BIBLICAL JOY

"The fruit of the Spirit is… joy…" (Galatians 5:22)

We live in a sad world -- a world of despair, depression, lack of fulfillment, and dissatisfaction. Man defines happiness as an attitude of satisfaction and delight based upon present circumstances. He relates happiness to happenings and happenstance. It is something that can't be planned or programmed. 

Biblical joy consists of the deep and abiding confidence that all is well regardless of circumstance and difficulty. It is something very different from worldly happiness. Biblical joy is always related to God and belongs to those in Christ. It is the permanent possession of every believer -- not a whimsical delight that comes and goes as chance offers it opportunity. 

A good definition of joy is this: it's the flag that flies on the castle of the heart when the King is in residence. Christians can know true and lasting joy. 

A Christian's joy is a gift from God to those who believe the gospel, being produced in them by the Holy Spirit as they receive and obey the Word, being mixed with trials with a hope set on future glory. 

-- John MacArthur (1939-2025) in a sermon entitled "Joy and Godliness: The Epistle of Joy"

#6463

GOD’S WORD IN EVERYDAY LANGUAGE

“I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:11 NIV)

Peter Waldo, a business-man in Lyons, France, in about A.D. 1170 became intensely curious as to the content of the Scriptures. But he could not read Latin, and so the Scriptures were a closed book to him.  However, he hired two money-minded priests, who, in violation of strict regulations, translated the Bible for him into Provencal, the language of southern France.  The content of the Word of God made such an impression upon this earnest man that he gave up his business, took upon himself a vow of poverty, and dedicated himself to the simple preaching of the contents of God's Word.

The Latin of the Church only mystified its hearers, [but] Waldo's humble preaching edified the souls of men.  His words were not spectacular but powerful, as he pleaded with them to repent.  Much of his preaching and that of his followers consisted in reciting long passages of Scripture in the vernacular.  Many of them could not afford an expensive handwritten copy of the Bible, and the ecclesiastical authorities could too easily rob them of such a book; but they could not erase the words which were treasured in the heart. 

-- Eugene A. Nida in “God's Word in Man's Language”

#6444

FOLLOW HIS DIRECTIONS

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

God never intended you to be broken and lost. He has specific directions for your life, and if you live according to those directions, life works and you experience life the way it was meant to be lived.

If we ignore or reject His directions, we do so to our own detriment, and we experience much less than He intended. As the psalmist wrote, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.” (Psalm 119:2 NKJV)

God’s Word is like the markings on a highway. If we and other drivers drove within the proper lines and lanes, we are more likely to travel safely to our destination. If we go outside the lines, we do so at our own peril.

God did not just create you and me and plop us down here and say, “Happy birthday. Now guess your way through life.” He has given us roadway markings, directions that help to keep us safe on our journey through life.

Open your Bible and follow His directions!   

-- Anne Graham Lotz in “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus”

#6437

THE WORD AND THE WORLD

Jesus prayed, “I have given them Your Word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth.”  (John 17:14-17 NKJV)

God's Word teaches forgiveness and the world teaches revenge. The Word teaches sharing and the world teaches hoarding. The Word teaches humility and the world teaches pride. The Word teaches dependence on God and the world teaches self-reliance. The Word teaches us to love God and the world teaches us to love self. The Word teaches us to help those in need and the world teaches us to "take care of your own".

And perhaps one of the most disheartening is that God offers us faith and the world seems to underscore and build fear. It is only with worship to God Almighty that we learn to have complete faith in this life as well as total assurance in the life to come - eternal life. The best, the very best, this world can offer is meaningless compared to the benefits of worshipping the Lord. 

-- Pastor Gary Stone

#6380

 

WORRY VS. MEDITATION

Scripture talks about meditating on God’s Word. The psalmist says that godly persons meditate on the Word “day and night” (Psalm 1:2). How much is that?

