“All emotions are, in essence, impulses to act, the instant plans for handling life…”– Daniel Goldman from his book, “Emotional intelligence” 1995. Daniel comes from a neural-scientific point of view; were talking about raw brain. “…the brain has two memory systems, one for ordinary facts and one for emotionally charged ones,” Goldman again. He quotes Joseph LeDoux from 1989-93. When alarmed, the amygdala (emotional brain center) sends an urgent message out. “It acts before there is full confirmation.” “It frantically commands that we react to the present, in ways that were imprinted long ago.” What? Yes, Goldman says “the message the amygdala sends is often ‘out of date.’” In a personal example of this, when I was a child I was placed on a horse with great fear of falling off. I feared horses for years after, and the very childhood fear, when triggered, panicked me again and anew. Problem;…
Tag: <span>love</span>
“Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men.” Act 5:29. What comprises the obedience of faith? How does it work? By the obedience of Christ shall many be made righteous, is Romans 5:19. “In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” Hebrews 10:6-7. Jesus was the obvious obedient one and by His willingness we are sanctified by the offering of His body, once and for all. But what of our obedience? A key may be in the Psalmists words “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. Instead, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt…
In the valley of dry bones, Ezekiel speaks; to the bones and to the wind. His speaking-truth-in-love results in ligaments, muscle, skin and breath. Yes, bone-connecting sinews regather the strewn appendages into a unified whole where muscle mass enables action; skin tightens up hanging pieces for smooth movement. Finally, the Breath of Lives resuscitates the life-force. A living being has returned to us. Paul told the Christians at Ephesus to, “speak the truth in love,” and “grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ,” In Ephesians 4. The whole body, organized compactly, is united by every joint’s contribution, energy from every part, then, in poetic sequence, grows architecturally. Love does this; it’s all done in love. Not mental futility, obscured thought processing, alienated from God through agnostic tendencies, callousness, apathy, and surrender to boundless excesses; we put these off and find renewal in the spirit…
“And when this life is through; even then, your hand will lead me, your right hand will hold me.” “No more night, no more pain, no more tears, never crying again.” “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” “Wonderful, merciful Savior; Precious Redeemer and Friend … you give the healing and grace, our hearts always hunger for. You rescue the souls of men.” We hunger for it. “Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea, a great High Priest whose name is Love, who ever lives to plead for me. My name is graven on His hands, my name is written on His heart, I know that while in heaven He stands, no tongue can bid me thence depart.” “Mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was multiplied for me, there my burdened soul found liberty, at…
Confidence is a great thing. Don’t throw it away. Reliance, trust, belief in the powers of; these thoughts relate to confidence. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’” Eleanor Roosevelt. “When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.” Joe Namath. “To have faith doesn’t mean you get any less frustrated when you don’t do your best, but you know that it is not life or death.” “Take what you are given, and when you continue to work hard, you will see results. That will give you the confidence you need to keep going.” Tom Lehman “The moment you doubt whether you can fly,…
A fervent prayer rose up to heaven, a fragile soul was losing groundSorting through the earthly babble, heaven heard The sound.This was a life of no distinction, no successes, only trysBut gazing down on this unlovely one, there was love… in heaven’s eyes. The orphan child, the wayward father, the homeless traveler in the rain,when life goes by and no one bothers, heaven feels the pain.But looking down, God sees each heartache; He knows each sorrow, and hears each cry,And gazing up, we see compassion’s’ fire, ablaze… In heaven’s eyes In heavens eyes there are no losers, in heavens eyes, there can be no hopeless causeOnly people like you with feelings like me, amazed by the grace we can find,In heaven’s eyes Compassion’s fire is ablaze…in heaven’s eyes. Wow! “And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the…
Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isa 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. These days are full of peril, but peril has run before. To what degree, of course, we know not yet what our day will bring. Evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse; Matthew 24. Men will be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God. It trickles throughout history and it scurries today. It rushed in Europe in the 40’s, in Asia later. It gushed 13th century and streamed during Christ’s time. This threat personified itself in the early centuries A.D. It was even sport. It seems that man could always count…
on the Danube at night In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. Psalm 77:2 “Regret describes a slight disappointment over loss.” “Sadness is a taste of the truth that the world is not all right, creation is not what it was meant to be.” “Depression is a continual state of mind; effort appears futile because it seems that nothing can really help or provide meaning.” “Despair is the utter absence of any sense of hope, accompanied by a sense of powerlessness.” Quotes are from “The Cry of the Soul,” Allender and Longman. When a soul refuses to be comforted what is happening? The place of “dis-ease” appears to be safer? “Powerlessness” has displaced “power” as the more “real” value priority, through testing over time? Despair is insulating a person from the disappointment…
There is a river where mercy flows, I’m going to follow where it goes, where it goes, where it goes, I’ll follow wherever it goes. There is a fountain that will cleanse, all those who wash there from all sin, from all sin, from all sin, all those who are washed from all sin. There is a refuge for wounded souls, their broken hearts will be made whole, be made whole, be made whole; their broken hearts will be made whole There was a death that empties tombs, there is a scar that heals all wounds, heals all wounds, heals all wounds, a scar that heals all wounds. There is one name that leads us home, it is no other than Christ alone, Christ alone, Christ alone, no other than Christ alone. Have you ever expected punishment but instead found clemency? Expected rebuke but found compassion, expected a repulse only…
Dust accumulates, so does our soul’s cleaving to it. A soul catches by pursuit the powdered clay, and melts, cheapened, and dissolves for lack of lift. A soul can faint as a body lacking bread, hugging gravity’s drag. Love defies all, flies away. I noticed something; I wanna go down, I’m one with the tow — “O just a little slumber in myself.” A beckoning, a sirens call, a lure, a lust, a hell-bent, “come down, come on, it will feel so nice.” Now, self-respect cannot accompany; it too walks away. The tax-collector wants his, also; as the wind of waste, so the debt of treachery. Give hell a place, incur a debt, let your hair down; it will yank you lower. Caught; we cry, “O who will deliver me from myself?” “Love, please return to enlarge this tent, set my steps as springs, inspire my well-being, O Word of grace!” “Why…