Della Rose

In summary, God’s plan for pastor-shepherds in a morally challenged world is to lead wisely after the example of the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ.  On the other hand, Christ-followers must willingly place themselves under the authority of godly pastor-shepherds, and then serve faithfully alongside them in a spirit of appreciation and high esteem.  Abby and I understand the wisdom of this plan as relates to our individual lives and our marriage.  In addition, after observing for 20 years the blessings and challenges of our son-in-law, Pastor Steve Salyers, his wife Mindy, and family, we can appreciate in a more direct way the vital importance of “pastor appreciation” by the local flock.  Our pastors and their wives not only have the responsibility to teach, admonish, and encourage us as individuals and families, but they have their own similar responsibilities to their families.  May we recommit to “pastor appreciation” and work hard to appreciate and highly esteem our pastors and their families.

Hearing the Voice of Jesus –2: When Suffering Comes

My previous article, Hearing the Voice of Jesus, pictured God as the One who continually pursues us, seeking relationship with us.  His voice calls to us out of His great love expressed through Jesus Christ and His inspired Word.  Perhaps surprisingly, we can best discern God’s voice and receive the outpouring of His love through the Holy Spirit when we are in the midst of trials and suffering.  Those who have experienced God’s love and comfort in their suffering are able to comfort others in trials with this same comfort (2 Corinthians 1: 3-4).  Little did I know while writing this previous article in September that God was preparing me to learn the truth of it through my own traumatic experience on October 8.  What follows is my account of this experience.  Remember that my perspective from “here on the ground”  is flawed and limited compared to God’s perspective.  May He alone be glorified as you read.

Thursday, October 5
Today, Abby and I were scheduled to be chaperones for our granddaughter, Della Rose, and her classmates during their visit to nearby Ramseyer Pumpkin Farm.  However, the rainy weather caused rescheduling of the event; and produced a disappointed granddaughter and grandma.  To brighten our morning, I suggested to Abby that we go out for breakfast at Bob Evans.  As we walked toward the register to pay our bill, I noticed a familiar face in a nearby booth and remember thinking that I had seen this gentleman at our church.  I made a mental note and thought no more of this passing encounter.  In the afternoon, we drove to Akron to attend the cross country meet of our older granddaughter, Kiara.  Afterwards, we celebrated her personal best time with her and her family.  While in Akron, we stopped to visit my friend, Bill, who had just had right hip replacement surgery that afternoon.  He was still in recovery so we left a card for him and drove home to Wooster.

Saturday, October 7
I began this crisp, autumn morning with an encouraging time of fellowship over a warm breakfast with my Christian brother, Brad.  Then, while Abby was running her errands, I returned to Akron to visit my friend, Bill, now in his third day of recovery from hip surgery.  He was in good spirits and was managing his pain very well.  After our brief conversation, I prayed with Bill and his wife, and then left the hospital.  As I was leaving, I sensed that God’s Spirit was pressing me to take account of the thoughts and intentions of my heart for visiting Bill.  This was not the first time that I was humbled about my efforts to encourage a friend in the midst of pain and suffering.  Taking a personal stock in this area usually centers around three basic questions, each probing successively deeper into my faith and its outworking in my life.

The primary question that pressed upon my mind as I walked from Bill’s room was, How real is your empathy and compassion toward Bill?  I had to acknowledge immediately that my level of empathy was limited by the degree to which I had been “walking in Bill’s shoes.”  After all, how could I actually see life through the eyes and body of a man who had experienced years of pain while walking with an arthritic hip and then endured the pain of a hip replacement?  Because of my limited empathy, my compassion, or the depth of my desire to help my friend was also limited to visiting him and attempting to encourage him.  Having not been involved in farming since my boyhood, I was limited in my ability to assist those people who had volunteered to harvest Bill’s crops and care for his livestock.

How can we empathize with and extend compassion
to loved ones without having "walked in their shoes?"

