Category: God

Elements of Joy

“And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” I John 1:4

What is joy? It is a difficult concept to define precisely, however I came across a discussion by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on certain elements that constitute joy:

The first element is that of a state of complete satisfaction. It is an all-encompassing feeling of fulfillment — mind, heart, emotions and desires.  Dr. Lloyd-Jones says that this is an essential part of joy.

The second element of joy is “a spirit of exultation”.  Dr. Lloyd-Jones portrays a child happily playing with his toy, and then someone comes along and gives the child a surprise: the child springs to his feet in glee; “there is a brightness, a flush which is exultant”.  Joy is more active: there is a “positive spirit of exultation and rejoicing”.

The third element, Dr. Lloyd-Jones suggests, is “a feeling of power and of strength.  There is nothing flabby or superficial about it. Joy is one of the strongest powers in the world. When you are truly joyful, you are wound up by some mighty dynamic power; you feel strong, you are lifted up above yourself, you are ready to meet every enemy from every direction and quarter.”

Dr. Lloyd-Jones admits that the above elements  constitute an inadequate description of joy, but it is difficult to describe it any further.  He concludes his outline of joy by these words:

“Joy is something very deep and profound, something that affects the whole and entire personality.  In other words, it comes to this; there is only one thing that can give true joy and that is a contemplation of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He satisfies my mind; He satisfies my emotions; He satisfies my every desire.  He and His great salvation include the whole personality and nothing less, and in Him I am complete”.

“Joy, in other words, is the response and the reaction of the soul to a knowledge  of the Lord Jesus Christ” – Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

 

*** photography by George Thomas

The Path of the Righteous

But the path of the righteous is as the dawning light, That shineth more and more unto the perfect day.  Proverbs 4:18 ASV

Our journey through life offers a myriad choices of roads to follow. The Bible says that there is a path, an illuminated highway where each step forward brings heightened clarity to our surroundings as well as our destination.  It is the path of the righteous.

Righteousness simply means being right with God.  To this end, we can never achieve this on our own because we are sinful and morally imperfect, whereas God is perfectly holy; a vast divide between God and man exists.

But God in His infinite Love sent a Bridge across the deep chasm of separation: God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Who came into our sinful world as a man, to be one of us, to dwell among us, feel our hungers, our joys, our sorrows.

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, was the ultimate sacrifice, Who bore all our sins and sicknesses in His body on the cross —  the consummate act that made a way for us to be right with God .  Through faith in Jesus that He accomplished this righteousness for us, and not by ourselves through our good works, we obtain our “right standing with God”, and the free gift of salvation and eternal life.

We have the choice to follow the shining path of the righteous or walk the other way.

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How Hungry? Tests of Spiritual Appetite

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6

What does it mean to “hunger and thirst after righteousness”?  In his book “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount”,  Dr.David Martyn Lloyd-Jones gives a few tests to determine the presence of spiritual appetite.

“The first test is this:  Do we see through all our own false righteousness?”  This would be the first indication of such appetite.  That  is, unless one recognizes his righteousness as nothing but “filthy rags”, there would be no hunger for something better.

Another test is discipline.  Dr. Lloyd-Jones says, “This subject of discipline is of vital importance.  I am suggesting that unless we day by day voluntarily and deliberately remind ourselves of this righteousness which we need, we are not very likely to be hungering and thirsting after it. The man who truly hungers and thirsts makes himself look at it every day.”  Discipline is finding the time to satisfy the hunger pangs that one feels.

The next test according to Dr. Lloyd-Jones is this:  “The man who is hungering and thirsting after righteousness always puts himself in the way of getting it”.   The blind man, Bartimaeus, could not heal himself, so he put himself in the way where Jesus was passing through and made such a commotion that Jesus could not help but notice him.   In modern life, this implies going to Church and being involved in the Church, reading the Bible, and making time for prayer.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones mentions the need for reading the biographies of saints and all literature one can lay hold on the matter of righteousness and the Kingdom of God.  He continues, “The people who hunger and thirst after righteousness are frantic.  They do all these things; they are seeking righteousness everywhere; and yet they know their efforts are never going to lead to it.  … It does not matter whom you look at.  It seems to work out like this: it is only as you seek this righteousness with the whole of your being that you can truly discover it. You can never find it yourself.  Yet the people who sit back and do nothing never seem to get it.  That is God’s method.  … We have done everything, and having done all we are still miserable sinners: and then we see that, as little children, we are to receive it as the free gift of God.”

These then are the tests for spiritual appetite.  Dr. Lloyd-Jones concludes by asking: “Is it(hungering after righteousness) the greatest desire of our life?  Is it the deepest longing of our being? Can we say quite honestly and truly that we desire above everything else in this world truly to know God and to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, to be rid of self in every shape and form, and to live only, always and entirely to His glory and to His honor?”

If so, then as we keep on asking, seeking and knocking, indeed we shall be filled — ‘with all the fullness of God’.

 

*** Photo by Sifu Renka

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