Joy Unspeakable

A first grade teacher gave her class the beginning of some well-known proverbs and let them supply the endings. Here are a few of the results:

Strike while the……… bug is close.

Don't bite the hand……… that looks dirty.

A bird in the hand……… will poop on you.

A penny saved……… is not much.

If it first you don't succeed……… time to get new batteries.  

I hope that brought a smile to your face. We've been through so much bad news and hard times in the last few years, that we need to remember that life still is full of joy. Too often in the church we get focused on the problems and forget that we have a joyful, loving Father God watching over us.

Have you ever thought of God as joyful or having a sense of humor? He does you know. Let me give you a few examples. Take creation for instance. You have to have a sense of humor to create animals like a giraffe, an ostrich, a platypus or an aardvark. Think of the penguin, a bird that looks like a bowling pin in a tuxedo! And how about designing the bumblebee that defies all the laws of aerodynamics, and yet flies? Someone's getting a good laugh out of that!

Over and over again in the creation story, it says that God saw what He created and it was good. This is not a moral statement, but a pronouncement of pleasure. Did you ever make something that gave you great satisfaction and made you smile? That's exactly what God was feeling when He looked at what He had created. He was happy.

Think of the irony in the life of Christ. The God Who created the universe comes to earth incognito as a baby and is born in a stable. On top of that He spends 30 years anonymously in an obscure country village growing up and working as a carpenter. He has a completely ordinary life during that time, doing nothing that would suggest that He is God. Think of His next-door neighbors. How would you feel if you found out the guy living next door was God! Now that's one of the biggest “gotchas” of all time!

I know God is joyful. He's the one that first told us to smile. He tells us in Proverbs 15:13, “A happy heart makes the face cheerful;” and in Proverbs 15:30, “A cheerful look brings joy to the heart.” He knew the impact of joy and happiness on our health thousands of years before we did. He tells us in Proverbs 17:22, “A merry heart does one good like a medicine.”

We are repeatedly told in Scripture that where God is, there is joy and happiness. His joy is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). When we are in His presence there is fullness of joy (Psalms 16:11). That means there is hilarity and laughter. Before He left, Jesus prayed that His joy would be in as and that our joy would be complete or overflowing (John 15:11).

God is joyful and happy, not scowling and angry. He wants us to know what makes Him the most joyful. It's when we trust Him and receive His gift of love, becoming His adopted child. Luke 15:10 says, “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Put a smile on God's face today by turning to Him and accepting His love.

Come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM. We are very excited to have our special guest speaker, James Goll, a prophet and a seer.