IS IT TRULY POSSIBLE FOR ME TO EXPERIENCE JOY IN MY DAILY WALK WITH CHRIST?

"THE FACTS OF THE MATTER"

"A weekly letter of encouragement to business and professional men and women"

Good Morning!

You are pressing your way through the day, negotiating contracts in a business environment that takes no prisoners, that increasingly knows no ethical boundaries, and at best promises a hazy financial future.  It is exactly here that you are commanded to “Rejoice in the Lord always…” (Phil. 4:4a). 

“Right.  I’ll put that on my do list, and will choose to be joyful - starting tomorrow - since today I am too wrung out to even think about it!”  God’s word gives us no room for whining or excuses, ^“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” (Jms. 1:2)  How is this remotely possible? 

Well, we know from Scriptures that joy can reign in our lives amidst trials and sorrow. Jesus, for example, assured his grief stricken disciples  of joy and hope as they faced the specter of him going to the cross, “I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.  A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” (Jn. 16:20-22) (See Rom. 5:3-3; Heb. 12:2; I Pet. 1:6-8)

“What exactly is this joy I am suppose to experience?  Certainly there is little around me that fosters inner joy.  For starters, joy is not to be confused with “happiness,” which is based on circumstances.  Nor is joy an emotion we can conjure up.  We err if we confuse joy with pleasure.  Actually the Greek word for pleasure is hedonism – the prevailing philosophy of our self-absorbed, pleasure seeking culture.  A hedonist is a person who is a lover “of pleasures more than  [a lover] of God.” (2 Tim. 2:4)  

As we choose to live in an abiding relationship with God (John 15), we find ourselves surrendering to his promises and eternal purposes. It is then that we experience his inner joy as he liberates us from our fears as he demonstrates to us that he indeed is worthy of our trust.  ^“You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand…I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation…May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, ‘The Lord be exalted!’” (Ps. 16:11; 13:5; 40:16)  (See Ps. 32:11; Lk. 10:20; Jn. 15:11; 17:13; Rom. 15:13)

The path to experiencing His inner joy begins with simple and immediate obedience to His word and to the inner  prompting of the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is then free to release its fruit in our lives as expressed through “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  (Gal. 5:22b)

You can be sure that the Enemy of your soul seeks to strip you of your joy through  acts of disobedience.  May God grant us deliverance from being put in King David’s position after his adulterous affair, as he desperately cried, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”  (Ps. 51:12)

QUESTION:  Is joy an integral part of your daily experience with God?  Are there actions you need to consider taking as you to continue to cultivate this marvelous gift from God?

This week may you experience His grace, peace and protection!

R. Dwight Hill

What Are We living For?

What Are We Living For?
Isaiah 6:1-3, John 12:37-43
Pator David Holdaway, 26/06/2011

How do we make our life worth living?

Isa 6:1: It was the year King Uzziah died. Uzziah was someone who began so well and ended badly. So many Christians are like King Uzziah. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 26 that as Uzziah rose in power, pride got into his heart and he was struck with leprosy and shut out of the temple and his son ruled in his place (2 Chro 26:16-21). Power had gotten into his heart and pride had increased in his heart. As we increased in our lives, in position, status, prestige and power, in our career, in church life, in our office, we have to guard against pride and power. We have to be careful to walk in righteousness & humility.

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We often say, 'If God is for us, who can be against us'. But let's turn it around and ask, 'If God is against us (opposes us), then, who can be for us?'

The devil is always looking for a foothold in our lives to make a stronghold.

Tragically, there are many Christians who start their race well but don't end well. Many things, rob them of their passions along the way.

In reading Billy Graham's biographies, the thing that people say about this man who had met kings, presidents, rich and poor is his humility. As Billy Graham got bigger in his ministry, his head did not get bigger, but his heart did.

In the year King Uzziah died, the Prophet Isaiah was seeking God.
Jesus told us that we are to Ask, Seek & Knock. Often, we go from Asking to Knocking (to getting the answer). But in between, is the Seeking. All great moves of God involved Seeking God. When we seek God, we are not coercing Him, but He is doing what He always wanted to do in us.

The Prophet Isaiah said he saw the King of Israel (this was Jesus, according to John 12:41), God Almighty, the Seraphs and angels of the Lord. He saw the holy presence of God. Isaiah had an awesome vision & encounter. But Isaiah also had a vision of vision of himself (Isa 6:5), he cried out that he was a sinful man, 'woe to me', 'I'm a person of unclean lips'. The greater the light we come into, the greater the light exposes. The light of God will reveal the blemishes in our lives and what we have to deal with.
One of the dangers of the Christian walk is that as we grow in our walk, we start to compare ourselves with the world and others instead of with Whom God is. The danger is that we fool ourselves that we are doing well compared with others, thinking that we are something that we are not. That's why the Bible says that we are not to be conform to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:2). If we don't stand for something, we will fall for anything and allow the world & things around us to influence us.

Floyd McClung worte how he realised he had lost his apostolic passion even though he still had Jesus. He wrote how he was being seduced by Western culture and the American dream which replaced the dream God placed in his heart. He said that he realised that he had an evangelical mind but had developed a Babylonian heart.

We battle with materialism, money & finances. It is not how much we have, but the attitude of our heart towards money. Billy Graham said the 3 greatest battles he has to guard his purity & passion are with money, sex and power.

We can't serve God and money but we can serve God with money. The danger is that money can be demonised and money becomes mammon, a god. How do you know when money becomes mammon to you?
1 When God asks you to give & you will not. Money controls your decisions.
2. When money defines you. How much is he or she worth? But in God's Kingdom, everyone's worth is defined by the value of the blood of Christ.
3. When we are willing to do what is ungodly or unrighteous to keep or get - that's when money has power over us.

In Isa 6:6-7: God took a fiery coal to purge Isaiah of his sins. It was not superficial, it was a deep purging & cleaning.
a Often we pray that God will remove the cobwebs in our lives. What we need is for God to kill the spider making the cobwebs.
b. Experienced warfare with a mosquito? We can apply lotions & creams but the mosquito will continue to bite. We need to kill the mosquito.
Too often we are clearing the cobwebs and applying the lotions in our lives. What we need is to kill the spiers and mosquitos like how God took the burning coal to purge & cleanse Isaiah. It was moment of recommissioning, reconsecration for Isaiah.

Conclusion
What are we living for? Are we so busy living that we have no time in our life for something worth living for? Is what we are living for worth what Christ died for? The life worth living is a life lived for God.

Have we lost the joy, the passion along the way?

Can we say, Lord here I am, cleanse me, purge me, use me, send me.