Desperate Joy

There is a scene in the film adaptation of S.W.A.T. (starring Colin Ferrell) in which a couple of cops are giving a third cop a hard time because he is eating fast food, "Hey, I thought you were a Mormon now, and you weren't allowed to eat that stuff anymore!?" The fast food cop replies, "Yeah, I converted when I married my wife, don't tell her.   We aren't supposed to eat this stuff, our bodies are a temple." "Huh! I treat mine like an amusement park!" It is a funny exchange, but it does offer an insight into the way many people think about their bodies.   Many people believe that the only purpose our bodies have is to provide us fun, excitement and pleasure, God and religion are just obstacles in the way of this goal.   There is little if anything considered sacred these days.   What was once considered holy is now profaned and what once was profane is now considered holy.   Our bodies included. We have lost the understanding that o...

  We have been looking at four stepping stones we can take if we want to find our way to joy.  The first two we looked at last time were surrender and sanctification, in this post I want to look at service and silence. When I was a child in Sunday school I was taught an acronym for joy: Jesus, Others, Yourself.   If I want to find joy, I was told, I needed to put Jesus first, others second and myself last.   It is a simple, but profound truth.   Life is not meant to be about my self-fulfillment, self-satisfaction, and self-actualization, at least not as ends in and of themselves.   Life is about serving Jesus and serving others.   While I am busy serving others I find the fulfillment, satisfaction, and actualization I desire. Jesus acted this out in dramatic fashion in John 13, "3. Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God. 4. He riseth from supper and laid aside his garmen...

  As human beings we have a problem.  We want things.  We desire pleasurable experiences.  We enjoy nice things.  These desire in themselves are not bad, in fact they are good. God wants us to flourish and have a pleasurable, joy-filled life.   He gave us the capacity for pleasure so that we would be drawn to Him, since He is the ultimate source of pleasure and joy.   "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning."   (James 1:17) The question is, how do find pleasure and satisfaction in the presence of God?   The lights and rush of this world are in our faces constantly, how can we cut through the noise and find the greater pleasure God is offering?   There are four things that I believe should be active in our lives if we want to be filled with the joy of the Lord:   surrender, sanctification, service, and silence.   ...