You may feel that meditation is something only monks and mystics can do. So let me ask you, do you know how to worry? If you can worry, you can meditate. To meditate merely means to think about something over and over. Let it simmer in your mind. Reflect on it from different angles until it becomes part of you…

A friend recently sent me a card that read, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13 NIV)

When I think about that single statement, I am reminded that…

• GOD is the source of all hope.
• He is even now seeking to fill my body with not just joy and peace, but ALL joy and peace.
• His desire is that I should not just contain hope, but OVERFLOW with hope.
• This process is dependent not on my power, but the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT at work in me.

My mind is having different thoughts than it would be if I were [doomscrolling social media.] With my mind fixed on God, I am ready [for whatever lies ahead today.]  

-- Adapted from John Ortberg in “If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat”

#6319

AN ASSET ON OUR JOURNEY

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”  (Psalm 119:105 NIV)

In the nineteenth century, mail delivery in parts of the western United States was done by riders on horseback.  This service was called the Pony Express.  They went to great lengths to reduce the weight their horses had to carry and thereby increase the speed of the mail delivery.  They streamlined the saddles, enlisted teenagers of small stature as carriers, and disallowed rifles - all to cut every ounce of weight possible.

Yet each rider carried a Bible, even though the Bible and a rifle were not much different in weight.  Apparently, the personnel of Pony Express believed the Bible was more valuable than a rifle.  Even though they knew excess baggage was detrimental, they realized the importance of having the Bible with them.

As we make the Christian journey, we may find baggage filling our life.  But allotting room for God's Word during our journey is essential.  If we make no room for the Scripture in our day, we are carrying too much.

God's Word is not a weight but an asset on our journey. 

-- Kenny A. Noble, submitted by a subscriber in Wisconsin

#6224

ACTING ON GOD’S WORD

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."  (James 1:22 ESV)

It’s easy to nod along in agreement when we hear a powerful sermon or read a moving devotional. But James reminds us: agreement is not obedience. God's Word is meant to be lived.

C.S. Lewis said, “Obedience is the key that opens every door.” There are many everyday doorways to obedience. The Grocery-Line Test: You’re behind someone struggling to count coins. You’re in a hurry. The Word says, “Be patient.” Do we live it -- or just know it? The Inbox Moment: You get an email from someone hurting. You think, “I’ll pray for them.” James nudges: Don’t just say it -- do it. Pause. Pray. Reach out. The Family-Room Challenge: Tension simmers. You recall “be quick to listen, slow to speak.” Do you speak gently -- or do you just remember the verse?

Faith isn’t a theory, it’s traction. The difference between hearer and doer is the footprint left behind. One fades like breath on glass. The other leaves indelible marks of grace and love.

To paraphrase a familiar quote, “The world does not need more outstanding sermons. It needs more obedient servants.” This quote underscores James 1:22’s challenge: not just to hear truth, but to embody it. It’s a call to let our lives preach louder than our lips. What’s one truth you’ve recently heard that you haven’t yet acted on? It could be forgiveness, generosity, humility, or compassion. Choose one. Live it today. 

-- SOUND BITES Ministry™, compiled from a variety of sources 

#6166

THE KEY TO KNOWING GOD’S HEART

“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”  (Romans 12:2 Phillips)

We learn God’s will by spending time in His presence. The key to knowing God’s heart is having a relationship with Him. A personal relationship. God will speak to you differently than He will speak to others. Just because God spoke to Moses through a burning bush, that doesn’t mean we should all sit next to a bush waiting for God to speak. God used a fish to convict Jonah. Does that mean we should have worship services at Sea World? No. God reveals His heart personally to each person.

For that reason, your walk with God is essential. His heart is not seen in an occasional chat or weekly visit. We learn His will as we take up residence (abide) in His house every single day… Walk with Him long enough and you come to know His heart.

-- Max Lucado in “The Great House of God”

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”  (John 8:31-32 ESV)

A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and pow’r are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
 
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing,
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

(Verses 1 and 2 from “A Might Fortress Is Our God” by Martin Luther)

Like many, [Martin] Luther’s behavior did not always reflect his theology. Still, his discovery in Scripture that people by God’s grace can have a right relationship with God vastly changed his outlook on life. Having that fundamental relationship secured, he believed that a joyful and loving life would follow.

