Feelings and Faith E-Book

Brian S. Borgman

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Weaves together biblical exposition and practical application to demonstrate how emotions relate to the Christian life. Emotions are a vital part of what it means to be a human being made in the image of God and redeemed in Jesus Christ. But often our emotions confuse and mislead us. So what is the proper place for emotions in a Christian's walk of faith? In Feelings and Faith Brian Borgman draws from his extensive biblical knowledge and his pastoral experience to help readers understand both divine and human emotions. After laying a biblical foundation he moves on to practical application, focusing on how Christians can put to death ungodly emotional displays and also cultivate godly emotions. This biblically informed, practical volume is helpful for pastors, counselors, and serious-minded Christians who wish to develop a full-orbed faith that encompasses their emotional life.

Leseprobe

Feelings and Faith: Cultivating Godly Emotions in the Christian Life

Copyright © 2009 by Brian Steven Borgman

Published by Crossway Booksa publishing ministry of Good News Publishers1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Jon McGrath

First printing 2009

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AT are the author’s translation.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB have been taken from The Holman Christian Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from The New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture references marked NIV are from The Holy Bible: New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The “NIV” and “New International Version” trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

Scripture references marked NKJV are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-1145-5

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-1146-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataBorgman, Brian.Feelings and faith : cultivating godly emotions in the christianlife / Brain S. Borgman ; foreword by Bruce and Jodi Ware.p. cm

Includes index.ISBN 978-1-4335-0363-4 (tpd)1. Emotions—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. TitleBV4597.3.B66      2009

233'.5—dc22

2008041694

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To Ariel,my wife and best friend.

Because of you, Ecclesiastes 9:9 is a reality in my life.I love you.

Lioness of God is the meaning of the name “Ariel,” from ancient Hebrew fame.“Ariel, O Ariel” they called Jerusalem of old, The city where kings ruled and prophets foretold.

The name of the center of all Israelite life Is also the name of my God-given wife. She truly is a woman who is worthy of her name, Bold in faith, of the Gospel she knows no shame.

The beauty of nature and grace in her are grand, Making me breathless and grateful as I take her hand; But it is the beauty of grace that is the sweetest of all For the beauty of nature like the glory of the flower will fall.

What can I render to God for the treasured wife of my youth? To praise Him, to cherish her and wash her in His truth, To enjoy with her this fleeting life, in both pleasure and pain, And faithfully serve the One who died and rose again.

Like Zion of old, she is no stranger to troubles and trial, Yet her gaze is fixed, hands on the plough, even with a smile. Enduring life and ministry, she has learned to kiss the rod. She is my sweet Ariel, a true lioness of God.

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One

A Biblical-theological Foundation forUnderstanding Our Emotions

1 The Character of God

2 The Character of the Living Word and the Written Word

3 A Biblical Anthropology and the Emotions

Part Two

Biblical Sanctification and Our Emotions

4 Our Emotions and the Authority of God’s Word

5 The Foundation and Priority of Truth

6 A Sound Theology of Christian Experience

7 How to Handle the Emotions through Truth

Part Three

Mortifying Ungodly Emotions

8 An Introduction to Mortifying Ungodly Emotions

9 Sinful Anger

10 Unforgiveness and Bitterness

11 Fear, Anxiety, and Worry

12 Depression

Part Four

Cultivating Godly Emotions

13 An Introduction to Cultivating Godly Emotions

14 Jesus Our Pattern, Part 1

15 Jesus Our Pattern, Part 2

16 Renewing Our Minds

17 The Emotions and Worship

18 The Emotions and Preaching

19 The Emotions and Faith-building Relationships

20 The Emotions and the Word and Prayer

21 The Emotions and Reading, Meditation, and Imagination

Appendix 1

Divine Impassibility: Is God Really without Passions?

