The Crown of Joy III

Joy, joy, joy! You might be saying to yourself, "Here we go again with joy." And you would be right. Joy is one of the outstanding marks of a Christian who is actively seeking the God of the Bible. I hope you noticed I didn't say "actively seeking the rules and regulatiions of the Bible." Don't get me wrong, we are to renew our minds with God's word so that we will live that extraordinary life called Christianity, but we don't want to put the cart before the horse. Jesus explained it like this in John 15 when He said "if you love Me then you will keep my commands." You should notice in this verse that the love comes first, and then the obedience to His word flows out of that love.

Have you ever heard the old saying, "Rules without relationship equals rebellion?" Well, there is a lot of truth in that, and Jesus also knows it to be true. Jesus also said in another part of the Scripture, "Those who are forgiven much will love much." Do we really ever consider the holiness of God? His complete hatred for sin in our lives. Do we really ever consider how much just one sin is an attack on God's holiness, and how it stinks in His nostrils? If we did, then we would absolutely be tremendously thankful that He ever decided to love us anyway. We would be absoulutely grateful that even though we were full of sin and running as far as we could and as fast as we could from Him, that He reached out and grabbed us by our belt loop and spun us around to face Him so that He could save us from death, hell, and the grave.

This is what motivates me to love this wonderous Person we call God. That's right Jesus really has gone above and beyond the call of duty when he died that horribly, cruel death on the Cross for our sins. He was completely innocent of any and all sin, yet He chose on purpose to be our substitute and take the penalty of sin and the wrath of God on Himself by which we have the invitation to turn to Him for mercy and forgiveness. I ask you now, "How could we not love the One who did that for us?" I have been forgiven much, and so have you. Have you thanked Him lately for this? Have you been living a life that shows your thankful for this? If you haven't been living a thankful life by obeying His commands then it must be because somewhere, somehow you have let it slip from your memory how much God has done for us, and how absolutely undeserving we were when He did it. Refresh your memory today and let your heart reset your love back on this amazing lover of our souls that we call Jesus.
And as you do, you may also notice that joy, joy, joy will rise up in your spirit also.

God bless you this week as you live out your thankfulness to the Lord by loving Him and loving others.