“…it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”
~David Steindl-Rast-----------------------------------------------------------
The definition of Hell is given to us in 2 Thessalonians 1:9:
"These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,"
Being in the presence of the Lord, then is the opposite of Hell! Being in His glorious power is the opposite of Hell! Who would not want to be in the presence of the Lord? Buy there are those who do not understand what is available to them when in the Lord's presence.
Because the Lord is all truth, all light, all knowledge, all wisdom, all patience, all kindness, all forgiving, all comforting, and all loving, to be away from those attributes would truly be Hell. Yet, we can be in the presence of God while we still live upon this earth! However, we often take that for granted or shun the devotional time to remind ourselves of the blessings of His presence.
Andrew Murray (Absolute Surrender, p 32): "But, oh! we are far more occupied with our work than we are with prayer. We believe more in speaking to men than we believe in speaking to God....if in our ordinary Christian work there were more prayer, there would be more blessings in our own inner life. If we felt and proved and testified to the world that our only strength lay in keeping every minute in contact with Christ, every minute allowing God to work in us -- if that were our spirit, would not, by the grace of God, our lives be holier? Would not they be more abundantly fruitful?"
(p 33) "What a wonderful blessing comes when the Holy Spirit is allowed to lead and direct..." our lives.
How can we be led by the Spirit, if we do not "attend" to His voice?
LAST WEEK: We read a little about how to discipline ourselves so that we might grow spiritually in the Lord. Paul disciplined himself daily ( 1 Corinthians 9:27) If Paul had to discipline his body daily, how much more do we need this?
Growing spiritually allows us to appraise spiritual blessings. Being too busy to meditate, pray, journal, or study the Will of God takes us farther away from discerning His presence in our lives.
TIME: Every one who has ever lived has had the same amount of time in a day. Yet, somehow, we have been fooled in modern times into believing that our time is more precious and more valuable than in earlier centuries. We think we are "out of" time because we busy ourselves with activities that are not under the Lordship of Christ. What does Christ demand of my time each day? If I am a slave of Christ, then what schedule does He desire for my time?
LET's TAKE TIME for REFLECTION:
Psalm 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,And in His law he meditates day and night
Psalm 4:4 Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
Psalm 27:4 One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek:That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,To behold the beauty of the LORDAnd to meditate in His temple.
Psalm 63:6 When I remember You on my bed,I meditate on You in the night watches,
Psalm 77:6 I will remember my song in the night;I will meditate with my heart,And my spirit ponders:
Psalm 77:12 I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds.
Psalm 119:15 I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways.
Psalm 119:23 Even though princes sit and talk against me,Your servant meditates on Your statutes.
Psalm 119:148 My eyes anticipate the night watches,That I may meditate on Your word.
Psalm 143:5 I remember the days of old;I meditate on all Your doings; I muse on the work of Your hands.
Psalm 145:5 On the glorious splendor of Your majesty And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.
Meditation, Reflection, Examination require time, energy, and prioritizing our lives to "attend" to God's voice. Fasting is said to be naturally linked to mediatation and prayer. Discuss why you think this is or is not the case.
And what good comes from such meditations? These mediatations change our ability to not only grow in the Lord, but change our perspective on life and how we live it.
Have we lost the Joy of our Salvation? Let's examine ourselves.
Do I rejoice always? What does the lack of true thankfulness and true conversion look like?
Deut 28:47-50 “Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young.”
What does true conversion look like?
Ps 51:10-13; 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.
What does it take to "restore" the joy?
Having Joy in God's Salvation results in what action on our part?
Ps 13:5-6; 5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me.
Do you think this "singing" was done only in an assembly? How do we "sing" praises of those we
admire?
Are our songs of praises accompanied by our hearts? Eph 5:19
Ps 9:14; that I may declare your praises in the gates of Daughter Zion, and there rejoice in your salvation.
Ps 35:9: Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD and delight in his salvation.
The result of true Joy in our Salvation through Jesus Christ is ongoing Praise and a williness to share our conviction.
Understanding the depth of His love will help us to understand the imperitiveness of our calling.
Our calling in a general and literal sense is to praise and glorify God in word, deed, and all that we do.
Will it be any different in Heaven? Revelations 19:1-9:
After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER."
3And a second time they said, "Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER."
4And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, "Amen Hallelujah!"
5And a voice came from the throne, saying, "Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great."
6Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
Marriage of the Lamb
7"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready."
8It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
9Then he said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb '" And he said to me, "These are true words of God."
Nobody Goes to Heaven who doesn't Want to! How do you know if we want to go there? What relationship do we have with "praise" and "joy" and "honoring our God" now?
How do we love the Lord with all our STRENGTH, Mind, and Soul? Mark 12:30-33. Is this a part-time job?
Paul found a reason to Pray, Prioritize, and Praise:
Eph 3: 16-21"that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Paul demonstrates here that if we understand the love of Christ and make a priority of being filled up to all the fullness of God, the result is praise!
Reflect on: What has Christ done for me? What is Christ doing for me? What will Christ do for me?
Am I able to do anything for myself?
What Blessings do we have in Christ that we can mediate on to bring Joy back into our lives?
Let us consider Ephesians Chapter 1 GO TO: http://joyofbiblelearning.blogspot.com/2010/08/spiritual-blessings-in-christ-ephesians.html
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