“He that diligently seeks good procures favor: but he that seeks mischief, it shall come to him.” KJV
“He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it.” NIV One day I came across the text printed above and it begged to be written about. It is telling us that if we seek the good and the right, we will find them and that if we seek mischief and evil, we will find those too. I am asking you, as well as myself, “What Are You Seeking?” If you are seeking to do good, you are seeking the will of God for your life. It is for sure that if we are seeking to do God’s will for us that we will do good. Now, I know that no one perfectly follows the will of God, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t seek to do it. If we are going to do good in this life, we must find out what it is that God wants us to do and do it. Sometimes it seems that God’s will leads us into trouble. I think that Paul would say that this is certainly true. Paul did God’s will and he found a lot of opposition, but he kept on doing it. A lot of good came to Paul when He found God’s will and did it. He lived a victorious Christian life, wrote about one-third of the New Testament, founded several churches and, though he had hardships, he had the reward of knowing that God was pleased with his life. At the end of his life, Paul wrote: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8) Seek God’s will for your life. If you want to seek the good in your life you need to love people and seek to do good to and for them. Jesus threw out a challenge to His disciples in Matthew 5:16 to do just this: “Let your light so shine before (people) that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” How can we let our lights shine? We do it by how we treat people and whether or not we seek to do good to them or to bring harm to them. In Matthew 5:44, Jesus expanded on this idea: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”Are you seeking to do good to and for others, even those with whom you disagree, or even those who hate you? If you want to seek to do good, follow the example of Jesus. I know that we are not saved by following Jesus’ example, but by faith in Him, but if we want to live lives that honor Christ, we will follow His example. Jesus did good for all who came across His path. He did good for the rich man Zacchaeus, and He did good for the poor woman who merely touched the hem of his garment and was healed. In John 4 Jesus witnessed to the woman at the well, even though her life was in shambles because of wrecked marriages and an illicit relationship with another man. Read the Gospels and you will see that Jesus always went about doing good for all who came across His path. If we follow the example of Jesus, we will not fail to love people and do good to them, even though they might not “be like us.” The promise of the text is that if we seek to do good, good will come back to us, and if we seek to do evil that will come back to us as well. Those who live genuine Christian lives, seek to do good – period. Bro. Joe
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Update on Dad (Joe Beauchamp) and Mom (Mary Alice Ezell Beauchamp) for Sunday....
Daddy is at Phoebe North for Inpatient Rehab - he was admitted there yesterday. His speaking continues to improve and the movement on the right side of his body. He can have visitors after 4:30 pm on Monday through Friday Saturday and Sunday times are different - he loves having visitors and it helps his speech. He can use his iPhone to text too. Mom is staying with Hope Beauchamp Toole in Bainbridge at this time. She is confused by all of the changes but Hope and Jeff are helping her. If you would like to send cards or letters to Daddy please mail to: Phoebe North Campus Room #283 Joe Beauchamp 2000 Palmyra Road Albany, Ga 31701 OR for cards to Mom or Daddy please mail to: Faith Shiver Attn: Mary or Joe 82 E Gate Drive Thomasville, GA 31757 Thank you all for your prayers for our family. We know that GOD has his hands on our family. Love, Faith and Hope "My soul, wait thou silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him." My favorite time to worship God is in the quiet of early morning. This is before the traffic starts flowing by our house and the other noises of life come crashing in. It is at this time that I can really concentrate on the word of God and pray. It is at these times that God speaks to my heart and refreshes my faith. I worship God in silence. It is in these silent times that, as the psalmist wrote, "My expectation is from Him." It is at these times that all of the possibilities of what God can do in my life and in the world, come to life and stay with me all through the day. I think that I can tolerate the "noise" of life because of these moments of silence. Let's take this moment that we are presently experiencing in our country called "the political season" as an example. I must tell you that I really, really, really, get tired of all of the negative rhetoric and the daily posturing of politicians. I am definitely on one side of the political argument, but I grow weary of my side as well as the other side. It is just downright discouraging to me. But in the silence of worship, God assures me that "this too shall pass." (This little phrase has come to my rescue many times over the years.) It is in these moments that I realize that my "expectation" is really from Him and not from the events that are going on around me. God assures me in my heart that He will go into the future with me and that I