day five, joy the serious business of heaven

"Forbid it, Lord, that our roots become too firmly attached to this earth, that we should fall in love with things.

Help us to understand that the pilgrimage of this life is but an introduction, a preface, a training ground for what is to come.

Then shall we see all of life in its true perspective. Then shall we not fall in love with the things of time, but come to love the things that endure. Then shall we be saved from the tyranny of possessions which we have no leisure to enjoy, of property whose care becomes a burden. Give us instead, we pray, the courage to simplify our lives.

So may we be mature in our faith, childlike but never childish, humble but never cringing, understanding but never conceited.

Help us, O God, to live and not merely to exist, that we may have joy in our work. In Thy name, who alone can give us moderation and balance and joy for living, we pray. Amen."  ~Peter Marshall

day three . joy, the serious business of heaven

"One test of authentic joy is its compatibility with pain. Joy in this world is always joy "in spite of" something. Joy is, as Karl Barth put it,  a 'defiant nevertheless' set at a full stop against bitterness and resentment."

~From The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg

day two . joy, the serious business of heaven

"We have greatly underestimated the necessity of joy. Nehemiah said to his grieving congregation. "This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep...Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

Joy is strength. Its absence will create weakness. Dallas Willard said...

Failure to attain a deeply satisfying life always has the effect of making sinful actions seem good. Here lies the strength of temptation...Normally, our success in overcoming temptation will be easier if we are basically happy in our lives. To cut off the joys and pleasures associated with our bodily lives and social existence as 'unspiritual,' then, can actually have the effect of weakening us in our efforts to do what is right.

Here is a key task for spiritual vitality: We must arrange life so that sin no longer looks good to us...I think the time has come, strange as it sounds, for us to take joy seriously...But joy is a learned skill. You must take responsibility for your joy. Not your friend, not your parent, not your spouse, not your kids, not your boss--your joy is your responsibility..." ~John Ortberg from The Life You've Always Wanted

"THIS is the day the Lord has made...let us rejoice and be glad in it." ~Psalm 118:24

joy, the serious business of heaven

"The abundance of God's glory is seen in God's joy. God's joy is perceived as the outpouring of God's glory. The intratrinitarian joy evokes human responses of joy...Joy is no mere description of an aspect of divine glory. Joy is both the inward and the outward aspect of divine glory. It is the basis of God's self-communication, and the dynamic of that communication. Intratriune joy calls to humanity, and the invocation is to jubilation...Through participation in Christ's saving act, humanity enters into the glory of God, and thus eschatologically leaves the hindrances to joy: the groaning of creation and the burden of sin. This is the renewed human destiny. For Karl Barth it is expressed in terms of glory and eternity. Thus in eternity and in temporal existence, Christians are called to 'live in the determination to be the reflection and echo of God and therefore the witnesses to the divine glory that reaches over to Him, rejoicing with the God who Himself has eternal joy and Himself is eternal joy'.

~Christiaan Mostert, Geoff Thompson