What concerned me most as I reflected on my efforts in recent years to empathize and encourage friends and family members was the fact that the blessing of good health throughout my life had spared me of physical pain and suffering.  I simply could not identify with friends and family in times of their suffering.  Instead, I tried to encourage them with words like, “God is good and faithful.  He will bring you through this because He loves you and you can trust Him.”  I would also thank them for showing me how to endure pain and suffering as an example for me when I face a similar trial in the future.

My second question also stems from my good health and lack of experience with pain and suffering.  The voice inside asked me, John, how genuine is your faith?  Sure, I had much experience pointing suffering family members and friends to God as a source of hope and healing.  But, how did I know how strong my faith would be when my time came to face pain and suffering?  My answer has to be, “I do not know if my faith in God will remain strong.”

Finally, the third question that has pressed upon my mind over the years is the most challenging of all—How do you know that God will be faithful when you need Him most?  Surely, I have known God’s presence and comfort during times of decision, loss, loneliness, conflict in relationships, and emotional stress.  But, would I know assuredly that God had not forsaken me when I encountered my own suffering and pain?  Little did I know that God was already orchestrating a situation that would eventually provide me with answers to all three of my questions.

Sunday, October 8
Abby and I were blessed to attend our 8:30 am Sunday School class at West Hill Baptist Church, taught by Pastor Eric Fairhurst.  Our lesson was from Luke 21 which records the words of Jesus as He described the signs and future events that would occur in and around Jerusalem and beyond.  We were challenged to be alert “when these things begin to take place.”  Then, in our traditional worship service, Pastor Dan Wingate presented a message from Colossians 3: 12-17 entitled, “Putting on the Best Clothing.”  Verse 12 introduces a list of important Christian virtues and character traits for Christ-followers to “put on” as we yield to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives:  So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion…etc.

That morning, I did not immediately connect a biblical text beginning with the subject of compassion to my own question about the genuineness of my compassion following my hospital visit yesterday.  However, I was soon to be on the receiving end of compassion in an unexpected way.

After the service, we greeted some friends, then walked together into the church parking lot. As I scanned the lot to locate our Tacoma, I spotted the same gentleman that I had recognized in Bob Evans on Thursday.  I raised my hand to wave him to a stop.  We greeted one another and exchanged names while remembering that we had just crossed paths in Bob Evans three days earlier.  Our conversation was then interrupted by a forceful blow on my left side which was the first of several painful impacts I felt, resulting in my body being either thrown to the ground; or, more likely, twisted so that my right hip was thrown against the side of my friends car before I landed on my left side on the ground.

Needless to say, my viewpoint immediately changed.  While lying helpless in a fetal position, unable to move, I could only look up.  Whereas, moments before I had viewed my church family from my usual position of height and strength, I was now forced to look up at them in helpless dependence.  My view was filled with the concerned faces of my church family gathering to help and console me.  The dear lady whose car had struck me was soon at my shoulder with profuse apologies.  Another person cradled my head, while yet another asked if I could move.  I remained conscious but could not move my right leg.  While someone dialed 911, another man began to lead in a prayer for God’s provision.  As I looked up at a sea of loving faces, a friend brought a green blanket to support my head, and others had gathered around Abby to pray.

Within minutes, the ambulance arrived and I was gently wrapped and transported to the ER of Wooster Community Hospital.  Soon Abby arrived, accompanied by two brothers and two sisters in Christ from our church.  Again, I felt God’s comfort and guidance through the presence of Abby and these dear friends.  They were also very helpful in our choice of a surgeon.

That afternoon, my X-rays indicated that my hip was shattered and that I would need a total right hip replacement.  The operation was performed by the skillful hands of a surgeon who was also a man of faith. I was so richly encouraged when he took my hand and prayed with me at the end of our pre-op consultation. 

Looking confident, but supported by prayers
and resting in the unseen arms of God.

During the night and the next couple of days, I was made comfortable by medical staff who each served me with professionalism and compassion.  During this time, I sensed as never before the nearness of God—so comforted and strengthened by the faithful prayers of family, church family, and friends.  I believe God used these days of discomfort and dependence, and days of being weak while learning to become stronger, in order to provide the very experience I so greatly needed and wanted--experience I had missed as the one usually standing above others who experienced pain and dependence.