will never be alone no matter what the circumstances. It is God's presence in my life that makes all of the difference. It was because of God's presence that David took on Goliath. It was because of God's presence that Paul kept on preaching Jesus, even though He was persecuted for it everywhere he went. It was because of God's presence that the early apostles did not give up when they were told not to preach Jesus anymore. In my quiet moments, God assures me that He is in control. It surely doesn't seem like it sometimes. I wish that I could tell you that I never concern myself with the negative things of life. I am probably just like you, I enjoy life more when things are going my way. But at the same time, I am fully aware that God is in the negative as well as the positive and that, with Him, I can survive and move on. I want you to know that your expectation is from God as well. Whether you worship Him in silence or in noise, all of the expectations of your life are bound up in Him. However you do it, worship God/Jesus on a daily basis and it will make a difference in your life. Bro. Joe Message from Bro. Joe:
Monday night (2/15/16) I had a stroke. My right arm and speech were affected the most. My arm strength is getting better daily but the speech is taking longer to improve. I have told my family that I could probably preach a 30 minute sermon but it would all be one sentence. Praise the LORD - so far so good! We are going to Phoebe North for Inpatient Rehab on Saturday (2/20/2016). Please be praying for us. Faith will post one blog post a week for a few weeks. Bro. Joe Typed by Faith “Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. 7. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” If we want examples of what real Christian love does, we can turn to the four gospels and observe how Jesus behaved. The Bible encourages us to be like Christ. This does not mean that we are to be more religious and legalistic; rather, it means that, among other things, we will be more loving. It means that we will practice the agape love that is framed for us in 1 Corinthians 13. I hope that these three posts on real Christian love will make an impact in our lives. The world is crying out for us to be authentically Christian, and the formula for that is right here in 1 Corinthians 13. “Love…rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.” “Iniquity” is a word for sin that means “twisted.” Christian love will not allow us to be twisted in our thinking about sin. Sin has been so twisted in American society today to the point that no sin is seen as sin anymore. We are fast becoming an “anything goes” society. This twistedness (My computer tells me that this is not a word, but what does my computer know?) has even found its way into the churches. But we shouldn’t be surprised, the world system has always been twisted, because it is run by the “eternal twister” himself – Satan. I could point out a lot of ways that we have become guilty of iniquity, but I will concentrate on one, the one that I think is one of the most important: We have twisted our fellowship with each other by giving in to anger and a party spirit. Real Christian love “rejoices in truth.” We need to face the truth about ourselves, even if it hurts. We should certainly not be proud of ourselves when we act less than loving toward people. “Love…bears all things.” The NIV translates this as “love protects all things.” I have no idea what that means. I will stick with the KJV translation of “bears all things.” What this means is that we will be patient in all our relationships – home, work, church, etc. The Bible tells us to bear with each other. I think that it means a little more than “putting up” with each other, although I will admit that in my case this has been my reaction. I am sure, however, that other people have “put up” with me at some time or other. (There are probably some “amen’s” going on out there at this moment. Lol) We can bear with each other in love, or we can hate each like the devil wants us to. We might as well admit that one of the biggest problems in our lives is other people. How we react to other people makes a huge difference in our witness to the world. “Love… believes all things and hopes all things.” This does not mean that real Christian love is naïve. It means that we are willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, and accept them. Hope and belief definitely go together. It is our belief in God and belief in other people that gives us an outlook of hopefulness in the world. It is for certain that there are many people who make it difficult for us to “believe all things” and “hope all things.” That is where our faith in Christ comes in. He gives us the desire to believe, to trust and to hope. “Love… endures all things.” We would call this “keeping on keeping on.” Life can grind us down and make us just want to give up, quit and retreat into a shell. Satan will certainly try our endurance. If the early Christians had not had this kind of love, things would be a lot different in the church today. If Christians in countries today where they are persecuted did not “endure all things,” they would just quit and there would be no churches. We need to learn to love like this, and endure all of the slings and arrows of Satan and the world, and continue to give a Christian witness to a world that is in dire need of a Christian witness. If we love people as Jesus does, we will endure to the end. Bro. Joe “Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil.”
