After preaching on the subject of joy last Sunday, I could not help but notice this article when I saw it. When I started reading it I couldn’t stop, and when I finished, I had to read it again–I bet you will want to do the same, and I suggest you do. It was written by Elaine Stedman, widow of Bro. Ray Stedman. I had no idea that she was such a gifted writer. I think you will be blessed by what she says:

Eliminate my guilt and fears, create a trouble-free environment, pay all my debts, perfect my relationships; give me a loaf of bread, a jug of wine and a “thou” beside me singing in the wilderness–that is a capsulated form of the joy formula we are fed from infancy to senility. But the contradictions are everywhere. Without guilt and fear we become reckless of consequences. In a trouble-free environment we become insensitive and lazy. Owing nothing, we become arrogant. We’re stunted and dwarfed by easy relationships. The bread molds, the wine intoxicates, the “thou” either threatens or bores, and we are left to sing the modern lyric: “I don’t know where we both went wrong, but the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back.”

“The feeling’s gone.” Perhaps these words are a significant cue to what joy really is, and we may ask whether it is indeed adequate to describe it as merely feeling or sensation. An emotional high is easily daunted, highly fragile, perilously insecure. It is threatened by tests and trials, by tensions, ill health, and fluctuating relationships. When “everything’s going my way,” as another songwriter puts it, one may feel joyful, but the odds for that combination of circumstances are small, the duration transient, and when everything goes our way, it is likely to be at someone else’s expense, as well as self-defeating in the long run.

When I was a small child, I was intrigued with our Montana bluebirds, and I remember my dad remarking, with a wry grin, that I could catch one if I would just put salt on its tail. If we make a landmark of the feeling of exaltation that comes from everything going our way, we can spend a lifetime trying to capture bluebirds by dubious means. We have all experienced the frustration of trying to recapture a fond memory from our childhood, an exhilarating adventure, an expired romance, only to find that it was unrepeatable, simply because that unique set of circumstances could not be reproduced.

It would be harmless enough to savor past emotional highs, except that we are all too prone to live in the present on the basis of some memory now become fantasy. Many marriages and friendships have been blighted, some broken, because joy became a command performance, a demand, rather than a by-product. Many have become bitter, hostile, and resentful because some brief period of emotional delight cannot be reproduced or perpetuated, and the supply of either salt or bluebirds has been exhausted.

But joy cannot be catalogued, spindled, or preserved. When pursued it becomes elusive. It comes unbidden and unrehearsed when the mind and heart are free of coercion and demand. Genuine joy is ingenuous, not ingenious–the subtle but significant difference between a product and a production. Authentic joy results from a quality of life, an inner attitude. It surprises the simple and eludes the sophisticated.

Know how to be joyful? the world asks. Buy pleasure; pay any price. Pursue it with body, soul, and spirit. Prostitute your body, perjure your soul, and placate your spirit. Eat, drink, and be merry; who cares about tomorrow? But tomorrow persistently arrives, and demands the price for yesterday’s small joys, leaving the celebrant bankrupt and regretful.

Then a new voice is heard, a magic word: change! Change your residence, toothpaste, religion, spouse, deodorant, furniture, eating habits. Move to a new neighborhood, take a South Sea island cruise, adopt a new ideology. Or, in the event all these have been tried and failed, retreat from society. Drop out of the rat race; bury yourself in fantasy or some esoteric notion. Or if the adrenalin still runs high, rebel–raise an angry fist and shout out your frustrations, voice your outrage! Invest every energy in changing (or is it punishing?) a world that has robbed you of joy!

Still, in the small sensual joys, there is the hint of a larger, nobler satisfaction, a joy that will endure to quench a deeper thirst, to feed a greater hunger. There is yet another voice. Quiet and tranquil, yet persistent and pervading, it has sought to be heard in the quiet moments of despair, in the restless moments of anxiety, as well as in the small but fleeting joys of beauty and laughter. Pursue it we must! This is the voice of One who calls to us in the small illusions, the elusive encounters with small joys designed to speak of the gigantic joy for which we were created. Hear the voice of Jesus:

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”(John 15:10-14)

One brief summary from the lips of Jesus, and already there is the joy of discovery! Hear the voice of the One who designed us for joy: Obey me: Love as I love you! Both the means and the end are revealed in his loving command. Joy is the by-product of love, God’s love. It is the certain consequence, as well as the clear evidence, of godly love. We will attempt to sketch this beautiful plan God has made for joy through love.

