Joy, this is the second part of the Fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5.22.
This word is one of the crucial ones to take back to the original language. In English joy is defined as "emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying." Based on this definition, according to scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5.16, I am to be full of great delight and happiness all the time. But as any person knows life is not always happy and delightful. Good things do not always happen to us, some times we are angry. So does the Bible call us to do something that we can't do? Does it set a standard we cannot attain?
As the opening blog for this talked about the Fruit of the Spirit is something that God produces in us, but this part is not a feeling of constant elation. The Greek word used by Paul is the word chara (pronounced hara). This word means "cause of joy, occasion of rejoicing". It is not merely a feeling of delight, but the source, the reason for us to be glad.
Let's look at scripture. Hebrews 12.1-3, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy (charas) set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
For Jesus the cross was not a moment of intense happiness. In the hours he was beaten, mocked and crucified I'm fairly certain there was not to much happiness or delight. But the cross was a source of Joy for Jesus. The blood Jesus shed on the cross paid for sin. The cross was the reason Jesus came to earth. The cross lead to Jesus being exalted. The verse says that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Philippians 2.9-11 says that because Jesus endured the cross God highly exalts Him and gives Him the name that is above every name.
Several months ago I worked through the Fruit of the Spirit on my own, not looking at original language, just praying through each word. For joy I wrote contentment, satisfaction with life. Joy is contentment, but it isn't complacency. We need to be content but restless. Jesus was content to go to the cross, in the garden He prayed, "If it is possible let this cup pass from me, but not as I will as You will." He knew He had to go to the cross, but He didn't do it casually, He did it with all His heart. I love the scene in the Passion of the Christ where Jesus is being beaten with the sticks. The soldiers get done with the first round and Jesus is there collapsed and shaking. The soldiers stand there thinking they have handed out a decent beating, and then Jesus stands back up. Everyone is shocked, the soldiers are angry, this man just got back on His feet, silently saying that He could handle it. He knew that more had to come, that a worse beating had to be endured. It might have ended there, but He stood back up. He had to do this fully. He took the beating, carried the cross, surrendered to the nails, and at the end said, "It is finished" knowing that He had given His all, knowing that He had done the task He was sent to do to the best of His ability.
That is chara, the reason to rejoice, the source of joy. For Jesus it was the cross. William Barclay said "The cross...meant the final victory."
I said in the first blog, the Fruit of the Spirit is all or nothing, and they build upon each other. For us our chara, our source of joy is our agape which comes from God. No matter where I am in life, no matter what my situation is, no matter what I'm going through, good or bad, I can always be joyful, I can always be satisfied because I am loved unconditionally by God.
I live content but restless. I know that I am where God wants me to be right now, and until He closes this door and opens a new one, I will strive to do this to the best of my abilities. I am unconditionally loved by God, how could I give him anything less than my best effort?
Live with Joy
Peace be with you
Monday, July 26, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
...Love...
Love, it all starts with love. The word used in Galatians 5.22 is agape. Most people who have spent time in the church have probably heard this word explained as unconditional love that God has for us. That's true, but that's only part of it.
God
The word agape, in regards to God, shows three things. First, this word is a declaration of the mode in which God's love is manifested (John 3.16); second, this word shows the attitude of God towards us (John 3.16); third this word expresses the essential nature of God (1 John 4.8).
The word agape is love seen in action. God sent His Son to the world. This is the mode in which God shows us His love, He willingly sacrificed his own Son so that we might have life. The word agape shows the unconditional and self-sacrificial love of God. The attitude of God towards us is that we are worth whatever cost it will take. We are worth saving because He has this unconditional love for us. The word agape shows us the essential characteristic of God, God is love. God is agape. God in His core, in His essential being, His very character, is Love.
God cannot help but love us, He cannot stop loving us. He will not stop loving us, and He has no desire to stop loving us.
The word agape is love expressed through action, it is unconditional and self sacrificial. The word agape is the Love of God.
But the Fruit of the Spirit, is something that is to be produced in us. I, as I strive to become like Christ, must love as He loves.
1 Corinthians 13 talks about love. I hear it read at many weddings, and yes, this is how we are to love each other, but more than that, 1 Corinthians 13 talks about how God loves us. It talks about how I am to love others, but I think it goes one step farther. It tells me how I am to love God.
