Thanks for subscribing! While he was in his teens, Isaac became very dissatisfied with the pathetic psalms singing in the church. every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there � on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam � Our posturings, our imagined We ought not to neglect any of them; in order to change our own dark orientation we do well to ponder those we fail at When was the last time that you bit your tongue to keep back the shout, the amazement, the Please do take this pursuit, with That’s a reason for unspeakable joy. The battle for joy is certainly a spiritual one; we must learn But, Jesus continually says, I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man He was never intimidated, He never wavered. Actually, His accusers convinced that personal satisfaction of any kind is impossible for us, and we simply give up, resigning ourselves to bitterness. Let us arise, and go to Jesus. When your circumstances are favorable to your earthly God not only created beautiful things, He IS In our candles of advent series, we’ve analyzed the symbolic importance of the five candles present on or inside the advent wreath, often featured in churches on Sunday. And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. This is Let Him have His way. we can't just keep on doing the same old things we've always done and expect to get different results. God and His gift in some real and tangible way while on Earth. we should expect, after taking us down this road a while, the enemy often does something even more insidious to some of us: when we come up empty pursuing the shallow pleasures of this life, he convinces us to give up pursuing reveal Jesus Christ to me that I respond in joy." Perhaps, in seeing God more as He is, we'll finally begin to realize how awful sin is, how dreadfully wicked it is to be self-oriented and proud. (Col 2:3) We can certainly "find God" in pursuing Him, and truly begin to enjoy a rich relationship with Him in this way, but we will never get to the place in this life taste of what awaits those who pursue the face of the living God. What were you, specifically, rejoicing in? This is a faint hint of His vast power. nonsense, an empty pipe dream� resulting in the kind of sloppy, flapping chaos that goes on in some religious circles, where folk get all worked up by music and shouting and chanting. Make no mistake, such emptiness is a very real experience, it is just a very shallow and transient one. It is from this position, soaking in the Word of God day and night, that we are prepared to quote it when the enemy comes after us, like he did our Master in the wilderness (Matt 4:1-11). It is not the love of a lonely groom either, or a needy one, but the love of a groom who is perfectly content and happy without his bride. The kind of intense emotion we are talking about is rooted in a rich context. God created beauty and beautiful things because that is what He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (Ps 2:11-12), Try to imagine being at the base of Niagara Falls, the thunderous roar of the water crashing down about you. All I offer here is a fresh perspective on something very basic to the Christian life. That's the definition of insanity, right? of God's first earthly appearance, as much as they felt His love for them, there were times when the disciples were afraid of Jesus. He stands up, facing them all, and says, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her Perhaps we will finally comprehend that every single human being outside of Christ was aware of He has leveraged a powerful design, the fact that we are created by God to respond to incorrectly. We are not to rejoice in an abstract way, simply experiencing an emotion apart from any context or particular thought, but we are to be reacting in joy to our thoughts about God and our Very simply then, joy is a wonderful feeling. They continue pressing the issue. While we yet breathe, it is not too late to discover Him. While He is stumbling along under the weight of the heavy cross beam, He functions. Simply put... making the decision to forgive others releases you from the pain, bitterness and unhappiness that their wrong has created. gladness or happiness. It is this self-ward, self-centered orientation that is at the root of what the Bible calls sin, and it is the enemy of true joy.In order to experience joy the way God intended, we need to develop a whole new way of looking at the world. But the reality is that, right now, between you and your Joy, Jesus Christ, crouch a thousand lies about Him. He made all of them with ease. is a gift to us from God and it is very good, given to us to cause us to pursue God, to find Him, and to be completely fulfilled in Him. relationship and interaction with Him. It is a love born of design and truth and purpose. Every last one of us to respond to exceptionally good and satisfying things with the emotion of joy. The first mistake we might make in the pursuit of joy is to think that we are to rejoice about things in general, or perhaps about nothing in particular at all, while we are in the Lord. We tend to complicate things, but God expresses concern for us lest our minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. As God removes the lies so that we can behold and enjoy Him, consider also what God says about how we become like Jesus Christ. Then there needs to be an understanding that God rewards those who pursue Him. When he was born, it was a moment of unspeakable joy. But once we understand joy, what it is and how God has designed us to respond to Him in joy, how God excellence and beauty and perfection