God has placed a desire to know Him in every
soul that He has created. This desire creates restlessness in the soul of Man that demands that the void be
filled. Even an atheist who denies the existence of God or an agnostic, who questions it, must fill the void with his own
conception as to the origins of the universe and the purpose for his own existence.
Once Man chooses to either neglect
or reject what God has revealed or provided, Man has always found the need to replace the intangible things of true spirituality
with something that can be seen, touched, or otherwise detected by way of our natural senses. Read the Rest of This Article
It's A Matter of Life and Death
Did you ever stop to think about how we use the phrase “it’s a matter of life and death”? It just seems
to me that these words are used far too much. For instance it’s a matter of life and death that dinner gets done in
time. It’s a matter of life and death that I get to my hairdresser appointment. It’s a matter of life and death
that I get this new CD, TV or whatever. The list goes on and on. Why in life is everything a matter of life and death?
It was a simple assignment.
I was asked to substitute teach a class of 10 and 11 year old girls for the summer vacation Sundays. No big deal, right?
Here
I was a member in good standing. A regular attender, choir member, professional women’s Bible study leader and all around
good guy, well gal actually. Teaching a class of six or seven girls during summer vacation months should have been no big
deal.
It was a typical Sunday school format. The denomination was protestant. The lessons were Biblically based. What
could go wrong?
The first Sunday our lesson was obedience to God’s commands. Abraham was the topic and his obedience
to sacrifice Isaac was the object lesson. Even the coloring pages and memory verse were fairly vanilla, absolutely nothing
to worry about. Read the rest of this article
What is joy? The
dictionary defines joy as: an intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness or to be filled with ecstatic happiness,
pleasure, or satisfaction What do you think joy is? Sure it is to be filled happiness but I think the true feeling of joy
as described in the Bible goes much deeper than that.
In the Bible the word joy is used to describe any range of human
experiences from the birth of a son or daughter to sexual love. In our society joy is often found in these same types of experiences.
The problem with this type of joy is that it is fleeting. When the excitement of the experience is over the joy seems to end
with it.
This type of joy is based on emotions. I think God intends for our joy to go much deeper than just an emotion.
God wants us to not only feel joy, but also to know God’s true joy. Feeling joy is only temporary and goes away when
the feelings end but knowing joy goes beyond the feeling. True joy is with you no matter what happens. This is the type of
joy that keeps a person who is ill, smiling or a person who feels that life is nothing, hoping.
Our joy is not found
in someone or something that looses it’s luster after a few days, months or years our joy is found in God and the truth
of love, which was shown on the cross. Lets look at a few passages that show us where our joy should rest. These verses I
think sum up what Paul intended for the word joy to mean when he laid out the Fruit of the Spirit.
The first thing
you notice about the word joy in Galatians is that it is listed second to love. I think this was intentional because without
love you cannot have joy.
The Bible says in Proverbs 29:3 “A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but
a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth”
This verse has different interpretations but I think this verse
in proverbs show that when our love is placed on the Father’s wisdom not on the ways of the prostitute (the world) we
will have true joy: joy that cannot be taken away from us. You see when we make the wise choice and accept the love offering
of Jesus, which is to give our life to Him for what He has done for us we will have joy. First comes love then comes joy.
This
is why I think Paul’s list of the Fruit of The Spirit is written in a specific order first must be a love for God and
His Word which brings wisdom and the wisdom of what God has done for us will manifest as true joy in our lives.
This
idea is also brought forth in verses such as Psalm 45:7 which states that “ love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy”
This verse shows
that of we first love God and righteousness we will be anointed with joy. Again first we have love and then we have joy. Think
about it if you take way love what do you have hate and misery. So with love you have joy without love you have hate and misery.
The choice is yours.
So the answer the question of what is joy would be knowing God and experiencing His love which
moves us from a place away from God to a place by His side. This is joy an intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness
or to be filled with ecstatic happiness, pleasure, or satisfaction because of love and what love has done for us. Do not confuse
God’s joy with world’s joy because without the love of God, joy is just a fleeting moment in the sun that leaves
with coming darkness and waits for renewal at the coming sun of whatever comes along.
The question that must be asked
of us is what are we going to do with our love and joy.
Please get in touch with any comments or reactions to my site.
This site dedicated to the memory of my earthly father and In Service to my Heavenly Father
This site also dedicated to the memories of my 2 sisters and nephew who have gone before me
