Joy in Jesus

3 John 1: 1-8

For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; which have borne witness of thy charity before the church:

Whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well:  Because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. 

Every Christian parent knows this: Nothing brings the kind of joy that comes when parents see their children walking faithfully with Christ.

Why does that knowledge bring joy to a parent?

Because it means everything that a parent wants for a child is happening 

progress toward maturity, deep-seated contentment and joy, and a decreasing attachment to the things of this world.

That’s what the apostle John felt when he wrote his third letter to his friend Gaius.

John confessed that nothing brought him greater joy than to hear that the Christians he had influenced were walking in the truth.

John was joyful because he knew that his spiritual charges were joyful in Christ as well.

When a believer is experiencing joy in his life, those who have influenced him are joyful as well. If a spiritual teacher or leader is joyful, it is often because he knows those he has influenced are also joyful. In short, walking with the Lord becomes a great source of joy and maturity in the Church.

The deeper one’s walk with Christ, the deeper the joy. Let joy become the measure of your faithfulness in Christ. When joy ebbs, look for an area of life that is not wholly set apart for Him. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth - That they adhere steadfastly to the truth, and that they live in accordance with it.

This is such language as would be used by an aged apostle when speaking of those who had been converted by his instrumentality, and who looked up to him as a father; and we may, therefore, infer that Gaius had been converted under the ministry of John, and that he was probably a much younger man than he was.

John, the aged apostle, says that he had no higher happiness than to learn, respecting those who regarded him as their spiritual father, that they were steadfast in their adherence to the doctrines of religion. The same thing may be:

 of all the ministers of the gospel, that their highest comfort is found in the fact that those to whom they minister, whether still under their care or removed from them, persevere in a steadfast attachment to the true doctrines of religion, and live accordingly; and, of all Christian parents respecting their own children. the highest joy that a Christian parent can have is to know that his children, whether at home or abroad, adhere to the truths of religion, and live in accordance with the requirements of the gospel of Christ.

If a child wished to confer the highest possible happiness upon his parents when with them, it would be by becoming a decided Christian; if, when abroad, in foreign lands or his own, he wished to convey intelligence to them that would most thrill their hearts with joy, it would be to announce to them that he had given his heart to God.

There is no joy in a family like that when children are converted; there is no news that comes from abroad that diffuses so much happiness through the domestic circle as the intelligence that a child is truly converted to the Savior.

There is nothing that would give more peace to the dying pillow of the Christian parent, than to be able to leave the world with the assurance that his children would always walk in truth.

Whatever is your greatest joy and treasure, that is your god.

Charles H. Spurgeon

What to Do When You Get Discouraged

John Keats       

Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.

Nehemiah 4:7-15

But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth, And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.

 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them. 

And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.

And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. 

And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you. 

Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. 

And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses. 

And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work. 

"This was a very critical time. The Jews were getting weary of the ceaseless work; their enemies had planted fear in the workers living beyond the walls by telling them of their plans suddenly to appear and kill the workers; the Jews from the surrounding area appealed to their neighbors at work on the wall to return home, abandoning the work. Nehemiah's presence of mind and firmness alone saved the situation."

Note the manner in which Nehemiah moved to meet this crisis:

(1) He prayed to God (Nehemiah 4:9).

(2) He set a watch day and night (Nehemiah 4:9).

(3) He set armed men at "the lowest parts," places were the walls might be most easily attacked (Nehemiah 4:13).

(4) He brought in the Jews with their families from the outlying areas, armed them and kept them overnight in the city.

(5) He stationed armed men throughout the city near the construction workers.

(6) He kept a close eye himself upon the situation.

(7) He kept a trumpeter by his side, so that in case of an attack, he could promptly order all hands to repel it (Nehemiah 4:18).

(8) He called the whole assembly together, saying, "Be not afraid of them ... Remember the Lord who is great and terrible" (Nehemiah 4:14).

(9) He commanded the people to be ready to fight (Nehemiah 4:14).

(10) And he ordered the work to go on full speed ahead! What a leader he proved to be!

We put in long hours, we experience a unique form of loneliness, and we face difficult decisions everyday. It’s easy to get discouraged.

And I think discouragement is one of the most deadly of diseases. Everybody can catch it, and you can catch it more than once. It’s highly contagious and spreads easily and quickly.

But here’s the good news: Discouragement is curable.

Head straight to Nehemiah. This great leader of ancient Israel understood there were four reasons for discouragement.

1.   First, you get fatigued.

You simply get tired as the laborers did in Nehemiah 4:10. We’re human beings, and we wear out. You cannot burn the candle at both ends. So if you’re discouraged, it may be that you don’t have to change anything. You just need a vacation! Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is go to bed.

