Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure—

• Numbers 5:14

or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the Lord and is to apply this entire law to her.

• Numbers 5:30

Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.

• Proverbs 29:11

“Feelings come and go, and when they come a good use can be made of them: they cannot be our regular spiritual diet.”

• C. S. Lewis, The World’s Last Night and Other Essays (The World’s Last Night)

I thought of writing this a long time ago.  I searched the NIV for the word “feelings”, and I did not get a good result.  The only search results were two verses from Numbers 5 where a feeling of jealousy comes over a husband, thinking his wife has been unfaithful.  If it were not for God’s hand in the “test” it would be barbaric.  Here is a drink that is guaranteed to make you throw up and maybe worse things, but it will not harm you at all if you have been faithful.  Yep, that kind of a test, but God becomes the arbiter.

But how many times have you heard someone’s testimony and it boils down to one time when they were at a church or Christian event, and they felt really good, and they felt God was near them.

Have they ever had a good feeling like that since?  No.

Did their life change as a result of that good feeling? No.

Did they dedicate themselves to God at that moment?  No.

Did they invite Jesus into their heart?  No.

Okay, maybe you do not need all those things.  Maybe some of them are the language of times gone by, but if there is no change in your life, did you really experience God?

Now, do not get me wrong.  Some people with a testimony like that rarely darken the church, others with that kind of testimony have their niche in the church.  They may play in the worship band.  They may volunteer to help with church dinners and such.  They may comprise half or two-thirds of the leadership boards within the church.  In many ways, they make the church tick.

But are they even in the Church triumphant?  That is for God to decide, but like C. S. Lewis says, Feelings cannot be our regular spiritual diet.

I have had many feelings lately.  Sometimes, I write something that touches me deeply.  Not because I write it, but because I write something that I did not expect.  I know many ideas come from God, but I do not get the “feeling” until I have the computer do a “Read Aloud” and I wonder where that came from.  A fluffy piece turned into a heart-throbbing piece.  But maybe only I felt it.

But the feeling that I got when I worked with a Methodist Lay Witness Mission Team in the early seventies is probably similar to the feeling they had at the Asbury Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  It was for that moment and maybe the euphoria lasted until you got home.

But to mark our Christian life by connecting the peaks is a little silly.

Most of the Christian growth is done in the valleys.

And what is the post title all about?

It’s a play on the lyrics to Feelings, written by Louis Gaste and Morris Albert.  The lyrics read “wo-o-o feelings”, but most artists get carried away.  This recording is by Morris Albert.

I have had “feelings,” sometimes by the bucket full.  But that ever presence, where there is no feeling like the song says, a feeling that I will never have you in my arms.  Yeah, feelings of abandonment.  No!  That ever presence is in my heart, and Jesus promises to never leave me.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.