Appendix 2

A Biography Bibliography

Bibliography

Notes

Foreword

Human emotions—it seems sometimes that you can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them. How difficult it is to under-stand just what they are, whether and how they can be regulated, and what role they should play in a healthy Christian’s life. Our tendency toward excess can plainly be seen in how we deal with emotions—both ours and others’.

Some among us—call them the rationalists—do their dead-level best to avoid anything bordering on emotion. Reason and logic must guide, they argue, and emotion only threatens to usurp their rightful reign in our lives. But why, then, did God give us the emotions we have? Doesn’t this approach seem patently misguided, given the manner in which God both shows forth emotions and calls us also to exhibit strong emotions? It appears that just a bit of reasoning shows the rationalist position on human emotion to be one-sided and reductionist. And yet some quarters of the church are filled with committed rationalists. They often think the Christian faith is little more than correct thinking, and they often reason that the only way to get others to join the Christian faith is to reason them into the kingdom.

Others—call them the emotionalists—do their dead-level best to avoid thinking deeply on just about anything. If, by any chance, some of them have chosen to pick up this book, how they feel about what they are encountering will determine whether they decide to read further. They are ruled by the sway of emotional pleasure and pain, running to the former and resisting the latter. But why, then, did God give us our reasoning capacity? Isn’t it clear that both biblical teaching and our own experiences show us that following the dictates of emotions can lead to frustration and ruin? And yet some quarters of the church are filled with committed emotionalists. Among such are those who choose a church for how it feels to them, whether it gives them comforting, reassuring, and positive emotional experiences. Truth that disrupts the quest for this positive emotional disposition is viewed as unwelcome and bother-some. So long as they are made to feel good, to laugh at humorous anecdotes or cry at touching stories, to leave feeling happy and contented, they sense that they’ve been at the right place.

For most of us, the rationalist or emotionalist excess is moderated to some extent. Perhaps it would be correct to say that most Christians have a tendency in one direction or the other, even if they are not dominated by either. Some tend to allow their heads to lead and ignore whether their hearts are engaged, while others tend to follow the lead of emotional longings and suppress the evaluation their minds might be trying to offer. But at least all of us are aware that both head and heart, cognition and emotion, are realities we must reckon with in our experience as human beings and especially as followers of Christ.

Regardless of whether we are in the category of pristine rationalist or emotionalist or somewhere in the middle, nearly all of us could use some help in this area—in fact, many of us could use a lot of help! We need a vision of human personhood that shows just why God made us with the minds and hearts that we have. We need to see the importance of cognition and emotion, of thinking and feeling, of truth and affections, to live out the Christian faith as God intends. We also need to understand the effects of sin on both our heads and our hearts.

What is the relation between truth and feeling? How do I handle emotions of discouragement and despair? Is there a way that truth can affect emotions and emotions affect thinking? Can incorrect thinking bring emotional harm, just as sinful emotions can skew our thinking? Does God give guidance for us on these questions and others like them?

Both of us listened with anticipation to Brian Borgman’s sermon series on human emotions, and we were helped greatly through the biblical insight and perception into the human soul these sermons exposed. We have known Brian for a number of years, first as my [Bruce’s] student at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and in more recent years as a beloved brother in Christ, friend, and co-laborer in ministry. We have been to his church, and stayed often in Brian and Ariel’s home. We have seen the love, respect, and deep appreciation that the people of Grace Community Church extend to him and his family. The members of that church are students of the Word; they come to learn and be fed, and Brian pastors them well. He also loves and leads his family with diligence, joy, and integrity.

So, when we learned that Brian was considering revising his sermon series on emotions for a book, we were delighted. He does a superb job of establishing a firm foundation of biblical truth about emotions and then develops sound teaching regarding the role of our emotions in progressive sanctification. He writes with conviction about the sin in ungodly emotions. And he offers discerning practical advice on how to develop godly emotions through the rich teaching of God’s Word and the transforming power of the Spirit. In these emotionally murky times, Brian’s book provides a path of clear-sighted guidance and biblical fidelity.

