Indifference to the pursuit of joy in God would be indifference to the glory of God, and that is sin.
Would it not be an encouragement to a subject, to hear his prince say
to him, You will honor and please me very much, if you will go to
yonder mine of gold, and dig as much gold for yourself as you can
carry away? So, for God to say, Go to the ordinances, get as much
grace as you can, dig out as much salvation as you can; and the more
happiness you have, the more I shall count myself glorified. - Thomas Watson
Christ is to be Cherished, not Chosen.
The fight for joy in Christ is not a fight to soften the cushion of Western comforts. It is a fight for strength to live a life of self-sacrificing love. It is a fight to join Jesus on the Calvary road and stay there with him, no matter what.
The aim is that Jesus Christ be made known in all the world
as the all-powerful, all-wise, all-righteous, all-merciful, all-satisfying
Treasure of the universe.
This will happen when Christians don’t just say that Christ is valuable,
or sing that Christ is valuable, but truly experience in their hearts
the unsurpassed worth of Jesus with so much joy that they can say, “I
count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). Christ will be glorified in the world
when Christians are so satisfied in him that they let goods and kindred
go and lay down their lives for others in mercy, missions, and, if necessary,
martyrdom. He will be magnified most among the nations when,
at the moment Christians lose everything on earth, they say, “To live is
Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).
Christ is supremely glorious and supremely valuable. Therefore He is worth the fight.I was just really encouraged and challenged by a lot of things so far. I like to be challenged. God wants us to be joyful. Yes - we are going to be persecuted, but finding the joy in that through the knowledge that it's through trials and persecutions that we grow in our faith the most is a glorious thing.
B) I'm always going through My Utmost For His Highest for my personal devo time, and man is it good!
The things that happen do not happen by chance - they happen entirely by the decree of God.
The cross represents only one thing for us - complete, entire, absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ - and there is nothing in which this identification is more real to us than prayer.
The more a person knows of the inner life of God's most mature saints, the more he sees what God's purpose really is.
Oswald Chambers was a wise man. Some of those are common sense, but I just like the way he writes it, It just makes more sense somehow.
C) Long story short I really like books.
D) I like being spontaneous. Example: Seeing a large grassy hill and rolling down it...then remembering that I'm a little bit allergic to grass and breaking out. Worth it? Every second. It reminded me of the last night in Jamaica when I jumped in the pool fully clothed. Memories. So good.
E) Fellowship. What a blessing. To just sit here with a dear friend and talk about what God has been doing in our lives and share different passages that have been lain on our hearts recently is just so good! And small group is always a great time - to be able to discuss things and get other people's opinions on them.
F) Francis Chan makes a good point:
"If I tell my daughter to go clean her room, she knows better than to come back later with her room still messy and say:G) I like how God works in different ways. He surprises me in the ways He speaks to me, but it's always very evident. This week's learning theme? Prayer is powerful. I am weak - He is strong. I am a child of God, blameless and pure in His sight. God is good and so, so faithful.
-I memorized what you said.We need to take Jesus literally and do what He says."
-I can say it in Greek.
-A group of friends and I are going to get together and study what you said.
H) Job 38-39. That's the God I serve.
1 Peter 4:18-19 -- “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
