Speaking the Mystery of Christ

"Praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds; That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward them that are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man."

Colossians 4:3-6

I love the transparency of the people that are found in God's word. This passage was written by Paul who had been on many missionary journeys and literally spent his life witnessing to others about Christ. At the time that he wrote this letter to the Colossians, he was in jail. Yet, he did not let that affect his thinking or his emotions. He humbly asked the Colossians to pray that he would have "open doors" to make the gospel known and that he would speak in a way that God would have him speak. Satan wants us to think that if we are living a life that is pleasing to God, that our lives will be easy and problem free. But the truth is that the people in the Bible endured hardship, suffering, and persecution as they lived lives that were pleasing to God. Some of them even died for their faith. I have a tendency to forget that when the early Christians accepted Christ they were often persecuted and disowned from their families. Paul did not ask God the questions I probably would have, "Lord, I’m witnessing to all of these people, starting churches everywhere I go, and serving you and other faithfully, Why are you allowing all of this hardship? Why am I being punished?" Instead, he trusted God’s sovereignty and asked the Lord to "open doors" so he could continue to do what he knew that God had called him to do.

It is obvious that Paul followed Christ's example in always doing what pleased his heavenly father. Paul knew Christ never sinned and was persecuted for healing, feeding, teaching, speaking the truth, and loving people. So Paul did not let the persecution stop him from doing the right thing. He obeyed God in the face of conflict, persecution, and even in the face of false allegations. Some responded to Paul's message and trusted Jesus as their Savior, but others hated him and wanted him dead. Still, Paul daily made the choice to obey and follow Christ in the midst of it all. It amazes me that in the middle of his trials, Paul remained more concerned that people hear the gospel than his own discomfort.

Paul's exhorts the Colossians to be wise towards those in the world. He instructs them to let their speech be always gracious and seasoned with salt. Someone who has come face to face with God’s grace should become more gracious in his or her actions and speech. With speech I am including their body language. When we first joined a large church I was really hurting and overwhelmed by the size of the new youth group that we wanted to be volunteers in so I would slip in early and sit down. As a result I would brush quickly by the youth pastor. One day he took my hand to shake it and he did not let go until I turned and looked at him face to face, eye to eye. In his eyes, I saw kindness and godliness and as a result I began to let God heal me. The pastor did the same thing at a later date after we had had a hard conversation. His body language and facial expressions continued to express acceptance and care as did his words.

I love Paul’s use of the words "seasoned with salt". We often think of salt as seasoning, but it is also a preservative and a mineral that is necessary for life. In Biblical days it was also used as an astringent to clean wounds. The people hearing Paul’s instructions would have known all of these uses for Salt and would have interpreted his words in light of what they knew. I get excited when I think about it, because the gospel does all of those things! Just as each of one of us likes a unique amount of Salt, he tells us we need to be wise and sensitive to people so that we can give them what just what they need, not what they think we need. That means being sensitive to give someone the right balance of grace and truth that fit their unique needs. Some people respond to straightforward truth, others to a more gentle presentation of the truth. As God's people we are called to discern how to respond to each person.

As one of our children was turning 16 we had had several misunderstandings with him over his choices of friends. Hoping to bridge the gap we had a surprise birthday party with both his school and church friends. He floated comfortably back and forth between the two groups helping them feel comfortable. I wished the Christians at my son's party would have mingled and shown God's love and acceptance to his school friends in the same way that he did. However, most of the night we had a polarized party with only our son moving between the two groups. The same thing occurs in our youth groups and in our churches. As we welcome new students and adults many of us simply look over the visitors as if our territory is being invaded. We should be careful as we build a "spiritual family" that we be inclusive of those who walk in our doors for the first time.

I wonder if we would treat the people Christ related to the same way that He did? Would we welcome a known prostitute, a thief, or a beggar? Would we pray for a student hearing the gospel if we knew he killed someone while driving drunk or if we knew he dealt drugs? Would we embrace a girl broken by the fact she had an abortion or the guy who took advantage of his girl friend sexually? I am becoming more and more aware of the confusing balance God has called us to – we are to boldly speak his truth as we compassionately and radically love the lost. We should be humble enough to ask other’s to pray for us to have open door to speak the gospel and the wisdom to know how to balance grace and truth in such a way that we radically impact our world with the gospel.