During a period in 1527 when he suffered from dizziness and from a disease occasioned both by high fever and physical weakness, Luther succumbed to a feeling of psychological abandonment. The prayers of his wife and friends sustained him in his despair. During this time he composed “A Might Fortress Is our God.” A clue to his faith lay in his admission that “the prince of darkness grim” raged in his life. Luther surmounted these personally trying times with the assurance that he need not fear the devil’s onslaughts because “one little Word shall fell him.” That Word is Jesus Christ. The reformer survived his rough moments by naming and clinging to Jesus Christ. 

-- K. James Stein in “Spiritual Guides for the 21^st Century”

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His Truth to triumph through us;
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little Word shall fell him.
 
That Word above all earthly pow’rs, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth;
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s Truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

(Verses 3 and 4 from “A Might Fortress Is Our God” by Martin Luther)

#6035

NO COMPARTMENTALIZATION

“Blessed is the one
     who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
     or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
     and who meditates on His law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
     which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
     whatever they do prospers.”  (Psalm 1:1-3 NIV)

The story of God doesn’t make room for compartmentalization. It doesn’t speak of moments of being influenced by the Word, but having our imaginations fixed on it, meditating on it day and night. It doesn’t speak of producing for God in separation from Him. Rather, living a life being planted in Him. Jesus doesn’t say, apart from Him we can’t do religious things very well. He says apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5)…

When the psalmist says “whatever they do prospers,” I don’t think he means “whatever religious activity they do.” The story that God is inviting us into changes everything. From the heart, to the home, to the church, to the city. The more you dive into God’s story, the depth and breadth of His grace begins to tear down any divides that could lead to compartmentalization. He wants your all. 

-- Excerpted from Lo Alaman in “Wake-up Call” 

#6030

BACK TO BIBLICAL BASICS – Part 2 of 2

The great C. H. Spurgeon, a preacher who reached out and grabbed the guts of the people of his day, once said that the Christian bloodline ought to be a Bibline. [Spiritual leadership] entails mastery of this Bibline bloodline. Novelist Joyce Carol Oates writes of a character’s grandmother: “We are linked together by blood, and blood is memory without language.” Christians are linked together by the blood memory of the Bibline that circulates through the body of Christ.

There is nothing more exciting in life than to find your sense of direction. Why is it that when we open God’s Word we expect to be bored? It is theologically incorrect to talk of making the Word “come alive.” It already is. We’re the ones who have tried to kill it. We’ve sucked the blood right out of the Bibline. We’ve drained it dry with boredom, banality, and mediocrity.

“Breathe on Me, Breath of God” is a song the soul should sing every time one opens the Scriptures. To study and learn the Scriptures is to inhale the energies of the Spirit. We inhale the breath of God. We exhale the breath of life: biblical stories. Through modulating exhaled breath, humans fashion stories, stories to build lives upon. When the stories of Scripture become “our” stories, when biblical images and metaphors become “our” images and metaphors, when we structure “our” lives around the cornerstone Jesus story, a new architecture for our souls is constructed.

In his first letter, Peter wrote to the scattered church about this cornerstone: “As you come to Him, the living Stone -- rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to Him -- you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.’ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious.”  (1 Peter 2:4-7a NIV) 

-- Leonard Sweet in “Aqua Church: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today’s Fluid Culture”

#5995

BACK TO BIBLICAL BASICS – Part 1 of 2

Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers head coach, was a fanatic for fundamentals. After a game in which the Packers lost to an ill-deserving team, Lombardi called his team together and roared: “OK, we go back to the basics.” Then, holding the football high enough for all to see, he continued to yell: “Gentleman, this is a football.”

