A Feel-Good Message

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My Dear Friend,

To feel good or to be good? that is the question! And it is on every minister's mind. Let me explain.

Our duty as ministers is not to help you feel good but to help you be good. It is not to make you feel well but to make you live well. Therefore, in planning sermons, teachings, counsels and, yes, e-devotionals, the question in the back of our minds is, how will this topic make my readers (or listeners) feel? Good or bad? Comforted or disturbed? Happy or angry - with me?!

Now I, too, have a soul that is oft-distressed by the many vexations of modern life. So, I enjoy feeling comforted as much as the next Christian. And relieved. And blessed. But something else overarches this issue.

It is this: ultimately it is truth, and truth alone, that makes a Christian feel good. Hearing the truth, obeying the truth, and teaching the truth. Our uniquely wise Lord declared, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). If those of us in His ministry "speak the truth in love" to His people (Ephesians 4:15), they will, in the end, love us for doing so. Why? The truths we shared led them, time and again, to draw nearer to the living Truth, Christ, and revel in inner spiritual freedom, follow Christ's paths, and avoid all others. But not all ministers are following this rule.

Instead, many are catering to the "feel good" vibes that drive our twenty-first century world. They're not new vibes. They're old, as old as the hills. Specifically, they're as ancient as the Jewish prophet Isaiah. He described children of God who, in his day, had rejected the truth of God - and, thus, the God of truth. These apostate Jews were cancelling the true prophets by telling them to be quiet: "See not [any more divine visions] . . . Prophesy not unto us right [just, righteous] things" (Isaiah 30:10). Simultaneously, they were inviting false prophets to give them religious talks and writings that made them feel better about themselves - just as they were, loving idols and practicing sins - without any changes of any kind. Isaiah called the false prophets' best-selling scrolls and sermons "smooth things" (Isaiah 30:10), or messages that went down easily and left the idol-worshiping, self-serving Jews feeling, not healed by truth, but soothed by falsehood. Religious falsehood. Even partially Torahic messages . . . but with subtle, selfish, sin-excusing twists. Some translate these false messages as "pleasant things" (NIV) that "flatter us" (CJB) and "make us feel better" (MSG). Fast-forward twenty-seven centuries.

Surprisingly, little has changed! The "pleasant messages" Christian communications industry has by innumerable television shows, radio broadcasts, self-help books, pseudo-devotionals, e-blasts, and videos made billions of dollars in the last few decades doing just what Israel's false prophets did. Millions of self-serving Christians have loved hearing feel-good messages and thousands of self-serving ministers, speakers, and writers have loved delivering them. But this illicit love affair has burned out. Why?

Many are now realizing telling us what we want to hear has never been what we needed to hear. And those who have been made to feel better have not been made better by mere good feelings. Now it's reckoning day, the day when everyone comes face to face with the truth. And many American Christians are realizing they have been lied to. God is awakening us as I write.

And the more spiritually awake we become, the more we will realize that we've been loving lies, living lies, and lauding liars. And not thriving but languishing in their lies! Spiritually speaking, none of their feel-good messages have gotten us anywhere. We've made no real, enduring spiritual progress in knowing Christ intimately, fulfilling His will joyfully, and making disciples abundantly.

To the contrary, many of us have gone backwards, not forward. We've gone further into the greedily awaiting clutches of carnality, not into the liberating arms of spiritual living; further into loving the things of this world, not the values of the world to come. But, again, this is about to change. Not in every church, but in many churches. Not in every Christian's life, but in many Christians' lives.

It will begin where it must: with pastors! Right or wrong, they are our leaders. Wherever Christ's sheep are, His undershepherds have led us there. So, positive change must start with them. Our pastors must now become God's true "oracles," or mouthpieces. They must start telling God's sheep the whole truth, the entire biblical counsel, leaving out no vital Christian teaching - and leaving the sheep's fickle feelings to themselves. Whether they bleat sweetly or butt angrily is no business of good undershepherds. Their business is only to fully declare the Good Shepherd's truth in love. Sound insensitive?