This is the second installment of our series on Paul's description of real Christian love in 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13 gives the biblical definition of love. The love that is mentioned here is God’s kind of love that is sacrificial and active. We usually associate love with feelings, and that is valid, but God’s kind of love and what I call “real Christian love” does not just feel it is active, just as God acted in sending His Son to die for our sins. We need to remind ourselves that love is ultimately important in the life of a Christian, because Jesus commanded that we love. “Love…Does not behave itself unseemly.” The NIV translation of this is “love is not rude.” I love both translations because they tell us that we need to be aware of how we are being perceived by the world. I remember mama telling me when I misbehaved (I should have added rare times. lol) that I was “acting ugly.” That’s what “unseemly” reminds me of. We need to be careful not to act ugly. We also need to be careful that we are not rude. People who know such things say that waiters and waitresses say that the most difficult people to wait on are those who come in from church on Sunday. This should not be. If we want the world to take us seriously, and take our faith seriously, we will remember to behave ourselves in public – and in private. Sometimes other people’s behavior does not lend itself to not being rude, but we need to let that be their problem. Jesus told us not to retaliate against people. “Love…seeks not her own.” Another translation of this is “love is not selfish.” The NIV translates it “love is not self-seeking.” We might even give the more radical translation “love is not greedy.” We have all heard the definition of Joy as: Jesus – Others – Yourself - in that order. That was not a problem for me to write at all, and it is no problem to talk about it, however, living up to it is a real challenge. We might be surprised at how much we think of ourselves in a given day. If we tried to count them, we might lose count. It is not wrong for us to take care of ourselves, but it is wrong when we are obsessed with ourselves and live our lives that way. We need to make a conscious effort to reach out in praise to God and in ministry to others. “Love… is not easily provoked.” The NIV translation of this is “love is not easily angered. “ Anger itself is not a sin. Jesus was angry at various times in the Gospels. When He cleansed the temple, let us say that He was not smiling. He had every reason to be angry. But at the same time when Jesus was mistreated at His trial and in the subsequent crucifixion, He did not lash out in anger. We need to learn how to be angry at things that should make us angry, and to not be provoked by things that will ruin our witness if we lash out in anger. I am not claiming that this is easy; I am suggesting that it is important. Fits of temper at an inopportune time can be hurtful to our witness. We need to work on it. “Love…thinks no evil. Our lives are defined by what we think about. I know that you already know that thoughts become actions. We need to be careful what we allow in our minds. The world gives us plenty of opportunity to think evil thoughts. I know this, not because somebody told me, but by what I experience on a daily basis. We can easily think lustful thoughts if we do not guard our minds. We can also think evil about other people if we are not careful. Love will make us keep a close guard on our thoughts. To be continued….. Bro. Joe This was one of the blogs daddy had prepared before his stroke on Monday, 2/15/16. "Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up. 5. Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil.”
