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Who Stole my Joy?

Ever have someone "steal" your joy?  Ever have a situation steal your joy?

"Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.  John 16:22  

Could this really be true?  Once we've seen the resurrected Christ, no one can steal our joy?  Surely this can't mean that "no one will take your joy away," can it?  If you're anything like me, people steal my joy all the time.  And I've met the resurrected Christ.  So what gives?

 

I'd like to suggest that no one actually steals my joy.  I give it away.  I choose to take my eyes of the amazing gospel that is taking me to where God wants me.  And I choose instead to put those eyes on the bothersome or evil person that has "stolen" my joy.  Instead of setting my mind, my heart, on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, I set my mind and heart on what I'm not getting that I want, or what I'm getting that I don't want.  And away goes my joy.

 

James puts it another way:  "Count it all joy," he writes, "when you face a variety of trials."  Count them joy?  Count stuff I don't like as joy?  James goes on:  "because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance."  Did you catch that?  There is an eternal purpose that God is pursuing in my life with each trial I face.  James tells me not to just see the trial, but to also see the eternal purpose that God is intending.

 

So no more giving my joy away.  No more allowing trials to knock joy out of my hands.  I've seen the resurrected Christ.  And because God raised Him from the dead, I know that God's promises to me are just as sure as can be.

 

Father, it is so easy to get into pity parties over the trials that people and situations are to me.  Help me see the work you're trying to do in my life through those trials.  Help me see your faithfulness as a Father to grow me up.  Let me shine joy, even in the worst of times.  For your glory.  For your reputation.

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The G.I.G.O. Video

Download now or watch on posterous

G.I.G.O. Live.flv (7192 KB)

In my last TG post, I gave you the lyrics our Keno Afield 2010 Team came up with for our VBS "theme song."  Well, here in all their glory, is G.I.G.O. . . Enjoy.  We did.

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G.I.G.O.

The following are lyrics to a song that the KenoAfield 2010 Team wrote to help teach kids the principles of their Purify to Glorify Vacation Bible School curriculum.  I hope to post a video soon of us singing it.  

Garbage in, garbage out
What comes in is what goes out
Good stuff in, good stuff out
What's poured in soaks throughout

 

Don't take the bad stuff, it's no good
Only the things God says you should
tune your thoughts to God on high
Guard your heart, we'll tell you why

 

Garbage in, garbage out
What comes in is what goes out
Good stuff in, good stuff out
What's poured in soaks throughout

 

Guard your heart so you can see
What an awesome God our God can be
but If you don't you'll someday shout
"How sad I lived that life of doubt"

 

Garbage in, garbage out
What comes in is what goes out
Good stuff in, good stuff out
What's poured in soaks throughout
What's poured in soaks throughout

 

Father, you alone can see how our hearts and minds have been influenced by our intake over the course of our lives.  Open our eyes to help us see the lies, half-truths, and folly that continues to hinder our lives, and continues to hurt those you've placed around us.  Help us see the truth and wisdom that needs to supplant those false and foolish ideas, theories, beliefs, and opinions, that we may clean out our hearts and minds.

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Can Teens be Trusted with Ministry?