If I am striving to become more like Christ, then I must love as He loves. This is not just loving people like He loves people, that is part of it for sure, Jesus talks about it in John 15.12, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you."
The characteristic here is agape, the love of God. It is the love expressed through action, unconditional, self-sacrificial love. It is the way that God loves me, and has shown me through giving me life both by creation and by salvation.
This is the way that I am to love others. This is the way that I am to love God. Philippians 3 tells us that whatever was gain is loss compared to knowing Christ. Philippians 1 says that to live is Christ and to die is gain. Love expressed through action.
God, help me to love as you love. Help me to love people as you love people, and to love you as you love me.
Peace be with you
God
The word agape, in regards to God, shows three things. First, this word is a declaration of the mode in which God's love is manifested (John 3.16); second, this word shows the attitude of God towards us (John 3.16); third this word expresses the essential nature of God (1 John 4.8).
The word agape is love seen in action. God sent His Son to the world. This is the mode in which God shows us His love, He willingly sacrificed his own Son so that we might have life. The word agape shows the unconditional and self-sacrificial love of God. The attitude of God towards us is that we are worth whatever cost it will take. We are worth saving because He has this unconditional love for us. The word agape shows us the essential characteristic of God, God is love. God is agape. God in His core, in His essential being, His very character, is Love.
God cannot help but love us, He cannot stop loving us. He will not stop loving us, and He has no desire to stop loving us.
The word agape is love expressed through action, it is unconditional and self sacrificial. The word agape is the Love of God.
But the Fruit of the Spirit, is something that is to be produced in us. I, as I strive to become like Christ, must love as He loves.
1 Corinthians 13 talks about love. I hear it read at many weddings, and yes, this is how we are to love each other, but more than that, 1 Corinthians 13 talks about how God loves us. It talks about how I am to love others, but I think it goes one step farther. It tells me how I am to love God.
If I am striving to become more like Christ, then I must love as He loves. This is not just loving people like He loves people, that is part of it for sure, Jesus talks about it in John 15.12, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you."
The characteristic here is agape, the love of God. It is the love expressed through action, unconditional, self-sacrificial love. It is the way that God loves me, and has shown me through giving me life both by creation and by salvation.
This is the way that I am to love others. This is the way that I am to love God. Philippians 3 tells us that whatever was gain is loss compared to knowing Christ. Philippians 1 says that to live is Christ and to die is gain. Love expressed through action.
God, help me to love as you love. Help me to love people as you love people, and to love you as you love me.
Peace be with you
Monday, July 12, 2010
But the Fruit of the Spirit is...
Over the last couple months the youth group I work with has studied the Fruit of the Spirit. Now over the next few weeks I plan to blog about each part of it. I took the teens through a study of the original Greek terms used, this way we got to the real meaning of each one. Today I want to begin with an introduction, simple things that may not be thought about.
First we see that this is fruit. Fruit is something that is produced, not done. These characteristics are not a result of acts we do, but they are the result of a life lived well, the results of a changed life. Fruit takes time to ripen, it takes time to mature. Fruit must grow. These characteristics don't just appear over night, they take time to develop, and the more we mature, the more we grow into Christlikeness the more these characteristics become evident.
In the movie Evan Almighty there is a line that I love, "If you pray for patience, do you think God gives you patience or does He give you the opportunity to be patient?" I think that's how the Fruit of the Spirit works. It takes time, we develop them as we grow closer to God, and the closer we get to God the more these characteristics become evident in our lives. God gives us the opportunity to develop and express them.
Fruit Grows
The second thing we see is that this Fruit, this thing that is produced, is of the Spirit. This is not something of us, but of God. As these blogs are written and the Greek words are examined you'll see how much all of this is about God, and how everyone of them comes back to God. These are characteristics we can only have in our lives because of God. This is fruit that God produces in us.
God produces the Fruit
The third thing is the wording. Often I've heard it said "The Fruits of the Spirit" but this is not the case. The text does not read, "But the Fruits of the Spirit are..." but rather, "But the Fruit of the Spirit is..." This is not a list of options. It's not I'll pick this one, that one, and those two because they are easy and I like them. This is an all or none list. These nine characteristics are not a pick and choose, but an all or nothing. Again as these blogs continue you'll see how they all build on each other and depend upon each other.
