Category Archives: joy

Dec 21 2011

Some Christmas Advice

Christmas is my most favorite time of the year.  I was raised in the northern part of Wisconsin, and my most valuable and tenderest memories are my Christmases.  I was raised in a Norwegian Lutheran church (Lutefisk!) and many memories flow from that.  The cold, the snow and the tree and the presents.  I have been made a ‘rich’ man through all of these experiences.

I remember our Nativity play at Church. I remember the popcorn ball each one of the kids would get from the ladies.  I also remember a very bleak Christmas when there was no money to be had for presents. A local charity came through at the last minute with gifts. I was profoundly touched by all of this, and more.

I have no way of instilling any of this to you.  Each of us has what we have, and we must make it work.  But I do exhort you, go out of your way to touch the young hearts you have contact with.  Help them believe.  Make it easy for them to touch Christmas magic.  Let them leave your presence yearning for God’s presence in this day.

It won’t take much, maybe a little imagination on your part.  But those things you do may ignite and become a blaze that will direct them through their lives.  Be kinder then you need to.  Do things that will impact them, even small things often carry an astonishingly strong influence.

 

A Lutefisk History – Lutefisk Recipe (Lyefish) http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/LutefiskHistory.htm

Related articles
Dec 20 2011

A Rose in the Snow

Merry Christmas, dear ones!  I can only hope, and also pray that Jesus will direct and keep you in His care.  I’m looking to a Christmas a thousand years from today, when He will bring us all together.  I think that we’ll all kick back, and we will try to remember Christmas, 2011.  We will most likely say, “But that was so long ago, it feels like a dream, I’m not sure now…”

Like me, I trust your deepest hopes are pinned on an incredible grace.  The gifts that are for me, under the tree are fabulous.  But we have been given a gift, of gifts.  It is something that ‘rocks our world’.  It’s called ‘eternal life’.  It has been given to us freely, and without any stipulations.  We’ve been ‘cut-loose’ from the tangled mass of sin.  We are now very much free.

I know I need to learn to live like a free man.  But by extending myself and straining, I can just touch this grace, I pull it in and take and make it as my own.  Jesus has freed me, and I want to walk in truth, with Him, and with you.

Love to all of you from Brokenbelievers.com!

 

Related articles
Dec 18 2011

Yule Time Humor

 This is a very eclectic gathering of Christmas humor.  These cartoons really shouldn’t offend.  But if they do I ask for your forgiveness and forebearance.  More then anything else, have a jolly Christmas full of light and faith. 

 

 

 

 

 

With much jocularity and with a Christmas love,

Related articles
Dec 14 2011

Let’s Get Loud!

“Today your Savior was born in the town of David. He is Christ, the Lord.12 This is how you will know him: You will find a baby wrapped in pieces of cloth and lying in a feeding box.”

 13 Then a very large group of angels from heaven joined the first angel, praising God and saying:
 14 “Give glory to God in heaven,
       and on earth let there be peace among the people who please God.”

Luke 2:11-14, NCV

How very busy things get.  Think of it, shepherds are meeting singing angels who are meeting people.  It must of been a bit of a zoo!  It’s verse 13 that, ‘a very large group of angels’ made their entrance that night.  History is being made, no doubt.  And these are not quiet, or stoic angels, they are large and musical and filled with much joy.

And as happy as this angel-crowd gets,  it doesn’t phase them that the God in heaven, now in human flesh has been born in a manger.  Every angel, and almost every person sees this too; that this is not the place to have babies!  Angels being angels, I kind of think they were not thrilled with the hospitality shown to God.  (They probably said some ‘un-angelical’ things under their breath).

So, you see this swarm of angels descend on the Nativity.  And they are ecstatic, belting out at the top of their lungs, songs of worship and praise.  The squalid environment isn’t a problem for them at all.  The cow manure, sheep feces, filthy straw can all be smelled, but that means nothing at this moment.

Friends, my heart is very much like this dirty stable.  Everything is so filthy, and the smell makes my eye’s water, and the flies are thick and intrusive.  It is all so sad, and pathetic.  There are many others with clean, white hearts, why should He choose my heart to abide?