For the church, it’s now back to blocking and tackling basics. To a world that thinks it’s quoting Shakespeare when it quotes the Bible; to a world in which the Bible has become an unknown book; to a world that picks up the Bible when it goes to spoiling for a fight; to a church that gives restaurant menus and [social media] closer readings than it does Scripture: to this world and to this church it’s time to hold up the Bible and say: People, this is a Bible. People, this is a life compass. People, this is what helps you find the North Star. Off course? Lost your blessings? Drifting in a dark sea? People, this is how you find life’s bearings.

The compass, strict and sure, is what enables us to locate our lives in relation to the Star of Bethlehem. The compass is what shapes and fashions our lives into the likeness of Christ.

The Apostle Paul believed that when the Word of God becomes a part of who you are, “You are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:3) 

-- Leonard Sweet in “Aqua Church: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today’s Fluid Culture”

#5994

A MAN OF ONE BOOK

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” (Psalm 119:105 NIV)

The Reformation slogan sola scriptura has power, clarity, and simplicity. Its power counters the authoritarian claims of church, later tradition, and all other competitors to the revealed Word of God. Its clarity shows others we are serious about basing all of our Christian faith and practice on this book of books. Its simplicity allows all Christians to understand the basis on which our claims to truth are made. We sing with understanding, “Jesus loves, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

John Wesley knew this and fully subscribed to the song’s sentiment. When challenged on his most controversial doctrines, he appealed to the Bible as the primary justification for his teachings. In the famous passage from the Preface to his sermons, he calls himself homo unius libri – a man of one book. Forty-one years later, in his sermon “On God's Vineyard,” he uses the phrase again to talk about the beginning of Methodism and its continuing commitment to Scripture:

“From the very beginning, from the time that four young men united together, each of them was homo unius libri -- a man of one book. God taught them all to make His Word a lantern unto their feet, and a light in all their paths. They had one, and only one rule of judgment with regard to all their tempers, words, and actions, namely, the oracles of God. They were one and all determined to be Bible-Christians. They were continually reproached for this very thing; some terming them in derision Bible bigots; others, Bible-moths -- feeding, they said, upon the Bible as moths do upon cloth. And indeed unto this day it is their constant endeavor to think and speak as the oracles of God.”

Any accurate understanding of Wesley’s view of the Bible must first start here, with a strong statement that Scripture alone is the authority for Christian faith and practice. On this point Wesley is definite. It is the Bible that serves as the final court of appeal. 

-- Scott J. Jones in “Wesley and the Quadrilateral: Renewing the Conversation” (1997)

#5910

THE DOMINANT INFLUENCE IN OUR LIVES

“How can young people keep their lives pure? By obeying Your commands. With all my heart I try to serve You; keep me from disobeying Your commandments. I keep Your law in my heart, so that I will not sin against You.”  (Psalm 119:9-11 GNT)

Only through God’s Word are our minds remolded and our values renewed…

Obedience is the pathway to holiness, but it is only as we have His commands that we can obey them. God’s Word must be so strongly fixed in our minds that it becomes the dominant influence in our thoughts, our attitudes, and our actions.

Jesus said, “Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me” (John 14:21).

-- Jerry Bridges in “The Pursuit of Holiness”

#5863

GOD’S HEALING WORD FOR TODAY

“Cause me to understand the way of Your precepts, that I may meditate on Your wonderful deeds. My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to Your Word.”  (Psalm 119:27,28 NIV)

The Word of God is not a word to apply in our daily lives at some later date; it is a word to heal us through, and in, our listening here and now.

The questions therefore are: How does God come to me as I listen to the Word? Where do I discern the healing hand of God touching me through the Word? How are my sadness, my grief, and my mourning being transformed at this very moment? Do I sense the fire of God’s love purifying my heart and giving me new life? These questions lead me to the sacrament of the Word, the sacred place of God’s real presence. 

