What a Joy
“Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you” (Isaiah 12:6 NIV).
What a joy it is to see beautiful wildflowers in the spring.
What a joy it is to hear the songs of the birds.
What a joy it is to see the grandeur of a mountain.
What a joy it is to be loved by God.
What a joy it is to know Jesus.
What at joy it is to hear the Word of the Lord preached.
What a joy it is to worship and praise the Lord with a congregation.
What a joy it is to live in the United States of America.
What a joy it is to have Christian friends.
What a joy it is to share a meal with Christian friends.
What a joy it is to fellowship with a group of Christian men.
What a joy it is to worship God in churches across this nation.
What joy it is to have a Christian wife who loves me.
What a joy it is to know that our three sons love the Lord.
What a joy it is to know that our sons have all found amazing Christian women to be their wives.
What a joy it is to know that our seven grandchildren all love the Lord,
What a joy it is to love the Lord.
What a joy it is to read the Word.
What a joy it is to talk to the creator of the universe in prayer anytime, anywhere.
What a joy it is to know where I will be 3,297,374 years from now.
What a joy it is to know that one of our grandaughters has found a Christian man to be her husband.
What a joy it is to know that one of our grandsons has found a Christian woman to be his fiancé.
What a joy it is to have a Christian heritage.
What at joy it is to experience in sight and sound a magnificent waterfall.
What a joy it is to hear and sing Handel’s Messiah.
What a joy it is to watch the trees and flowers grow and bloom in the spring.
What a joy it is to watch the trees change hues in the fall.
What a joy it is to experience the progression of a sunrise or sunset.
What a joy it is to wake to a new day in the Lord each morning.
What a joy it is to work on a task assigned by God.
What a joy it is to (I’m sure I have missed a thousand things). You fill in this blank.
God is good all the time, and He fills our lives with blessings and challenges every day.
Thank you, Lord, for all the things that bring us joy!
Humility
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:3,4 NIV).
No selfish ambition. Think of the interests of others first. Not just “Think of others first,” but “think of the interests of others first.” Paul is telling us to think of what will be best for others before we think of ourselves. He is not telling us to have no thought for our interests, but don’t make them the first priority. If the two interests conflict, then work on others behalf first. This is an echoing of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:12, “Here is simple rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.” (MSG) I really like the way the Message translation states it: “grab the initiative and do it for them.” If we do that, then the world’s shout of “ME FIRST!” will go by the wayside. “But if I do that, somebody might take advantage of me.” That’s true, but real humility is willing to accept that.
So, how do we do this? Colossians 3:12,13 give us a good start. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (NIV) Compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness—If we do these, or even some of these, we will be exhibiting humility and making the world around us a better place.
Jesus spoke in Matthew 23:11,12: “The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (NIV) And then, He later washed His disciples’ feet to demonstrate the behavior He expected of those who follow Him. Jesus, the most powerful of men, the most intelligent of men, the creator of the universe, humbled Himself to bear the scorn, the whipping, and the crucifixion of men. He did so in humble obedience to God the Father. Jesus, the greatest man who ever lived, showed us how to be humble. He certainly thought of the interests of you and me before He thought of His own physical well-being. He thought of our interests when He agreed to descend into hell. And once He was there in hell, He still thought of us as He proceeded to defeat satan and his cohorts on our behalf. He also fulfilled His own words, “…those who humble themselves will be exalted” when He ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of Father God, where He continues to intercede for us individually.
C. S. Lewis, the noted author, said, “True humility isn’t thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” That certainly describes what Jesus did. He thought of us first.
A Prayer
Our nation needs prayer, and I submit this prayer as one quite appropriate for this time.
"Bless, O Lord,
all the people of this land.
from the highest to the lowest,
particularly those whom thou
has appointed to rule over
us in church and state....
For the Sake of thy
dear Son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, Amen."
From the prayer journal of George Washington.
The Christian's Responsibility to the World
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 19,20 NIV)
Image courtesy of NASA
The last words that Jesus gave His disciples clearly set forth their responsibility and our responsibility to the peoples of the world—tell them all about Jesus and the Good New He brought. We are told to tell them about the three members of the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We are to teach them to obey everything, that’s right, EVERY COMMANDMENT that Jesus taught. Now that’s quite a job—to teach everyone and to teach them everything. I know very few people qualified to do this. We are all qualified to tell how Jesus has had an effect on our own lives. That will do much to obey this command of Jesus. Telling of our personal experience with Jesus Christ is the most effective sermon we can preach.
Matthew 7:12 tells us of another responsibility we have: “Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Laws and Prophets and this is what you get.” (MSG) This is commonly known as the Golden Rule. I like the way the Message translation reads. It tells us to take the initiative and do good first. When we do this, people are blessed, and God is glorified.
Additional words of Jesus give the same message in a different context. In Matthew 22:36-40 we are told, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jeus replies, ‘Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” If each of us were to love his neighbor as he loves himself, there would be much more peace in the world. It sounds very important when Jesus says that it is like the greatest commandment, love God with all you’ve got.
In a vision that was given to Isaiah, the prophet, God was specific and to the point: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17 NIV)
The Word of the Lord has shown us many responsibilities that the Christian has toward the world. All we have to do is what Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
The Christian's Responsibility to His Church
“But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. (1 Corinthians 12:18 NIV)
As the verse above says, God has assembled the parts in every church, and if He assembled them, they must be right. Now it is our part to make them work. It’s time to find out what our roles are in the local church, and then it’s time to get to work in those roles. It may be hard to believe, but God does have a particular job for you to do in your church.
God does require one thing of each of us. In Hebrews 13:17 we are told, “Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.” Our pastors have an awesome responsibility for the spiritual life of the church, and we should be doing all we can to support them. They need to know that we trust and appreciate the Word that they preach.
Malachi 3:10 gives us another responsibility that we have toward our local church. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” In the verse before Malachi 3:10, the Word says that the whole nation of Israel had been robbing God by not giving the tithe. Financial responsibility is, indeed, one of our responsibilities to the local church.
Paul encourages the church in Thessalonica by complimenting them on encouraging each other, and then exhorts them to continue encouraging each other. He says it a little differently in Ephesians 4:29: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (NIV). We all need encouragement sometimes, and we all need to give encouragement at times.
We are all given a specific gift to use within our church, and there are also responsibilities that we all share. The church works better and God is glorified more when we all work together.
I didn’t mean to get long-winded, but the Church is God’s tool in this world, and the local church is at the center of the Church. So it is of prime importance that we all work together to represent our Lord well through our local churches.
