You’re Coo-Coo if You Can’t Accept Crazy as the New Normal!

Welcome marathoners in and for Christ. (1 Corinthians 9:24; Hebrews 12:1; 2 Timothy 4:7) Exhausted, depleted from running the Godly, good, and being-a-blessing-to-others race? Welcome. Sit. Relax. Let’s feast.

Feast of the Heart exists to help bring about Christ-centered “reformation, revival, and constructive revolution” (Francis Schaeffer, Death in the City) so that God will be glorified and people blessed.

Reformation… we seek to abide by and serve up the true truth, pure doctrine of the Bible

Revival… we seek to model biblical Christians living in word and deed

Constructive Revolution… we seek to spread the true gospel right where God has planted us with urgency, compassion, and radical self-abandonment

Got Insanity? It’s Going Around Ya Know

Many years ago author Paul Scherer, among numerous yet unheeded others, alerted us to a downward cultural slide. Referring to the volatile exchanges between the Church and its detractors he said:

“One by one the generation that refused to be bound by the Pope, and refused to be bound by the church, decided in an ecstasy of freedom that they would not be bound by anything, not by the Bible, not by conscience, not by God Himself. From believing too much that never did have to be believed, they took to believing so little that for countless thousands human existence and the world itself no longer seemed to make any sense. Poets began talking about the `wasteland,’ with ghostly lives,’ as Stephen Spender put it, `moving among fragmentary ruins which have lost their significance.’ Nothingness became a subject of conversation, nihilism a motive, frustration and despair a theme for novelists and dramatists, and the `edge of the abyss’ as much of a nautical term among the intelligentsia as it was for explorers in the days of Columbus!” (Paul Scherer, The Word God Sent, Harper & Row, 1965, p. 11).

Bound by Nothing? Then Nothingness Will be Our Lot in Life.

Akin to Francis Schaeffer’s must-read, prophetic words, humankind cycles through times in history when we use all of our God-given intellect to eradicate God, and then we find it strange that we can’t reason-out why we’re going so bloody insane… welcome to today!

“I am convinced that when Nietzsche came to Switzerland and went insane, it was not because of venereal disease, though he did have this disease. Rather, it was because he understood that insanity was the only philosophic answer if the infinite-personal God does not exist.” (Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture)

Sorry, We Can’t Have It both Ways: No God & All Happiness… Humans Just Don’t Function That Way!

If there is one common denominator in every meaningful discussion I’ve had with any human being anywhere I’ve gone on the planet, it’s tied to this sort of question, Can I have a happy life [while living an essentially meaningless life]? The parenthetical, is, of course, only occasionally included by the person willing to be honest; but this is the outcome when anyone goes beneath the surface: What do you mean by ‘life’… or ‘a happy life’? What gives your life meaning in a way that can assure you of a happy life? Is your happiness based upon whether the circumstances of life are going your way? And what if life’s not treating you well?

Got a Daisy Chain Theology of God? “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not.” It’s Killer!

You see, all happiness and no meaning can only exist, only “work”, if we stay on the surface of life: not going deep, being open-minded, asking the difficult questions, while being teachable and real. And, guess what? There has never been a time in all of history and culture where living on the surface of life was given more legitimacy, more enabling technology, more popularity… and more pain associated with the insanity of doing so! Insanity works as long as we avoid, mask the repercussions, right? Well, let’s use one outstanding example from the Bible that is more relevant today than ever before:

The Book of Ecclesiastes is all about the meaningless and vanity of life when lived strictly under the sun: a secular, materialist, naturalistic life without God. When any human being makes a decision to NOT know God, via atheism or agnosticism, there are only three life philosophies and ways to live:

• Stoicism—a lifestyle that denies or avoids emotions, considering them irrelevant. Stoics deal with destructive emotions by means of extreme self-control and inner fortitude.
• Hedonism—Stoicism’s opposite. This lifestyle focuses on experiencing as much unrestrained pleasure as possible, considering pleasure to be life’s chief
• Existentialism—a lifestyle that grows out of despair, based on the belief that existence has no purpose or meaning. Existentialists put on a brave front and face daily life with courage and even lofty convictions, despite the deep despair.

[Take Pause, Note: There is no, there can be no synthesis between, a) those who hold the secular, materialist worldview and b) those who hold on to God, in Christ, through the Spirit. Boiled down to their most basic elements and worldview paradigms, Christianity and materialism are mutually exclusive, opposing, opposites… at war in fact. The incessant, and even plausible-sounding siren, “Why can’t we all just get along?!” is, in reality, poppycock… babble, balderdash, bull, bunk, and so much hooey from hell!

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)

Absolutely: “light and darkness” can agree on what’s for lunch, maybe whether or not stop lights at intersections are plausible; but when it comes to the deepest issues of life and whether or not any decision will or will not glorify God and honor men as His Image Bearers, compromise—a little bit of God and a little bit of Godlessness—will always equate to bringing God down and man’s multifaceted, many, and vile idols up. Period.]

The mere existence of today’s usual line of bifurcated, inconclusive questioning and illogical reasoning ACCEPTED AS BEING NORMAL points to where all things all went wrong for all of mankind: At the Fall (Genesis 3) when Satan tempted the progenitors of humankind to doubt God’s word and distrust His person and sovereignty. Ever since then all of humankind lives with the deepest doubts possible about whether or not we can be happy while having an identity, a meaning, based upon who we are as God’s created and beloved ones… OR NOT.

The possibility of True, Incorruptible Happiness became an impossibility when Man was separated from his or her reason and meaning to exist. And then Jesus came so that we could be born again, have life, and have it abundantly… through and in Him.

But, as the above authors so eloquently note, we strive, strive, and then strive some more to live a happy life… FOR NO REASON except that we deserve it or it’s simply the instinctually, institutionally best way to live. And this way of life [E.g., I just wanna be happy but I don’t know why, or whether there’s any meaning to my life.] will eventually drive an Image Bearer of God insane, irrational, foolish, and eventually unable to reason at all.

Over Time Things Get Comfy and We’re Prone to Stray… Right?

Over time, incrementally, slowly but surely, and invisibly to most in the culture [but supposedly NOT the church], many things created and controlled by man assist in helping man distance himself from God… and humanism replaces our love of God.

“First dentistry was painless.
Then bicycles were chainless,
Carriages were horseless,
And many laws enforceless.

Next cookery was fireless,
Telegraphy was wireless,
Cigars were nicotineless,
And coffee caffeineless.

Soon oranges were seedless,
The putting green was weedless,
The college boy was hatless,
The proper diet fatless.

New motor roads are dustless,
The latest steel is rustless,
Our tennis courts are sodless,
Our new religion — godless.”
(Arthur Guiterman)

The opposite? This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.(Lamentations 3:21–22) The God of the Bible is the ONLY God Who can be described as “when the infinite became intimate” in Christ Jesus.

In Christ, by the Father, and through the Spirit, our hope is never further away than reminding ourselves of who and what we are by faith in the One Who indefatigably loves who and what we are in Christ! (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 1:1-15; 1 John 5:11-12)

Then… Only Then… Can We Say with God and His Authors of the Bible… Of Ourselves:

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. (Isaiah 12:2)

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. (Proverbs 3:13-18)

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

Hence the Feast of the Heart… my own… mission in life:

Reformation… we seek to abide by and serve up the true truth, pure doctrine of the Bible

Revival… we seek to model biblical Christians living in word and deed

Constructive Revolution… we seek to spread the true gospel right where God has planted us with urgency, compassion, and radical self-abandonment

Love, truth, and blessings ’till we feast again,
JohnDoz