Getting Serious About Joy

My buddy and I are reading through a book on the spiritual disciplines for our accountability meetings. We just read a chapter on joy. In the course of thinking through the chapter, I've decided that I need to get serious about joy, that is, I need to pursue it with purpose.

The older I get, the more clearly I see that it is joy that separates the believer from those who do not follow Christ. Joy should bubble out of the nooks and crannies of our lives like an underground spring that keeps discovering new and unusual ways to reach the surface of the earth. Where do we go to learn joy? The writer of our book suggests a "joy mentor," someone you think of who stands out for their joy. Little kids are another good place to become suffused in joy which knows no boundaries. Certainly, the more we study and delight in the works of God the creator, the more joy we will have in all that he is and does.

Christ Magnified in my LIfe...or Death

My Bible reading highlight this morning was Phil 1.20. I am wondering what Paul meant that his eager expectation and hope was that Christ would be magnified in his body, whether in life or death. I'll reveal heavy influence from Jonathan Edwards via John Piper here. Christ is magnified in Paul's life (and in mine) when he is the object of our devotion above all other things. Is there something I hold more dear than Christ? Then he is not magnified in my life. If he is all and everything; if he is the object of my devotion, then he is magnified (BDAG interprets the Greek word in this way: to cause to be held in greater esteem through praise or deeds, exalt, glorify, magnify, speak highly of ). Piper puts this as "making Christ look great" both in my deeds and devotion. May Paul's desire, be my desire. May Christ be all.

My Grandson and Delighting in All God Has Made

We went over to my son's house last night to celebrate our grandson's second birthday. He is a great kid. I'm convinced that God gives us grandkids as a reward for enduring as parents. At any rate, he's at the age where he knows what is going on. He'd had some M&M's so he was already bouncing off the walls, literally running from one end of the house to the other because he could not contain his excitement, not so much at the prospect of presents, but just because there were a bunch of people there and he was, well, excited!

He dug into his cake with his hands—searching for M&M's—and then zestfully opened his many presents. As I watched him I got the sense that what God wants us to learn from excited little grandkids is radical and unflinching joy in all that God has made. No effort is required, one just lives in the moment of effervescent exuberance because everything is new and fresh and people are so fun.

God grant me to see life through the eyes of a two year old kid!

God's (Apparent) Absence in Difficulty

I am pondering Ps 88.14 this morning and the fact that it is often in our deepest difficulties that God appears to be no where in sight. I am reminded of C. S. Lewis' comment in A Grief Observed:

“Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him…you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become.”

John Calvin points out that this kind of question is proof that the writer has not given up on God, that: The Psalmist does not proudly enter into debate with God, but mournfully desires some remedy to his calamities.

I agree with Calvin's thinking on this passage, although it does not make the experience any easier. In all of the tests and trials of a believer, this is probably the most difficult, persevering when God is silent.

Chrysostom on God's Motivation in Salvation

Pondering Eph 1.6 this morning, specifically with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. Thanks to Accordance Bible Software, I pulled up the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and Chrysostom had this to say about the passage:

So that our love for him may become more fervent, he desires nothing from us except our salvation. He does not need our service or anything else but does everything for this end.

It's nice to see that John Piper's emphasis on God's being glorified is nothing new. Chrysostom (a favorite Early Church Father) believed that God's motive in salvation was so that we would praise him for salvation. Our understanding of redemption will make us praise him more for what he has done. It's that easy...and that deep.