Fruit is, not Fruits are
The study of these with the teens falls under our curriculum idea of "Know, Feel, Be"; this part is the "Be". I've said it before, the goal of life is to become like Christ. A life immersed in God, a life focused on God, a life striving to be like Christ, is a life that lives out the Fruit of the Spirit. It is a life that has the Fruit of the Spirit being produced continuously in it. Over the next nine weeks I will share what I have found. I pray that it is as much of a blessing to you as it has been to me.
Peace be with you
First we see that this is fruit. Fruit is something that is produced, not done. These characteristics are not a result of acts we do, but they are the result of a life lived well, the results of a changed life. Fruit takes time to ripen, it takes time to mature. Fruit must grow. These characteristics don't just appear over night, they take time to develop, and the more we mature, the more we grow into Christlikeness the more these characteristics become evident.
In the movie Evan Almighty there is a line that I love, "If you pray for patience, do you think God gives you patience or does He give you the opportunity to be patient?" I think that's how the Fruit of the Spirit works. It takes time, we develop them as we grow closer to God, and the closer we get to God the more these characteristics become evident in our lives. God gives us the opportunity to develop and express them.
Fruit Grows
The second thing we see is that this Fruit, this thing that is produced, is of the Spirit. This is not something of us, but of God. As these blogs are written and the Greek words are examined you'll see how much all of this is about God, and how everyone of them comes back to God. These are characteristics we can only have in our lives because of God. This is fruit that God produces in us.
God produces the Fruit
The third thing is the wording. Often I've heard it said "The Fruits of the Spirit" but this is not the case. The text does not read, "But the Fruits of the Spirit are..." but rather, "But the Fruit of the Spirit is..." This is not a list of options. It's not I'll pick this one, that one, and those two because they are easy and I like them. This is an all or none list. These nine characteristics are not a pick and choose, but an all or nothing. Again as these blogs continue you'll see how they all build on each other and depend upon each other.
Fruit is, not Fruits are
The study of these with the teens falls under our curriculum idea of "Know, Feel, Be"; this part is the "Be". I've said it before, the goal of life is to become like Christ. A life immersed in God, a life focused on God, a life striving to be like Christ, is a life that lives out the Fruit of the Spirit. It is a life that has the Fruit of the Spirit being produced continuously in it. Over the next nine weeks I will share what I have found. I pray that it is as much of a blessing to you as it has been to me.
Peace be with you
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
When it's all been said and done
This weekend I preached, and honestly I really didn't feel like it. The closer Sunday got the more I just wanted it to be over. I used a sermon I had written two years ago, and since writing it I've used it probably half a dozen times. I had no desire to preach it again, and after looking over it and making a few revisions to fit the current congregation, I began to wonder what I had thought was so great about it when I had first written it.
I had been working on the third message in a series I'm working on out of the book of Philippians, a series that I love and am continuously amazed by the deeper things God shows me about Himself and the intention He has for His church and His people in the things I study for these messages. I had been working on message three out of Philippians 4, but realized I didn't have the time to do the message justice and decided to postpone it and use one from Joshua, again.
The sermon I preached is called "Cease Striving and know that I am God" and it takes the text from Joshua 5.13-6.5 and then uses Psalm 46.8-11 as a supporting text. I had a friend read it back in college when I first wrote it and he said it was the best one I had written so far. I preached it in a few churches and had gotten good feedback on it, but honestly didn't feel like doing it again. But the more I read it, I kept feeling this was the one God wanted preached. So I did.
As the service progressed Sunday I began to get excited about the message, and honestly when it was done, I felt it was one of the best sermons I had ever preached. It had nothing to do with me, God took it and made it something worth hearing.
Before the service I had been in my office listening to a song by Robin Mark, "When it's all been said and done" This past week has had many frustrations and the past month has been extremely busy. I've been questioning a lot of things, but this song continues to amaze me, and in times like last week give me encouragement.
When it's all been said and done
There is just one thing that matters
Did I do my best to live for truth?
Did I live my life for you?