Prayer: Father, thank you for Christ and Paul's examples. They loved people and yet walked in a way that honored and glorified you. Give us wisdom to speak your truth in the midst of all circumstances whether they are good or bad. Help us to be able to give an answer from your word to each person you put in our path. Help us to be your ambassador's--so secure in our relationship and our heavenly home that we do not hesitate to make other's feel welcome and comfortable around us. Father, if people reject us for reflecting You to them, give us the grace to keep on loving them. Help us to love as Christ loved us. Amen.

Suffering Produces True Hope

"And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know

that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by

the Holy Spirit, who He has given us."

Romans 5:3-5

There are times that I read a passage over and over and somehow miss the rich treasures of truth it contains. I did that with this passage. When I have been dealing with something hard, I have complained to God that I would be able to stand up under the trial if only He would give me some hope. The same type of thought occurs to me when I am watching a friend go through a trial that I am not sure that I could handle. Meditating on this passage gives me such a new perspective. A friend once told me that rejoicing can be looked at as return to your joy, which for a Christian is always going to be centered on Christ. So when a trial comes my way I need to make a conscience decision to return my focus to Christ. Sometimes He will lead me to take action in the trial, and sometimes it may be something He will lead me to patiently wait through the trial. That is hard, because in my tendency towards black-white thinking I want a formula for enduring trials that works every time. If I pay attention to His leading and do what He asks of me, I will see that He has allowed the trial for a purpose. That purpose is always so that I can grow in Him.

The reason God allows suffering in my life is to teach me patience or perseverance. As I stay focused on Christ my character is molded to be more like His character. Think back on His life. What did Christ do when he faced trials? He turned to His Heavenly Father and He prayed. Maybe, just maybe I would do well if I did the same. If I seek Him, He will faithfully reveal His will in each situation. Maybe He will lead me to continue loving someone who is acting unlovable. Maybe He will lead me to confront sin. Maybe He will call me to praise God in the midst of pain. Maybe He will ask me to trust the Father's sovereignty when circumstances are confusing. Maybe He will ask me to become bolder in the face of fear.

The last thing that is produced after godly character is hope, which is what amazes me the most about this passage. I have always wanted the hope -- the firm confidence in Christ -- to come first. This passage makes it clear that we don't need to ask God for faith or hope but I need to choose to obey and trust the Lord in trials and that He will then produce hope in me. My perspective needs to be that God is good and faithful and I can take Him at His word. When He allows something to happen to me, He is also doing something in me and hopefully doing something through me. In that process, as I persevere God will develop His godly character in me and then I will have hope! In other words our faith will become mature. It is a neat concept that God is developing and maturing the faith He has planted in me.

Finally, the last part of the passage promises that I will not be disappointed in hope because God sheds his love into our hearts via the Holy Spirit. Several years ago I shared this passage with one of my discipleship groups. Some of the girls have expressed that they do not feel close to God. The truth is that we are all close because He lives inside of us. The way we get the feeling of being close is to choose to obey and trust Him through trials. As we obey our hope matures. Then we are confident in the love He has put inside of us and it isn’t something we muster up.

One of our sons is allergic to soybeans and when he gets some in his system he will double over and look like he is dying. One night he had eaten something that had soybeans without knowing it and his girlfriend's family called us because he had doubled over. They checked him into the Emergency Room and he was there when we got there. We were stuck there for about 6 hours. In the mean time the pain subsided and he was merely drained. I looked around and asked the Lord in my heart why we were really there. I noticed a young girl who was crying, and pretty soon her siblings and grandparents were there with her. Her mom was critically ill and had been rushed to surgery. Several times during that evening I felt led to pray for them. The next week a friend of mine canceled a Bible study that we did together to go to a funeral. Later when we talked, I found out it was for the mom of the girl I had seen. She shared with me that the lady was her daughter's best friend's mom and her daughter was having a hard time dealing with it. I told her we were there when they brought the lady in and had been praying for her throughout that night. She shared that with her daughter and it seemed to help her daughter to know that God had provided special care for them. I will be honest, it was frustrating to be stuck there once my son felt better, but at the same time I really felt God had brought me there to pray for this family I didn’t even know. I also know that it also taught me to be more patient, to be less self-centered, and to love strangers by praying for them. I was so thankful that it ended up being an encouragement to my friend's daughter in the midst of tragic circumstances.