Let the rationalists and emotionalists among us take heart (and mind!). Feelings and Faith provides unusual insight and wisdom for growth in holiness through understanding better the crucial role godly emotions play in our lives, as God designed them to do. This book will prove to be a valued resource in personal study, in marriages, in small groups, in Sunday schools, and in other venues. May God be pleased to use Feelings and Faith to teach God’s people glorious gospel truths to help all find greater balance, depth of personal understanding, and growth in Christlike character—to the praise and glory of God above all.

—Bruce and Jodi Ware

Preface

I am a pastor who loves theology. The theological stream I consciously drink from takes doctrine very seriously, something with which I wholeheartedly agree. That’s one of the reasons I drink there. My theological tradition (Reformed) puts a great deal of emphasis on the mind. It is a strongly academic tradition and can become very cerebral. So why am I writing a book about the emotions? A few years ago I “felt” the need to teach on the emotions. Since I believe that there is a biblical doctrine of the emotions and am convinced that in our more mind-oriented tradition we could use some perspective on the emotions, I started a “short” sermon series.

I took up the series with enthusiasm. Some in our congregation were a little wary. However, over the years I had put quite a bit of thought into the emotions from a few different angles. John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, and others had furnished much biblical food for me to digest. My own doctoral work on preaching at Westminster Seminary in California had directed me into the specific area of preaching and the emotions, both in the preacher and in the hearers. There was also the steady load of pastoral counseling that had forced on me the necessity of helping people deal biblically with their emotions. It seemed to me that much of what we hear about the emotions is unbiblical and therefore unhelpful. Therefore, I eagerly set out to preach two or three messages on the emotions. Those two or three turned into twenty-two sermons, and I still felt there was more to say!

The sermons aired on Pilgrim Radio, our local Christian radio station. The response was very positive. Our church administrator also added the emotions sermons to our collection on Sermonaudio. com. Over the last few years we have been amazed at how regularly those sermons on the emotions are the highest ranked, according to downloads, in all the sermons we have listed. My fellow elders and our church administrator pressured me, gently and steadily, to get the series in print.

I am personally thankful to the Lord for the number of people who have expressed gratitude for how he has worked through those sermons to bring them much needed help. It was the positive response of our own congregation and the response of listeners over radio and the Internet, which compelled me to put this material in print. It is my hope that God would use what his Word says about the emotions to help more people gain mental and emotional stability and joy rooted in our triune God for his glory.

Who Is This Book For?

This book is practical theology. To my ears, “practical theology” sounds redundant. All theology should be practical and applicable. Many do not see theology that way. My conviction, however, is summed up in what was said about Jonathan Edwards: “All of his doctrine was application and all of his application was doctrine.” Practical theology simply should be biblically sound theology, built on good biblical exegesis and exposition, which is then formulated and articulated. In turn, the theological formulation, clearly emerging from the Bible, intersects with real life. The intersection of truth and life is called application. The old-timers would have called it experimental or experiential religion.

As a result, this book has biblical exposition, theological formulation, and practical application. I have tried to write so that a layman could absorb it with profit (that is how I tried to preach the sermons!). Yet I feel the burden not to hide the exposition or theological processes. The areas that are more technical I will treat in the notes for the sake of fellow pastors and serious Bible and theology students. However, God’s people need to be grounded in his Word, so this book is for those who want to explore what God’s Word has to say about the emotions and how those truths apply to our lives. This will require some work.

Faith and Feelings: An Overview of the Book

This book has two major parts: foundations and applications. The introduction provides us with two vital pieces of information. First, it briefly exposes the most common misperceptions about the emotions, the cultural clutter of unbiblical thinking. Then it provides a working definition of the emotions that will carry us through the rest of our study. Part 1 is unapologetically theological. Although the notes will take care of some more technical aspects, the biblical and theological foundations cannot be trimmed away for the sake of a “theology-free zone” culture. This section provides a sound theological foundation to build on, without which all would simply be speculation.