The doctor, nurses, and aides kept track of my pain level and encouraged me not to shirk on taking Oxycodone so that I would not “get behind” in managing the pain.  Because pain has been such an infrequent visitor in my life, I did not want to insulate myself too much from it.  Thankfully, an occasional Tylenol was enough to moderate my pain.  Though I felt weak and physically dependent, I remembered the words of Gordon T. Smith that had so interested me just a few weeks before.  Smith notes that it is when we accept and even embrace the experience of pain and suffering that we are most receptive to the outpouring of God’s wondrous, boundless love.  Though I am unworthy to compare my light brush with suffering to that of the Apostle Paul, I learned a new appreciation of his writing in Romans 5: 3-5 NASB (emphasis mine):

And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;  and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts [ESV: “poured into our hearts”] through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Reflections during Recovery:
Although I could have gone home on Tuesday, Abby and I agreed that I should spend a few days in the Transitional Care Unit to undergo some physical therapy and increase my readiness for life back home.  During these days of recovery, I revisited the three questions that had challenged me in years past and which had especially pressed upon me only days before my injury.  As I reflect on my own suffering and recovery, am beginning to understand more clearly the nature of sincere compassion, the genuineness of my own faith in God, and the faithfulness of Jesus, my Savior.

While lying on my back in absolute dependence upon medical staff and then during my transitional care, God was making me a more humble, open vessel to receive His loving compassion through the care of these dear servants.  I am now praying that the Father of mercies and God of all comfort Who comforts us in our affliction will make me into a better steward of His comfort and compassion so that I will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God (2 Corinthians 1: 3-4).  In short, it’s ultimately not about my compassion but my openness as a channel of God’s compassion.

Second, having never experienced serious pain and suffering, I used to wonder how my own faith in God would fare in the day it finally came.  My wondering ended on October 8.  Thanks to God’s grace as manifested in the many ways I have recounted above, my faith did not waver.  I do not make this claim because I felt the strong “flexing of the muscles” of my faith in my time of need.  Instead, my faltering faith was lifted up by the strong arms of God—loving arms that protected me bodily when I was struck on my left side, wrestled about, and dropped on my left side without a bruise—loving arms that worked though all the actions of my church family, and then the compassionate, medical care-givers.  Again, it’s ultimately not about “my faith” but God’s imparting of the gift of faith to me (Ephesians 2:  8).

Finally, I had no reason to question the faithfulness of my Savior, Jesus Christ.  Like the comforting, compassionate care that I remember receiving one morning from an aide who covered me with a freshly warmed blanket, so the loving arms and gentle voice of the Savior left me no doubt about His faithfulness and abiding presence.  Much more than feeling warm fuzziness, God’s manifest presence was made real as His Spirit spoke to me in words from Scripture—words that He brought freely into my consciousness from memory, such as Isaiah 41: 10: 

Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Or, the words of Psalm 23  that I had read many times in the past, and heard in utterances from the quivering lips of family and friends as I stood at their bedside:

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Has my compassion become more sincere?  Is my faith stronger as a result of this trial?  Is my Savior faithful?  I thank God for helping me answer the first two questions by His resounding answer “Yes” to the third. 

In conclusion, I thank God for granting my injury and for demonstrating His faithfulness through it in the days that followed.  Through God’s gift of my injury, pain, and suffering, I am learning anew the blessing of His comfort and compassion—gifts from His vast sea of love and grace. Now,  I am recommitting myself to being a good steward of God’s gifts of love, compassion, and faith.  I pray that the aroma of Christ will be evident in my relationships with others—so that ultimately Christ is lifted up.  To God be the glory!

Hearing the Voice of Jesus: Role of Faith, Facts, and Feelings

I wrote most of this article in September but its completion was interrupted by a traumatic event in my life on October 8.  I did not expect that God would bring about this situation, but I am both thankful for and amazed at how God prepared me for this time of pain and dependence by allowing me to study the subject of spiritual discernment and write about it beforehand in this article.  Maybe at least some of what I have written will be of help to you.  I hope to give an account of my actual experience in a future article.


