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My Comments:
As you might suspect, I am not impressed. Yes, it may make you feel good to believe in an afterlife, that there is something up there and people looking down, at least occasionally. The problem with that is that a feeling does nothing. It does not give any assurance that, indeed, there is an afterlife or that somewhere up there someone is listening, looking down, and cares. No assurance whatsoever.
I feel like I am the smartest person in the world, the most handsome fellow ever seen, and the best at what I do. Unfortunately my feelings have not bolstered my intellect not one point, nor have my feelings improved my appearance (painfully evident every time I look into the mirror). Finally, I am the best at nothing (except being the best Larry Peters there is -- of course, also the worst!).
Feelings are not bad -- they are good. But when you press feelings into the service of what the Word of God promises and faith born of the Holy Spirit acknowledges, feelings come up short every time. Faith is what gives birth to our feelings -- not the other way around. You cannot feel yourself into believing but faith can and does inject holy joy into the worst of circumstances and carry you through the worst of times.
The goofiest thing Mr. Morgan said was that confession might take too long -- what time would it steal? Time you could have been spending sinning? Really, a clear conscience is not worth a few moments. Confession is not telling your life story. Confession is owning your sinfulness and particularly the sins that trouble your conscience, asking forgiveness from Christ, and pledging by the aid of the Spirit to amend your life. What Morgan is really saying is that there are other things in life more urgent, more important, and more interesting that dealing with sin and its death. And that is the most telling part of what he said.
Now, of course, it really does not matter what Piers Morgan thinks or says. Just because he earns more than most of us and has a place in the public eye does not make him smarter, better looking, or more accomplished than anyone else. Okay, he is better looking than I am. But so what? And that is my point in this rant. Morgan is not your spiritual guide -- the Word of God is and so is the guy God has called to be your pastor. Listen to him and know the Word well enough to make sure that it is the Word of the Lord that endures forever and not a momentary whim and you will be on much more solid ground than your feelings or Mr. Morgan's.
Lord, have mercy!
1 comment:
There are millions of people who approach their spiritual life as Mr. Morgan. The Bible clearly describes what happens to them in the end. They have an attitude that somehow things will work out for them, even after death. They have no real fear or love for God, no desire to bend their knees to Him, to honor His name, to repent and confess their sins. The entire work of redemption, the suffering and death of Our Lord Jesus on their behalf is really quite meaningless, and it is a bother for them to consider it. So, they focus instead on the idea that those who went before them are merely in some spiritual realm of their own imagination, safely moving about and looking down at the world like some free flying ghosts in a Hollywood script or a novel. It is a sad thing indeed, and unbelief is a sure ticket to eternal damnation, but I know it is politically incorrect to even hint that judgment will come to the world at the appointed time.
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