“And above all else put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you called in one body. And be thankful.”
If you are a regular reader of CouchPotatoRedux, you probably know that love, joy and peace are three of my favorite topics. Colossians 2:14-15 incorporates two of these favorite topics – love and peace. I want to stress peace in this article, but I will also point out what contribution love makes to peace. Verse 14 tells us that we are to “put on” or “clothe ourselves” with love. It tells us to do this because love “binds everything together in perfect harmony.” That “binding” would include peace as well. I think that love precedes all of the great Christian virtues. If we do not love, we will have a difficult time living at peace with ourselves and with the world around us. Keep in mind that the Greek word that is used for love in this verse is the same word that is used in John 3:16 and in 1 Corinthians 13. It is the Greek word agape (a-gah-pay), which is God’s kind of love – a sacrificial love which loves beyond all reason. Suffice it to say that love is tantamount to peace. Verse 15 tells us that after we have “put on” love, we should let the “peace of Christ rule in our hearts.” This statement goes beyond just having peace, it says to let peace rule in our hearts. If peace rules in our hearts, it means that we have peace that can withstand all of life’s problems. In order for peace to rule in our hearts, we need to remember the source of this peace. This is given to us in John 15:11, “These things I have spoken unto you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be full.” The peace that rules in our hearts is the peace that only Christ can give. This is way beyond “peace of mind.” “Peace of mind” means that we feel at peace with the world around us, and do not have a lot of worries. The ruling peace of Christ means that we have peace in our hearts and minds no matter what is going on in the world, and no matter what worries that could beset us, we have peace anyway. We do not have to conjure up this ruling peace, for it resides in our hearts, minds and lives with Christ. This is peace that only Christians can have, and needs to be claimed by all Christians. If Christ’s peace is to rule in our lives, we need to claim it daily. When life seems to be getting to be too much for us, we need to remember that nothing is too great for Christ who resides in us through the Holy Spirit. Paul understood that peace in a very real way because of all that he faced in his service for Christ. We are reminded in verse 15a that we are “called into one body.” When the peace of Christ is ruling in our hearts, we are at peace with other people, particularly other Christians. That is what Paul meant by “one body.” The “body” mentioned here is the church, which is often referred to as Christ’s body. When Christians are at peace with Christ, thus within themselves, then they are at peace with fellow Christians. Perhaps this is an indication that in churches today we need to work on this business of having Christ’s peace in our hearts. If you are having problems with your church right now, perhaps you need to search your own heart and see if the peace of Christ is ruling there. In verse 15b, we are reminded that this rule of peace in our hearts will result in thankfulness. Look at how all of these Christian virtues work together. In order to have the peace of Christ we need to have the love of Christ at work in our lives. Then we need to live in unity with other Christians in our churches. Finally, we need to be thankful as well. It seems to me that if we are clothed with God’s kind of love, His peace is ruling in our hearts, and we are living in unity with fellow Christians, we will have a lot for which to be thankful. I don’t think that anyone could disagree with this proposition. Bro. Joe
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“Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. 12. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent everyone his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. 13. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him for they saw that his grief was very great.”
Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar heard of their friend Job’s tragedy and they came to him out of great concern for him. In fact, their stated aim was to “come to mourn with him and comfort him.” No one knows how much friendship means until they have had friends come to them to comfort them. At first, they did everything right. Initially, they had the right idea, but as you know, their “comfort” ceased to be comfort. First, they sat with Job for seven days and did not breathe a word. I think that a good sign of friendship is to sit for a full week and not say a word, just grieve with the stricken friend. When I first entered the ministry, I thought that when I visited grieving people that I needed just the right text, or just the right word that would relieve their grief. I finally discovered through experience that the best thing that I could do initially was to just be there. You know it is a fact that if you do not know what to say, the best thing to do is to say nothing. Usually in those cases we say the wrong thing that will not offer comfort at all. We see in verse 13 of Job 2 the value of silence. It is true that timely words can help, but it is equally true that untimely words can hurt. Take, for example, Proverbs 15:23: “A man has joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!” True! Now allow me to paraphrase the opposite of this: “A word spoken out of season, how bad is it.” Remember this about Job’s friends when you encounter grieving friends. Second, Job’s three friends wept for him and with him. Verse 12 tells us about this: “And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept, they rent their mantle (tore their robes) and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.” Obviously, we would not do all of this, for these were signs of grieving in that day. It was obvious that they were deeply touched by Job’s grief. Their friend was so emaciated that they would not have recognized him if they hadn’t known who he was. So they wept and grieved like good friends should. When one is grieving, it really does help to know that good friends are sharing his or her grief. Third, in the fourth chapter of Job, his three friends begin to tear down every good thing that they had done to that point, and this continued through three different speeches by the friends through Job 31. What did they do? They began to run their mouths and they ceased being Job’s friends and became his judges. They thought they knew exactly why Job was in these dire straits. They accused him of all sorts of gross sins. They had no idea what had transpired between God and Satan that caused all of this trouble for Job. (Read the first two chapters of Job if you don’t know what transpired.) Eliphaz, who was the first to speak in 4:7-8: “Remember, I pray thee, whoever perished being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off? 8. Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity and sow wickedness, reap the same.” That is a serious accusation against a man that the Lord saw as the most righteous man on earth. On and on the three friends go, judging Job when they had no idea what was going on. The lesson for us here is if we want to be true friends to people, we need to remember that what we say is not as important as what we feel and what we do for them. And when we do say something say it with love and choose our words wisely, saying to them only what we would want said to us. Bro. Joe “Lord, I believe help thou mine unbelief.”
There are millions of people out there who have rejected the Christian faith out of hand. One reason is that it puts restrictions on what they can do. We like to think that we are free to do whatever we want whenever we want. For example, we’ve had a sexual revolution. How has that worked for us? What the “cool” people didn’t tell us was there are all kinds of sexually transmitted diseases out there, and one of the worst is AIDS. Sin brings its own judgment, and sexual sins have certainly brought their own judgment. This is an example that if left to our own devices, we human beings will make a big mess. Just ask Adam and Eve. Another reason people reject the Christian faith is that many think that the whole basis for the Christian faith is based on a lie. The apostles, and other early Christians, taught that Jesus arose from the grave. Those who doubt the veracity of the Christian faith, say the apostles lied about the resurrection. The story goes like this: Jesus was not resurrected and the early apostles hid the body. Another story goes like this: Jesus survived the grave but He went on to live a “civilian” life, married to Mary Magdalene. I would really feel like a fool if I believed either of those tales. Let’s look at some good old-fashioned human logic on this matter. We would have to believe that Peter, Andrew, James and John knew that Jesus didn’t survive, so they wove an elaborate tale about the resurrection of Jesus. Are we to think that these men were stupid enough to keep a lie going after the authorities began to persecute them? Then there is Saul of Tarsus. He hated Christian people and wanted to either kill them or put them in Jail. After he encountered Jesus on the Damascus Road, he became a follower of Jesus and eventually gave his life for his faith in Christ. He must have really been stupid to write all of those letters to churches about the reality of Christ, although his life was under threat everyday for it. All of these men were people who lived in history, whose paths crossed with Jesus and whose lives were changed by Him. We have to accept them as either, charlatans, dupes, or both, or as people whose lives were genuinely changed by Jesus of Nazareth. Finally, the fact that there are still Christian churches around the world is proof of the reality of the risen Christ. The world has tried to stamp it out since its inception. From the human perspective, there should not be an extant church in the entire world. The enemies of churches have tried to kill them, but that’s not all. Christians have not tried to kill it, but our actions in history have sometimes revealed bad missteps in the cause of the Risen Christ that caused harm to His work.. The “Crusades” are not as bad as unbelievers paint them, but these military crusades in the name of Jesus, prove that we can do some stupid things that bring harm to our own cause. That’s right, the fact that Christ’s Church has survived proves that Jesus is still alive. Jesus told His disciples that the “gates of hell” would not prevail against His Church (His people). Satan has been unable to kill Christian work around the world, nor have skeptics. We stand on pretty solid ground with Jesus. Give some thought to you faith!!!!!!! Bro. Joe (This is rewrite of an earlier article. I had that on my mind and decided to share it again.)