It is not uncommon to hear Christians share how God has intervened in the challenges and decisions of life.  Here are some expressions that I have heard and even uttered myself:

“God spoke to me and I have decided to...”
“I’m still waiting on God’s leading before I...”
“After I prayed, God gave me a real peace.”

Perhaps you too have heard these expressions or sensed a time when God was speaking to you.  Like me, you may have asked,

Discerning God's voice for the decisions of life.

“What is God saying to me at this particular time and in this particular situation?” or,
“How can I know whether the “voice” I am hearing is really from God?” (or Jesus…or the Holy Spirit?)

The Bible teaches that God’s Spirit guides obedient Christians (disciples, or Christ-followers) in times of decision-making (e.g. Proverbs 3; 5-6; James 1: 2-8).  However, we must be aware that other voices may compete with the voice of God—voices that may simply reflect our current emotional state; or voices that echo from our own self-delusion. 

A person who is living in open rebellion against God’s principles or who is in self-delusion is unwilling and perhaps incapable of discerning the voice of God (James 1: 5-8).  We are all prone to wander and be influenced by sin, selfishness, and Satan.  So, how can we be sure when God is speaking; and, what He saying to us?

In September, I began reading The Voice of Jesus:  Discernment, Prayer, and the Witness of the Spirit (InterVarsity, 2003).  The author, Gordon T. Smith, defines life in Christ as “an intentional response to the voice of Jesus, a voice that comes through the presence of the Spirit.” It follows, according to Smith, that discernment is “the discipline of attending to this presence [of God’s Spirit] and responding to this leading.”  The author adds that “discernment is possible only if we are alert to several dynamic tensions [including] the tension between heart and mind.”

Obviously, we must be cognitively engaged if we are to be discerning.  But Professor Smith also emphasizes that Christ-followers must be in touch with their emotions if they are to discern the voice of Jesus. Really?  Emotions?  I must admit, I cringed when I read Smith’s claim that we do not mature in our Christian experience unless we mature emotionally.  Smith adds, more bluntly, that …people who are out of touch with their emotions are out of touch with God, for God speaks to us through the ebb and flow of our emotional lives.

Perhaps you too are cringing upon reading Smith’s claims.  You may have even concluded that The Voice of Jesus is not worth reading.  After all, doesn’t the Bible teach that we are to be controlled by the Holy Spirit and not by our emotions (Ephesians 5:15–18; 1 Peter 5:6–11)?  Doesn’t Scripture emphasize that maturing Christ-followers are those who are being transformed by the renewal of their minds (Romans 12:2)?  Shouldn’t our faith rest on facts and not feeling?

I remember the “Faith-Fact-Feeling Train” illustration which was popular in the early 1970’s through Bill Bright’s “The Four Spiritual Laws” booklet.  The founder of Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru) wanted Christ-followers to avoid hitching their faith to feelings.  After all, our feelings can change faster than the weather.  According to the train illustration, facts are the engine, and without an engine the train will not operate.  Feelings, on the other hand, are represented by the caboose which is unnecessary for the train to move.  But are our emotions really of no more importance than an optional caboose?  Because the train illustration gives this impression, Gordon T. Smith rejects it.

Today, I wonder how many Christians are spiritually stunted or even deprived of a fruitful life of faith because they have found no way to integrate their personality and emotional makeup into a healthy relationship with God through His Spirit.  Perhaps they have learned to store their emotions in a useless caboose rusting away on a side spur.  Study the accounts of when Jesus encountered men and women in great spiritual need and tell me He didn’t address their emotions (e.g. Luke 19: 2-6; John 4; John 8: 3-11).

Thankfully, Professor Smith emphasizes that an obedient and fulfilling spiritual walk with Christ involves more than simply mental, or rational, capacity.  Much more than simply being primates with a large brain, humans have personhood and personality which is an important expression of what it means to be image-bearers of a personal God, and Creator.  God’s gift of personality includes an emotional dimension that is a major part of who we are as individuals.  Our emotions enrich and empower our expressions of love, joy, and hope; or, fear, anger, and loneliness?

