joy

  • Backwards

    and these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. 1 John 1:4 NASB Our joy – John must have been confused. I thought he wrote his gospel and letters so that the reader’s joy might be fulfilled. Don’t we automatically assume that John’s purpose is to make us feel better? But…

  • After the End (2)

    Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51:10-12 NASB Joy – Is gladness missing…

  • Life Without Joy

    For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,  2 Timothy 3:2 NASB Ungrateful – One day quite a few years ago my wife remarked about the joylessness of my life. “Why are you so down all the time? Why don’t you just take one of…

  • The Joy of the Lord

    God has spoken in His holiness:
“I will exult, I will portion out Shechem and measure out the valley of Succoth. Psalm 60:6 NASB Will exult – Do you feel it? God does. Yes, that’s right, God rejoices. Don’t for one minute think of the immutable, impassible God of Aquinas or Luther or Calvin. God is…

  • Leading Characteristics

    Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,  James 1:2  ESV Count – “Never confound the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, much that we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive.”[1]  If we take Chambers’ insight seriously, we soon discover that…

  • Yesterday and Today

    For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.  Jude 4 Crept in unnoticed – Now how is this possible?  How can it be that some slip…

  • Relief Pitcher

    Restore to me the joy of Your deliverance, and uphold me, Noble Spirit!  Psalm (Tehillim) 51:12 ISR Joy – Is there any greater joy than the feeling of being rescued from certain disaster?  Every basic survival instinct is flooded with relief as soon as you know you will continue to live.  Yes, the joy of…

  • The Missing Ingredient

    for there was joy in Israel 1 Chronicles 12:40  (Hebrew World) Joy – “Joy is not a theological category in the teachings of most religions and it is never discussed in handbooks of theology.  Those who are overwhelmed by spiritual solemnity and are unable to forget that faith lives in a constant state of tension…

  • Event Horizon

    fixing our eyes on Yeshua the author and finisher of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 Joy – This is behavior directed by delayed gratification.  Oh, how difficult this is!  Especially…

  • Open The Gate

    Then he said to them, “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord.  Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10 Joy – The rare word hedvah is found in…