“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,” James 1:2. Why? What good are trials, and why should suffering please us?

“…because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” (1:3) Ah, so joy means essentially being satisfied with the understanding that this trial will strengthen you for even more difficult times: it will enable you to persevere to the end, where you will receive the “crown of life.” (v. 12)

And what will perseverance net us? It will make us “mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (v. 4) A-hah! So once again we see joy as not so much an emotion, but a state of being, one that is focused on the future instead of the present. So while we live today as if tomorrow may neve come, our attitudes are predicated on the fact that there is an eternal “tomorrow” that will most assuredly come.

I love how James takes a little detour here, and talks about wisdom. Given the context, wisdom must be part of that maturity, that being made complete. The greatest part about this is that you can’t screw yourself out of this one: God gives wisdom to all who ask without finding fault. The only way to fail? Doubt.

SO, next time you’re suffering, think of what it will net you. And ask God for the wisdom to respond appropriately. And be joyful!

I learned some great things today, which started with the topic of “Joy” and ended with the thought “Holy crap, don’t get YHWH mad at you! (Thank you, Jesus!)”

3 John was where it all began: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (v. 4) A-hah! This man obviously took joy in the fruit of his labor/obedience to God. My parents must be pretty joyful, with four of us all grown up and still serving God–which means they obviously did something right. Praise the Lord for my parents, who taught me the Truth, and how to treasure the really important things in life, which are:

“To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) At this point, I got sucked into reading Jude, which is nice and short, and very under-read. When I hit verse 11, where Jude says something about Korah’s rebellion, that’s where all of this took that weird turn. (Who was Korah?) My cross-references brought me to Numbers, where I read about some Levites who got too big for their britches and were subsequently smote.

I can take joy in the following

1. Jesus’s sacrifice means that I don’t have to earn my salvation (whew)
2. God doesn’t demand miracles from us, but He does ask for our all
3. Thanks to Christ, God doesn’t smite me when I get too big for my britches. (which happens from time to time, regrettably)

Sorry, this isn’t as smooth and coherent as it was this morning, but I didn’t have my journal with me, so this is all from memory. (and a bit of help from Gospelcom) It’ll be better tomorrow, I promise.

How fitting that I’m battling low seratonin levels as we start our week on joy. So I ask myself,

1. What does it mean to be joyful?
2. How do you remain joyful?
3. What are the causes of joy?

1 Thessalonians answers some of these questions. First of all, joy must not mean “happiness.” Paul says (1:6) “in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” (Emphasis mine) He also tells us to “be joyful always,” despite previous admonitions to mourn with those who mourn. (Romans 12:115) So then, joy obviously does not mean happiness.

Moving forward, we see Paul closely align hope and glory with joy in 2:19-20, which leads me to presume that true joy is tied to an eternal perspective. It’s a sense of fulfillment and prupose, a combination of hope and faith that keeps us faithfully plodding along through the good times and the bad, as Christ did, “who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:2)

As a direct result of this premise, joy can be cultivated by merely serving God and obeying Him. We see this in Paul’s naming of the Thessalonians as his “joy” (2:20). The outcome of our service, the continual affirmation of our election & calling, the evidence of our place in God’s kindgom is certainly a great cause for joy. (By extension, hope & glory) For where can one feel more joyful/complete/hopeful than when he knows that he is fulfilling God’s purpose for him, that he is living out God’s Kingdom here on earth? Incidentally, the opposite of joy can be seen in those referred to in 4:13, who have “no hope.” They will lose eternally that which was the sole object of their lives: friendships, posessions, fame and fortune, and have nothing more to look forward to.

Our joy comes from the Holy Spirit, (1:6) for from where else do we receive our comfot, our encouragement, and our affirmation of eternity to come? From where else are we empowered to serve the LORD, to fulfill His commands, to hear and respond to His call?

If all of this is the case, it is no wonder I experience little joy at times. It is precisely when the Spirit of God has little effect on my life, when I’ve lost sight of the prize, and when I’ve let my life become all about this world that I lack joy the most. If I can’t see evidence of Him in me, how could I feel joy?

Yes, I finally feedburned my blog. I always had an atom feed, but unless you’re more technologically advanced, you wouldn’t have gotten it. Now you can subscribe to my feed using the links at the bottom of my side column. (if any of them don’t work, please let me know)

Here’s the feedburner feed. If you don’t know what a “feed” is, its just a way of getting new posts out to people. With a feed reader or online feed reader service, you can subscribe to a bunch of sites, and it will pull down new information every time you log on. That way, you can read what’s new on a bazillion sites without having to navigate to each and every one. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and I submitted a fun little article about our Amazing Race petition to forevergeek.com. It’s an interesting site, and if they publish me it should be a lot of good press.

Sorry that I didn’t post on day five, I’ll post twice today to make up for it! Yesterday, I gathered some awesome insight into 1 Cor 13 though. I was afraid to go there, because it’s the much-used “love chapter,” and I wanted something new. I only made it through the first verse.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

I have met so many people who are interesting or attention grabbing for one reason or another: thier sense of humor, athleticism, good looks, etc. But many of them, once you start to know them, become annoying for those same reasons: if their world revolves around that trait, and they do not have love, they become very annoying.

Like a gong or a cymbal, the first “clash” may be exciting, but no one wants to sit next to a clanging gong all day long. It’s tiresome.

If we live without love, we will be like that: always attracting attention, but then always driving people away (or at least keeping them at a comfortable distance). Drop any pretenses you may have today, and love someone. See what happens.

Well, today I finished my time in 1 John, with chapter 4. If you don’t love, you’re not born of God. So for all you haters….

OK, I’m not seriously going to start judging people here. But it does bother me when Christians get embroiled in a debate with non-believers, and get all angry, judgemental, or just illogical. They start with good intentions, then end up losing composure and look like an idiot.

Love them, speak the truth, and when it seems like they’re just arguing for the sake of arguing, shut up and pray for them. No soup for you, come back 1 week.

On a happier note, have you signed the Amazing Race petition?