-- Henri J. M. Nouwen in “With Burning Hearts”

#5813

THE ROLE OF SCRIPTURE IN SPIRITUAL FORMATION

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.”  (2 Timothy 3:16-17 GNT)

The how of the role of Scripture in spiritual formation is not so much a body of information, a technique, a method, a model, as it is a mode of being in relationship with God that we bring to the Scripture…

I suggest that your top priority be to listen for God. Seek to allow your attention and focus to be on listening for what God is saying to you as your read [the Scripture]… Listen for God to speak to you in and through, around and within, over and behind and out front of everything that you read. Keep asking yourself, “What is God seeking to say to me in all this?” By adopting this posture toward the text [of God’s Word] you will begin the process of reversing the learning mode that establishes you as the controlling power who seeks to master a body of information. Instead, you will begin to allow the text to become an instrument of God’s grace in your life. You will begin to open yourself to the possibility of God’s setting the agenda for your life through the text. Not only will this exercise begin to transform your approach to reading (and prepare you for the role of Scripture in spiritual formation), it will also begin to transform your whole mode of being in relationship with God in a way that will enhance genuine spiritual formation. 

-- M. Robert Mulholland, Jr. in “Shaped by the Word”

#5808

FORMING THE GREATEST CHARACTER

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may [discover] what is the will of God -- what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  (Romans 12:2 NRSV)

The study of God's Word, for the purpose of discovering God's will, is the secret discipline which has formed the greatest characters.

-- James W. Alexander

#5801

AT HOME IN GOD’S WORD

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”  (John 8:31-32 ESV)

Developing a meaningful understanding of the Scriptures is no simple matter. The truth is that while the Bible is in nearly all of our homes, not all of us are at home in the Bible. How is it with you? Do you feel at home with the Scriptures? Is the Bible a friend or a stranger to you? When crisis comes, you need a friend. In desperation people have turned to the Bible for strength, for comfort, for the word of life, expecting instant simple solutions, and sometimes they have come up empty because they didn’t know how to find its treasures.

Edwin Blair, in his book “The Bible and You,” points out: "The person who is looking for a way to master the Bible in three easy lessons will be disappointed. In the first place, one can never master the Bible. One can only be mastered by it. In the second place, the Bible is so immeasurably rich that the human mind cannot possibly embrace it all in a few attempts. Familiarity with the Bible comes only by prolonged exposure to its contents." 

-- James W. Moore and Bob J. Moore in “Lord, Give Me Patience!... And Give It to Me Right Now!”  

#5777

GOD’S SELF-REVELATION

Jesus said, "It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"  (Matthew 4:4 NIV)

Why has the Bible had such a powerful, pervasive, and enduring impact? There are many ways to answer this question, but surely the underlying reason is that the Bible is the Word of God, God’s self-revelation. The Bible contains truth about life and reality that we could not know by means of our own unaided reasoning. As such it has a special authority. The Bible acts as the final arbitrator of what is true. We shape our views (and our lives) to it -- not the other way around.

This being the case, the Bible has a special place in the life of Christians. It is where we go for accurate information about the way things really are, about who God is and what God intends for our world, about how we should live and what we should think. It is through the Bible that we come into personal contact with the Lord Jesus Christ…

Christian saints down through the ages agree that regular Bible reading and [study] is central to growth in the Christian life. 

-- Richard Peace in “Learning to Love God”

#5701

FIRSTHAND INFORMATION

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched -- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”  (1 John 1:1 NIV)

Are you basing your knowledge of Jesus on hearsay evidence? Is it based on what you’ve heard a pastor say, or your parents or friends say… or maybe someone in the media or in a book?

Many are willing to say that Jesus was a good man, even a great man, or even a prophet from God. But they stop short of truly being convinced that He is virgin-born, the unique, only begotten Son of God -- God Himself in a man’s body. They stop short of saying He is God’s Lamb, sacrificed for the sin of the world… that He is the risen Lord, the reigning King. Yet God said in Mark 9:7, “This is My Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!”

Stop getting information about Jesus secondhand. Get it firsthand by reading God’s Word. Get to know Him for yourself. 

-- Anne Graham Lotz in “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus”