“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice.”
So just how do we do what Paul is telling us to do? How do we “rejoice in the Lord always”? Does this mean that we can never be sad or depressed or grieve? I don’t think it means this at all. After all, we are human and we are emotional beings. But I think we can agree that finding our joy always in the Lord is a good thing. So again, how do we do that when so much of what we experience everyday is set up to rob us of whatever joy we do have?
Here are a few Scripture verses and a few comments that might help as you seek to “rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice.”
Reset your mindset. James 1:2 says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds…” We need to train our minds to consider the trials and difficulties that come our way as growth opportunities and not roadblocks to our success.
Think eschatologically. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” If we can keep the end of our pilgrimage in mind then the journey becomes much less arduous and much more adventurous.
Listen for the singing voice of God. Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Have you ever heard God singing over you? Find a quiet place and attune your heart to the heavens.
Sing when you don’t feel like singing. Psalm 5 which is a song starts off “Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning.” And it ends like this, “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy.” Oft times a good song is what is needed to rejuvenate and nourish the soul. Do you have a song like that?
Confess and repent. Psalm 51:12 says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” Sin had cost David his joy. Heartfelt confession and genuine repentance was the way to get it back. The question we have to ask ourselves is this: Do we enjoy sin more that we enjoy God?
Remind yourself of who God is. Psalm 33:21 says, “For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.” The names of God are in effect reminders to us of the promises of God. Jehovah Shalom – God is our Peace. Jehovah Jireh – God is our Provider. Jehovah Rapha – God is our Healer. We often forget who our God is and it saddens our heart rather than gladdening our heart.
Delight yourself in God’s Word. Psalm 19:8 says, “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” And Jeremiah 15:16 says, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.” Do we hunger for the Word of God in the same way that we look forward to our next meal? And have you asked yourself the question, “why not?”
May this brick help you to diagnose why you might not find your joy in the Lord and then give you some help in restoring the joy of your salvation.
Dear Grayson,
Happy Birthday my eight year old grandson. It continues to be an incredible pleasure to watch you grow up. I see you as a kind, compassionate, curious, smart young man who is an awesome role model for your brothers to look up to. And it is because of you that I tried a new thang this year. Because of your interest in the Rubik’s Cube I decided to buy a 3×3 cube and learn how to solve it. Which I did. I am not fast but I can solve it to my satisfactory pace.
But it has occurred to me that there are several lessons that can be gleamed from the Rubik’s Cube that you might not have thought about.
#1 – The cube is seemingly complex, but actually straightforward. There are millions of different permutations and yet it can be solved by knowing a few basic moves (algorithms) as well as when and how to apply them. Life can be this way too. Sometimes it appears as if it is a complete and unsolvable mess but once you understand what to do it is generally just a matter of time and patience to unravel the mess. The best place to learn how to solve an unsolvable mess is God’s Word. The Lord has a track record of creating beauty out of ashes.
#2 – Watching others solve the cube can be very very helpful. There are no doubt many people who have solved the cube without help from anybody. I am not one of them. I watched several YouTube tutorials to learn a method that made sense to me. As you grow up you will be tempted to try to figure out life on your own. My encouragement to you is to find people that you respect and learn as much as you can from them. Paul said in Philippians 4:9, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” Find worthy role models – but also be a worthy role model for others.
#3 – Did you know that the center cube on each face is immutable? It never moves. It never changes position. Having confidence that those center pieces will never move lets you use them as a framework to arrange all the other cubes around. This is also true about God. He is immutable. And you can have complete confidence that if the framework of your life is built around Him then you can make sense of life even when it seems to make no sense. James 1:17 says it this way, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
#4 – There’s a huge difference between learning how to solve the cube and figuring it out. I have learned how to solve the cube but I have not figured it out. As far as the Rubik’s Cube goes, I am content with this. I am not content with this as far as my relationship with God goes. Many people are. Many people are content with knowing their way around the Bible; with being able to quote a few key Scripture verses; with knowing a lot of things about God. They have solved the “God problem” part of their life. But God is not a problem to be solved. I don’t want to know about God. I want to know God. And I know that I will NEVER “figure Him out”. Nor would I want to. If I could then He would not be a God worth knowing. Knowing God is a worthy lifelong pursuit of getting to know Him better. And as J.I. Packer says, it a pursuit “calculated to thrill a man’s soul.” I hope it is a pursuit that you will zealously aspire to.