The word translated “charity” in the KJV is a translation of the Greek word “agape” (ah-gah-pay). The same word is translated as love in almost all of John’s writings, including the well-known John 3:16: “For God so loved the world…” Agape describes real Christian love, and when we practice agape, we practice God’s kind of love. 1 Corinthian 13 reveals agape love as a gift that Christians are to use to express their love in word and deed. What will real Christian love do, or how will it act? (For the next three days we will look at Paul's great description of Christian love from 1 Corinthians 13.) “Love suffers Long” A modern translation of “suffers long” is patience. There are two different Greek words used for patience in the Bible. One is patience in the sense of waiting, as we would use it about being stopped at a red light. The other word is “longsuffering”, i.e., being patient in suffering and not becoming impatient with the circumstances or with God. Real Christian love is willing to suffer. The author of 1 Corinthians 13, Paul, is a good example of this kind of love. It can mean to be patient in persecution, and to not become impatient with God. I haven’t scratched the surface of the aspect of real Christian love, but I think you have enough here to understand what it is about. If you want to see it in action read the Gospel narratives of Christ’s trial and crucifixion. “Love…is kind.” If there is one word that would describe Christ like love it is the word “kind.” Again, Jesus was kind to the people that he encountered in His earthly life. It takes just as little time to be kind as it takes to be unkind. The choice is really ours, and if Jesus lives in our hearts, He will help us make the right choice in this matter. Think of your daily encounters with people and determine whether or not you were kind in these encounters. For example, how did you treat the waitress/waiter at the restaurant who didn’t refill your tea? Being kind is an integral part of our Christian witness. “Love....does not envy.” Envy, or jealousy, is a real witness killer. When we envy anyone about anything we are not acting in love toward them. Why not be happy for the person that you envy? If one of your friends gets a raise, or a promotion, the response of Christian love would be to be glad for them and to congratulate them. When we do otherwise, we are listening to the devil, who has no interest in our Christian witness. “Love.... vaunts not itself, is not puffed up.” A modern translation of this is: “Love is not boastful, is not conceited.” If we really love God and people, we will not be boastful, because boastfulness is based on false pride and can be self-promotion. Our responsibility is to promote Christ, to brag on Him, and not boast about ourselves. (It didn’t say that we couldn’t brag on our grandchildren….) A conceited person is self-centered. Quite often, a conceited attitude repels people and makes them not want to be around us, let alone accept our witness. Besides that, conceit causes us to be preoccupied with ourselves to the exclusion of others. To be continued…………. Bro. Joe “We love God because He first loved us.”
No one will argue with our title that “Love is Great.” The love that we are referring to is agape (ah-gah-pay) love, which is the Greek word translated love in our text and in other texts like John 3:16. Love really is great, especially as it is revealed in the New Testament. This article will explain what I mean. God loves us! We need to be careful not to say this too glibly or take it too lightly. It is amazing that the God of the whole universe loves us. Think of what life would be like if God had chosen to hate us instead of loving us. If you are like me, you do not want to think of the alternative. We would not have John 3:16 in the Bible about God loving the world so much that He gave “His only begotten Son” so that we could be saved. We would not have 1 John 4:8b in the Bible: “For God is love.” The Bible reveals that God is a jealous God and that He is a God of wrath, but it does tell us that “God is jealousy” or that “God is wrath.” The very essence of God is love, and we should be grateful for that. When we put love, grace and mercy together, we realize that we can be saved for eternity because of the great love of God. Rejoice today, not only that God loves the world, but that He loves you as well. We love God! Our text makes it clear that if God did not love, we would not love Him. Through Jesus, God has shown us what really is. He set the example. We need to ask ourselves, however, whether or not we really love God. It is easy to say, “I love God.” It is quite another to actually love Him. Jesus said that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments – we will obey Him. If we love God, we will want to serve Him in our churches and in our communities. We will share His love with the world through witness and ministry in the name of Jesus. Paul gave us a good example of what genuine love for God will do. He traveled extensively in obedience to his call to minister to Gentiles. Because he loved God, Paul was able to overcome the prejudices against Gentiles and preach the gospel to them. We should not simply say that we love God. We should prove it by our obedience to Him. What is the last thing that you did for someone because of your great love for God? We love each other! The verses following our text reveal that if we realize that God loves us and that we love Him, we will love each other as well. 1 John 4:20-21 tells us: “If a man says I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that he that loves God love his brother also.” If we truly love God, we will love each other as well. That is where we fall short so often. We let disagreements and personality differences keep us from loving each other. John makes it plain that this is wrong. If we do not love each others, we simply do not love God. We can stand on the highest mountain and shout to the world “I love God,” but if we do not love each other the words will fall on deaf ears. Furthermore, if we love God, we will love non Christian people, who are all around us. The New Testament never gives us permission to hate anyone. There are hard words to understand sometimes when we really dislike someone, but whether we understand them or not, they are true. If we love God, we will love people. Love’s greatness is revealed in the New Testament as threefold: God loves us, we love God and because of this, we love each other. Let’s adopt and practice New Testament love in our lives. Bro. Joe “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from trouble.”