“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He might exalt you in due time.” My Grandma Cooper used to say to me when I was very young, “Get off yo high horse.” (I want to take away some grammatical questions. First I know that “yo” is not a word, because my computer informs me that it is not. You couldn’t have told my Grandma Cooper that. Second I don’t know if “high horse” should be one or two words. There, that takes care of that.) When she told me that, it was because I had sassed her or had done something that was less than humble. (She pronounced sass as Saiss, which sounded a whole lot worse than sass. {O.k. computer I know that saiss is not a word, but you couldn’t have told my Grandma Cooper that.}) I think that my maternal grandma was on to something. A lot of our troubles in our world today are caused by people being on their “high horses.” We are so toucheous today. (I know that “toucheous” is not a word, but you can’t tell me that.) It seems that everyone has an “ax to grind,” and that many, many people take offense at the least little thing. We have become so self-important that we can’t take it when we think that we have been slighted in any way. A good symptom of this is when a teacher disciplines someone’s precious baby; parents will go for that teacher’s jugular real quick. My Grandma Cooper would have said that they were on a “high horse,” and she would have said something equivalent to “get over it.” When I was in school, when I was disciplined at school (spanked) I got the same thing when I got home. It didn’t seem fair then, but it makes sense now, seeing the behavior of some children now. God help me when mama found out, and when my grandma found out as well. This is just one example of our national “high horse” today. Which brings me to today’s scripture. We are not only on our “high horse” sociologically; we are on our “high horse” theologically as well. Peter admonished us to, “Humble (ourselves) under the mighty hand of God.” We hear things like “it’s my life and I can live it like I want.” Or “it’s my body and I can do with it what I want.” We don’t seem to take into consideration that God/Jesus might have something to say about that. The farther we get away from God, the sooner we straddle the “high horse.” We don’t just see that outside of the church, we see it in the church as well. As Christians we should learn what Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church: “…You are not your own, for you are bought with a price…” (1Corinthians 6:19b-20a) He is referring to Jesus, who “humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” If Jesus could humble Himself, knowing what we know about Him, surely it is not beneath us to “get off of our ‘high horses’” and humble ourselves under His mighty hand. Jesus further illustrated humility when in John 13, He washed His disciples feet. Jesus was teaching a lesson far beyond washing feet. He wanted us to see that if the creator of the universe, and the One who holds everything together, can stoop and wash feet, we can stoop and serve God, and, yes, our fellow human beings. We were not saved to rule, at least not yet; rather, we were saved to serve. In Mark 10:44-45, Jesus told His disciples, who were on their “high horses,” “And whosoever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant of all: 45. For the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” I can think of no greater catalyst to humble ourselves “under the mighty hand of God” than the example set by Jesus. Which leads me to say to you: “Get off yo high horse.” And don't you saiss me. :-) Bro. Joe “The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
This is one of those Old Testament verses that would fit well in the New Testament. It gives a great positive view of God. He is referred to here as “The Mighty One.” And our God is certainly that. We see His might throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. Jesus shows His might by all of the miracles that he performed in His earthly ministry. “The Mighty One” looks, and sounds, so formidable. It doesn’t look like He would be personal with us in our tiny little lives, but the same verse that calls God “The Mighty One,” also shows His tenderness and love towards us. It begins on a very positive note – “The Lord your God in your midst.” The mighty God is “in our midst” or is among us. We see this illustrated in the Old Testament with God’s guidance of the Jews through the Exodus and through the wilderness journey. He was in their midst as a “pillar of fire” by night and a “pillar of cloud” by day. Notice that the prophet did not write, “is in your midst.” Instead he wrote “in your midst.” He stated it as a settled fact. God was not in and out of their midst, but He was in their midst at all times. Jesus made the same promise to those who believe in Him. He has promised to be with us through the Holy Spirit at all times. In fact Jesus gave a specific promise in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Psalm 46:7 gives a specific promise: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” Wherever you look in the Bible, Old or New Testament, God is in the midst of His people – a “very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1) The verse tells us that “The Mighty One, will save.” We see God’s willingness to save His people throughout the Bible. He saved Israel from Egypt. Their situation seemed hopeless after four hundred years of captivity, but God saved them by His power. God saved His people through the aforementioned wilderness journey. They wandered in the wilderness, or the desert, for forty years, and