Growing in Christ
Joy
Having joy in an abundance
04 months ago
For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
(Matthew 13:12 ESV)
This strikes me as one of the places C.S. Lewis plants one of the major columns of this thinking. Here the Lord lays plain the mathematics of joy in the mind of God. To the one who has joy, who has happiness in God, more will be given and he will have God in abundance. But from the one who does not have God, even the joy he does have (on account of good gifts given him by God’s common grace) will be taken away. Jesus holds out joy through knowing him as the serious business of his teaching. Lewis famously remarked, “Joy is the serious business of Heaven” (Letters to Malcolm). His abundant giving isn’t sparse either – merely giving enough to satiate the hungering soul for a moment. He gives in abundance, and invites us to ask for abundance of joy.
I have to confess that I read John Piper’s Desiring God about 5 or 6 years ago, and some of the main threads about delighting in God are just now beginning to click for me. I’m a dense guy I guess. Piper open’s the book with this quote from Lewis:
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
I’m beginning to see the connections in Christ’s teaching of invitations to himself, and invitations to a joy that’s nature is a continual dog-pile of joy. Jesus speaks to us: If you’ve seen me, for who I am, you joy will not be stolen away, but will grow in exceeding abundance. The rewards of joy in Christ’s equation are more joy. New joys. Deeper joys. All from the same Jesus (Piper). I am far too often the half-hearted creature that Lewis paints. I fool around with ambitions to appear a certain way, or have certain adorations from people, or the darker desires of my heart.
Lewis elsewhere comments that there “is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes” (The Last Battle). Like the half-hearted creature I am, I am far too easily pleased to find and waste my joy on the offerings of easy, worldly joys. There is a seriousness about joy that I need. But this is the joy of the Gospel: Forgiveness of sins, cleansing of heart, and a glorious Son of Righteousness set before you for joy that is given, and given in abundance. This year, I pray I will be less satisfied with the mud pies of joy the world offers, and cash in the Lord’s promises of joy for more rewords of joy in Christ.
Isaac Ambrose – Looking Unto Jesus
09 months ago
In this knowledge of Christ, there is an excellency above all other knowledge in the world; there is nothing more pleasing and comfortable, more animating and enlivening, more ravishing and soul contenting;
only Christ is the sun and centre of all divine revealed truths, we can preach nothing else as the object of our faith, as the necessary element of your soul’s salvation, which doth not some way or other, either meet in Christ, or refer to Christ;
only Christ is the whole of man’s happiness,
the Sun to enlighten him,
the Physician to heal him,
the Wall of fire to defend him,
the Friend to comfort him,
the Pearl to enrich him,
the Ark to support him,
the Rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures.
Only Christ is that ladder between earth and heaven, the Mediator between God and man, a mystery, which the angels of heaven desire to pry, and peep, and look into.”
Heaven’s inhabitants will be ever digging into this gold mine, ever rolling this soul-delighting and precious stone, ever beholding, viewing, inquiring, and searching into the excellency of this same Christ.
If I had but one word more to speak to the world, it should be this; Oh! let all our spirits be taken up with Christ, let us not busy ourselves too much with toys, or trifles, with ordinary and low things, but look to Jesus.
Surely Christ is enough to fill all our thoughts, desires, hopes, loves, joys, or whatever is within us, or without us; Christ alone comprehends all the circumference of our happiness; Christ is the pearl hid in the large field of God’s word;
Christ is the scope of all the scripture:
all things and persons in the old world were types of him;
all the prophets foretold him,
all God’s love runs through him,
all the gifts and graces of the Spirit flow from him,
the whole eye of God is upon him,
and all his designs both in heaven and earth meet in him.
Isaac Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus
HT: Picture
Prizing Christ for lasting pleasure
01 year ago
If we are prizers of Christ, then we take great pleasure in Christ. What joy a man takes in that which he counts his treasure! He who prizes Christ makes him his greatest joy. [A godly man] can delight in Christ when other delights have gone: ‘Although the fig tree shall not blossom, yet I will rejoice in the Lord’ (Hab. 3:17, 18). Though a flower in a man’s garden dies, he can still delight in his money and jewels. He who esteems Christ can solace himself in Christ when there is an autumn on all other comforts.
The Godly Man’s Picture by Thomas Watson, p. 52
Those who enjoy pleasure – which we all do! – will find their pleasure seeking invigorated and satisfied in Jesus. This means that we look to his Word for instruction on how to direct our desires for pleasure and joy. Trusting his word, and acting upon it, we find joy that satisfies even into the dark moments of life. Winter and suffering will come upon the soul. Christianity does not mask the trials of life with happy-face make up. There is a joy to be had in Christ, even in suffering, trials, and weakness, because He is a comforting God, who comes near to us in refreshing, sustaining, glorious love that is only found in Christ. Because God is pure joy in himself, when we lean on Christ, we will find the happiest and most difficult moments of life filled with the fellowship, joy, and comfort of the Almighty. In prizing Christ, we are prizing God, and God is always near to satisfy us like he satisfies himself: with joy and unending life.
