Come, thou long expected Jesus, 
 born to set thy people free; 
 from our fears and sins release us, 
 let us find our rest in thee.  
 Israel's strength and consolation, 
 hope of all the earth thou art; 
 dear desire of every nation, 
 joy of every longing heart. 

     Born thy people to deliver, 
 born a child and yet a King, 
 born to reign in us forever, 
 now thy gracious kingdom bring. 
 By thine own eternal spirit 
 rule in all our hearts alone; 
 by thine all sufficient merit, 
 raise us to thy glorious throne.

---

radical devotion.

I see so many Christians who say that they would die for their faith, but their lives never reflect that.

They claim that if they were under radical persecution they wouldn’t lose their faith and if a gun was put to their head they would stand fast and give their life up for their faith, because following Christ is that important to them.

But there is no gun to their head- we live in America, after all. So their lives don’t demonstrate the radical devotion to Christ that they speak of.

Is it easier to give up your life for the Gospel than to give your life for the Gospel?

Thoughts for Monday.

“Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me!
   O Lord, be my helper!” {Psalm 30:10}
 
Rejoice in the fact that God is merciful and let Him be your helper. Let Him lift you out of this and into Joy. He isn’t a tame lion. He isn’t human and wishy-washy. And his love for you is like stepping into the rapids of a whitewater river.

You cannot help but be swept away and drown in it.
And in the loveliest way imaginable.

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”
C. S. Lewis

Jump off of that raft, into the rapids.

Aim at heaven and get earth thrown in.

Run after God like you are thirsty and you need the Water of Life. Run after Him as if your life depends upon it, as if your joy depends upon it. It does. Run after Him like he died for you and you’d like to thank Him face to face. Run after Him like His dying makes your living worth it. Run after Him the way the lame man ran after he had been healed; rejoicing.

Don’t choose to live asleep. Don’t choose to live sitting. Don’t choose to let all of the distractions of the flashy souped up overrated world numb you when there’s better to be had. “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” {C. S. Lewis.}

Don’t pass up infinite joy and remain satisfied with trash. Don’t waste your life.

Run, run, run. It’s tiring but there is infinite joy waiting for you. At the finish line there is one hugely unimaginable prize to be had. Run after God with endurance and find Joy.

“...and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” {Hebrews 12:1}

The Sunday of Joy!

Gaudete 2012- Third Sunday of Advent- The Sunday of Joy.
Philippians 4:4-7

"Do not fear; do not worry; rejoice in everything. Does that mean that everything that would happen to them would be good? Obviously not. They faced terrible persecution and would have terrible things to deal with. Of course, they would have absolutely no control over what happened to them. Many Christians around the world face the same thing today. In Egypt, in Iraq, in Africa, in China, and in many other places persecution is just a heartbeat away. Think of the parents of the children murdered this weekend in Connecticut. They had no choice in the events that over took them and ripped their babies from their arms and hearts. Two things are necessary for us to consider.

First, joy is often a decision, and not only an emotion. It will certainly come up as an emotion at times, but many other times will require that you make a decision to rejoice. Just using this week's terrible events, you can see both sides of the argument. If you discover that your child was not one of the victims, you would understandably be overcome with joy; you would rejoice to see your baby walk out whole and uninjured. On the other hand, if your child was among the victims, it would be a very hard decision to rejoice about it. I am not saying that someone in the position should be laughing and happy. Joy is not simple happiness. It is ultimately an expression of trust in God, even in terrible circumstances. Remember our brothers and sisters around the world that face persecution every day. At Columbine it was reported that the killers targeted Christians. That is real live persecution here in the United States. Paul's command is clear: rejoice in all things. It does not mean to be happy about all things. 

Second, we need to turn to the Lord to be able to make the decision to rejoice. Paul tells the Philippians to take all of their requests to the Lord. They are to do it with thanksgiving. Supplication is a strong word showing that we can express our needs to God with great feeling. Look at all of the Psalms David gave us while he was persecuted by Saul and his rebellious sons. Crying out to the Lord often means just that: to cry out in agony to the God who loves us and has sent these hard times our way. 

Thanksgiving will be the best indicator of where your heart it. If you can thank God in the circumstances then you will be able to rejoice in them as well. I believe that eventually you will see his kind hand leading you in even the most difficult of times. God sculpts us from hard providences. Just as Jesus learned obedience the very hardest way, our God will shape our character with the hard things that come our way."

-Pastor Gene Franklin, 
from the sermon Joy In Hard Places.

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”
C. S. Lewis