Fifteen Tactics for Joy

 

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

In this life of sin and pain, joy is embattled. Just like faith. And Paul says to Timothy, “Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). So it is with joy. We must work for it and fight for it. Paul said to the Corinthians, “We work with you for your joy” (2 Corinthians 1:24).

How then shall we fight for joy? Here are 15 pointers.

Realize that authentic joy in God is a gift.Realize that joy must be fought for relentlessly. And don’t be put off by the paradox of these first two pointers!Resolve to attack all known sin in your life, by the power of the Holy Spirit.Learn the secret of gutsy guilt — how to fight like a justified sinner.Realize that the battle is primarily a fight to see — to see God for who he is.Meditate on the word of God day and night.Pray earnestly and continually for open heart-eyes and an inclination for God.Learn to preach to yourself rather than listen to yourself.Spend time with God-saturated people who help you see God and fight the fight.Be patient in the night of God’s seeming absence.Get the rest, exercise, and proper diet that your body was designed by God to have.Make a proper use of God’s revelation in nature — take a walk in the woods.Read great books about God and biographies of great saints.Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others (your verbal witness and deeds of mercy).Get a global vision for the cause of Christ, and pour yourself out for the unreached.

Every one of those has Bible verses to support it. If you want to see them, they are in the book When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy.

The Day Is at Hand

 

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. (Romans 13:12)

This is a word of hope to suffering Christians. It’s a word of hope to Christians who hate their own sin and long to be done with sinning. It’s a word of hope to Christians who long for the last enemy Death to be overcome and thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).

How is it a word of hope for all these?

“The night” stands for this age of darkness and all its sin and misery and death. And what does Paul say about it? “The night is far gone.” The age of sin and misery and death is almost spent. The day of righteousness and peace and total joy is dawning.

You might say, “2,000 years seems like a long dawn.” From one standpoint it is. And we cry, How long, O Lord, how long will you let it go on? But the biblical way to think goes beyond this lament of “How long!” It looks at world history differently.

The key difference is that the “day” — the new age of the Messiah — has really dawned in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the end of this fallen age. That is, the end of this fallen age has, as it were, broken in to this world. Jesus defeated sin and pain and death and Satan when he died and rose again. The decisive battle of the ages is over. The kingdom has come. Eternal life has come.

And when dawn happens — as it did in the coming of Jesus — no one should doubt the coming of day. Not even if the dawn draws out 2,000 years. As Peter says in 2 Peter 3:8, “Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The dawn has come. The day has arrived. Nothing can stop the rising of the sun to full day.

THE INSEPARABLE GOD’S LOVE FOR US!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY APRIL 28, 2022.

SUBJECT : THE INSEPARABLE GOD’S LOVE FOR US!

Memory verse: "Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Romans 8 vs 35).

READ: Romans 8 vs 31 - 39:

8:31: What then shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

8:32: He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

8:33: Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

8:34: Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes Intercession for us.

8:35: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

8:36: As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."

8:37: Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

8:38: For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor Angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 

8:39: nor height nor depth, nor any other created things, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

INTIMATION:

Have you ever imagined a separation of you from God? Your answer might be yes, because you have considered yourself not good enough for God. You will then say, "God will not save me." Your thought is that your sinful life will be a hindrance for you to receive salvation from Him. But it is not true! Christ had already chosen us, and gave His life for us because of His love for us, and His quest for us to have life, and have it more abundantly. Have you ever imagined this show of love for us by God? And have you ever heard of any parallel, or equal show of love in history, and now? 

When one understands all that God did through His grace, the answer to the question is obvious. No one or anything can stand against God to bring His sons into eternal glory. When we comprehend the extent to which God went to bring us into eternal glory, then we begin to understand the love of God. When we understand how far Jesus had to come to get us, then we can appreciate the extent to which God had to go to save us. 

Christ was spotless, perfect and rich. For His love for you and I, He became poor, chose to be a propitiation for our sins, took all our sins—past, present, and future—on Himself, and paid the wages of death for our sins (Romans 6 vs 23; Ezekiel 18 vs 4). His death was even a shameful death on the cross, just for you and I. By His death for our sins, He justified us, legally setting us free from sin after haven paid the price for us. He did not stop at that. He descended to hell and met with our accuser, and greatest enemy, Satan. He engaged him there, defeated him, and stripped him of all powers. 

He took back His life and ascended into heaven where He sits at His position of authority—the right hand of God, and making intercession for us continually, as our advocate before the Father. He is our High Priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses, and ever ready to help us through the journey of life. God loved us so much so that He exchanged His Son's life of inestimable value with our worthless sinful lives. Whenever I imagine this act of God, I feel a chill run through my spines, with goose-pimples all over my skin. It is awesome!

No matter what happens to us, no matter where we are, we can never be separated from His love. Though believers may have to face hardships in many forms: persecution, illness, imprisonment, and even death. These sometimes cause us to think that Christ has abandoned us. But far be it from the truth, it is impossible to be separated from Christ. His death for us is proof of His unconquerable love, which is an overwhelming assurance of our being totally secure in Him. Nothing can separate us from His presence.

No one has a right to condemn the members of the body of Christ except the One who saved them. However, since God loved His children by offering His own Son, then it is not logical to believe that He would charge His blood-bought children with sin. If Jesus gave Himself on the cross to save the church—His body, then it is not logical to believe that He would turn around and condemn those for whom He died.

Jesus is at the right hand of Gods. However, He is not there for the purpose of condemnation, but for the work of intercession on behalf of the saints. His continued intercession means that the Christian has the continual cleansing of the sin by His sacrificial blood. Consequently, in Christ we are super-conquerors, and His love will protect us from any forces in the universe; principalities and powers, unseen evil forces like Satan and his fallen angels—the demons. We are completely secured in Him.