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light. ~Psalm 36:7-9
Tasting the sweetest and richest happiness
01 year ago
All of the God-centered life
is calibrated to bless the people of God as they glorify the Lord in all they do (1 Corinthians 10:31). Those who seek the Lord and live to magnify Him will know His “communicated excellency and happiness” even as they participate in the great work of glorifying Him. God’s glory and man’s happiness are not at odds with one another—far from it. The two ideally work hand in hand.
Thus we see Edwards’s brilliant and transformative doctrine of the good life. At its deepest, most profound level, the good life is the life lived for the glory of God. Those who live to display and image the beauty of God will, in whatever circumstance they find themselves, experience happiness that comes directly from God Himself. Happiness, then, is not a state outside of ourselves that we must strive for. It does not ebb and flow with our life situation. Happiness is doing the will of God, for the will of God always yields the glory of God. What is the will of God? It is God’s revealed purposes and desires in the Bible. In short, the good life is the existence that takes shape according to the teachings and commands of Scripture. When one obeys God by loving His Son and following His Word, one glorifies the Lord and tastes the sweetest, richest happiness known to man. This and no other substitute is the good life. It is what God has always intended for mankind.
Jonathan Edwards on The Good Life, p. 30-31
I executed myself this morning.
02 years ago
I got stood up today. You know:
“Hey, let’s do coffee!”
“Awesome. [Fill in scheduling] See you there!”
Time arrives… your sitting there… waiting… and waiting… and waiting…
What do you do? I typically ruminate and internally fume with a nice face on.
I can’t believe this. I rearrange my schedule. I get here almost on time. I buy my coffee. Don’t they know I’ve sacrificed to be here? How can they be so irresponsible? I’m the one trying to be godly here and invest in other people’s lives.
You can see the wickedness of that line of thinking. Maybe you’ve been down that road before. I have, a lot.
So it happened again this morning. And I began to see those thoughts creep in. If we want to be honest about it, they are simply fruits of the flesh – the result of sowing to our pride, vanity, and arrogance:
Now the works of the flesh are evident…idolatry…enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions (Gal. 5:20).
That’s me.
[Enter, Holy Spirit.]
I began to walk down this road of thinking again this morning, but had hesitations and an inner conflict. I didn’t merely know my thinking on this path was wrong, I actually didn’t want it.
I executed myself this morning.
It wasn’t me, I promise; but then again, it was. Part of me wanted to be offended by my friend stiffing me at Starbucks. I wanted to ruminate upon all that had occurred. But then I wanted to not be me. I didn’t want to be the mean Jacob who would hold this over my friend, even internally and secretly; a grudge down in the cellar in a little jar that I could go and contemplate when I wanted to crawl into my little whole of self-pity.
If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)
The Spirit moved in me. He is working in me to conform me to the kingdom of light that Christ transferred me to by his blood. It has to be the Spirit, you see, it can’t be me. Why?
Because men on death row don’t give up without a fight.
For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Phil. 2:13)
The fact of the matter is that I really don’t want to live in such a way to enjoy God without God working in me to enjoy him. I’d probably enjoy a good revelry in feeling superior to another person.
But here’s how this morning worked. I killed those desires. I repented of them the moment they came up and looked to thinking gracious, loving thoughts. All of that is not me. That was the Spirit. And the outcome? Joy. He works his power in me because of Christ to kill those things that Christ killed to give me the reward that Christ got: joy.
I got joy from executing myself this morning.
Why joy? I think I experienced joy because I could see that God was working in me – he hadn’t left me to the fruit of my sinful heart. Joy because I belong to him and enjoy Him doing construction work in me – and I see the results. I am not a loving person by nature, but God is, and he’s making to be like him. That’s the Gospel at work in me. Small steps at a time for small people. Praise his name.
Exploiting God for All Joy
02 years ago
(A journal meditation from this mornings reading in James 1.)
Count trials of various kinds ‘all joy’ for it produces a faith that is steadfast. For faith to endure, it must be filled with joy. For growth in godliness it must have this deep undertow of joy-filled-persevering faith. Joy (all joy) is the only right response to a God ‘who gives generously to all without reproach.’ Fear or reproach is not love, and is not the perfected ‘all joy’ that grows in persistent confidence before the father in loving requests (1 John 4:18). We must grow in exploiting the generosity of God in a desire for the things of God. That is the only way of truly loving God. This is the right way of counting trials of various kinds ‘all joy’ – more opportunities to exploit God’s generosity to those whom he himself has saved by his power to himself (James 1:18). God saved us that we might exploit his grace continually to have those things that true love for God demands: preserving faith, wisdom, joy, godliness, and steadfastness. Let us exploit God to be like God – filled with ‘all joy’.