I invite you to join me in practicing rejoicing in our sufferings. They are never fun and I definitely would never purposefully seek them out. At the same time, I wouldn’t want to waste suffering by having the wrong perspective and attitude about it. I would like a hope-filled, love-filled heart…if suffering produces that, maybe going through trials is worth it after all.

Prayer: Father, so often I think if I could handle things better if I just had a little more faith. But in truth I am to choose to obey you and abide in you in the trials and you will develop our character and mature our faith so that we have hope. Thank you for your precious Holy Spirit who fills us with your peace that passes all understanding. Amen.

Soul Thirst

"O God, you are my God, early in the morning I will seek you; 
my soul is thirsty for you, my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land, 
where no water is, to see our power and your glory, as I have see you
 in the sanctuary. Because your loving-kindness is better than life, 
my lips shall praise you. Thus, will I bless you while I live 
I will lift up my hand in your name. My soul shall be satisfied 
as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips, 
when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the night watches."
Psalm 63:1-5

It is my desire to have a heart fully devoted to Christ. Yet, sometimes as I read how the prophets, David, Paul and others mentioned in the Bible were satisfied by their relationship with Christ I sense there is something missing in my relationship with Him. The feelings described in this passage are more in line with my emotions at times–emptiness, restlessness, loneliness, uneasiness, discontentment, or dissatisfaction. I think in my tendency to judge myself harshly, I tend to misinterpret what those feelings mean. After all, God created me to need to have a relationship with Him. When I forget that, I know it is easy to turn to worldly things to have those needs met. The "instant" society in which I live stirs up such a strong desire to have instant relief for uncomfortable feelings I experience. I don’t even realize sometimes it is God I am so desperately hungry or thirsty for. When I begin to grasp my deepest need is God, then I need to accept the desire for instant, forever satisfied feeling isn’t going to happen. As I am writing this, I realize what they penned was what they experienced and I know from reading David’s writings he felt both the hunger and the satisfaction. The question to be answered is: “How are we filled in our relationship with God to the point of satisfaction?”

Today’s passage gives us some answers for that question. The first thing David did in the morning was proclaim God is His God and then He went about His day looking for Him. There is something powerful about taking that ownership of his God. It makes it personal. It makes it real. He didn't see God as some lofty being high in the heavens God. David knew the things of the world would not satisfy him and he longed to see God's glory as he had in that past. It is the same way I feel when I think of mountain top experiences in which I was so filled with His love I was overwhelmed, when I was being gently convicted of sin by His Sweet spirit, when I was being blessed by someone’s words that were words I needed to hear. when God answered prayer so specifically it showed both His power and His intimate involvement in my life. I also see His glory through the scriptures or when I see His image in others. It is important to realize God is not just at church, at camp, at retreats, or on mission trips--He is in my every day mundane life.

The times I find it the hardest to realize I am thirsty for God is when I feel discontent, lonely, or anxious. It's easy to look at what is visible to figure out what I need, than to go to the invisible things that touch my heart. Yet, that is when it is most important for me to declare that He is MY GOD! He is found even in the mundane–in changed attitudes, Christian fellowship, exchanges with friends, in trials, and small spiritual victories.

I will be filled if I greet God every morning with Praise. I so often overlook His loving-kindness, but His mercies are new every day. As I declare His praises, I defeat the enemy who wants me to neglect my relationship with God to live in a state of half way believing God. If I praise Him for His holiness, I will be less likely to play with sin and develop an ever growing desire to be holy like He is. If I praise Him for His love, I won't believe I am not loved or accepted. If I praise Him for His mercy, I won't think God can't forgive me when I confess sin. If I praise Him for His strength, I will let His strength overcome my weaknesses and develop a special intimacy that comes with depending on Him in times of temptation.

If I praise Him for His creativity, I will seek to be more creative in the things that I do. It is important to understand God’s gift of appetites that need a daily filling are a gift. I used to feel so sinful if I felt satisfied one day and not the next. He wants us daily to seek Him daily and He daily wants to fill us. It is possible that when He fills me and I feel satisfied today, that He truly meant that filling to be only for today and that it is so I will approach Him with my hungry heart tomorrow! It isn’t a sign of defective Christianity, it is a sign of humility to recognize my humanness and go to Him daily.