Our emotional dimension occupies what is called the affective domain and is included in what Scripture refers to as the “heart.”  Therefore, as we read and study God’s Word, our minds become engaged (cognitive domain) and we are moved by the joys and sorrows of Bible personalities with whom we can easily relate, both cognitively and affectively.  God’s Truth in turn influences our will (volitional capacity).  As we submit our wills in obedience to God’s Spirit, He empowers us to “walk in obedience” (action). 

According to Smith, true spiritual discernment employs mind, emotion, and will.  He concludes that discernment requires “listening with both mind and heart.”  Then, when we act upon what we discern we are exercising what Rev. Bob Tuck (1) referred to as a “quartet” made up of mind, emotion, will, and action.

As a result of my reading, I have become more aware of the importance of emotions in the spiritual disciplines of worship, prayer, discernment of God’s purposes, and sharing the Gospel.  I can now relate to the message of God’s Word in a more complete way by being more alert to the biblical account of the emotional dimension of biblical personalities like Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, Abigail, Daniel, Mary and Joseph (parents of Jesus), Peter, John, and Jesus.  In biblical characters we find expressions of both negative emotional traits like fear, anger, and despair; and positive emotions associated with the fruit of God’s Spirit such as love, joy, and peace. 

It seems clear that, central to our spiritual awareness and discernment, is a healthy understanding of our emotions and how God’s Spirit ministers in and through us by our emotional response to daily life.  The challenges and the blessings of our lives produce an “ebb and flow” of our emotions.  If we do not have the habit of entrusting our hearts, representing our cognitive, affective, and volitional facilities, to God’s guidance and comfort, we can become spiritually sluggish or “double-minded and unstable in all our ways (James 1:  5-8).”

Instead of being double-minded, God commands us to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5: 18-21) by which we become attentive to the ministry of God’s Spirit with a “whole heart” (Psalm 119: 10). —i.e. fully engaged in mind, emotion, and will. The Apostle Paul teaches that when we are alive to the Holy Spirit, He becomes a channel through which God’s love is poured into our hearts…(Romans 5: 5 ESV).  This blessed pouring of God’s love occurs in the context of trials and suffering.  Paul writes that it is precisely when we encounter trials and suffering that we are best prepared spiritually to receive this outpouring of God’s love through His Spirit.  Because of this love, Paul explains, we can …rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope… (Romans 5: 3-4).

According to Gordon T. Smith: The suffering that is spoken of here represents all difficulty—the pain we experience physically, emotionally, and spiritually—explicitly because of our identification with Christ, but then also implicitly in all suffering that comes as a consequence of evil in our world.  The apostle indicated that we should actually boast in our suffering…--accept it, walk into it and choose that through suffering we will grow in grace and hope.  Later, while cautioning against doubting God’s love, Smith encourages those who remain faithful: This surely is what it means to live by faith—believing that God loves us, despite the contrary evidence.

In conclusion, how can we be sure when God is speaking and what He saying to us?  We have seen the importance of developing a proper understanding of the role of both our minds and our emotions in discerning and following the will of God.  Yet, many days we experience what can be an unsettling ebb and flow of our emotions similar to those recorded about heroes of the faith in Scripture.  Therefore, if our walk IN CHRIST is to be robust, steady, and alive, we need to learn more of how to discern the inner voice of Jesus. 

I have been motivated through my recent reading of both the Scriptures and The Voice of Jesus to learn more of what it means to discern the voice of Jesus through disciplines noted by Gordon T. Smith.  Discernment is learned through the practices of private worship and prayer, reading and study of Scripture, reading what our church fathers wrote about discernment (Smith recommends Ignatius Loyola, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley), and ministry to those in spiritual and physical need. 

Sequal to this Article:   Hearing the Voice of Jesus--2:  When Suffering Comes

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^[1] Rev. Robert S. Tuck served as pastor of Central Christian Church, Wooster, Ohio from 1923 until 1967.  I “met” this man of God through a collection of his sermons he published in 1939 entitled “A Sermon Bouquet (Picked Along the Way)” which I purchased from Walnut Street Antiques.

