The language is, of course, different. Sometimes accents and dialect are very strong and the vocabulary and phrases different....but I can follow, mostly...and enjoy them.
One phrase I have heard that got me thinking is "No Joy"
I can't even remember the exact show where I heard it first..it may have been an aviator scene, and when the target couldn't be located or wasn't hit they reported "No joy"
Or when a detective didn't find the suspect in the hiding place he thought the criminal would be...he tells his team "No joy".
I just couldn't help but think no truer words have been said....
When we search and search for something ...when we "miss the mark"....there is "NO JOY"
Because the source of our joy is Christ.....anything else is ....."No Joy"!
How many times are we not where we are supposed to be? How many times do we step away from the intended purpose God has for us? I can just imagine (in my strange working mind) God saying. "No Joy"!
Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10b
Picture it...weapons drawn...ducking behind every corner trying to stay out of sight, moving closer and closer to the target. Tense, sweat dripping down the back of the neck....and BANG ...target area breached...and....."NO JOY! The Target is not acquired"
A suspenseful detective drama!!?
Or real life....moving rapidly from job to job, trying to acquire satisfaction/success,
home to home trying to attain contentment, partner to partner trying to find love, even church to church trying to find peace.
Or you shoot out those mean hurtful words trying to spit out the bitterness and resentment that boil over in your soul.
You continue to give that cold shoulder because you don't want that wound to heal....we all have a scenario that could potentially yield "No Joy".
There is NO JOY because we are heading toward the wrong target....seeking things of this world....not of heaven.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" Matthew 6:33
NOW picture this....
Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp twirling and singing on the mountain top! 🎶"The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Music!!" 🎶 PURE JOY!
Okay....a little sappy! (at least I didn't say Miss Piggy and Kermit running through a field of flowers)
A very different scene from the first, and much more pleasant to imagine ourselves in.
Here is the real scene..script in red because it was spoken by a man, God's Son to be exact, knowing in a short while He would take on the sins of the world....our sin...(insert your name here)'s sin, so that God's plan to save us from that sin and ultimately an eternal seperation from God could become our reality. He would willingly take death in order to save us! And IF we choose to believe that, we have the promise of eternal life with the Father and the Son!
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
See that?! IF we choose to remain in Him He will give us His JOY! And our joy is complete!
Don't know about you. ..but that puts me twirling on a mountain top singing at the top of my lungs...this song maybe!
Joy - Johnny Diaz (Click on the link and sing with me!!!)
Let's seek the One who will bring us true joy and spread it where ever we go.
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Our worship will spill over in the form of joy, (everything can be an act of worship...another Blog, another day!)...so we can be a perpetual fountain of Joy!
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