I am very grateful for you and love being your Pop Pop! May your birthday be full of bodacious surprises.
Never forget that you are very loved!
Pop Pop
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
This week my pondering will be a little different. I want to share one quote and one story that I came across this week that I think are helpful in thinking about these verses.
The Quote…
John MacArthur writes: This passage sets forth the heart of Christian discipleship and it strikes a death blow to the self-centered false gospels that are so popular in contemporary Christianity. It leaves no room for the gospel of getting, in which God is considered a type of utilitarian genie who jumps to provide a believer’s every whim. It closes the door to the gospel of health and wealth, which asserts that if a believer is not healthy and prosperous he has simply not exercised his divine rights or else does not have enough faith to claim his blessings. It undermines the gospel of self-esteem, self-love, and high self-image, which appeals to man’s natural narcissism and prostitutes the spirit of humble brokenness and repentance that marks the gospel of the cross.
The Story…
Jim Elliot was a promising student at Wheaton College in Illinois. He was a champion wrestler, honor student, amateur poet, and was warmly admired by students at Wheaton. He dated and married the prettiest girl at the school. He was truly the “big man” on campus.
In his studies, he read the words of Matthew 16:24-28 and took them seriously. During his senior year, he wrote in his journal these now famous words: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
God called him to take the gospel to an unreached tribe, the Auca Indians in Ecuador. Elliot wrote, “Glad to get the opportunity to preach the gospel of the matchless grace of our God to stoical, pagan Indians. I only hope that He will let me preach to those who have never heard that name Jesus. What else is better in this life? I have heard of nothing better. ‘Lord, send me!'”
Unfortunately, he and his four associates were killed by the warriors before they could share with them. Jim gave up what he could not keep. He gave up his earthly life to gain what he could not lose: eternal life.
Due to the publicity generated by the martyrdom of the missionaries, thousands of other young men and women committed to missions to take their place. Beyond that, the widows of the martyred missionaries went back to that tribe and led those warriors to Christ.
Years later, a young man traveling in Ecuador flew in a small plane over the country. The pilot knew of Jim Elliot’s ministry.
“When we fly over the place where Jim Elliot and the others died, show me,” the man said to the pilot.
“I can’t take you there,” replied the pilot.
“Why not?”
“Because Jim Elliot did not die in Ecuador.”
Perplexed, the young man remarked, “Yes, I know Jim Elliot died here in Ecuador.”
“Jim Elliot’s body died in South America,” the pilot said, “but Jim Elliot died while a college student at Wheaton College several years before when he yielded his life to God no matter the consequences.”
May this brick help you to think about what it really means to die to self and to live for Christ; to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus.
Dear Grandkids,
The election I talked about in my last epistle is still not over. Half a dozen states are still being contested, law suits are being filed, accusations of election fraud are being tossed around and our country – once the envy of every nation in the world – is being mocked worldwide. This makes me sad.
I was recently asked the following question by a very compassionate and wise woman – you know her as Bett: Given everything that is going on in our country, what is the most important thing you want the next administration to work on? Here was my answer…
“Right now the political culture is Republicans versus Democrats. And there is a wide divide. I would love for the next administration to begin building bipartisan bridges where it is not us against them. So instead of Republicans versus Democrats, rather it is Republicans and Democrats working together for the good of our nation. The divide that exists in our country is just a reflection of the divide that exists in Washington. If we are indeed going to be the UNITED States of America then we need to model from the top down what that looks like.”
Interestingly, 160 years ago today, America elected a new president at a time when our country was probably even more divided than it is today. He received only 40% of the popular vote but still easily outdistanced the three other candidates that were on the ballot. That gives you an idea of the division that existed. That president was Abraham Lincoln.
By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven states had seceded, and the Confederate States of America had been formally established. One month after that the Civil War began. Those were indeed dark days for our country. But as we look back through the lens of history, Lincoln is regarded as one of our greatest presidents for what he did to preserve these United States and to bring an end to slavery – and also for his powerful oratorical gifts. Here are a few quotes from him that are worth pondering during these turbulent days.
- “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
- “Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.”