To the contrary, this uncompromising counsel is both sensitive and sensible. Since God's very Spirit is "the Spirit of truth" (John 14:17), anyone who sincerely wants to know God wants to know the truth. So, truth-seeking and truth-telling are sensible. And discovering more of the truths, or realities, of God's Word and the genuine, spiritually minded Christian walk always makes believers feel good. Blessed, relieved, inspired, and strengthened, we not only feel well, we then live well. Anything less leaves us feeling bad - dissatisfied, disappointed, and unfulfilled, because the "Spirit of truth" within us senses we have been denied the truth. So, truth-seeking and truth-telling are also sensitive, or mindful of our emotional wellbeing. Need this illustrated further?

How do you feel when you know our newscasters, and even "experts," are telling you distortions, incomplete stories, and outright falsehoods day after day to serve their hidden agenda? Not good! You want the truth from them, the straight story, and they just won't tell it! So, you're left frustrated and not ministered to, because they are telling you what they want you to know and hiding what you need to know . . . about this temporal world.

How much more important is it, then, that ministers, who deal in issues of eternal importance, be truthful presenters? Paul, for one, was a faithful Gospelcaster. He declared he had "not shunned to declare" to the Ephesians "all the counsel of God" (Acts 20:27). Hmm. Maybe that's why God allowed Paul, not Demas, Judas, or the Judaizers, to write much of our New Testament?

But today, we American Christians are writing our own story. And though the chapter now being closed is filled with feel-good messages, the next chapter will bring truth-telling ministers and ministries to the fore. Not every Christian will buy into what God is about to do, but do it He will!

The old sayings will fade out, things such as: "You're trying too hard to obey God, nobody is perfect"; "Don't worry about the sin that's still controlling your life, Jesus has already forgiven you"; "No one can control their thoughts, stop trying to 'bring every thought into captivity to Christ'"; "You don't have to seek God, just come to church and that's all He asks of you"; "No one really expects you to study the entire Bible, just take short bits of it in your daily devotions, that's enough"; "Don't worry about the Judgment Seat of Christ, you're 'the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus,' and God only sees Christ in you, not your actual thoughts, words, and ways of living"; "Jesus just wants you to have your best life now, and He's committed to helping you prosper and achieve great things for yourself in this world"; "Sure, Jesus talked about us loving each other and forgiving offenders, but He knows some Christians are unlovable and some offenders unforgiveable"; "Suffering is no longer for us, that was only for the early Christians in Roman times"; and "prayer, fasting, giving, chaste living, all those things are for exceptional Christians, and ministers, not ordinary believers."

In their place new sayings will increasingly be heard, such as: "Being Christ's 'disciple' means seeking Him diligently and earnestly applying His teachings to your life"; "The fear [awe] of God is needed just to begin being wise and knowing God"; "Earnestly build a prayer life, having times of prayer and prayer at all times"; "God's Word is life to your soul and light to your path, so search it hungrily, thoroughly, and often"; "The Holy Spirit has sovereign control over your life, so obey His guidance at every turn without exception"; "Unforgiveness is deadly, and harboring unloving thoughts toward even one fellow Christian will spoil the unity of your prayer group, Bible study, or church"; "Yes, God 'works all things together for your good,' but your stubborn disobedience works all things together for your harm, and others', so stay obedient, safe, and blessed"; and "God is tenderhearted and forgiving when you confess sin and repent, but if you try to hide your sin, in the end, you'll reap exactly the wrongs you've sown, and realize it is you, not He, who has been deceived." These and many other truth-grounded, biblically accurate counsels will replace the old antibiblical, self-centered, "smooth" sayings of the last 50 years. Now, back to where we began.

We have now answered our opening question: being good is better than feeling good, and living well than feeling well! And a new generation is arising in the land that will embrace this truth and live by it. Even if it initially shakes, pierces, troubles, and convicts us - and it will, it must - this truth will ultimately make every lover of the living Truth feel good. Now that I've told you the truth in love, I feel good.

Do you feel good, too? I certainly hope so, because I want this to be a feel-good message.

Feeling good,

GregSig2