Finally, the last part of the passage is David claiming his soul will be satisfied and he will praise God with JOY! We need to notice why that is possible. Whether David went to bed or stayed up for some reason He meditated on the Lord. I know I would benefit from trying to meditate on Him and His word before I go to sleep. This equates to putting the "mind of Christ" in my mind and then moving it to my heart by meditating on it. I would benefit in hard situations by asking myself how different scripture or God's character affect the situations. I can make the scriptures personal, by praying about what I read and how it affects me personally and having a two way conversation with God. If I would take the time to ask myself questions and take the time to thoughtfully answer them it would help. For example, “What does it mean to you personally to be a child of God? As you answer it, think of His character and the things of the scripture that you know. What does it mean that you are one of His sheep and that He is the good shepherd? If I don’t know much about shepherding, would it help to do a word study or read about the occupation of being a shepherd?”

Sometimes I have an unfulfilling relationship with God, because I don't think what I have read or about the Lord Himself. It is no different than having a human friendship become estranged because I don't spend time nurturing or appreciating it. Relationships can be transformed with a commitment to love, appreciate, and relate to each other on a consistent basis…the same is true with my relationship with God. Now in closing, let me ask you what is the last thing you think about before you go to bed and the first thing that you think about when you wake up? What is it you are truly hungry or thirsty for? I hope that the answer is to see the glory and power of God and to have Him be the one who satisfies your deepest needs…anything less will be counterfeit. Can you hear Him calling you? Can you see His open arms? Can you hear the love song He is singing over you?

Prayer: Father, there are times when life is truly like being in the middle of a desert. We are so thirsty for You and don't even recognize the thirst for what it is. We keep reaching for something and don't ever feel satisfied. You are the one who created us and You know our deepest need. Help us to trust you to meet each need abundantly. Draw our thoughts and our hearts toward You when we first rise up and when we are lying down to sleep. We praise You for You are life. You are Holy. You are loving. You are kind. You are our God and we declare Your name unashamed! Teach us to sit at your feet and let you fill our needs. Forgive us for looking to things in this world to meet a need only you can meet! Amen.

The Greatest Command

"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself:'"
Matthew 22:37-39.

I find it interesting that this is this called the greatest commandment. It must be because the God we serve is a very relational God. It is also important because a person cannot sin by doing an unloving act at the same time that they are doing a loving one. No other commandments would be needed if we tried to do the most loving thing every time. We will not lie if we are trying to show love. We will not murder if we are trying to show love. We will not kill while we are showing love.


When I first read this passage I felt guilty. It was right after my first two children were born and I was passionately in love with my family. I told my pastor I was afraid I loved my family too much. Thankfully, he told me, "You don't love your husband or your children too much, maybe you just don't love God enough. If you keep getting to know Him, you will come to love Him as you should." Several years later I asked God to teach me to love Him as these verses describe. I expected His answer to come in the form of admonitions, but in the next 3-4 weeks I received daily lessons about how God loved me. They came in the form of scripture, sermons, books, encouragement notes, and praise music. The lessons to this day still continued to come.


The first lesson He taught me was that loving Him with all that I am depends on me first receiving His love. As I began to see that He loved me personally, not because He had to, I began to love Him. I realized the word "love" has been many distorted by our culture’s shallow meanings and selfish acts. "I love God" is said as flippantly as "I love pizza." In our society "love" has many depths. It can mean anything from "I don't like you, but I am supposed to," “I am interested in you,” “I enjoy spending time with you,” “I like you” to "I am consumed with passion for you."


There are so many descriptions of love in the Old Testament that can help us understand His love. It describes God as One who rejoices over us with singing. It describes His love in terms of intimacy like a mother has for her child and a husband has for his wife. He is even jealous for our loyalty and devotion. The Psalmist, David, found freedom to pour out his heart in pure honesty knowing God had His ears turned toward him. Christ also showed us the Father's heart. Something about Him invited people to live transparently even with their doubt, pride, and ignorance and yet He continuously demonstrated His love. He always looked past sin to the people He had come to redeem and change. He made loving choices in the face of adversity, hatred, misunderstanding, denial, and death. Even today, His love still invites us to come to Him.


It seems like to me that loving God and loving people are so intertwined that they cannot be separated. In Matthew 25 He equates loving people by meeting their needs to loving Him. He also calls us to love our enemies. He even went past telling us to love others as we love ourselves. John 13:34 says we are to love others as He loves us. That is definitely a higher calling. It means to love even when there is nothing loveable about the other person. It means to love in the face of rejection, in the face of hatred or coldness. To love like Him is to love with a perseverance this culture has lost. It means to love both boldly and tenderly.


