Desperate Joy

  Kintsugi is a Japanese art form in which broken pieces of a vessel, like a vase or bowl, are glued back together with lacquer or enamel that has gold or silver powder mixed into it. When the restored piece is finished, where there were dark cracks, now there is brightness and light. Where there was once brokenness now there is value and glory. If possible, the vessel is made even more beautiful and valuable than before. The vessel is not just restored, it is made into something new, something better. When God created Adam and Eve, he made them perfect, they were flawless and without a trace of blemish. They were completely without sin or corruption. God had made them in the likeness of his Son. Adam and Eve were not exact replicas, carbon copies, of Jesus Christ. They were unique, but still similar. Adam bore the image of God perfectly in the Garden of Eden. Then he sinned when he ate the Forbidden Fruit, and the world was plunged into chaos. The universe was wrecked because ...

I know very well what it feels like to be enslaved to an addiction. To feel trapped, bound, and unable to run, walk or even move. I would dig up some will power and manage to resist for a time, but the urges would always return, and I would find myself in the same old patterns time and time again. I was wrapped up in chains of sin and could not find a way to escape. It has taken years of work, but at last I have found some freedom and deliverance. I can look back now and see that while I was wrapped in chains, they were chains that I had forged myself. And while they were locked securely, I held the key, a key that had been given to me by the Lord. Those chains were in reality lies, deceptions and false beliefs about who I was. I had deep and damaging misconceptions about my identity. One of the keys I have found to unlock those chains has come through understanding my true identity in Christ. Satan's lies convinced me that I was not a true child of God, and I could not be a re...

  Over the previous few posts, we have been looking at this idea of personas, masks that we wear, or fig leaf disguises we put on to hide our shame from ourselves, God and those around us.  Last time we looked at the life of Saul of Tarsus who was converted and became the Apostle Paul.  When he was confronted by God on the Damascus road, his masks shattered, and God rebuilt him and made him into a new man, a better man.  A man that could be used for his service.  Through that process Paul stepped out of his persona as a self-righteous hypocrite into his true identity as a child of God, or as he often wrote in his letters, the servant of Jesus Christ.  Saul of Tarsus had to be crushed to dust before God could build up Paul the Apostle. There are echoes here of my own story.   I grew up in a solid, Christian home, with loving, nurturing parents, but in spite of all that I was wounded, and my soul was ruptured.   This led to me feeling inadequate...

  In the previous post we looked at the idea that we have damaged hearts and souls, and like Adam and Eve in the Garden we try to cover that damage with fig leaves, masks, and personas.   We put on disguises, like being perfectionists, workaholics, addicts, the clown, or the over-achiever to hide our authentic selves from God and those around us.   The Bible has many examples of people who had these personas built up around their true selves due to their own hard heartedness and Satan's deceptions.   One such dramatic example is Saul of Tarsus. Saul hated Christians.   He despised them, he believed they were an insult and an assault on the true worship of Jehovah and the Temple Worship of Judaism.   Saul was a strict rule keeper and was fastidious in his adherence to the Mosaic law.   When the Apostles started preaching about salvation through faith in Christ, and the grace of God being available to all, he couldn't stand for this.   His zeal fo...

   In the beginning, God scattered the galaxies into their places like jewels on the vast, velvet carpet of space.   He spoke and the world appeared like a glittering marble in His hand.   He pinched the dust and the deer, antelope and the rabbit sprang forth.   He danced across the ocean tide, and it rejoiced so greatly that the dolphin and whale sprang from the depths to join Him. He spread His palm across the mountainside and the great forests sprouted.   He looked upon the vast cerulean of the sky and it seemed empty, so He sketched the birds and the clouds to scamper and play across its canvas. All this please the Lord quite well, but then He thought something more.   Something different and quite special.   He scooped up a handful of earth, looked at the fair countenance of His dear Son and said, "Let's make something in Your image." With a gentle smile He replied, "No, in Our image." "Yes, that is good." "But, Fath...

  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.   ...