we are told that their clothes did not even wear out. Of course, the greatest example of God’s power and willingness to save people, is the coming of His Son, Jesus, into the world to save sinners. One of the great promises of Zephaniah 3:17 is that God will “rejoice over (us).” We are told that He will “rejoice over (us) with gladness,” and that He will “rejoice over (us) with singing.” We usually think of our rejoicing because of what God does for us, but here we are told that God rejoices over us. Jesus illustrates this for us in Luke 15, where He gives three parables about that which was lost but was found. He told about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. In each case there was great rejoicing over that what was lost being found. We cause the Lord to rejoice when we are saved. We cause the Lord to rejoice when we repent and turn from some besetting sin. This is not a picture of a sour, mean-spirited God, but of One who rejoices over us in gladness and with singing. The same Bible that tells us about the wrath of God tells us about the love of God and His joy in us when we follow His will. The verse tells us “He will quiet (us) with His love.” I get a picture here of one who is lost and in turmoil over sin and shame, but when God’s love comes into his or her life, he or she becomes quiet, or calm. One of the great realities of the universe is that God loves us, and when we personally realize that God loves us, it quiets our spirits and diminishes our anxiety. Perhaps you are reading this now, because God wants you to know that He loves you, that He sent His Son to die for you. His love can settle your life down and give you the “peace that passes understanding.” Bro. Joe “Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject to one another, and be clothed with humility: for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. 6, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”
In the first four verses, Peter addressed the “elders” of the church, and in verse 5 he addressed the “younger.” When he changed the subject to humility, Peter addressed “all” of the members. He wrote that they should be “clothed with humility.” Peter’s call for humility is a call that is made throughout the Bible, particularly to the churches in the New Testament. The words “clothed with humility” caught my imagination and I thought about what that means. I want to share with you what I think it means to be “clothed with humility.” First, it means that we will not think too much of ourselves. Paul wrote about this in Romans 12:3: “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.” An example of people who thought too highly of themselves is the Pharisees. Jesus gave an example in Luke 18:11-12: “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers or even as this publican. 12. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all I possess.” No one that I know would read this and say, “I would like to be like this.” But if we aren’t careful, we will be like this. We can become very proud of, for example, the things that we do at church and think that this puts us above everyone else. We can really become impressed with our practice of our religion, not realizing that our service is not about us but about Christ and His kingdom. Satan being the subtle devil that he is, can sneak into our hearts and minds and make us elevate self instead of Christ. This does not mean that we should think too little of ourselves either. The Bible tells us to love others as we love ourselves. Therefore being humble is not self-hatred, it means that we look realistically at ourselves and realize our righteousness comes from faith in Christ, not from ourselves. Second, clothing ourselves with humility means that we will not think too much about ourselves. We need to remember that there are other people in the world and that they do not exist to just please us. It would be a good exercise to keep a record of how much we think about ourselves in a day’s time. We could probably get enough evidence if we just kept a record of how often we think about ourselves in just one hour in a day. Here again, we can make it all about us instead of about Jesus. We need to be careful that we do not think about how everything we do will be to our advantage. For example, we could go to a certain church because that is where the people go who are admired in the community. This is not a put down of such a church, it is to remind us that this is not a good reason to attend a church. We need to find a church where God wants us to go, and we need to serve Him through that church. In other words, we should go to a church where we can make a difference, not one that appeases our egos. We should not make decisions just because it would make us look better. Sometimes God will lead us to do things that might not make us look better. Just read the New Testament and see what a price the early Christians paid for serving Christ. They knew that it wasn’t about them, but that it was about Christ. Again, this does not mean that we should never think of ourselves. God does not intend for us to just “let ourselves go,” and not tend to our health and welfare. Being “clothed with humility” means that we will not just think about ourselves. By the criteria that I have used to show how we can be “clothed with humility,” how are you doing? Go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to help you take a good look at your life and see if you think too much of yourself, or too much about yourself. Do it! Bro. Joe “He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathers not with me scatters.”