I can't love like He does in and of myself. One year I was going to work in a Christian Camp to work for three weeks. The week before I left, my stepfather died while my husband was out of town and our oldest son had a motorcycle wreck. My son asked me to leave him in the emergency room and go upstairs to be with his best friends as they gave birth to a stillborn baby. I had not been home more than a few hours when a girl I was mentoring came by to tell me she was leaving the church and God to pursue a homosexual lifestyle. I left for camp feeling empty, knowing I had nothing left to give. As the band warmed up the first night, I was alone in the chapel and prayed, "Father, I have nothing left to give -- I need YOU." He filled me with such joy and love that I was overwhelmed. Through His love being shed abroad in my heart, I was able to love and serve those He had sent me to serve. I know it is God who gives me the love I have for students I work with. I have such a passion for them to know God intimately and to demonstrate their love with their lives. This "love thing", is in no way simple. In fact, it is a huge mystery! This awesome God we serve tells us to love Him with all that we are and to love others as He has loved us. Yet, without an understanding of His love for us, and without our lives being intricately intertwined with His we are incapable of doing so. Furthermore, we cannot love God without loving people, nor can we love people without loving God. I admit I am not fully "there" as far as loving God with all that I am, but I am humbled by His consistent love for me and comforted by the fact that the desire to love Him continues to grow with in my heart every day. How about you?

Prayer: Father, thank you for loving us with unconditional and sacrificial love. We don't deserve it. We can't earn it. Even more importantly there is nothing we can do to lose it. We thank you for sending your son to bridge the gap that our sin caused so that we could receive and bask in the warmth of your love. May we never grow cold towards you, but always passionate and ever pursing you with all that we are. Amen

His Food

"In the meanwhile his disciples besought him, saying, "Master, eat." But he said unto them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about. Therefore said the disciples one to another, "Hath any man brought him anything to eat?" Jesus said unto them, "My food is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." – John 4:31-34

When I read this passage, I started laughing because it reminded me of my husband. One of his secretaries told me that he gets so busy she has to remind him to eat lunch. He does this at home as well when he works in the yard or a project that he is enjoying. He enjoys what he is doing so much that he is energized and doesn't need to eat. Christ, like my husband, enjoyed doing His father's will so much that He was energized by it. When He taught, witnessed, and reached out to people He was so content in doing what He was sent to do that it was like food to His soul. The disciples were showing concern for his health and his need of food when they told Him to eat. I don't think His response was a rebuke. I think He was simply telling them that He felt energized by obeying His father and doing the work God called Him to do.

Because the verses following this passage have Christ comparing the crowds following Him to fields that are ready to harvest, I would say that the obedience and the work that Christ is talking about is more than obeying His commands to not sin. It is using our spiritual gifts to build up the church and to edify and exhort each other so that the church is healthy and functioning the way it should be. It is not an accident that the individuals that compose the body called the church are from different schools or jobs or neighborhoods. God, in his sovereignty, has placed us where He has to be a light. The concept of some sowing and some reaping gives us more freedom and less pressure in witnessing in the realms we move in. Evangelism sometimes is taking them through all the steps at once, but evangelism can also be looked at as bringing them one step closer to God. We sow by both our lifestyles and our words. When we lovingly and humbly live a life that is holy and pleasing to God we witness to those around us by giving them a taste of what God is like. If they see that we don't gossip, that we don't pilfer from our boss, don’t vindictively compete, but encourage those around us they see that God is love. If we invite conversations at lunch and listen to another’s problems and encourage her with the truth she will see God is both full of grace and truth. When we are in tune to those around us and give an answer for the hope that is in us, others will look to God and wonder if He can give them hope. We should always be about the business of sowing or reaping, but at times we forget or neglect that responsibility. We need to be sure we are sowing seeds of righteousness and love so that we are pointing others to the Savior. Are we looking constantly for people with whom we can share the gospel? Are we using our gifts to exhort each other to love, to do good deeds, and to be about the Father's work?