“Pure Evil” Requires Moral Absolutes

This morning, we awakened to the news of a horrific massacre in Las Vegas. A presumed lone gunman, Stephen Paddock, had rained deadly bullets from a room high in the Mandalay Bay hotel.  At this time, we know that 59 attendees at a country music concert have died and hundreds have been wounded.

Las Vegas massacre brought compassion in the face of "evil."

We watched as President Trump spoke to the nation, calling the massacre “an act of pure evil.” He followed with an assurance based on Psalm 34:18, saying “Scripture teaches us the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.  We seek comfort in those words, for we know that God lives in the hearts of those who grieve.”

To these obvious references to moral teachings of the Bible, the president added that, “In times such as these I know we are searching for some kind of meaning in the chaos, some kind of light in the darkness.”  Then, President Trump tried to assure a stunned America by saying, “The answers do not come easy. But we can take solace knowing that even the darkest space can be brightened by a single light, and even the most terrible despair can be illuminated by a single ray of hope.”

President Trump’s message was an effective encouragement this morning.  We were also encouraged to watch the reports of heroic efforts on the part of first responders and even average Americans who sprang into action to provide assistance to the wounded and dying.  Yet, horrific events like this one in Las Vegas are becoming all too common.  And each time, we see our leaders and law enforcement officials rise to the occasion to pronounce the acts as “evil” and “morally reprehensible.”  Yet, most do not attempt to answer the deeper question, “WHY do these things occur?”

Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY called today for a more reasoned explanation for the existence of “pure evil.” I will refer you to his well written blog article, “An Act of Pure Evil”--Searching for Meaning in Las Vegas, and conclude my article with excerpts from his article.  Mohler asks, “Why do we ask why?” and continues as follows:

We cannot help but ask why because, made in God’s image, we are moral creatures who cannot grasp or understand the world around us without moral categories. We are moral creatures inhabiting a moral universe and our moral sense of meaning is the faculty most perplexed when overwhelmed by horror and grief.

Dr. Mohler commended President Trump for classifying the massacre as “evil” and for directing us to consider the moral basis for the hope of finding solace in God’s sovereign purposes.  Mohler then went deeper to address the necessity of defining the moral absolutes necessary to define and explain the existence of “evil:”

Evil is a fact, too. And evil is a theological category. The secular worldview cannot use the word with coherence or sense. The acknowledgement of evil requires the affirmation of a moral judgment and a moral reality above human judgment. If we are just accidental beings in an accidental universe, nothing can really be evil. Evil points to a necessary moral judgment made by a moral authority greater than we are — a transcendent and supernatural moral authority: God.

College professors tell us that moral relativism has produced a generation of Americans who resist calling anything evil, and even deny the existence or moral facts. Justin P. McBrayer, who teaches at Fort Lewis College in Colorado, wrote in The New York Times that “many college-aged students don’t believe in moral facts.”

That’s truly frightening, but McBrayer argues that by the time students arrive at college, they have already been told over and over again that there are no moral facts — that nothing is objectively right or wrong.

Only the Christian worldview, based in the Bible, can explain why moral facts exist, and how we can know them. Only the biblical worldview explains why sinful humanity commits such horrible moral wrongs. The Christian worldview also promises that God will bring about a final act of moral judgment that will be the final word on right and wrong — as facts, not merely speculation. The Gospel of Christ points us to the only way of rescue from the fact of our own evil and guilt.

Our hearts break for the families and communities now grieving, and we pray for them and for those even now fighting for life.

It is both telling and reassuring that secular people, faced with moral horror as we see now in Las Vegas, can still speak of evil as a moral fact — even if they continue to deny moral facts in the classrooms and courtrooms. No one can deny that the horror in Las Vegas came about by an act that was evil, pure evil, and evil as a fact.

Dr. Mohler concludes his article with a quote from Isaiah 5: 20, ESV, the same passage of Scripture that I referenced in my September 21 article in which I discussed Lessons for America from the 1950’s?

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” [Isaiah 5:20, ESV]