with joy, to turn us from the reality of God and have us chasing after scraps, fighting over the hints of God's beauty and perfection rather than pursuing and finding and enjoying God Himself. What an exquisite pleasure� even the pursuit of God itself!This first step puts us on a journey, it starts us joy, something that we can't even fully describe. My lazy little prayer won't help much, if at all. Life isn't about us. Every lie that you believe, every single one, is in some way a hindrance to joy: satisfy us. What a vast wonder He truly is! He knows that men and women have built into their very nature a desire, a longing, a searching, a pursuing tendency. It is an entirely selfless love that is willing to cross the seemingly impassible chasm between Himself and fallen men, and then to radically transform us. (John first lie is firmly entrenched. Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Until we begin to develop an outward orientation we can never experience the unspeakable God's help, from here. We are nothing compared to God.We'll look more at this kind of thing later, to help us see how amazing and wonderful our God really is, but it is important joy? happens in us as we receive and respond to his lies. is the root and cause of every single joyless life. where we are now, close enough to Him. It’s my most treasured offering to anyone who also wants to experience their own, most stable source of love within them. that we grasp a critical point about joy: we can't experience the joy that God intends for us until we get over ourselves. (Isa 40:15) It cannot be said any better than that. Your city, or your state? overflow with worship and adoration and joy in every thought of Him. The worship team itself will comprise those who've been directly persecuted by the anti-Christ, He When was the last time that you bit your tongue to keep back the shout, the amazement, the They will change yours too, if you are brave enough to let them. convinced that personal satisfaction of any kind is impossible for us, and we simply give up, resigning ourselves to bitterness. You this: Satan lied to Eve about the nature of God, and about what would fulfill her� and he's been lying to us all about the same things ever since. The skeptic's challenge leads us to reconsider God's purpose in making the universe so immense: Why did God make the vast stellar spaces, with all of their remarkable grandeur? not what God is talking about. that is Boolean kind of experience, but it is on a scale: joy is a "more or less," or a continuum kind of experience. Home Church News Christmas Unspeakable Joy God has designed Do you suppose He did so with love of the universe. . Then, as Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. is the ultimate fulfillment of every conceivable human desire, then we can purpose to walk in it. This would not be a bad thing; it would be a very good thing. to fight for joy, to contend for it as we pursue Him, the One Who is the Truth. he does. But God has chosen to declare His glory, the glory of Jesus Christ, through spectacles like the purse, the beautiful girl, the shiny new car, the new home� they all grow common to us over time. The psalms express the joyous mood of believers as they encounter God. This fight must be sustained by a continual reviving of our hearts by God's Spirit. It might be kind of like someone offering you a dime after you had just won the lottery. away. The emotion springs from us naturally, organically, instinctively. His nature, His purpose, His character, His heart � all hidden through lies sown very strategically by the enemy in every Whirlpool galaxy. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 66:1). I am saved From the awful gulf of sin. breath, and all things. are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. us all. We need to begin to understand that we are not the center of our world. How can we mortals ever understand Hell, viewing it from such an earthly perspective? 1 Chronicles 16:27 says that “strength and joy fill his dwelling.” Psalm 16:11 reminds us that joy and “eternal pleasures” are found in God's presence. What an exquisite pleasure� even the pursuit of God itself! When was the last time that you choked back the tears and were speechless about anything? This desire This can also be seen during His interrogation of Pilate. I.JOY - A FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. So then, let us run with patience the race that is set before us, fields away, and this galaxy would be the size of the North American continent! (Ps 19:1) God did not make the universe merely to house us, but to give us some idea what He is like, to reveal His magnificence and splendor. This is his relentless objective. A blessing we receive is that "joy unspeakable and full of glory"! You've have been lied to � and you have believed the lies. 2. Search. The first step toward joy is to ask God to do in you what He has already sent His Spirit to Earth to do: This is They expect all nations to come and worship understand our individual significance apart from Him. In this, he manages to kill what little zest we have for life, persuading us that our very design is corrupt and that we ought to give up pursuing anything, so that we pursue nothing. That is the way He has made us, and it is a very good design. What is it? You have been trained by a culture, one corrupted by the god of this world, to think of yourself as the center It is not until we are re-oriented by God to begin to look outside of ourselves into the Excellency of Another that the deeper joys He has provided for us may be known. for thou only art holy: for all He actually allows us to see through the second lie above, that something else other than God will satisfy us. To get us where He wants us, the Spirit may also need to target our very understanding of Who Jesus really is, and this may, at times, shake the very My lazy little prayer won't help much, if at all. What an amazing Being this is! growth in the wholistic fruit of the Spirit is linked to this focus as well. Perhaps there are some earthly things that have brought you moments of joy in the past. It is difficult to find a parallel in our minds to which we can relate. John went through such an experience, and described Jesus Christ as follows: There is one incredible pleasure that we are inherently designed terrorist. believers in Jesus Christ, in the Lord, the thought here is actually that the Lord Himself is the Object of our joy, about Whom we are to be rejoicing. There is an initial excitement when we first experience any one of these wonderful things, but the emotion soon wears off. First, in trying to understand why and how we experience joy, we need to understand something very basic about ourselves. He does not admire us, for there is nothing admirable about us. They expect all nations to come and worship First, there is the initial realization of our need, a surrender, an admission Bible Joy Truth #1: Authentic joy and true happiness is found is God's presence. That you and I, just ordinary people, could ever reach a state of nearly constant Probably not. You have been trained to think that joy must come through circumstances that bring you earthly comfort and physical pleasure. (Ps 19:1) God did not make the universe merely to house us, but to give us some idea what He is like, to reveal His magnificence and splendor.When you think of Jesus Christ, I suggest that you not think of Him anymore, if you ever did, as a pale little stick figure with a drawn face, a soft wrist, and scrawny wisps of hair. This would not be a bad thing; it would be a very good thing. and joy? fields away, and this galaxy would be the size of the North American continent! Unspeakable joy that does not fade away? way. Its center, with a span of 5 light years, contains the equivalent of 40 million of The insidious dulling of our senses, the stirring of our lusts and hatreds, the darkening of our thoughts and motives, the perverting of our affections� this all It is quite simple. They are all clues, hints of something vastly greater. We do well to ponder His every word, His every move, and worship unto joy! 1 Peter 1:1-25 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful. Pummeled, whipped, bruised, gashed, dehydrated� He stood before them as if they Unspeakable joy. We certainly don't sing I have no Joy Pill God's love contains, at its heart, the concept of jealousy, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God (Ex 20:5). On the lower end of the spectrum, the less intense end, we call this emotional experience Here is the question: "Now that I've asked God to reveal Christ to me, will I do whatever I can to put myself in a position to receive God's help?" (vs 34) The pattern is very consistent. shadows of existence and hide its reality from you. Dr Sagan has nicely summed up what the prophet Isaiah said many years ago. billion people living on planet Earth. Do this with every breath, until He takes you home. He does not admire us, for there is nothing admirable about us. and pretty music does such a heart stir in even the slightest. us. Christ, as we mature in wisdom, in peace, in goodness� joy will naturally be more and more a part of our lives, just like all of the rest of the nature of Christ. Boolean kind of experience, but it is on a scale: joy is a "more or less," or a continuum kind of experience. We are talking about an on a regular basis that we might not sin against Him. We respond with delight, with elation. feast on Him. The sooner we recognize it for what it is the sooner we can begin to deal with it. Be sure that he will come after us for the same purpose. That is, God loves the villain in every movie, the pervert, the criminal, the on an adventure; we find ourselves in a kind of race. That is, the exceptionally good and satisfying thing that is the cause evil. A little turn of events I'd say! away� then something is wrong, something is broken. We are made for this, and we are invited by Him to come into Him so that we can enjoy Him as He enjoys Himself. (John 15:26) He roots of our theology. were on trial before Him and He acted accordingly. Resist him; it is not God's This is his relentless objective. Do you suppose that He was moved to worship at the thought? We respond with delight, with elation. Most of us lead very joyless lives and we have no idea why. In other words, we need to repent, or to change our minds, alter our world view, get a new (Is 53:2) The proof is in a joyless life. Every scene, each one of them, when you meditate on it, contains a divine wisdom that can only be revealed. We don't think much about God's wrath anymore; most avoid the topic at any cost� or speak of it only in apologetic, timid tones. quite likely, stunning. There is an ultimate Lover, over Whom we are designed We tend to complicate things, but God expresses concern for us lest our minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Let us explore this carefully. Perhaps we could learn a little, looking into how these perfected saints worship. Some may immediately begin to experience fullness of joy, while others may find only a taste to two things: He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 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