The Good and the Bad in Traditions: Only Christ Can Really Set Free

they are all estranged from me through their idols. Eze 14:5b 

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Joh 8:36  

Traditions are good in that they bring order in society. That is always the aim. Without them what would ensue is chaos. And what they achieve is always for the benefit of the whole society. That is what our traditions did. They served their purposes (and they served it very well, for the good ones) - but that was only for their time, as scripture says, ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven’ (Ecc 3:1). 

We have now come very far, and we shall never go back again to where our forefathers were. There was The Old Testament and now is The New Testament, and the one was a shadow… a prefiguring of the lives we are living in at present… and yet the final is not even here yet. More changes are still to come.

Time is dynamic, and never static, and so is change, and so are our bodies, for one time we are babes, and then another time we are adults, and later still we grow old, we break, we die… we become dust.

Just like traditions.

But with the exception of one: God.

So has his claims been proven? Have they withstood the test of time?

Yes.

Why?

Because everything in history was driving towards this end - his story.

We came from him, and we shall always be restless until we go back to him.

Is this claim true? What has been the testimony of our lives?

I don’t know yours. But I know mine. And this is that testimony…

What I believed as a child

Even before I got saved there were certain beliefs which disturbed me, like that one cannot be rich in this world without cheating… or that a bright child carried the genes of his father, whereas a foolish one had the mind of his mother…

This was just one out of many… Which ones do you know and are still current?

I felt that ‘everybody’ made money the whole basis of education and living, but deep in my heart I felt this was not right... I felt a dissonance… a discrepancy… the stirring of a sour note… a jarring of conscience…

But I didn’t want to be different. And I didn’t want to be lonely. Rather I wanted to please all and be accepted by all. Which child doesn’t, Lord?

But the Child Spirit in Me Refused to Die!

There is much truth in Calvin’s observation that the grace of God is irresistible. I was only a child, but I felt heavily the darkness which was slowly encroaching on my life… and it made me very afraid.

But later I felt ashamed that I had allowed myself to ‘feel too much’ about these ‘very small’ things’! Why wouldn’t I agree with ‘everybody’ that they were right and I was wrong? But I grew up. And as an adult I forced myself not to ‘feel too much’ about ‘anything’. I concluded that ‘everybody’ was indeed right while I was wrong, and ‘everybody’ was ‘normal’ while I was abnormal. So now I became ‘normal’ like ‘everybody’, and I thought my life would be easy after that. But it had never been worse!

‘What had I done?’

That was the question that kept recurring in my mind. What I had done was to overturn the values which God had put in me as a child. And I hated the child spirit in me. I was an adult now, and doing certain things earned me respect among my peers, like lying, being angry, and stealing… But still I felt this was wrong! I felt false! And I felt greatly oppressed by this sort of double life and which I didn’t believe in in the least bit! This wasn’t me!

But I quickly reminded myself that I was now ‘normal’ like ‘everybody’. But it was a ‘normal’ which hurt and which was very painful. I felt a deep hatred for the society which had made me like this. And I felt even a heavier loathing for the God who had created me like this… why would I not feel ‘nothing’ instead of ‘feeling too much’? I became a cloud that was carried by a tempest. And I became a well without water.

Only the Truth of God can Set one Free

Do you, or have you ever felt something like that? Do you ever feel ashamed about what you believe to be right?

Do you feel that some traditions you profess are oppressive and are only holding you back from being your true self?

Do you value simplicity and authenticity?

Please don’t feel ashamed about it!

Does lying make you feel uncomfortable? Please it ought! And what of fornication, and stealing? Yes every evil thing should leave you feeling ashamed, because it is lying to the truth… and it is the sure way of digging oneself deeper into a bigger hole…

Being Different is not Always about Rebelliousness, but about Truth

If only parents would understand this!

But how shall they know it?

Preach to them prayerfully.

But if they still oppose you take comfort in his word.

‘Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword [division]’ (Mat 10:34). So Christ again says, ‘He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me’ (Mat 10:37).  