I was perusing the book of Proverbs and came across this verse. I moved on from it, but I found myself coming back to it several times and reading it over and over again. I thought to myself, “Where has this verse been all of my life?” I know that I have read it at least one-hundred times over the years, and it somehow escaped my attention. Well, it didn’t escape my attention today. Those of you who know me, know that “keeping my mouth and tongue” has not always been my forte – so to speak. In fact, one of the best lessons that I have learned over the last few years is that it is best to keep my mouth shut most of the time. I think that what I have learned, or will always be in the process of learning, is that most of the time it is best to keep my mouth shut instead of stating my opinion or arguing, whichever might happen to be the case at the time. I have learned, or am learning, the lesson of this text: If I will keep my mouth shut and my tongue still, I will save myself a lot of trouble. Let me share two things that came to mind when I meditated on this text. If we will keep our mouths shut until it is wise to open them, we will not embarrass ourselves by what we say. I guess that some of the hardest moments in my life, reaching back over the years since at least my teen years (waaaayyyy back), have been when I have embarrassed myself by what I said. There have been times when I have wanted to clap my hands over the mouths of other people because they were embarrassing themselves by what they were saying. If we will keep our mouths shut until it is wise to open them, we will not embarrass ourselves by what we say. You have probably heard the saying: “It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than it is to open it and remove all doubt.” (Or something like that.) I have particularly learned this in my church work. There have been times when I have spoken without having all of the information that I needed and have had to apologize. (I’m referring more to deacon’s meetings, business meetings and making church announcements, for example, than to my preaching from the Bible.) Learn the lesson of when to speak and when not to speak. If we will keep our mouths shut until it is wise to open them, we will not say things that will hurt other people. Think back over your life and think about how many times you have said things to people that were hurtful that you wished you could reel back into your mouth. Of course, this is impossible. A word once spoken cannot be recalled. There is an old saying that “sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.” This might be true to a certain extent, but it is not altogether true. Words cannot break your bones but they can break your heart, and demean you. Perhaps, we would be wise to think about what we say to someone, and ask whether or not we would want the same said to us. I’ve known people who referred to themselves as “plain spoken” and spoke their minds regardless of who it hurt. One thing that I have noticed about these people is that it is not wise to be “plain spoken” with them. These are usually the people that you have to watch what you say to them or they will take offence. We need to learn to refrain from saying things that will be hurtful to people. There is so much more that I could write about what I have learned about keeping our mouths shut, but I have to remember that I am writing a blog and not a book. Maybe you need to learn the lesson of this text: “Whoever keeps his mouth shut and his tongue still keeps himself, or herself, out of trouble.” (This is the Beauchamp "translation.") You can fill in the blanks of what I have not written about the wisdom of keeping our mouths shut. Bro. Joe “Jesus said unto (Thomas), I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me."