Some people walk away from church and go after a sinful lifestyle for a season because they have not entered the Father's work and bored at church. It is not boring when we let God work through us. Just as Christ was energized and strengthened when He did the Father's work we will be, too. I experience that when I write, pray with someone, or when I share Christ. I experience that when a student I have mentored shares with me how they shared Christ with a friend or ministered to a Christian friend. I am energized by the fact that the person I mentored is walking in obedience. Notice joy comes in obedience, not in the fruit! In 2 John 4 John tells the people that he is writing to that he rejoices that he has found his children walking in truth. That is the way God is toward us!

Sometimes in dealing with personal issues we think we need more strength to obey Christ. Sometimes we think we need more knowledge about God, before we witness. Sometimes we think we need muster up more courage to speak God's truth to our friends. However the truth isn't that we need those things. We simply need to be willing to obey. In his book, Finishing Touches, Charles Swindoll puts those thoughts in their place, "We don't need more strength than the strength God gives us. We don't need more knowledge than we already have. All we need is the will to do what needs to be done."

Do you want an exciting life like Christ had? Do you want to be so excited and so energized about life that you forget to eat? If so, notice the fields around you that are ripe and enter into your Father's work. Does He want you to sow seeds of love, encouragement, truth, or exhortation? Does he want you to enter the harvest by sharing the gospel with someone?

Prayer: Father, I love the fact that Your son came became a man and walked through life just like we do. Thank you for demonstrating Your heart to us through Him. Help us to see the field with Your eyes and put in us the same kind of love You have. Put us in the schools or the jobs or the mission fields as You wish so that there we are a light and there is a witness to those who need You. Amen.

Walking in the Light

“That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write unto you that your joy may be full. This, then, is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Part 2--I John 1:3-9

Today I want to focus on experiencing the joy that comes from walking in the light. "Walking in the light” means reading God's word and choosing to obey it and the principles in it. Walking in the light also means living honestly with God, ourselves, and with others about our struggles and our doubts. Often bringing our struggles or our doubts to safe, mature Christians is all that is needed to overcome them. It is human to want to hide and cover sin, but that always leads us deeper into it. When we hide or cover sin, we hinder our growth and dull our consciences, which give Satan a foothold into our lives. It is in this state that we can get uncomfortable with other Christians and think we have problems with them when in reality it is the God who indwells them that is making us feel so uncomfortable. If we aren’t careful, sin will have soon destroyed our fellowship with God and with other believers. Sin robs us of joy and we end up not feeling close to God. Sin also causes us to wear a mask and pretend to be something we aren’t, which causes us to feel disconnected from those we perceive as close to God. Sin robs us of such rich joy.

We have got to keep in mind that God is faithful and loves us regardless of what we do, but He does ask us to show Him our love by our obedience. Are we doing what He asks us to do? Are we not doing what He asks us not to? If we choose purposely to sin we make our relationship one-sided as far as love goes. God continuously loves us, but we may not be showing Him love. That distorts our relationship with Him and we lose joy. Loss of joy affects our emotions at a lot of different levels. I have watched people begin to drink or numb their pain as they made the decisions to end their marriages. They didn’t want to face the fact they were breaking vows they had made to God or the fact that they were hurting their spouses and their children.

If we want to know God and have His joy in this life, we have to be aware of the sinful bent we have and choose to put God's will above our own. As we do that He will continue to cleanse us and mold us into His likeness. If we stumble we confess it and confidently return our focus to the loving faithful God. As we do that God and His grace will become more and more real to us and our fellowship with Him, our families and our Christian friends will become more exciting and fulfilling. We would be so in love with God and so loving and kind to each other that the non-Christians would be "knocking" at our doors asking how they can have what we have.

In closing, "fellowship" simply means what it says. Two people in such a close relationship that it is like they were in a ship going in the same direction. One summer I was in a Kayak with a girl named Lauren. I was in the back and inexperienced. Everything started out great until we got into a cave and I did the opposite of what I needed to do. As a result we ran into a wall and it hurt her. As long as I did the right thing at the right time and we paddled together we were flying! Without close communication in the tight little cave what I did worked against us. That is the same thing in a body of believers. When we are going in the same direction as God, we can enjoy His love and joy and get a lot done. Also, we will enjoy the fellowship with other people because we are all headed in the same direction – and that direction leads us toward God. However, when each of us is going in our own direction the result is always going to be chaos and pain. We would do well to remember that the church is like being in a boat. We must learn to communicate and work together to keep going in the same direction. When we blow it we need to extend grace as Lauren did. When I ran Lauren into the wall, she didn’t get angry and bail out on me. Instead she forgave me and talked me the rest of the way through the cave. She graciously instructed me and used her strength in my weakness and together we made it through the cave. I wonder, if you are “walking in the light" and enjoying fellowship with God and with others following Him?