2.   Second, you get frustrated.

Nehemiah says there was rubble all around. So much that it was getting in the way of rebuilding the wall. Do you have rubble in your ministry? Have you noticed that anytime you start doing something new, the trash starts piling up? If you don’t clean it out periodically, it’s going to stop your progress. You can’t avoid it, so you need to learn to recognize it and dispose of it quickly so you don’t lose focus on your original intention.

Now, what is the rubble in your life? I think rubble is the trivial things that waste your time and energy and prevent you from accomplishing what God’s called you to do.

It could be committee meetings.

It could be television.

It could be just about anything that turns you from God’s purposes.

3.   The third cause of discouragement is failure. They were unable to finish their task as quickly as originally planned, and as a result, their confidence went down the drain. They were thinking, “We were stupid to think we could ever rebuild this wall.” And you might be thinking, “I was dumb to ever think I could lead this church. I can’t do it any more.” You feel like a failure.

But you know what you do when I don’t reach a goal on time?

You just set a new goal. Don’t give up. The fact is –you’re going to fail.

Everybody fails.

Everybody does dumb things.

So the issue is not that you failed – it’s how you are going to respond to your failure.

Do you give into self-pity?

Do you start blaming other people?

Do you start complaining, “It’s impossible?” Or do you re-focus on God’s intentions and start moving again?

Finally, fear causes discouragement.

Nehemiah 4:11, says this: “Also our enemies said, ‘Before they know it or see us we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to their work.’”

Nehemiah with faith in God, skillfully arming and arranging his men, drove straight ahead with the work; and in spite of all obstacles, the Wall was finished in 52 days; and Jerusalem was again a fortified city, 142 years after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C."

"We prayed ... and set a watch" (Nehemiah 4:9).

Prayer to God does not eliminate the need for Christians to be alert and prepared to face life as it comes at us .

The old song from World War II, was, Praise the Lord, and Pass the Ammunition.

"They shall not know, or see, till we come and slay them" (Nehemiah 4:11).

Sanballat by these threats was speaking as if he had an army at his disposal; but,

 "This was probably nothing more than the customary armed guard by which the satraps protected themselves; and Sanballat probably gambled that the king of Persia might overlook a skirmish between such a band and the Jews."

 As it turned out, his threatening words were only a bluff.

"They said unto us ten times ... Ye must return unto us"

(Nehemiah 4:12). "Ten Times is the equivalent here of over and over, or repeatedly."

 The Jews from the surrounding area were being intimidated and frightened by Sanballat.

Nehemiah countered this by bringing the people into Jerusalem.

Notice who gets fearful the quickest:

“Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, `wherever you turn, they will attack us.’” (Nehemiah 4:12)

 The people most affected by fear are those who hang around negative people.

 If you’re going to control the negative thoughts in your life, you’ve got to get away from negative people as much as you can.

It’s like the old saying, “If you’re going to soar with the eagles, you can’t run with the turkeys.”

Let me ask you this: what fear is causing you to be discouraged?

The fear of criticism?

Embarrassment?

That you’re not capable of the task?

That you can’t handle pressure? 

How can you tell when fear is causing discouragement in your life?

It’s simple. You have an intense desire to run! “I’ve got to get out of this! I’ve got to leave!

Yet, I’ve learned in life that it’s rarely God’s will for me to run from a difficult situation.

If you don’t learn in one place, guess what? God just gives you another chance to learn somewhere else.

Otherwise, you just jump from the frying pan into the fire. Running from fear only makes it bigger. So, don’t try to escape from life’s pressures.

But it’s important that you stick it    Never give up.

Reflection:

What is it that causes discouragement in your life? Maybe you’re just fatigued.

You’re just out of energy.

It was the most relaxing day of my life when I resigned as General Manager of the universe.

I realized something: the world did not fall apart the day I did that.

I felt like I was Atlas – the whole world was on my shoulders.

 Let God take those pressures, those problems, those people, those circumstances, those critics, those challenges, and those impossible situations.

Maybe you’re discouraged because you feel like a failure.

You’re never a failure if what you’re doing is ultimately for the glory of God.

Only God can tell you when to let go and when to hold on. But never give up on your dream!

If you feel like you’re a failure, listen to this: “There is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

God does not condemn you. God loves you. God’s not mad at you.

God is on your side.

“If God be for us, who can be against us.” One plus God equals a majority.

One of the great truths of scripture is that God is the God of the second chance, and He lets you start over.

He says, “I will restore the years that the locusts have eaten.”