Jesus lived a humble life, but He never hesitated to tell people the truth about Himself. Jesus was not just another person on this earth. The New Testament makes it plain that Jesus of Nazareth was God incarnate. Prophecies in the Old Testament, made it clear that the Messiah was coming and that He would be the Savior. This morning, I thought of Jesus as the source of good. Jesus said that He did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. (John 3:17) What do I mean that Jesus is the divine source of good? According to the texts referred to above, Jesus is the source of real life, of salvation, for those who come to Him by faith. Being saved and enabled to go to heaven forever is certainly a good thing. (That was a real understatement, wasn’t it?) I heard a song this morning that made me think of this: “If it hadn’t been for a place called Mount Calvary, If it hadn’t been for the old rugged cross, if it hadn’t been for a man called Jesus, forever my soul would be lost.” Our soul’s salvation was dependent on the coming of Jesus, of His death on the cross, of His resurrection and His ascension. Because of this, people have the opportunity to be saved. Satan does not have to be in control of people’s lives, because Jesus saves us from his control. The only thing that will count when our lives come to an end is whether or not Jesus is our Savior. In His love, holiness and power, Jesus purchased our salvation. Paul referred to this in 1 Corinthians 6:20, “For you are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” According to John 15:11, Jesus is the source of joy in our lives: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” When Jesus saved us and empowered us with the Holy Spirit, He gave us His joy. The point here is that the joy that we have in Jesus is not circumstantial; we have it all of the time – it is a gift. This doesn’t mean that we will always be happy, because happiness is circumstantial. Happiness comes and goes with the events in our lives. I’ve never heard anybody say that they were happy all of time. I can say, however, that I have experienced joy at times when I should have been dejected. The joy that Jesus gives to us rises up in our lives when we need it. We need to be aware at all times that Jesus has given us His joy, and live in the light of that joy. It will help us in the bleak times of our lives to keep our heads up and to keep on serving. James referred to this in James 1:2, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse (many different) temptations (trials).” Why because our trials make us more patient with life’s difficult circumstances. Claim the joy that you have in Jesus. Jesus is the source of the peace that we have in our lives. In John 14:27, Jesus said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be trouble, neither let it be afraid.” In John 16:33, Jesus said: “These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation (trouble): but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Jesus never promised to bring peace on earth. In fact, Jesus promised something quite different in Matthew 24:6-7: “And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” The history of the world before Jesus said this, and afterward, proved His point. Jesus gives peace to those who come to Him by and are saved. Jesus is the source of many good things in the lives of Christians. The three listed here are, in my opinion, the most important. Bro. Joe “Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me…”
“What is truth” was a question asked by Pilate when Jesus was on trial before him, and it is a question many people are asking today. Well, what does Jesus mean when He says: “I am the truth”? The more I think about it, the more I realize that there is no way to plumb the depths of this theme. I concluded that Jesus is the truth about all truth. All real truth was/is embodied in Jesus. Let me share three ways that we know for sure that Jesus is the truth. We know that Jesus is the truth about God. Jesus is God’s ultimate revelation of Himself. Hebrews 12:1-2 reveals this: “God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom He made the worlds.” Jesus, God in the flesh, reveals to us what God is like. For example, Jesus reveals that God is the God of love. No one ever loved like Jesus. He loved all people and consorted with all sorts of people – rich and poor alike. He was criticized by the self-righteous Pharisees for consorting with “tax collectors and sinners.” Why did He do it? Because He loved, and still loves, people. Jesus is the proof that John 3:16 is correct: “For God so loved the world…” How much? “That He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Another example is that Jesus reveals that God hates sin. Two incidents prove this. First, the cleansing of temple proves it. The dishonest transactions that took place there raised Jesus’ ire. What people were doing in the temple was sin. Jesus did not hate the people in the temple but He sure hated what they were doing, and He cleaned the place out. Jesus revealed the wrath of god against sin by what He did. Second, Jesus showed that He hated, and still hates, the sin of self-righteousness by pronouncing woes against the scribes and Pharisees. We can also believe that Jesus is the truth about hope. The world is always looking for hope. Many dictators have led people astray by promising a hope that they could not produce. Many of our own politicians have done the same. Real, lasting hope is not found in anything in this world. I am speaking for myself when I say that without Jesus despair would be inevitable. I believe that I am speaking for you and all other people as well. There is so much hopelessness and despair in the world today, because, for the most part, people are ignoring Jesus and pursuing their hope in some other way. Some even place their hope in the belief that there is no God. There are people all around us who do not want to hear about Jesus, who could bring an end to their despair. Jesus gives us hope for this life. Though this life is fleeting, it is not unimportant. Jesus wants us to live in hope while we are here. All of us could tell of the difference that Jesus has made in our lives, and of the hope that He gives us each day. Can you imagine living one day without the hope of Jesus? Furthermore, Jesus gives us hope for the life to come. Jesus is humankind’s hope of life after death. The only thing that awaits those without Jesus is hell. Among other things, hell is a place of despair. Read Luke 16:19-31 about the rich man and Lazarus and see what a place of despair it is. If you have, aren’t you glad that you heeded Jesus when He told you that He was preparing a place for you? Think of it, we will be with Jesus forever. That is something to look forward to and something to place our hope in. As mentioned earlier, I know that we have not plumbed the depths of Jesus as “the truth,” but we have seen two important things that we need to share with people who are more satisfied with the devil’s lies than with God’s truth. The world needs this message we should share it. Bro. Joe “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy be full.”