Meanwhile, beware the imitations. Neither love nor joy is genuine apart from God who is Love. We can only effect shabby imitations of the real thing. So long as we persist in building monuments to small joys, trying to content ourselves with the symbol rather than the reality it represents, we must be willing to live with fantasy and illusion and settle for its consequences.

The God of love calls to us in our emotional highs and our emotional lows. When we respond to him the reward is gigantic and eternal joy.(www.RayStedman.org)

Life is difficult for everyone, and for many reasons, but sometimes our wounds are self-inflicted. As much as we would like to fault others or blame circumstances we are usually our own worst enemy. Much of our misery comes from self-imposed goals and unrealistic expectations. We pursue our self-made dream and it becomes a nightmare, then we complain about life being unfair. Why? If you plant an oak tree you don’t expect pecans. If you plant a thorn bush expecting grapes it isn’t going to happen. Even so, if you expect all pleasure and no problems in life you will always be disappointed and never content.

We have no reason nor right to expect a care-free life. That’s why it is important that we get our perspective from the Bible–it tell us what to expect. Jesus said we would be hated and hurt by the world. He warned that following Him would be hard–not fun and easy. If we expect anything different we are setting ourselves up for a fall–we will be disappointed. But, if we refuse to entertain these unjustified expectations we won’t get disappointed and grow discourage. So if you are wallowing in self-pity because times are tough maybe you ought to go back to the Bible and find out what God said. Nearly all our worries revolve around the fact that we feel we deserve more, bigger, and better. But when we discover the truth, that we deserve absolutely nothing, we realize that we have it better than we deserve, and therefore have nothing to complain about–regardless of how bad things get. Knowing we don’t deserve anything helps us be thankful for everything and complain about nothing. Think about it.

We enter the building, greet old friends, chat it up, and get comfy in our seat. Then out of the corner of our eye we see him/her enter and take a seat—just across the room. Occupied with self, we are unaware of the person’s depth of sorrow, degree of pain, and desperate situation—just across the room. How could we know? We’ve never spoken to them. They came looking for a friendly smile, a word of encouragement and a ray of hope. There they sit–just across the room, only a few steps away—just across the room. They long for contact—a handshake, a smile, or a hug, but they won’t venture far from their pew—just across the room. They won’t come to you. Will you go to them?–Just across the room.

They hear us sing, “Make me a blessing”, but we make no effort to bless them—just across the room.

They hear us say,”Here am I send me”, but they wait for us to come to them—just across the room.

We hand them a “Guest” card, even give them a pen, then treat them as strangers—just across the room.

We speak of opportunities and say we want to serve, but ignore the door God has opened—just across the room.

We want to be like Jesus, we’re often heard to say, but Christ left His home in glory, came to earth to meet man’s needs, but we just sit here a staring at the folks across the room.

We leave the service with the thought of serving faithfully like we should, but we walk away from the person sitting across the room!

Then come next Sunday, we wonder why so many seats are empty–just across the room!
Think about it!

Do you ever feel like fighting? No doubt–but sometimes that’s the wrong thing to do. Maybe I better back up and explain. Every Bible-believing, God-fearing, country-loving America longs for change. They covet change because they know we need it. Our nation is corrupt, and getting worse day by day, and we would like to see a return to Christian values. But, as much as we want it, we realize that there are some things we cannot control or change. The only thing we can change is our attitude and the only thing we can control is our response. And that, dear friend, is sometimes very hard to do. Here’s why—

We hear it all the time–“Christians are bigots, hate-mongers, intolerant”, etc. We, of course, know that this isn’t true, but it’s still difficult to deal with. To make matters worse is the fact that these charges usually come from the most intolerant people on earth. The very ones who criticize us are guilty of the very things they charge us with. That makes this a bitter pill to swallow! We’re not the ones trying to kick God out of the schools, remove Him from the government, redefine sin, change the constitution, and murder the innocent unborn babies, yet when we object we’re called intolerant. Gimme a break!