If you would commit yourself and say, “Christ, whether I have five years or fifty years left, I want to commit it to You.

 I want to renew my life commitment to you right now. Lord, whether you take me home next week or in 50 or 60 years,

I want the rest of my life to be the best of my life.”

Resist the devil and his discouragement. Recognize where it’s coming from – The answer may be just around the corner.

IN SPITE OF THREATENING ENEMIES THE WORK WENT ON

"And it came to pass when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and God brought their counsel to naught, that we returned all of us to the wall every one unto his work. And it came to pass from that time 

4 Life-Changing Ideas about Bible Study

Imagine a collection of books that allowed for you to everyday hear the very voice of God. Consider adding to that collection stories of righteous prophets, holy wars, acts of valor, and slaves being freed. And then, throw into that collection personal prison letters, a God who came to earth, and more. Then, envision the entire collection being ancient, from another time, but still incredibly relevant. You already know I’m talking about the Bible. Now, let’s go through four steps to take Bible study from dull to incredible.

1. Change the subject of your study.

This next point is spoken shockingly little, and I think it’s because we don’t outright want to admit why our Bible study is seems boring. The Bible is a means to an end—it’s a means to knowing God as Creator, Jesus who came to earth, and Spirit present with believers. God is the subject of the Bible, and should be the subject of our study. It is not the Bible we worship, but the living God, who came to this very earth as a human, as Jesus, to die for all of our wrongdoings and rise again.

If our Bible study is focused on the Bible, we’re really missing the point. Boring study is introduced when we think of the Bible like any other historical work or like a textbook. Jesus himself makes this point to some Jews of his time, “You search the scriptures because you think that you have eternal life in them, and it is these that testify about me. And you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life” (John 5:39–40 LEB).

2. Picture it as a movie.

The Bible is full of epic battle scenes and intense drama (read 1–2 Samuel or Acts). In our overly saturated, visual culture, many of us have lost our imaginations. We rely on others to imagine for us, in the forms of movies and other mediums. I think this is tragic because it’s in imagination that we find the will power to make the world a better place.

The patriarchs of Israel, the few great kings over God’s people, and the righteous prophets, were great visionaries of a better life. They studied God’s past actions (often through the oral tradition of the time) and then prayerfully sought the will of God for the present. Through times of prayer they were able to see what others could not—a life lived for God, full of spiritual (and often physical) plenty. This vision is carried forward with Jesus’ disciples, who have an opportunity to execute the vision of the living God on earth. And we too are meant to imagine the past, both as it was and as it could have been, so that we can envision a better future.

3. Decide which character you are.

Jesus told lots of stories—great parables that were meaningful (seeMatthew 13). It’s easy to forget when reading these that the point of them is to identify with the characters: We either are meant to realize that we are one of the characters or comprehend that we’re yet to live like the characters do. When we do so, Jesus’ words move from obscure to real. He is telling us something we can do right now. When we hear Jesus, we are meant to take action; we are meant to do what he has just asked. This takes the Bible from words on paper to words lived out.

4. Pray about the next steps.

Prayer is perhaps the most undervalued element in western Christianity (compare Philippians 4:2–6). Sure, we pray over meals and even pray for people publicly, but modern prayer is often treated like asking God to grant our wishes. In actuality, it’s a conversation—he talks and we talk, in a dialogue—and one that should be full of thanksgiving. It’s an opportunity to align ourselves with God so that we can do what he has in store for us. It’s where we learn who we are and what we are meant to be. It’s where we take the words of the Bible to God and request that he change us, so that we may do what he has already commanded for all people (compareMatthew 6:5–15; 6:25–7:12).

Without prayer, Bible study will continue to be like studying another book. Indeed, you may improve your life, but you will not be holistically changed. God has the ability to make you better than you could ever imagine being, which certainly will not be easy (it means changing), but will be well worth the journey.

I hope that when you hear the words “Bible study” you will no longer think of boring schoolwork or dry lectures. Try turning off the negative reaction to “study” today by remembering that Bible study is about knowing a God who has left you guidance in a book. He is also a God who wants to give you personal guidance today.

You know what you have to do—go make it happen.

John D. Barry is the CEO and Founder of Jesus’ Economy, dedicated to creating jobs and churches in the developing world

A great desire

This should be the great desire for all of God's people

 It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. - 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 NLT

Turn to him he cares

Matthew 14:14

Jesus performed some miracles as signs of his identity. He used other miracles to teach important truths. But here we read that he healed people because he "had compassion on them." Jesus was, and is, a loving, caring, and feeling person. When you are suffering, remember that Jesus hurts with you. He has compassion on you.