This is a verse that I refer to often in my own life, in my preaching and in my writing. I have probably referred to it several times in blogs that I have written over the years. I can’t say that I always succeed, but I try to live joyfully because of the fact that Jesus wants me to be joyful. Here is the amazing fact: We already have joy, we just need to claim it. We can claim the joy that we already have in Jesus, for Jesus has given us His joy. Joy is also listed in Galatians 5:22 as part of the “fruit of the Spirit.” It is a gift from God; therefore, we already possess it. I have discovered that the joy of Jesus is at work even when things are not going well. We do not necessarily have to feel it; we just need to claim it. It is a fact that we are not always joyful, but we always have joy. Why do we fail to claim this joy? Could it be that we prefer being angry and “out of sorts” with other people. Could it be that we prefer griping and complaining to rejoicing? (Just asking) We can save ourselves, and our churches, a lot of heartache if we will simply claim the joy that we have in Jesus. After we claim the joy of Jesus, we need to share it with others. We are more likely to claim Jesus’ joy for ourselves if we will commit to sharing it with others. Sharing the blessings of Jesus with others makes His blessings more meaningful to us. Sharing the joy of Jesus brings abundant blessings into our lives. I think that this is part of the “abundant life” that Jesus promised us. It is important that we share the joy of Jesus in this world. There is a lot of enmity and animosity in our world today. This is true in politics, but it is also true in homes, schools and churches. We need to share His joy for the good of our fellow Christians and for the good of people in general. Think of the difference that it would make in your church if every member decided to share the joy of Jesus in church fellowship and in the community at large. Your church’s sense of fellowship would grow, and it is possible that your church’s membership would grow. People tend to gravitate toward joy. At least I know that I do. Joy is contagious, and brings smiles to faces and songs into hearts. Just ask yourself if you prefer smiling faces to long faces? I discovered this principle in my preaching several years ago. I wasn’t claiming joy and was not sharing it with my congregation. God convicted me that I should really enjoy sharing biblical truth with others, and that I should give joy to others in it as well. This did not mean that I would become “Dr. Feelgood.” It meant that even when I preached a negative sermon, joy would come through. Jesus’ joy knows no bounds. Joy is more effective in helping people change than merely fussing at them. We can rejoice in the joy of Jesus. Philippians 4:4 reminds us to: “Rejoice in the Lord always.” And to emphasize his point Paul added: “And again I say rejoice…” It is remarkable when we remember that Paul was wrongfully imprisoned in Rome when he wrote these words about joy. If Paul could rejoice in those circumstances, we should be able to rejoice in the circumstances of our lives. Rejoicing is the natural result of joy. (You might say “duh” here.) Rejoicing is joy that has risen to the top of our hearts and begs to get out. Is it possible that we do not rejoice more because we do not claim the joy of Jesus in us? Let me meddle in your life a little. Do you rejoice daily? Do you rejoice in church services? Do you sometimes rejoice simply because you have to? Answering these questions can help you determine whether or not you are claiming and sharing Jesus’ joy in you. Claim the joy of Jesus and share it. You will see that it will make a difference in your life. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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