Our text contains a message of hope on one hand and it is a bleak message on the other. Jesus Christ is a fact of history that people will have to deal with. Jesus really came into the world, lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, arose from the grave and ascended to the Father. According to what Jesus said in our text, we are either with Him or against Him. The question for you to ask yourself is are you with Jesus? The way we would say it today is are you on Jesus’ side? It is important to be on Jesus’ side. It is important to be on Jesus’ side because those who are not on His side have made themselves His enemies. They do not see it that way, but that does not make it untrue. Even those who claim neutrality and say that it doesn’t matter to them either way, are His enemies. Jesus said that those who are not with Him “scatter.” What do they scatter? They scatter the truth of Jesus, the truth of His salvation, and they stand in the way of people who might "gather with" Jesus. The bible warns about keeping people out of the kingdom of God. This is not to say that everyone who “scatters” consider themselves enemies of Christ. They might even think well of Him and call Him a good man or good example. But Jesus did not die on the cross to win a popularity contest. He died on the cross to save those who would come to Him by faith. Jesus does not just want our approval; rather, He wants our hearts – our lives. He wants us to surrender our lives to Him and gather with Him. To not do that is to “scatter.” It is important to be on Jesus’ side because Jesus’ side is the victorious side. I know that a lot of people are puzzled by the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the last book in the Bible. I won’t take the time here to try to explain what it all means, but what I will do is tell you what the final message of Revelation is. In the final analysis, Revelation tells us that Christ and those who trust Him as Savior will ultimately win the battle. A lot of tyrants have marched across history, and all of them have eventually passed off the scene. People who followed them ended up frustrated and confused. Only Jesus will stand at the end as the real Savior. This is illustrated for us in Hebrews 12:25-27: “See that you refuse not Him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape, if we turn away from Him that speaks from heaven. 26. Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27. And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” Those who are on the side of Jesus, will be part of that kingdom which cannot be shaken. It is important to be on Jesus’ side because it is the eternal side. The things that “can be shaken” as mentioned in Hebrews 12, belong to this world and are passing away. Everything of this world is passing away. As for myself, I do not want to hang on to that which is passing away, but that which will never pass away. Jesus gave His disciples a promise in John 14:1-3 that is also a promise to us: “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me. 2. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself: that where I am, there you may be also.” That is a promise of eternal life that will be lived with Jesus. The bottom line of being on the side of Jesus is that those who are on His side will go to heaven and live with Him eternally. Jesus promises us good things in this life. For example, Jesus said that He gives “abundant life.” (See John 10:10) But what Jesus ultimately gives us is heaven. There are many other reasons to be on Jesus’ side, but these three are uppermost in my mind at the present time. As the title asks, “Are You With Jesus?” Bro. Joe “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”
Unless you have lived in a shell all of your life, you know what a burden is. I picture a burden as a big load on my back that makes it difficult for me to move as I would like. Most of the burdens that we deal with on a daily basis are in our minds and hearts. We might even call these burdens worries. It is not a question of whether or not we will have burdens, for we will. The question is how do we handle them, or what do we do with them? Psalm 55:22 gives us an answer for that question. First, we are told to surrender our burdens: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord.” What this means is that we take our burdens to the Lord in prayer, give them to Him, and leave them with Him. The last thing here is where the problem comes in, God will take our burdens, but we must surrender them to Him. Jesus is willing to take our problems, but we must release our grasp on them and let Jesus have them. The wonderful thing about Jesus is that He really and truly wants our burdens. He longs to see us live in peace. But sometimes we treat our burdens like old friends and we are reluctant to let them go. We need to remember Peter’s admonition in 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you.” Do we really believe that Jesus cares enough to really take our burdens? The