Part 2 is also theological, but the emphasis falls on the application of the theology of Part 1. It begins by building a bridge from theology to life through exploring sanctification and our emotions.

The two final parts are specific applications of the theology, focusing on how to put to death ungodly emotions and how to cultivate godly emotions.

Acknowledgments

My human debt of gratitude for the publication of this book begins with Bruce and Jodi Ware. Dr. Ware was my theology professor during Western Seminary days and has been my friend ever since. Bruce and Jodi’s encouragement and help continually amaze me. Both are busy servants of the Lord, and yet they took time to help with this project in numerous ways. Jodi’s suggestions and corrections were extremely valuable. Ariel and I appreciate both of you very much.

Our friend Rebecca Jones helped me to think about writing as writing and not as preaching. Her insights and suggestions benefited me greatly. Thank you, Rebecca.

I also must thank my friend and our church administrator Gary Wheeler. More than anyone, Gary put gentle and not so gentle pres-sure on me to get this done. For more than eighteen years now God has knit our hearts together, and we have watched each other grow (and shrink and lose hair).

I also have the privilege of pastoring one of the most wonderful congregations in the church militant, Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. They are my family, and I love them, and I love preaching the Word of God to them. We started our life together from scratch in 1993. It has been sweet and tough, but mostly sweet. God has built something real, because it is all about Christ and his Word.

My fellow elders, Dave, Vic, John, Charlie, and Steve, are not only my fellow laborers, but they are also my friends. They are the mantle of credibility to the vital importance of plural eldership. Thank you, brothers.

During the preparation of this manuscript, one of my dear friends and our first deacon, Ernie Kuehnel, went home to be with the Lord. He was a model of faithfulness and emotional stability even during tumultuous times. I miss him.

I would be remiss if I did not thank a host of teachers who have taught me through their writings. It should be obvious that there are many fingerprints all over this work besides mine. I thank God for men like John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Paul Tripp, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ed Welch, David Powlison, and many more. Matthew Elliott’s excellent academic work, Faithful Feelings, was not in print when I originally preached the sermon series on which the present volume is based, but it was of inestimable help in later preparation, providing great sup-port and confirmation to my own thinking. Matthew’s next book, Feel, did not come out until I had finished this manuscript. It is an excellent popular-level work. I thank the Lord for giving these gifts to the body.

The folks at Crossway are incredible. It has been delightful working with them. Thanks to Jill Carter for her efficiency, friendliness, and encouragement. Lydia Brownback has my gratitude. She is an excellent editor. She was always prompt. Her encouragement went far beyond what I expected of an editor. It makes me smile to see her devotionals next to my wife’s and daughter’s Bibles.

Finally, I want to thank my heavenly Father for a serious and debilitating back injury that happened on the first day of our vacation in the summer of 2007. I also thank him for two weeks of excruciating pain as the interior of the disc strangulated the nerve root in my spinal canal. I also thank him for a successful surgery and for forcing me to stay down for three full months while I healed. It was during this time that he taught me much and gave me the time to write this book. My heavenly Father is perfect in all his ways. I do adore the triune God, who is sovereign and loving.

O Father, You are sovereign, the Lord of human pain, Transmuting earthly sorrows to gold of heavenly gain.All evil overruling, as none but Conqu’ror could, Your love pursues its purpose—our soul’s eternal good.

MARGARET CLARKSON

Introduction

She was angry. She was hurt. She was trying unsuccessfully not to cry. Gripping the tissue in her hand like a child’s security blanket, she said, “Pastor, you don’t understand; you don’t know how it feels. The thought of his being with that woman grips my mind like an iron claw and it will not let go. I pray. I cry. I pray again. I do not want to think about it. But I can’t help it. The thoughts create a hurricane of emotions. By the time he gets home from work I hate him all over again. I don’t want him near me. I want him to die. I can’t stand the way I feel.”