It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve led a bible study.  I actually kind of miss the days when Acacia was smaller, when the leaders could lead a study on whatever was on their heart.  That seems like a really long time ago.  But I guess that’s what our small groups are for.  Anyways, what’s been on my heart lately is the subject of joy, or lack of it. So I guess I will lead on that.

In truth, it seems a little bit weird to study joy. It seems like something we either have or we don’t. We can describe what it feels like to have it, but it’s kind of hard to qualify it in words. But I guess I will try. Usually the very first thing I do when I lead a study is to google the subject. That seems like a good start. Here’s what I learned today that’s applicable to the study…..

When I did a search on the NIV version of the bible on biblegateway.com, I came up with 242 different verses. There are 10 Hebrew words and 7 Greek words used in the bible to describe joy. There’s obviously a lot on the subject.

Here are the Hebrew words:

• giyl/giylah – rejoice, be glad
• duwts – to leap, dance, spring
• chedvah - gladness
• masows - exultation, rejoicing
• rinnah/ranan/rannen – ringing cry of entreaty, supplication, proclamation or praise
• suws - to exult, display joy
• samach - to cause to rejoice, gladden, make glad
• simchach - mirth, gladness, pleasure
• sasown - exultation, rejoicing
• teruwah - alarm, signal, shout

Here are the Hebrew words:

• agalliasis - exultation, extreme joy, gladness
• euphrosune - good cheer
• kauchaomai – to glory on account of a thing
• oninemi - to receive profit or advantage
• skirtao - to leap
• chairo - to rejoice exceedingly, also used as a salutation in beginning of letters
• chara - joy received from you, cause or occasion of joy

Anyways, that was probably a pointless word study, because I will probably not remember it.  But the thing I got out of it was that joy is a very important part of the bible, it shows up in many places, and there are many different words for it.  The importance of joy comes up in Galatians 5:22.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness….

Joy is a fruit of the spirit.  In fact it is the second fruit of the spirit, mentioned after love.  We talk about biblical love a lot, but it seems like seldom that we talk about joy, but it’s obvious that joy has a very important place in the life of a believer…….

For the past few years it’s been Acacia’s tradition on Valentine’s day for the guys to cook for the sisters.  This year, to go with that, we had a short message.  The typical message in these situations seems to be from Ephesians 5, which has the command, “husbands love your wives…..”

Love is many things.  First Corinthians 13 makes that very clear.  Love is also about service, as I pointed out in the last post, Jesus showed the full extent of his love through the amazing service of washing his disciples feet.  So I guess if we take Jesus as the example for manliness, I guess that would mean my definition for manliness would be this.

“A manly man sets an example of love through serving.”

Of course this love is not just the love between husband and wife, and it manifests itself in different ways with different relationships.  The way you love/serve your wife would be different from your friends and from your coworkers for sure… but the basic concept is the same.

Anyways, recently I was reminded of that study again.  This month I started going to BSF (which stands for Bible Study Fellowship I’m guessing) and ironically the first week’s study is on that very same passage.   But strangely the study doesn’t focus too much on the obvious act of service shown by Jesus, instead it focuses on the love that Jesus showed in his last hour. The first few verses show of John 13 show that Jesus was fully aware that his time was coming soon.  He fully knew the hardship that he would soon face, but until the end, what shows is his love for his disciples.  The first verse sets the stage for Jesus’ famous act of service and why it really is an act of love.

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having LOVED his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his LOVE.

The act of service shown by Jesus was an outpouring of His love, and it was a precursor to Jesus’ greatest act of service and also his greatest outpouring of love, his death on the cross.  In verse 14, Jesus tells his disciples that they should be washing each others’ feet.  He doesn’t explicitly say it in this passage, but he says it in so many other places, that we should love each other.  Jesus’ act of service is really an outpouring of that love.  Maybe that’s what I messed up in that study last year…. Service is not something that is forced, separately on its own, service really is the practical outpouring of love.  If we are to love one another, we are to serve one another.  If we serve one another, we are showing that we are loving one another.

My daily walk to my car takes me underneath a couple of freeway overpasses.  Lately there’s been a homeless guy sleeping out there.  He’s pretty cool, quite friendly, and he has a dog that sleeps with him.  Today I happened to have an apple with me, so I asked him if he wanted it.  He said he couldn’t eat it because of his teeth, and he smiled, a nice smile, but filled with gaps. I also had a grapefruit with me, which he ended up accepting.

Anyways, that got me thinking…. well the first thing I thought was, “next time I’ll bring an orange…”  The second thing I thought is that I’m really limited in my capacity to help.

The third thing that I’ve been thinking was maybe I’m the one that needs help. I thought about that gap toothed smile, a simple smile that reveals a simple contentment.  I trudge to work every day, and never have a simple smile like that… The simple joy from the simple grace of simply being alive…. that should be reason enough to smile.

