SEEKING GOD AND CONTENTMENT

 THE INTELLECTUAL PURSUIT OF GOD

There's a belief in some people's minds that being a Christian means you check your brain in at the church door.  It seems today in modern Christianity, churches put more emphasis on "experience" than they do with whether what's being preached from the pulpit is sound biblical truth.

Sadly, many equate highly intense, emotional services with "having church", and if you don't get that emotional high, then you haven't really worshiped.

That way of thinking puts the focus on the worshiper because, instead of pleasing God, they're focused on pleasing themselves.

Exegetical preaching is KEY to the intellectual pursuit of God.  But to those who seek after emotional experiences, exegetical preaching is dry, stale, and just plain boring.  They're more interested in pursuing the next emotional high instead of the intellectual pursuit of God.

What many don't understand is that if you engage the mind first, the heart will soon follow.

How can we say we love God if we don't KNOW God?  We can't know God emotionally if we haven't first learned about WHO God is. 

It's no different than meeting a potential spouse.  You may believe in "love at first sight" but that doesn't sustain you in the long run.  When you tell your friends that you've met "the one" you're going to marry, and they ask you all kinds of questions you don't have the answers to, they're going to think you're nuts for marrying someone you really don't know anything about. They may have a shady background that would change the way you feel about them.  Common sense says to get to know someone very well before making that life-long commitment.

We can't base our faith on just the emotional highs we experience in church each Sunday.  Our intellectual pursuit of God will cause us to grow more in our love of God and deepen our relationship with Him which will make our worship of Him more meaningful and expressive emotionally.

I know people who had highly emotional worship experiences in the past, but today their relationship with God is basically non-existent.  They equated worship with exciting, emotional feelings.  They engaged the heart and soul, but ignored the mind.