Prayer, Father thank you for providing us a way to have a deep and intimate relationship with You. Please give us the courage to walk in the Light of Your word. Give us the courage to live transparently with others. Thank you for the body of Christ and the potential for fellowship with you and with each other. How exciting it is that we can have sweet relationships with others by moving closer and closer to You. Please bring to our minds Your truths and precepts that we might walk according to Your ways. Amen.

Fullness of Joy

"That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write unto you that your joy may be full. This, then, is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, That God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Part 1 - I John 1:3-9

I find it intriguing that John desired for people to experience joy. Because of this, he shared what he knew about Jesus with the people in his life so that they could have a mature relationship with god that would result in joy. John knew that He was loved by Jesus and he loved people. His greatest desire seems to be the desire to relate to others around things that had eternal value. He also wanted them to experience true joy through an intimate walk with Christ.

One of the things that John wanted us to understand that was that we don't want to deceive ourselves in to thinking we no longer have the propensity to sin; we still have a bent to do wrong. Some people call it the flesh, some the old man, and some people call it the sin nature. John points out that if we deny our sinfulness, we are essentially calling God a liar rather than resting in His grace on a day by day basis. In fact, the closer our fellowship is with Christ the more aware we become of His holiness and of our own sinfulness. It is important to recognize our sinfulness, because if we aren’t we can begin to sin in small ways, which has the propensity to drive us towards sins that have much more serious impact and consequences. For example, a man who commits adultery does not wake up one morning and decide to go out and commit adultery. A drug addict did not wake up one morning and decide to become an addict. A girl involved in a premarital sex does not wake up one morning and decide to find a guy to have sex. Instead, it comes about through many small decisions.

John desired for his friends to have complete joy in Christ. He pointed out that to have joy they needed to confess their sins and be able to walk in the light. Confess in its original language means to agree with God about it. That means naming the sin specifically to God. It means statements like, "Father, I have been involved in gossip. I have lusted after a guy, etc." It would also include things like unholy thoughts or hateful attitudes. God forgiving our sin is not something that we should view as a license to keep on walking in a sinful path, but to agree with God about sin means that we also take it as seriously as He does, because it impedes our fellowship with him and hinders our ability to love as He loves. Grace is free to us, but we need to remember that definitely it cost God. It cost Him His Son. If we really believe that Christ took the wrath of God for our sin on the cross, why would we want to continue to play with that sin? When we sin we are sinning against a holy, righteous, faithful, and very loving God.

The rest of the story is that when we agree with God we also have to agree with God that it is forgiven. Some of us hold on to our sin and/or look for ways to punish ourselves when Christ already took our punishment for us when He died on the cross. If we are focused on past sin that we have already confessed we will be more apt to repeat that same sin. Change does not come from our beating ourselves up, it comes from the renewing of our minds with God's word and our focusing our minds on Christ. Christ did not die so that we would continue dwelling in our shame and guilt -- He died so that we could be full of the joy that comes from knowing we are completely forgiven and completely and forever loved and accepted.

It is good for us to pause and think about where we are in our relationship with God? Are we able to experience joy because we are honestly confessing our sin to Him and basking in His grace? Or, are we abusing God's grace by purposely choosing to in sin? Are we finding joy in His forgiveness or are we continuing to dwell in the shame and guilt? Are we spending enough time in His word to allow Him to transform our minds and place His Godly desires in us? Do we have the same heart towards our friends that John had towards his? Do we want them to have the joy that comes from knowing the Lord and walking in His truth? Oh that we would truly recognize all that Jesus has done for us and come to know His heart intimately so that we would not be able to stop talking about Him.

Prayer: Father, thank you that it is Your desire for us to experience joy in our relationship with You. Your holiness exposes our sin and we ask you to search our hearts and reveal the deceptive parts of them. Help us to remember that when we confess our sins You are faithful and righteous to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We bask in your grace and Your love. Please transform our minds and conform our wills to walk in obedience to your word. Give us the heart that John had towards his friends. Give us the desire to see them walk in truth and to have the joy that comes from confessing their sin. Give us the boldness to share Christ with unbelievers and confront sin in the lives of our Christian friends. Amen.