- “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”
- “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”
- “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”
- “I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”
- “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”
- “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”
- “Life is hard but so very beautiful”
My hope and prayer is that our country will heal and will once again become the moral and democratic leader among the nations of the earth. Perhaps in the years to come the Lord will raise up a leader that can effectively lead us to that end so that you can experience the greatness of America that I have known. But no matter what happens…
… Never forget that you are very loved!
Pop Pop
15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The question that comes to my mind as I ponder these verses is this: How do you do it? How do you let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts? It is certainly one of those things that is easier said than done. So here are a few practical things that I gleam from this passage that might help you to “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.”
Verse 15
1) Identify what actually IS ruling and reigning in your heart. Is it worry that has usurped the throne? Fear? Anger? Hatred?Unforgiveness? Be honest with yourself. Take a personal inventory of what occupies and calls the shots in your life. What drives you to action or non-action as the case might be?
2) In order to know the peace of Christ you have to know Christ the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). If you do not yet know Him then now is a good time to change that. If you do know Him then perhaps you need to spend time getting to know Him better. This is where the first disciples found themselves in Mark 4:35-41. They thought they knew Him but then real life helped them understand that they really didn’t know Him well at all.
Verse 16
3) Romans 12:2 tells us , “Do not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The way that our minds are renewed is by the Word of God. We have allowed worldliness to set up shop where the Lord should rightfully reign – so it is no wonder that so many people have so little peace in their lives. When God’s Word RICHLY dwells in us then fear has no claim to the throne because God “has not given us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7). When God’s Word RICHLY dwells in us then worry has no claim to the throne because “the Lord is at hand” and we can make all our requests known to Him. (Philippians 4:5-6). When God’s Word RICHLY dwells in us then unforgiveness has no claim to the throne because we can “forgive one another as God in Christ forgave us.” (Ephesians 4:32).
Verse 17
4) If you want to experience peace then be reconciled to God. Typically we are not reconciled with God when we have done something that hurts the heart of God – when we have disobeyed His Word. If we will do EVERYTHING in the name of the Lord Jesus then we won’t have keep repairing a fractured relationship with our heavenly Father. If you need to reconcile with God then His Word tells us to confess, repent, and let the Spirit of God lead you to live a God-honoring life.
5) Three times in these three verses Paul exhorts us to be thankful. I’m thinking that might be a clue to experiencing peace in our hearts. If we are grateful for what we do have instead of whining about what we don’t have… peace! If we are grateful for the people God has put in our lives instead finding ways to resent or find fault… peace! If we are grateful for the cards we have been dealt in this life then we don’t have to languish in a life of entitlement and we can courageously take steps to move forward … peace!
May this brick help you to enjoy the peace that God offers all His children as it rules and reigns in your heart.
Dear Grandkids,
In just a few days our country is going to either re-elect our current president or elect a new president. It is one of the great privileges that we as citizens of a democratic republic enjoy – the opportunity to vote and choose our own leaders. Many countries do not have this freedom.
It would seem that this election comes at a very pivotal time in the history of our country, for several reasons:
1) We are in the midst of a pandemic the likes of which our country has not experienced in just over 100 years;
2) Racial tension seems to be at a disturbingly high level;
3) There is a tremendous political divide between our two major parties that has the appearance of being irreconcilable;
4) Our economy is either on the brink of collapse or of soaring to new heights – it could go either way;
5) Climate change is real – I’m not talking about the weather related kind. But the moral climate of our country has deteriorated dramatically and is only going to get worse.;and
6) The spiritual culture of America has drastically changed so that we can no longer be considered a “christian country” – we now unequivocally live in a post-christian world. Tolerance seems to be a word that is reserved only for those lifestyles that do not have anything to do with Christianity.
Perhaps you will read this epistle 30 years from now and history will interpret just how pivotal this election really was. But in the meantime, how are we as believers in the gospel supposed to navigate the uncertainty of these times? Here are a few thoughts:
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:15-17)
No matter what the outcome of this election we are still commissioned to be agents of reconciliation and joy fueled hope-givers in the midst of a dark and despairing world. So whenever you read this, whether it is this week or 30 years from now, “stand firm in your faith knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)
And never forget that you are very loved!
Pop Pop