The Stars Are Singing by Mainstay

I’m pretty impressed with this group called Mainstay.  It’s the first christian album I’ve bought in a long time; I usually just cherry pick individual songs on Itunes.  Their album is called “Become Who You Are.” Amazing vocals, both upbeat and mellow songs, heartfelt lyrics… this album’s got it all.  A lot of the lyrics really speak to me, especially the lyrics from the last song on the album, “Hang On.”

I don’t know how I got to where I am
All I know is that I want to go back
to the moment when I fell in love with grace
and I hear You whisper

Hang on, I know your hope seems gone
Hang on, sometimes the heartache makes you strong
Remember the first time love turned you around

I try my best to pray but my heart won’t move
And all the words the saints say, they just don’t help
I want to go back to when I first called out Your name
and I hear You whisper

To the moment when I fell in love with grace
To the day when I first called our Jesus’ name

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 2 cor 5:14-15

I think a lot of people believe that when they are saved, that’s it, we just wait around until we die and float up to heaven.  The truth is that life begins when we believe.  The song the Wonderful Cross sums it up life very well…

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride

See from his head, his hands, his feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did ever such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown

O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live
O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross
All who gather here by grace draw near and bless
Your name

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all

When I survey the wonderful cross, I realize how far I miss the mark.  Jesus’ love is so amazing, it demands my all, yet my life doesn’t really reflect this…

The last post got me thinking about lettuce.  Well actually, the term, “Let us…..”  I’m sure it appears in the bible many times.  Let us take a look…

A quick search in biblegateway.com finds hundreds of verses with “let us” in them.  Some of the ones in the old testament are from God speaking in plural, for example, “let us make man in our image….” Some are spoken in the heat of battle, “…let us fight bravely for our people…” Some work only in the context of that chapter, “… let us go to the king of Israel…”  But many are commands that are useful to us today.  Here are some of my favorite.

Let us discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good.  -Job 34:4

Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together. -Psalm 34:3

Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. -Psalm 95:2

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.  -Psalm 118:24

In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”  -Isaiah 25:9

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.  -Romans 14:13

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.  -Romans 14:19

Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.  -2 Corinthians 7:1

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.  -Galatians 5:25-26

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.  -Galatians 6:9-10

But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  -1 Thessalonians 5:8

Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.  -Hebrews 10:22-25

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  -Hebrews 12:1

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.  -1 John 3:18

I’m still thinking about this, but I think it’s very true.  It was probably very true back in Kettering’s days in the 40s and 50s, but probably a lot truer now in the 21st century.  The basic premise of marketing is to convince a customer of a need that they may or may not be aware of.  If you convince the customer that they need your product, you make the sale.

The age Kettering lived in was the start of the marketing era, when radios and TVs became common place and billboard ads started appearing on the newly created interstate highway system.  Now in our modern society we are constantly bombarded by marketing.  Wherever we go, whether in the physical world or in the virtual world, we are surrounded by advertisements.  When we drive down the freeway we see billboards, when we drive down the information superhighway we see banner ads and popups.  Any information we receive is surrounded by ads as well.  You can’t watch the news or read an article without being bombarded by stupid ads.

It seems like in this world ads are the key to economic prosperity.  And ads seem to fit the description of “the organized creation of dissatisfaction.”  I wonder if that’s part of the reason why we are so unhappy?

Anyways, that was a really weird and overly philosophical rant… quite unusual from me….  perhaps I have too much time on my hands nowadays to think.  I will finish with a bible verse that was mentioned in passing a few posts back…

This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.    -Psalm 118:24

Or in other words…… Let us try to tune out the organized dissatisfaction and be satisfied, let us return to rejoicing and being glad.  Let us realize that each day is a gift from God.  Let us find joy in simple things again.   Let us remember the gifts from God that we already have.

I know I am definitely blessed, and I need to stop wanting more and be happy with what I have.  Even the gift of waking up on a new day should be reason to rejoice.

Now–here is my secret.

I tell you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God–that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.

Life After God. page 359

The funny thing is, I don’t think the author is Christian.  But he comes to the conclusion that we need God.  Whether he believes in the Christian God, or some sort of other god, he realizes that we have an emptiness that can’t be completed without God.

I originally found out about this book through reading a sermon called, “The Problem of Love.”  The author of that sermon quotes that exact line that I quoted above.   Basically the problem of love is that we are given the command to love on another, but we really have no clue about how to go doing that.  The funny thing is, that’s the topic we’re studying at bible study on Friday.  It should be interesting……

http://theresurgence.com/the-problem-of-love

I am a quiet man. I tend to think things through and try not to say too much. But here I am, saying perhaps too much. But there are these feelings inside me which need badly to escape, I guess. And this makes me feel relieved because one of my big concerns these past few years is that I’ve been losing my ability to feel things with the same intensity– the way I felt when I was younger.  It’s scary–to feel your emotions floating away and just not caring. I guess what’s really scary is not caring about the loss. I guess this is what your mother is responding to. I make a note in my mind to talk about this with her.

From Life After God. page 150