Can someone who does not have a warm fluffy fondness for God be saved?

It is. That's where the 'insanity' bit comes from. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Ed

 

This post gets my vote for "best use of irony on the BB" that I've read so far! :wavey:

 

Hope this is a big wagon, coz I think I'll have to join y'all. Maybe it's coz it's so late and I can't fully reason out the posts and their actual meaning or relevance.....

 

Your wife might borrow a page from James and say 'show me your love without works, and I'll show you my love by my works'. The feeling that we call love is not what you promised your wife when you got married is it? I hope your wife is an angel, because I know I don't always have that loving feeling toward my wife. Nevertheless I love my wife, even when she is on my list. It is important to a woman to be loved in the manner you speak of, and we should have affection towards our wives. But we should not be confused into thinking that that is what God wants our love for Him to consist of.

John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

John 14:23-24
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

 

And we should not be confused into thinking that an unfeeling love toward God is acceptable.

 

One thing is sure, if you don't have warm feelings toward God, you will have a hard time maintaining a right relationship with Him. The same with our wives. If we do not practice cultivating good thoughts and feelings toward people, we will end up not loving them in actions. But Lacy's point is that folks who outwardly proclaim they love Jesus, but are not following His commandments, are not really loving Jesus at all. I don't get to go any more since my work schedule keeps me from it, but our church goes to downtown Ft Worth on Friday nights to witness and preach on the street. We meet many folks who 'love' Jesus.

 

When I give marriage counseling, one question I always ask is: "Why do you want to get married?"

The typical response is, "Because we love one another!" (feeling)

"Yes, I'm aware of that, but why do you want to get married?"

Eventually, I emphasize the importance of the commitment over the feeling of "being in love" (feeling) because without the commitment, the feeling will fade.

However, with only the commitment and no love, love (feeling) will eventually happen, and with commitment, even when the feeling goes away or is replaced by another feeling (anger, hate, etc.), it is a temporary lapse.