A Good Thing to Remember

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. – Philippians 4:4 (NRSV)

How do you go about rejoicing in the Lord? Why can you rejoice? What do you do that hampers your joy in God? Why do think Paul repeated himself, “again I will say, Rejoice”?

The following story was sent to me via e-mail:
A boy was sitting on a park bench with one hand resting on an open Bible. He was loudly exclaiming his praise to God. “Hallelujah! God is great!” he yelled without worrying whether anyone heard him or not. Along came a man who had recently completed studies at a local university. Feeling himself very enlightened in the ways of truth he asked the boy about the source of his joy.
“Hey,” asked the boy with a bright laugh, “Don't you have any idea what God is able to do? I just read that God opened up the waves of the Red Sea and led the whole nation of Israel right through the middle.” The enlightened man laughed lightly, sat down next to the boy and began to try to open his eyes to the “realities” of the miracles of the Bible.
“That can all be very easily explained. Modern scholarship has shown that the Red Sea in that area was only 10-inches deep at that time. It was no problem for the Israelites to wade across.”
The boy countered with, “Jesus rose from the dead.” The enlightened man responded with, “Jesus no more rose from the dead than the Israelites walked through the Red Sea. Common sense will tell you all that. If that book can prove they crossed on dry land I'll believe Jesus rose from the dead and eat my hat.”
The boy was stumped. His eyes wandered from the man back to the Bible laying open in his lap. The man, content that he had enlightened a poor, naive young person to the finer points of scientific insight, turned to go. Scarcely had he taken two steps when the boy began to rejoice and praise louder than before. The man turned to ask the reason for this resumed jubilation.
“Wow!" exclaimed the boy happily, “God is greater than I thought! Not only did He lead the whole nation of Israel through the Red Sea, He topped it off by drowning the whole Egyptian army in 10 inches of water.”
The man said, "Do you have any salt?"

Sometimes as life goes on and people try to bring us down we need to be reminded to rejoice in the Lord always. I’ve been told that when you become important to God you become important to Satan. Situations will arrive that will try to rob us of our joy. Paul has some advise for us in those situations. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice!”

With hope and joy,
Garrett

God Dealt With It

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. – Romans 8:3 (NRSV)

Does this make you celebrate? What does it mean to you that God has dealt with all sin? What does it mean to you that God has dealt with your sin? Do you live your life in the freedom of this Gospel?

My first year of seminary was bad for me. I was struggling with my sense of call in a place where I did not know and with people I was not sure I liked. I did not know what to do. Each day got a little worse as I felt more and more alone in my struggle.
One day my mother called me and asked me how I was doing. I told her I was not doing very well, and that I thought I was going to have to leave. My physical and mental health were taking a beating, and to save myself I was convinced I was going to have to quit.
Being a proper mother bear type my mother said, “I’ll deal with it.” I had no idea what she meant, but she hung up the phone saying, “I love you, tomorrow it will be better.”
The next day I received a call from the clerk of session at my home church who said, “I’ve talked to your mother, we are going to make things better.” I then got a call from the pastor who said, “I’ve talked to your mother, we’re going to support you better.” Next the executive presbyter called who said, “I’ve talked to your mother.” Then the head of the Committee on Preparation for Ministry, “Your mother called me.” Next a liaison I didn’t know I had, “I just talked to your mother.”
You know what? Things got better.

I know I am not alone in having a mother who was able to deal with things I could not. When we found ourselves mired in sin God became a mother bear unwilling to let her cubs suffer alone. So what did God do? He dealt with it once and for all! God came down as a person like you and like me. Christ took it all and died, and when he died our sin died. Jesus came back from the dead and sin did not. Rejoice and never stop rejoicing because God dealt with the sin that we could not!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Rejoice in the Lord always!

“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” – Philippians 4:4 (KJV)

 

Do you rejoice in the Lord always?  What does it mean to always rejoice in the Lord?  What are people who always rejoice in the Lord like?  What about God makes rejoicing easy?  How will you rejoice in the Lord today and forever more?

 

A recent poll suggested that Americans are more concerned about things than we have been in generations.  People are concerned about the future, about the economy, about the elections, about savings, about… almost everything!  The following story is from an unknown rabbinical source.

 

One day Solomon decided to humble Benaiah ben Yehoyada, his most trusted minister. He said to him, "Benaiah, there is a certain ring that I want you to bring to me. I wish to wear it for Sukkot which gives you six months to find it."

"If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty," replied Benaiah, "I will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?"

"It has magic powers," answered the king. "If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy." Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he wished to give his minister a little taste of humility.

Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he could find the ring. On the night before Sukkot, he decided to take a walk in one of he poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a merchant who had begun to set out the day's wares on a shabby carpet. "Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his sorrows?" asked Benaiah.

He watched the grandfather take a plain gold ring from his carpet and engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his face broke out in a wide smile.

That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with great festivity. "Well, my friend," said Solomon, "have you found what I sent you after?" All the ministers laughed and Solomon himself smiled.

To everyone's surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and declared, "Here it is, your majesty!" As soon as Solomon read the inscription, the smile vanished from his face. The jeweler had written three Hebrew letters on the gold band: "gimel, zayin, yud", which began the words "Gam zeh ya'avor" -- "This too shall pass."

At that moment Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth and tremendous power were but fleeting things, for one day he would be nothing but dust.

 

There is only one that will never pass, God!  Our troubles shall pass, our country shall pass, our lives shall pass, ours riches shall pass, our worries shall pass, but our God is forever.  It is easy to rejoice in the Lord always, for only the Lord is always!  Put your worries and your prides away, for they shall pass, and rejoice in the Lord always!

With hope and joy,

Garrett