Saints,
Here at Walk “Worthy we call it “re-joy,” to joy once again and rejoice!
Grace plays the key role in this whole equation of action, reaction. God is so good.
Grace and joy are inseparable. And this is by God’s loving design.
This quote is taken from The Complete Biblical Library:
The noun charis (grace, kindness) is formed from the root char whose derivatives all focus on that which gives pleasure, benefit, and happiness. Thus there is a certain relationship between charis “grace, kindness” and chara, “joy.”….Charis (grace, kindness) evokes joy and delight, often in a totally undeserved and unexpected way….Charis promises pleasure and well-being, while chara is a joy and happiness experienced as a result of charis (grace, kindness).
We could say that the action of grace-kindness results in, and produces, joy, the feeling of pleasure and well-being. Or grace leads to joy. Or grace = joy in the end. Isn’t God especially good to us all?
It also serves as a greeting such as “welcome, have a good day,” also a reason to re-joy. Sometimes pagans used this greeting in the Bible in caustic, demonic ways, as we’ll soon see below.
Personally, today, in this dark world with little light, you are a bit like me in that I too need to be filled with re-joy. To re-focus on God’s amazing abundant grace and kindness that He dispenses directly and through the actions of others, both the unsaved and saved.
Our worldview as Kingdom Citizens takes a decidedly bizarre viewpoint when pagans view our joy in the midst of trial, affliction, suffering and tribulation. Knowing and embracing our God’s plans for the future enables real believers to paradoxically have joy continuously…and to become overcomers on the world’s system. True, authentic joy most often occurs in the very midst of these difficult, trying times in our lives.
The main areas causing joy in His holy Word are:
- Our Father and Christ’s salvation of us, we were saved, are being saved, and will be saved.
- Christ’s hope in us – the hope of glory, as we’re persevering overcomers.
- Christ completing the fullness of the Father’s Kingdom on earth, and using us.
There’s so many verses in the Word pertaining to joy, it’s difficult to take only a few! Let’s take a brief, but good look at God’s written record of His grace to us and the resulting joy:
1. Our Father and Christ’s salvation of us, we were saved, are being saved, and will be saved
Matthew 13:20 And the one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy;
Matthew 13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.
Matthew 18:13 And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.
Luke 8:13 And those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.
Luke 10:20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”
Luke 15:5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Luke 15:32 ‘But we had to be merry and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’
John 4:36 Already he who reaps is receiving wages, and is gathering fruit for life eternal; that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
2. Christ’s hope in us – the hope of glory, as we’re persevering overcomers
Luke 1:14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
Matthew 2:10 And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great (mega) joy.
Matthew 5:12 Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 25:21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.’
Luke 6:23 Be glad in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.
Luke 13:17 And as He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire multitude was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him.
John 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.
Acts 5:41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.
Romans 12:12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,
Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
2 Cor. 6:10 …as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.
2 Cor. 7:7 …and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more.
2 Cor. 7:9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, in order that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.
Col. 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.
1 Peter 4:13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.
2 Cor. 8:2 …that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality (of giving their money).
1 Peter 1:8 …and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory
3. Christ completing the fullness of the Father’s Kingdom on earth, and using us
Luke 24:52 And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, (after His ascension)
John 3:29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. And so this joy of mine has been made full.
John 14:28 You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.
John 16:20 Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.
John 16:22 Therefore you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.
2 Cor. 13:11 Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Philip. 3:1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.
Philip. 2:29 Therefore receive him in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard;
Philip. 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
Philip. 2:2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
2 Tim. 1:4 longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy.
Hebrews 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
And the caustic greeting of false joy:
Matthew 26:49 And immediately he (Judas) went to Jesus and said, “Hail, Rabbi!” and kissed Him.
Matthew 27:29 And after weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they kneeled down before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
The real deal of true joy of the graceful greeting:
Luke 1:28 And coming in, he (angel) said to her (Mary), “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
Matthew 28:9 And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.
Acts 15:23 and they sent this letter by them, “The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles, greetings…
Lately, I ponder in prayer with God just how many professing believers really are saved. Do they really love God through Jesus? Or are most the tares He spoke about since they’re so captured by the world’s allure?
A few questions to truthfully answer:
- Are they and we so full of joy over what God has done and will do soon that they have little worry and fright for the future?
- Do they not read the Bible for themselves and then with other real seekers for true truth, to see Jesus’ many words of prophetic warning and comfort through it all?
- Are they full of the unity of the Spirit, striving to be of the same mind – the mind of Christ Himself, humbling themselves to find all they can of the others opinion vs. having a party spirit of denomination?