Bible says that He does, but we must believe it in our hearts and minds. Whatever burden you are bearing today, give it to Jesus and He will take it. Just don’t jerk it back out of His hand! Second, we are told what the Lord will do when we place our burdens on Him: “and He shall sustain thee.” “Sustain” is a big and important word for us to remember in our Christian walk. When we give our lives to Jesus by faith, we never walk alone again. He has promised to be with us as long as we live, and when we die we will be with Him. What this means is that we do not have to bear our burdens alone. Jesus is with us in times of trouble as well as in the good times. Sometimes when things go wrong, we feel that God has forsaken us. Get this down: God will never forsake you. He will be with you through “thick and thin” and will sustain you, or keep you, through all of life's burdens. Living with a realization of God’s sustenance is a matter of trust. We are saved by trusting Jesus to save us. That same trust applies to the things that we face in life. It is sad when we trust Jesus to take us to heaven, but not when we deal with problems that we face on earth. Whatever your burden is today, trust that the Jesus who saved you is the Jesus who will sustain you in all of your activities. Jesus never promised a trouble free life, but He did promise to be with us in our troubles and to sustain us through all of them. Third, we are told that Jesus will be a stabilizing force in our lives: “He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” The NIV translates this, “He will never let the righteous fall.” Does this mean that the righteous will never have to face the burdens of life? Hardly. The preceding words supposed that even the righteous would have burdens, but that God would take them and sustain us. What it means is that when we have burdens, we will always have someone to catch us. The promise that was given to Israel in Deuteronomy 33: 27 is a promise to us as well: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall destroy them.” It is not a great leap to say that God “will thrust out our burdens from before us; and shall destroy them.” This verse reminds us that even as believers we will not live burden free lives. The difference between us and the people who do not know God is that we have someone to take our burdens. I hope that you will see this as a reality for you. Bro. Joe “Do You Have a Merry Heart?” Proverbs 15:13 & 15
“A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance (face): but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.” Proverbs 15:13 ”All of the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart has a continual feast.” Proverbs 15:15 “A merry heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones.” Proverbs 17:22 Since yesterday I wrote about the capacity of a Christian to mourn over things that should be mourned over, I felt that I should follow it up with the other side of the emotional coin – a “merry heart.” While there are things that we should mourn about, our lifestyles should reflect the joy that is in our hearts. Our hearts should be merry and it should show on our faces. If we have broken spirits we will not reflect the joy that is in our hearts. A broken spirit is the result of not being able to get over the mourning. This means that the negative things of life have depressed us and we can’t move on from them. Jesus told us not to worry, because worry cannot change anything. It is this worry over life’s negative things that cause our spirits to be broken. We are to meet all of life in faith. We are not only saved by faith, but we are sustained by faith as well. Faith will help us meet all of the contingencies of life and still maintain merry hearts. We can take Paul as an example. When Paul wrote the Book of Philippians, he was in jail in Rome, yet in this book he wrote about joy and rejoicing. An example is found in Philippians 2:17-18: ‘Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. 18. For the same cause also do you joy, and rejoice with me.” One would think that Paul would have been filled with complaints about his situation. What was Paul’s secret? If he mourned it was over things that really mattered, and usually had something to do with someone else. He did not mourn over his own sufferings, but rejoiced that he could suffer for Jesus. This takes more than a “Sunday-go-to-meeting” faith. This takes a faith that is rooted deeply in the heart and makes a difference in the way we feel, the way we act and the way we look. Paul definitely did not have “a broken spirit that dries the bones.” We need to strive that have that kind of faith. I love to be around people who love to laugh. I understand that we cannot always laugh, because not everything can make us laugh. But I treasure the joy of laughter in my own life. I discovered years ago that, unlike other people, instead of having fits of crying when the going got hard, I would laugh “like a hyena.” I can remember when I was in college (o.k. it