Mush Watch

I went with the family to WEC last night. The service was pretty good. To my surprise Philip Hacking was the speaker.

Afterwards, I was reflecting with Susan on one of the songs we sang on the way home. Now everyone chooses a bad song to sing now and again, so I am not challenging the one who chose it, but this was a particularly bad song. It can be found here. The last verse goes

Father, I love You
Come satisfy the longing in my heart
Fill me, overwhelm me
Until I know Your love deep in my heart

Now it is not that I am against experiences and feelings when in relationship to God. Would that we had more, in some ways. It's just that the theology is so bad, misleading and damaging.

As I began to sing the last two lines, Romans 5:8 popped into my head:

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (NIV)

Note the difference. In the song we are praying that the Father will make his love known through a feeling. The Scripture tells us God the Father makes his love known through a demonstrable fact. The song makes no references at all to the objective facts of redemption. In fact, it is not even distinctively Christian! As you might guess, I didn't sing those lines after all.

Susan put my concerns rather succinctly: I don't need to know God's love as a feeling. I need to know God's love just like I know tomorrow is Monday.

Isn't she wise? That's such a good statement!