You got me feelin' emotions...

I promised an early week reflection on what's up in the Christian blogosphere... So, here it is. On Friday, I linked to John Piper's excellent article regarding hearing God speak through Scripture. As I mentioned when I posted the link, the article had already spurred some interesting and positive discussion throughout the bloggin' world.

The discussion has continued and has blossomed into that great, age old debate regarding - as TeamPyro so eloquently put it - 'da gifts' (R)(c).

Just a couple thoughts:

• I'm on record as being a 'continuationist'. Reformed though I am, the same reading of Scripture that lead me to embrace the Doctrines of Grace leads me to see no convincing case for the cessation of the so-called miraculous gifts. I've hashed this over before, so no need to revisit it now.*
  
• What's most interesting about this discussion (starting on Adrian's blog and moving to TeamPyro) is that I don't know how we got here from there. Piper's point in the post has precious little to do with the charismatic experience. Indeed, I am confident that all Biblical cessationists would add a hearty "Amen!" to Piper's sense of God speaking through Scripture. If God isn't powerfully speaking to us through His Word, we aren't just losing the 'charismata', we're losing Biblical Christianity. Without Spirit-illumined truth from the Bible we're adrift without a sail or anchor.
• Since we have landed in talking about the gifts again, I want to clarify my position thusly: I have no interest in making emotional experience or emotionalism the foundation or ongoing support for our faith. Our emotions are fickle and guided/controlled by a wayward heart that still bends towards sin all too often. However, if all I have is a cold, distant, intellectual faith that never results in real joy, kindness, and love then I have an issue. On Pyro, someone said this in the comments:

  Honestly, I've never even considered "how" I should "feel" in my walk with Christ. Ever since God reached into my dead heart and gave me life I've continued to deepen in the "true knowledge of Him who called [me]", resulting in power over sin, richer gratitude, stronger faith, passionate praise, and sincere love for others.
  As it relates to EXPERIENCING the living Christ through the Spirit, Paul, in Ephesians 3:14 – 5:21, focuses almost entirely upon mind renewal and true character change rather than any emotional or sensory perceptions.

  My point is only this... While we mustn't go seeking after (and thus idolizing) experience, we know that real faith does work itself out in experiential ways. As this person said, we find "passionate praise and sincere love for others" welling up in us where there was deadness before. Those things have at their core an emotional expression. So, let's not make emotions the enemy here! However, let's rightly call emotionalism idolotry of experience over truth.

Thoughts, folks?

*Just a note: I continue to challenge myself on this issue by interacting with the best cessationist cases I can find. Most recently, I've been reading through Nathan Busenitz's paper delivered at a previous Shepherd's Conference. So, I'm not trying to be an ostrich with my head in the sand...