was a long time ago) when the pressure got almost unbearable, I would have fits of laughter. I’m not writing this to brag about my own faith, but to tell you that is often better to laugh than to cry. A lot of the time, I was laughing at myself. If we have merry hearts, we will learn how to laugh at ourselves. I’ve known people who loved to play jokes on other people and would laugh and laugh at them. When the tables were turned and the joke was on them, they pouted and complained. That’s not a real Christian spirit. That’s not even a good human spirit. I am not implying that we should laugh and be merry all of the time. I have already written about times to mourn. I am simply stating that we will be better witnesses for Jesus, and better people, if we will allow the joy of Jesus in us to show on our faces. If you want to be a “contagious” Christian, I suggest that you work on having a merry heart and a face that reflects it. To start, I suggest that you take the advice of one of my seminary professors and go look in a mirror and laugh at yourself for awhile. He said that was a healthy outlook on life, and I agree. Bro. Joe “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”
I believe that one of the main tenets of the Christian faith is joy. The Bible is filled with texts about joy. I have preached a lot of sermons about joy over the years. But in the text above Jesus said that we are blessed, or happy, when we mourn. What in the world is Jesus talking about? Then we read in James 4:9: “Be afflicted and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. “ Do we have a contradiction here? It is not a contradiction. The Bible teaches us to be joyful, but we cannot be joyful about everything. The same Christian heart that has the capacity to be joyful should also have a deep capacity to mourn. Christian mourning does not erase Christian joy. Jesus has given us His joy (John 15:11) and it can never be taken away from us. But, for example, when we see people doing something that might destroy their lives we certainly can’t laugh it off. We should mourn for them. When we realize that someone is not a Christian and is about to die, this is certainly something to mourn about. Jesus and James were not calling us to a lifestyle of mourning, but were reminding us that there are real things to mourn about in this world. I have daily joy in the Lord and enjoy my fellowship with Him. But when I look at the condition of our world today, I have to mourn as well. When I read about what is happening in Syria, for example, I cannot laugh it off and say it doesn’t matter because it’s not touching me. When I read about Christians being persecuted in places like China and Iran, I mourn for those brothers and sisters in Christ who do not have the freedom to worship their Lord. I mourn when I read about people who are starving to death in Africa. It breaks my heart to see children bloated from malnutrition, while their leaders live in luxury. It causes me to mourn when I read about women who are in disastrous marriages where their husbands beat them unmercifully. I mourned when I read about the boys who were sexually abused by the assistant coach at Penn State. I mourn when I see churches divided, not by great doctrinal issues, but by the clashing of egos. I don’t mean to depress you, but you will have to agree that there are things that cause us to mourn, and if we do not mourn because of them there is something spiritually wrong with us. This is the concern of Jesus and James in the two texts that we have seen. We who have the joy of the Lord also need to have the capacity to mourn over things that we should mourn over. Jesus gave a promise with His statement on mourning: “they shall be comforted.” When we mourn, it does not destroy our faith in Jesus. It does not cause us to blame Him and wonder why people have to suffer. When we mourn, Jesus brings the comfort of the Holy Spirit into our lives. This is partially what Jesus meant when He told us in Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me all ye that labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Christian mourning does not cause us to get depressed; rather, it makes us lean on Jesus and take these sorrows to Him. We are comforted because mourning leads us to prayer, and when we pray we find the peace of the Lord. Jesus and James are not calling us to be depressed, but they are calling us to care. A heart that is filled with the joy of Jesus is a caring heart, and a caring heart is empathetic with the suffering of the world. Jesus and James are not calling us to live unhappy lives. They are calling us to reach out and help others who are in need. This will not drive us to unhappiness, but it will drive us to agape love. Agape love is an active love. (John 3:16 comes to mind.) Go on in the joy of the Lord, but realize that it is not wrong to mourn over things that should be mourned over. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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