A Blasphemous Brain

Intellect says,

• I believe that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and on the seventh day He rested (Gen 1:1–2:23);
• I believe that God valued man highly from the very beginning because He created man in His image and gave him dominion over all His other living creations (Gen 1:26–31, 2:19);
• I believe that God breathed the breath of life into the first human (Gen 2:7) and continues to supply each one of us with the breath of life today (Acts 17:24–28);
• I believe that every person to ever walk this earth (with the exception of one man who will shortly be named) has sinned against and rejected his/her Creator and Life Preserver (Rom 3:23);
• I believe that because each one of us has sinned, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth to save us from our sins (John 3:17);
• I believe that Christ always did (and still does) His Father's will (Luke 2:49; Mark 19:46);
• I believe that Christ fulfilled His Father's will by bearing our temptations, sorrows, beatings, humiliations, and sins, and by facing total separation from His God and Father on the cross (Heb 2:17–18, Matt 26:36–38, Matt 26:66–67, Matt 27:27–31, 2 Cor 5:21, and Matt 27:46, respectively);
• God's motive for all that He did, does, and will do is “love” (1 John 4:8–10).

Intellect believes all of those things are true (and provides ample evidence for these assertions), and yet Emotion feels that the following is true (enter blasphemy):

“Love” is impatient and unkind; “love” envies and boasts; “love” is arrogant and rude. It insists on getting its own way; it is irritable and resentful; it rejoices at wrongdoing, but does not rejoice in the truth; it does not bear all things, does not believe all things, does not hope all things, does not endure all things. “Love” will end. (Grossly distorted 1 Cor 13:4–8)

Intellect knows that distortion is a lie. For truth, see the real 1 Cor 13:4–8. This distortion of “love” is a wall between me and others, and more importantly and devastatingly, between me and God. In 1 John 4:8, John writes, “God is love.” Emotion immediately kicks in and scratches out the word “love” and replaces it with “a lie.” Intellect knows that THAT is a lie. But the lie feels stronger than the truth. There is a constant brain battle between Intellect and Emotion. When I can quiet my brain enough to listen, these are the words I need to hear:

Prov 3:5—Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Scripture quotations are from (and grossly distorted from) the ESV* Bible. In other words…

Scripture quotations are from the ESV* Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version*), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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