When it's all been said and done
All my treasures will mean nothing
Only what I've done for love's reward
Will stand the test of time
Lord, your mercy is so great
That you look beyond our weakness
And find purest gold in miry clay
Making sinners into saints
I will always sing your praise
Here on earth and in heaven after
For you've shown me heaven's my true home
When it's all been said and done
You're my life when life is gone.
When it's all been said and done
There is just one thing that matters
Did I do my best to live for truth?
Did I live my life for you?
Lord I'll live my life for you.
The stuff that goes on, the things people say, the junk that comes up to deal with, overall it doesn't matter. All that matters is did I do my best to live my life for the glory of the King. As long as I do the best I can to live for truth, to become like Christ, to do the work of advancing the Kingdom by showing love and teaching others to become like Christ, and above all Glorify the Father with all I do, that is all that matters when it's all been said and done.
There are times I mess up, and I hate that, it frustrates me when I make the same stupid mistakes over and over again, but all of it shows me that I am nothing without God, I can't even live my life for God without His help.
To start the service Sunday I did something I've never done before, I told the congregation the thing that I wanted them to take from this message, "It's all about God." Throughout the message that theme become clearer and clearer. That is why it was so good, it focused fully on God, it was all about God. None of it was because of me, I'm just a hammer in the hands of a carpenter, but in His hands, things can get built.
It's all about God, and that is why, when it's all been said and done, the only thing that matters is that I did my best to live for the Glory of the Father.
Live in the Spirit, Preach the Gospel of Christ, Glorify the Father!
Peace be with you
I had been working on the third message in a series I'm working on out of the book of Philippians, a series that I love and am continuously amazed by the deeper things God shows me about Himself and the intention He has for His church and His people in the things I study for these messages. I had been working on message three out of Philippians 4, but realized I didn't have the time to do the message justice and decided to postpone it and use one from Joshua, again.
The sermon I preached is called "Cease Striving and know that I am God" and it takes the text from Joshua 5.13-6.5 and then uses Psalm 46.8-11 as a supporting text. I had a friend read it back in college when I first wrote it and he said it was the best one I had written so far. I preached it in a few churches and had gotten good feedback on it, but honestly didn't feel like doing it again. But the more I read it, I kept feeling this was the one God wanted preached. So I did.
As the service progressed Sunday I began to get excited about the message, and honestly when it was done, I felt it was one of the best sermons I had ever preached. It had nothing to do with me, God took it and made it something worth hearing.
Before the service I had been in my office listening to a song by Robin Mark, "When it's all been said and done" This past week has had many frustrations and the past month has been extremely busy. I've been questioning a lot of things, but this song continues to amaze me, and in times like last week give me encouragement.
When it's all been said and done
There is just one thing that matters
Did I do my best to live for truth?
Did I live my life for you?
When it's all been said and done
All my treasures will mean nothing
Only what I've done for love's reward
Will stand the test of time
Lord, your mercy is so great
That you look beyond our weakness
And find purest gold in miry clay
Making sinners into saints
I will always sing your praise
Here on earth and in heaven after
For you've shown me heaven's my true home
When it's all been said and done
You're my life when life is gone.
When it's all been said and done
There is just one thing that matters
Did I do my best to live for truth?
Did I live my life for you?
Lord I'll live my life for you.
The stuff that goes on, the things people say, the junk that comes up to deal with, overall it doesn't matter. All that matters is did I do my best to live my life for the glory of the King. As long as I do the best I can to live for truth, to become like Christ, to do the work of advancing the Kingdom by showing love and teaching others to become like Christ, and above all Glorify the Father with all I do, that is all that matters when it's all been said and done.
There are times I mess up, and I hate that, it frustrates me when I make the same stupid mistakes over and over again, but all of it shows me that I am nothing without God, I can't even live my life for God without His help.
To start the service Sunday I did something I've never done before, I told the congregation the thing that I wanted them to take from this message, "It's all about God." Throughout the message that theme become clearer and clearer. That is why it was so good, it focused fully on God, it was all about God. None of it was because of me, I'm just a hammer in the hands of a carpenter, but in His hands, things can get built.
It's all about God, and that is why, when it's all been said and done, the only thing that matters is that I did my best to live for the Glory of the Father.
Live in the Spirit, Preach the Gospel of Christ, Glorify the Father!
Peace be with you
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