Tag: Christian Life

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 First and Foremost Love

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” Mark 12:30

Love is a command. Astounding.  How can love be a by-product of a command? A command to obey seems sensible, but a command to love?  I did not hear an explicit command to love my children when they were born;  love for them came naturally to me as breathing and blinking my eyes.

But the kind of love being “commanded” here goes beyond all dictionary definitions. It is a love that is to be practiced by all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, permeating every warp and woof of my being.  This is the first and foremost directive. Jesus says in Matthew 22:37 that “this is the first and great commandment.”  The great commandment.

Even more astounding when I consider Who gives this command: God Himself.  He commands me to love Him with every fiber, every imaginable strength I could muster, with all of my heart, soul and mind.  God commands me to love Him.

But even if I were not commanded, I do love God; however, the kind of love I possess has to go several steps further — to follow the commandment as directed, to love God with the totality of my being.    As God loves me, I am to love Him.

I believe the great commandment is about the quality of my love for God. The most important concern in my life, therefore, is my love relationship with God.

 

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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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House Upon the Sand

 26And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

 27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
 Matthew 6:26-27

The imagery of the “house upon a rock” has dominated my mindset every time I read passages of the Sermon on the Mount. It seemed as if the following two verses in Matthew 7 just faded silently into the background. What a victorious and happy outcome for a house to go through the beating winds, floods and rains, and still be standing, unscathed after the onslaught of attacking storms.

But as I read on again, this time, beyond glossing over, the enormity of the remaining words of the chapter sweeps me away in a giant tidal wave as I vicariously feel the tremors of the house upon the sand.

Consider the concluding remarks of the Sermon on the Mount.  According to Jesus, there are only two types of people: the wise and the foolish.  One either belongs to one group or the other. There are no “in-betweens”. The wise are those who hear the sayings of Jesus and put them into practice.  But wait, there are those who also hear His sayings, but Jesus calls them foolish. What makes them foolish? They simply hear the words of Jesus, but do not act upon them. They may be those who agree with the truth of His sayings and listen wholeheartedly.  But they may also be those who have heard of Jesus and His words, but dismiss them outright, so of course they would not apply His teachings to their very own lives.

“These sayings of Mine”, what are they?  In particular, and in the current context, they can immediately be linked to the Beatitudes and what Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount.  In general, since Jesus is “The Word” (John 1:1), “These sayings of Mine” can be associated with God’s Word, the Bible.

The wise have a fortunate result after digging hard into the rock, a difficult place as it requires tremendous effort to construct a house upon it, but storms leave the house standing.

The foolish have a devastating outcome after building their house upon the sand.  Consider the looseness of this ground, the ease with which construction materials can be quickly set upon it.  A house is one’s  structure, a dwelling place, a place of belonging.

The shifting sand has no foundation.  There is no anchor of Truth found in it, unlike the solid Rock.  The sayings of Jesus were heard, but not put into practice. How profound that it is not enough to listen to God’s Word. How fearful it is to dismiss, reject, or neglect His Words.  Jesus says that when the storms of life come, and they will come, anything built on top of this unreliable ground will be beaten severely by the winds and the rains and the floods. And the last words carry a stern warning: “And great was the fall of it.”

The great fall of one’s structure, one’s dwelling place, one’s place of belonging.  Think of it.  But here’s the good news:  being wise or being foolish is a choice.

 

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