It is this very thing that makes me want to lash out and fight back. I get so tired of the false accusations, slander, etc. leveled against us, all because we dare to believe the Bible, that I often want to respond in kind. It gets so frustrating that I feel like starting an organization or movement called, “PUSH BACK”! It’s tempting to confront these people and engage them in debate, etc., but when my reason returns I realize that it would be useless–even counter-productive.

You can’t win an argument against someone who is spiritually dead, blinded by Satan, and morally depraved. Whether you state your case by quoting Scripture or by appealing to reason, you can’t make any head-way. They are driven by lust, not logic. Our warfare is of a spiritual nature (Eph. 6:12) and our weapons are not carnal (2 Cor. 10:4). We must not stoop to their level and resort to worldly tactics. We ought to be better than that. Don’t let them provoke you to sin.

The only hope for these people is the new birth. Until they are born again they will have no understanding of God’s Word, nor concern for God’s ways. Sanctification comes after salvation, not before. Until a person becomes a new creature in Christ they will do what comes natural–sin! To do otherwise they must be born again, and that can happen only if they hear the gospel. It’s our job to make it known. I know that it sometimes seems impossible to reach these people, but we must remember that it is our job to deliver the message, not to make things happen.

Believe it or not, “Gay” people are not as gay as they pretend to be. I say that because perfect peace and genuine gladness comes only from knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Things are not always as they seem. The same people you see dancing in the streets, seemingly without a care in the world, are hurting deep within. They are confused, lonely, frightened, bitter, and dissatisfied with life. There is an empty place that only God can fill. And they will remain that way until, through repentance and faith, they come to Christ, receiving Him as their Lord and Savior.

The injustices against Bible-believers are obvious and very frustrating, but we need to make sure that our response is regulated by the Word of God. You might feel like fighting back, but that will just make matters worse. What we’re dealing with today cannot be conquered by worldly tactics. Jesus gave us more than a hint when He said, “this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting”(Matt. 17:21). You and I cannot not change anyone, but with God all things are possible.

If you are reading this, and are one of those out-spoken critics of Christianity, I want to assure you that we don’t hate you, nor seek to harm you. Neither do we think we are better than you. Not a single one of us deserves to be saved. It is only by the grace of God that we have been forgiven and assured of a home in heaven. The only good in any of us is Jesus. We make no apology for believing the Bible is God’s infallible Word. Without that we have no sure standard of right and wrong, which leaves us in a world where every person is free to do as they please. The results of that ought to be obvious. If you have never received Christ as your Lord and Savoir we urge you to do so today. If we can be of any assistance please feel free to contact us. Please, think about it!

As I prepared to read an article of interest concerning a matter addressed by a representative “who chairs one of the House oversight subcommitties”, I noticed his picture. My first thought was,”Goodnight! This guy is just a kid!” I’ve probably got some clothes older than him. I certainly have several grand kids who are older. I was amazed that such a young man could hold such an important position in our government. Then it dawned on me— the future of our whole nation will one day be in the hands of our toddlers!

Since that is the case, we better make certain that we train them up in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6). If you are a God-fearing, law-abiding, good- neighbor citizen of America, you didn’t get that way on your own. Some older person played a major role in making you the person you are. Right? So, what contribution are you making to this important matter? “None!”–Really? Why? Is there not a child somewhere in your life that you could mentor? It might be a child, grand-child, neighbor, or a child in Sunday School, Scouts, Little league, etc., but surely there is someone you could help. And there is always some way that you can make a significant contribution to a young person’s life. Lord help us if we don’t help them!

We can’t just sit back on the stool of do nothing, hoping things will turn out for the best, and expect all to end well. As the old country boy said, “It ain’t gonna happen!”. Unless we train them up in the way they should go, they will go astray, and take the whole nation right along with them. We’re in the mess we’re in because of a wayward generation, and it’s not going to get better until we correct that problem. If you aren’t doing your part you have no right to complain about the rotten condition our nation is in, nor any reason to believe that things will improve. Think about it!