Prayer: Abba Father, I thank You for all You wrought for me in redemption because of Your unparalleled love for me. It is my desire to reciprocate this love You showered on me. Engrace me O Lord, with raw obedience unto You in my journey in life, in Jesus' Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

THOSE WHO CONSIDER THE POOR ARE BLESSED!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY APRIL 28, 2022.

SUBJECT: THOSE WHO CONSIDER THE POOR ARE BLESSED!

Memory verse: "He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given.” (Proverbs 19 vs 17.)

READ: Psalm 41 vs 1 - 3:

41:1: Blessed is he who considers the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.

41:2: The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.

41:3: The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of illness: You will sustain him on his sickbed.

INTIMATION:

The Bible often speaks of God’s care for the weak, poor, and needy, and of his blessing those who share this concern. Providing for the poor is not just a suggestion in the Bible. The need for believers to care for the poor is a constant theme in the Scripture. But often we do nothing, caught up in meeting our needs and desires. Perhaps we don’t see enough poverty to remember the needs of the poor. 

God said neglecting the poor is a sin. Helping the poor is a command that may require a change of attitude on your part. 

God wants our generosity to reflect His own giving. Helping the poor is also an active part of religious life. As He has blessed us, we should bless others. God has a special concern for the poor. He insists that those who have material goods should be generous with those who are needy. He who gives to the poor is assured deliverance, blessing, strength, and mercy from the Lord because he had shown the same to the poor. 

When you show mercy to others, the Lord will show you mercy as well: “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5 vs 7.) We should reflect God’s concern for the poor by giving and by helping those less fortunate than ourselves. God counts on believers to provide for the poor, and we should use what God had given us to aid those less fortunate. Look beyond your regular giving and think of ways to help the needy. This will help you show your regard for God (as Creator of all people), His creation, share God’s goodness with others, and draw them to Him. It is a practical and essential way to make faith work in everyday life.

Many times we do nothing, not because we lack compassion, but because we are overwhelmed by the size of the problem and don’t know where to begin. God doesn’t expect you to eliminate poverty, nor does He expect you to neglect your family while providing for others. He does, however, expect that when you see an individual in need, you will reach out with whatever help you can offer. 

Many people conclude that people are poor through some fault of their own. This kind of reasoning makes it easy to close their hearts and hands to the needy. But we are not to invent reasons for ignoring the poor. We are to respond to their needs no matter who or what was responsible for their condition. There is no excuse for ignoring the poor and needy within our reach.

It is everyone’s responsibility to care for those less fortunate. Families should help other family members, and towns are to help their community. One will not only seek out the poor to help them, one will ensure to make it easy in society for the poor to survive. 

Helping and caring for the poor and less privileged amongst us is a demand placed on us by God, and it is strictly for our own benefit because God has promised to reward us with deliverance, blessing, strength, and mercy. And God is not a man that He can lie and the sin of man that He can repent or change His promise. What He says He will do is as sure as day and night.

Prayer: Abba Father, I know Your word is yes and amen. Endue me with the spirit of generosity, especially to the poor and needy in our society, that I may obey You in giving and showing mercy to others and quality for Your rewards, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Great Exchange

 

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed. (Romans 1:16–17)

We need righteousness to be acceptable to God. But we don’t have it. What we have is sin.

So, God has what we need and don’t deserve — righteousness; and we have what God hates and rejects — sin. What is God’s answer to this situation?

His answer is Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died in our place and bore our condemnation. “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he [God] condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). Whose flesh bore the condemnation? His. Whose sins were being condemned? Ours. This is the great exchange. Here it is again in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

God lays our sins on Christ and punishes them in him. And in Christ’s obedient death, God fulfills and vindicates his righteousness and imputes (credits) it to us. Our sin on Christ; his righteousness on us.

We can hardly stress too much that Christ is God’s answer to our greatest problem. It is all owing to Christ.

You can’t love Christ too much. You can’t think about him too much, or thank him too much, or depend upon him too much. All our forgiveness, all our justification, all our righteousness is in Christ.

This is the gospel — the good news that our sins are laid on Christ and his righteousness is laid on us, and that this great exchange becomes ours not by works but by faith alone. “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).

Here is the good news that lifts burdens and gives joy and makes strong.

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Children of a Singing God

 

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Mark 14:26)

Can you hear Jesus singing?

Was he a bass or a tenor? Was there a down-home twang to his voice? Or was there an unwavering crystal pitch?

Did he close his eyes and sing to his Father? Or did he look into his disciples’ eyes and smile at their deep camaraderie?

Did he usually start the song? Or did Peter or James, or maybe Matthew, do it?

Oh, I can hardly wait to hear Jesus sing! I think the planets would be jolted out of orbit if he lifted his native voice in our universe. But we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken; so, Lord, go ahead, do it! Sing!

It could not be otherwise but that Christianity be a singing faith. The founder sang. He learned to sing from his Father. Surely they have been singing together from all eternity. Don’t you think so? Would not infinite eternal happiness in the fellowship of the Trinity sing?

The Bible says the aim of our singing is “to raise sounds of joy” (1 Chronicles 15:16). No one in the universe has more joy than God. He is infinitely joyful. He has rejoiced from eternity in the panorama of his own perfections reflected perfectly in the deity of his Son.

God’s joy is unimaginably powerful. He is God. When he speaks, galaxies come into being. And when he sings for joy, more energy is released than exists in all the matter and motion of the universe.

If he appointed song for us to release our heart’s delight in him, is this not because he also knows the joy of releasing his own heart’s delight in his own image in his Son by his Spirit in song? We are a singing people because we are the children of a singing God.