The choir is singing now, and I think I missed my cue.  But all of them are in deep, wonderous worship.  They belt it out with the enthusiasm of rabid fans at a NFL game.  But I examine my heart, I see so many issues, some things that are actually destroying me.  But the angels, well, they just keep singing.

Related articles
Nov 16 2011

Joy is Not Optional

The test of Christian character should be that a man is a joy-bearing agent to the world.   –Henry Ward Beecher

The last ten days have been quite difficult.  I have lived in a separated state with the Lord and that is not anything that I can tolerate or endure.  I have gone into this period of self-hatred with eyes wide shut and quite angry with my own stupidity.  I am not a saint, I am a sinner, through and through.

I have come to see Nehemiah‘s ministry was only superficially building up the walls of Jerusalem.  Rebuilding the walls was just a pretext to rebuilding a people.  They were defeated and overwhelmed.  Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is sacred to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. [Neh. 8]

What the Bible Says About Joy:

  • Jesus’ aim in all He taught was the joy of His people (Jn. 15:11).
  • Joy is what God fills us with when we trust in Christ (Rom. 15:13).
  • The kingdom of God is joy (Rom. 14:17).
  • Joy is the fruit of God’s Spirit within us (Gal. 5:22).
  • Joy is the aim of everything the apostles did and wrote (2 Cor. 1:24).
  • Becoming a Christian is finding a joy that makes you willing to forsake everything (Mat. 13:44).
  • Joy is nourished and sustained by the word of God in the Bible (Psm. 19:8).
  • Joy will overtake all sorrow for those who trust Christ (Psm. 126:5; 30:5)
  • God Himself is our joy (Psm. 43:4; 16:11). Joy in God outstrips all earthly joy (Psm. 4:7)
  • If your joy is in God, no one can take your joy from you (Jn. 16:22).
  • God calls all nations and peoples to join in the joy He offers to all who believe. No racism. No ethnocentrism (Psm. 67:4; Psm. 66:1).
  •  The whole Christian message from beginning to end is good news of great joy (Lk. 2:10; Isa. 51:11).
  • When we meet Christ at His second coming we will enter into his indestructible joy (Mt. 25:23).

 –John Piper

 

I believe that joy should mark a person of spiritual health.  Joy should be embedded into our character for all to see.  Without joy we no longer can rebuild our walls, and we toss aside our tools.  The work of restoration is intense, and unless we take joy in the Lord we will falter and fail.

Related articles
Oct 10 2011

Shield Your Joyous Ones

Watch, O Lord, with those who wake or weep tonight, and give your angels and saints charge over those who slumber.

Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ,
Rest your weary ones,
Bless your dying ones,
Soothe your suffering ones,
Pity your afflicted ones,
Shield your joyous ones,
And all for your love’s sake. Amen.

St. Augustine of Hippo

Woven into this ancient ‘evening prayer’ is an idea of God matching up our every need with overflowing grace and kindness.  There is a pretty strong sense of God watching everyone! And there is also a “tending sense” He has over all, God matches up to our every need, and His flock can be incredibly needy.

As I read this prayer, I seem to focus on the single phrase, “shield your joyous ones.”  To think that this joy needs protection strikes me as odd.  Why do they even need a “shield?”  Of all people, don’t they have it together?

As I thought it through, I started to realize that joy is standing in the shadow of warfare.  They are companions, “buddies” who share the same ‘fox hole’ on enemy lines.  Nehemiah told those trying to build the city walls, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” Neh. 8:10. Joy connects with the desperate need of the moment; it is the muscle of all ministry.  And as a result, perhaps more vulnerable.

He didn’t say that the joy of the Lord is our happiness, or cheeriness or merriment.  But rather, it would impart strength, and stiffen ones ability to go to war for our brothers and sisters, our churches and communities.  Joy transforms into strength when we step toward our Father.

We need to spiritually protect and cover those who are His “joyous ones.”  They can be found sprinkled throughout our churches and ministries.  And they need us to shield them.  They seem to be quite exceptional, and seemingly invulnerable.  But that isn’t the case.  We need to pray for them. Joyful people inspire me in the battle.  They are the “green berets.”

 

Related articles