Some in today's Church believe that teenagers cannot be trusted with God's work.  They argue points like "Teens are too emotionally immature," or "Teens can't grasp the importance of Bible ministry," or even things like "Teens can't be fully committed to Christ," or "Teens will lead others astray."   While there are certainly teens for whom each of those accusations might be true, there are two logical reasons why such arguments fail:  First, do we assume that all adults in ministry are sufficiently mature to pass the standards against which these folks would measure teens?  And if all teens should be prohibited from ministry because some are immature, then wouldn't all adults be prohibited by the same principle?   Second, is it not grossly unfair to paint all teens with those brushes?  Many students today have committed their lives to God and are struggling, just like you and me, to push that commitment into every area of their lives and ministries.  God has blessed many churches and ministries with many such students, and these students are the foundation of the youth ministry they're growing.   Beyond those logical questions, we must yet ask, "Is such ministry biblical?"  Does scripture ever show God using youth to accomplish His will?  I'd suggest that God has used, spoken through, or lead His people with young people.  Samuel, David, Mark, maybe even Timothy, spoke for God, lead armies, or taught Christians along with their elder counterparts.  God called the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel before they were born, and called them to their posts while they were quite young.  Daniel was a young man when he was promoted to the highest advisor post in Babylon.  Esther and Mary were used by God while quite young.   It seems clear that achievement of age is not the sole requirement for ministry.  The Bible rather insists on a set of character qualities needed for all ministers, no matter how many birthdays they've seen in their past.   One such quality, the Fear of the Lord, is essential to success for any minister, young or old. Every minister must recognize that he must ultimately give an answer to God for the ways in which he serves.  It matters not if he teaches truth or lies, has integrity or lacks it, serves others or manipulates them, or promotes unity or sows dissension, every leader, teacher, pastor, or overseer will give an account to a righteous, holy, all-seeing, all-knowing, peering-into-the-deepest-crevices-of-the-human-heart God.  He will judge with perfect judgment.  Every minister, youth or adult, must submit his service to Him.   In addition to the Fear of God, there are many other qualities to visit in future posts.    Father, give me eyes to see the true calling you have for me, then for everyone around me.  Help me live according to a right and appropriate fear of You.  Then help me help others live according to a right fear of You.

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Grace? According to Performance?

A simple yet profound puzzle in scripture is this:    Grace is a gift, not given for performance or merit.  Yet only the humble can get it.  The proud are instead resisted, seemingly not able to get it.   So if grace is a gift, then how come one must be humble to get it?   I imagine two sailboats. Grace is the wind, continually blowing across the lake toward it's destination. One boat has dropped her sails.  The other has set hers, now billowed out by the wind. One boat moves quickly through the water in the direction offered by the wind. The other is blown grudgingly, sluggishly, barely moving.   What if humility is nothing more than hoisting our sails into the advice, counsel, and will of God?  What if pride is the refusal to do so? Doing the first will surely lead us where God's advice, counsel, and will intend us to go. Doing the other (refusing to do the first) will leave us stuck, floating where ever we dropped our sails, save for the sheer push of God's grace which cannot help but force us along, resisting our commitment to stay stuck.   In a practical sense, each time I am presented with any situation or circumstance, I am given two choices from which to pick:    1.  I can use this situation to live and serve God and His purposes, hoist my sail, follow His instructions for how to live in this circumstance and go where He intends me to go.    2.  I can use this situation to do and accomplish less than above, and have God's grace push my stubborn self along anyway, but have little to no joy in the ride.   How many of us excel at pulling down our sails regularly, hoisting them only in safe, predictable, or "let me not have to grow or change too much" situations?    Father, you know my heart.  You know my tendency to hoist and drop my sails according to my comfort, my fears, and my approval or disapproval of where you'd take me.  Give me the courage, the faith in your goodness, and the confidence in your absolute love, so that I might leave those sails up and commit myself to always catch and live by your advice, counsel, and will.  Always.  Grant that I might to see my pride, my stubborn resistance to you and your advice, counsel, and will.  Grant that I might willingly let it go.  Help me be what you want me to be, do what you want me to do, and go where you want me to go.

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Is it Just Easier? Is that Why We Do It?

Human beings, ourselves given to evil, often make one of four errors in dealing with the tempted and the erring. The first is to not deal at all with the struggler.  The second is to deal with him while avoiding his struggle.  The third is to deal untenderly with him.  The fourth is to fetch someone else after him. 

Of the rebuke that is love,

Of the blow that wounds to heal,

Of the warning that speaks hope,

we all have need to learn.

We cannot read the heart. 

Neither can we know its struggle and pain.

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