- Are they much more active in the clear Kingdom commands of bold, sacrificial, loving evangelism and discipling the whole Gospel than bashing Obama or exulting the occultic W. Bush?
- Have they given and are continuing to give their money away to be economically equal as Paul admonished the selfish Corinthians?
Yes to some of these? No to all these?
These people are usually so wrapped around the axle about current conditions, they have no joy in affliction, no joy to be considered worthy to suffer, if they ever really have besides the reduction in their temporal bank account.
They’re usually so earthly minded, they’re no heavenly good.
Are any of us trapped in this vicious cycle of loving the world and the things of the world? Why do you suspect most music these days fails to talk about deep suffering, joyful perseverance, and the great anticipation of heaven? Most love it here. Why leave, they reason, if ever stirred to consider heavenly citizenship?
Again, for it bears repeating, most of those claiming Christ today desire (love) many things: they desire agreeing to disagree and having their own separate church (divisiveness) vs. being of the same mind and spirit, they love storing things up on earth (serving mammon) vs. sacrificially storing up treasures in heaven, they love spending time amusing themselves to death (cultural fornication) vs. boldly proclaiming the Word of God and serving the unlovable.
The Word screams the warning in the love of Jesus, as this parable is found in all three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke):
And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Mark 4:18-19
Their soil is bad, not good. Scary….but almost all pastors (teachers really) and Christian financial planners tell you it’s OK to be rich, and pile it up. Just be careful, they say. How, then, should we live?
And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. Mark 4:20
The apostle Luke adds the fact that these blessed saints have an honest and good heart, not one that’s deceitfully wicked (a pre-salvation condition) which is commonly taught today:
But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance. Luke 8:15
And joy is the result of the grace extended!
Jesus commands us to be the light of the world, not darkness. Just like Him, the Light of the world. Amazing thought. Do we have ears to hear?
And He was saying to them,
A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lamp stand? For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Mark 4:21-23
I recently was in a service in another state of the USA in a large Pentecostal building (just built at great expense) where the leader jazzed up the crowd with proclaiming they all needed to be part of “God’s wealth transfer.” There was a lot of cheering, and clapping, and a few ‘Amen’s.’
What?
Where did he get that demonic nonsense? So, the Holy Spirit ordered me to march on down to the front of the stage during a time of singing and alert him to look up David Kirkwood’s book Through the Needles Eye. It’s worthy of your time too. www.heavensfamily.org/ss/stewardship. I had put David’s information for him on one of my ministry cards.
This leader obviously was not used to a brother helping him on to perfect maturity through admonishment (Col. 1.28). If I could guess his mindset by his voice and accompanied body language, it was one of condescension and despising a prophetic utterance (1 Thes. 5.20). He stared at me very suspiciously when he reluctantly took my handwritten note and demanded, “What is the theme of this book?”
I answered plainly with something like, “A completely Biblical approach on money from Genesis to Revelation by one of the best teachers I’ve seen. God’s commandments for money are not what most of us think or have been taught. I give us this in love, for I care for you and the flock here. Jesus told me to tell you, and I have. My phone number is there too and I welcome a call to talk with you further.”
That was a while ago. Years now. Think I heard from him yet? Maybe someday….
Do we really, really, really know God? Do we even know what Biblical fruit is according to the Author? Is the joy of the Lord our calling, and our strength? Or are we mostly worried about the future, and deceived by riches by piling it up for later? Might this be due to fleshly pleasure, not caring for those around the world that don’t have the basics of life, and an overall lack of faith?
In short, are we really, really, really overcomers? Or are we playing games with our life? Are we just playing it safe? Are we really just drifting away, coming up short, and actually following the great apostasy all in the name of Jesus? There is no middle ground, no matter what the false teachers of today proclaim.
Those of us who have ears to hear, let us hear…others of us need to repent, or perish (Luke 13.3,5). We all need to be in prayer…
…and re-joy for His gracious work from start to finish! Once you’re on the lookout for these wonder-full words of grace, you’ll find them everywhere in His book!
There seems no better way to end that to once again quote The Complete Biblical Library:
Joy, therefore, is a reminder and sign of the way believers view the present in light of God’s plan for the future.
Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Your friend and brother in fighting the good fight,
Marc
+++
Saints, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!
Marc and Walk Worthy are supported in part by the body of Jesus Christ. Please consider donating on a regular basis:
You may view our Archives here: MONDAY MANNA – ARCHIVES; Complete Archives. May our Father richly bless you with His grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in order to walk worthy of His name.
Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Marc White, Director, Walk Worthy Ministries, www.WalkWorthy.org
