“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

I am not taking a position here but this article raises very compelling questions through excellent points. https://g3min.org/christ-or-chords-the-manipulated-emotionalism-of-hillsong-asbury-and-pentecostalized-evangelical-worship/?fbclid=IwAR2KIpEununA_wd1I2oW8rj5vZvUKobZN_LZPqg1wVC879cAhGG4LyG5RR8

I have heard and read wonderful, and correct, sermons, articles and books about emotions and the misdirection that can occur from them. We must be very cautious to interpret emotion as truth and ask ourselves is this ‘chords over Christ?’ John MacArthur takes courageous positions of truth based upon scripture, sans emotion, and his comment about the defined revival at Asbury of ‘shut off the music and see what happens’ is a compelling statement worthy of consideration and analysis.

In 1 Corinthians 3:2 the Apostle Paul correctly writes “I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready,” and we as mature Believers should zealously protect and accept our role to properly lead new Believers and those seeking a relationship with Christ through careful, thoughtful and with limited emotion, guidance to true relationship with the Father.

Think of it this way. A surgeon may have been influenced to become a surgeon because of the deep emotions she felt when seeing a person traumatically injured. Those emotions drove her to the years of schooling and residency necessary to achieve the title of Dr. and Surgeon. The surgeon is taught that she must remove all emotion when performing her job. So too we must surrender the emotion of introduction to Christ, to the commitment of learning and preparation that when called upon to introduce Jesus to someone, we do it with ability, knowledge and love devoid of adolescent, emotional immaturity exhibited in too many Christians today.

I attend and am deeply involved in a church where contemporary worship is an integral part of the experience. Some call this type of church a Seeker Church. I define ours as a Refuge Church, because of the sheer numbers of people that I meet who have experienced church hurt, church abandonment and/or disillusionment with a church’s body. I will say, if you are part of a dysfunctional church, don’t leave. Be a part of the solution. Be a voice that brings Christ back into the center of the church. For our church, many people are being introduced to Jesus through emotional worship and from there, the responsibility of our church begins, to introduce them to deep, meaningful relationship with Jesus, not based upon emotion but based up real, genuine, sold-out love and surrender.

Too many of us never mature beyond the puppy love of adolescence, either in our personal lives or in our new life in Christ Jesus. I had a friend who went from relationship to relationship then to marriage after marriage, saying to me “that I just want the emotions that I feel in the first six months to last forever.” The euphoria of emotional connection lied to him. Ask anyone who has been in a long and genuinely meaningful marriage and they will tell you that there are reasons why “for better or worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer” are words included in a traditional ceremony. These statements speak truth that lasting relationship has no place for immature, emotion because they are fleeting and seldom last beyond the next season of seeking and disillusionment.

The grass is never greener and the lies of Satan never ending. “For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44 (NLT)

So my encouragement to you today is in the form of a question. Is it the temporary, emotional high of worship upon which your relationship with Jesus is built, or on the never shifting sands of a love built upon what the Bible says is a relationship with Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit and the life purposes defined in scripture?

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.  But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.” Matthew 7:24-26 (NLT) Jesus speaking to his Disciples.

Be the source that introduces and exemplifies the stability and protective rock that is Jesus. Never swaying to and fro, but solidly anchored in truth and love.