Right is right and wrong will always be wrong. These values will never change. If to choose Christ is to choose foolishness so be it…

And so Paul can count all things as loss compared to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus… And Peter can fall down at Jesus' knees and cry, ‘Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ And again, ‘the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.’ It is the child spirit which prompts one to say something like that, and don’t crush it! It is only a child spirit, and it is only God who gives it, and in strength he makes one feel like seven adults.

 

A Brief Survey of what it Meant to be a Man in the Traditional Life, and what it means Now

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. Mat 4:16  

And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. Luk 16:15  

 The definition of what constitutes a man is a long and tedious one when one is a traditionalist. But it is a very short one when one is a Christian, for then it can be summed up in only one verse: ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’ (2Co 5:17). 

The Heart of Darkness

Yes, some of our old traditions were really good. But few tended towards depravity, as any reader of literature books can testify (Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Fox’s White Mischief, Blixen’s Out of Africa). In short an eruption of violence (physical, moral and temperamental) ruled the past traditions of men, as even the Bible testifies:

‘This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness’ (Eph 4:17-19).  

‘For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries’ (1Pe 4:3). 

Typically a traditional man went to war to fight his enemies – and his enemies were other tribes… he ambushed them, he speared them to death, and lastly he stole their animals and women as spoils of war. These he took back to his tribe, where he was crowned as a warrior and a true man. He was then celebrated in long rituals lasting months or weeks (see chapter one of the book of Esther), where they indulged in eating, drunkenness, sexual orgies, and where they sacrificed to the fertility gods in dances and trances which sometimes bordered on the black magic (Kongi’s Harvest, Soyinka).

But then Christianity, the Great Social Upheaval of all Time, Arrived on the Scene, and it Continues to Annoy loyal Traditionalists by its Radical teachings

‘The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him’ (Joh 12:19).   

The traditions glorified outward strengths, but they knew little about the inner life… or the silences which speak louder than words. A man was praised for valour – but of the battles that raged inside his own heart he knew nothing about. Emotions awed them, and it would seem that was the preserve of witchdoctors. So whereas a man found nothing but praises from his fellow men ‘at the gate’, but at night and alone in his bed, voices which he could not discern condemned him to death! It is only Christianity with its heritage of education which has brought these things to light.

 It is no strange that those men died early. Anger killed them. And when they died it was on the sour note that they had been bewitched. A lot of the men actually blamed their wives for their death. Witchcraft was the bogey word for explaining all sorts of misfortunes, including emotional traumas. A witch doctor was a god, as the power of life and death was presumably vested in him.

A traditionalist might become a Christian, as some did, but he never quite relinquished his manly pride. And so typically he would be one person at church and a completely different person in his homestead.  ‘Come unto me all ye that labour...’ was church language, but to a stoic traditionalist that was an insult. Why should a man run to a fellow man (Jesus) for help? To love your enemy and to pray for him was insane. And not to revenge against your enemy was the preserve of Christian ‘foolishness’. These were some of the insults the Christian missionaries endured every day of their lives. The devil was unknown in these shores, and neither was the God of Abraham. His exploits among the gods of Egypt had not yet reached here. But thank God for the Bible! He is truly Ebenezer, for this far he has brought us!

The darkness described in the Bible is real. But so is the light… ‘he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound’ (Isa 61:1). 

·      ‘And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.’ 1Pe 1:25b. 

·      ‘Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life’ (Joh 8:12).  

·      ‘And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us’ (Act 17:26-27).   

·      ‘And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent’ (Act 17:30). 

·      And so from the beginning the gospel has found a ready home among the poor… among those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness… and where God has readily filled them all (Psa 107:9).

·      ‘But the anger of the Lord is toward the proud, the haughty and arrogant; (Pro 8:13). ‘Those that walk in pride he is able to abase’. Dan 4:30.

Precious friend, are you tired of all the traditional conventions competing for your attention in the world? ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,’ says Christ, ‘and I will give you rest.’ And ‘If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed’ (Joh 8:36). Let us pray: Lord I have tried to be a man by my own strength in all my life but in vain. Father, give me this rest I pray.

 

 

  

 HUMAN TRADITIONS VERSUS CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS

The radicalism of Christianity is its power… and without it, it is just another humanist creed – Part One

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Luk 14:26  

Something like a crisis of faith is what grips any new convert to the Christian religion…and the pull between the new traditions and one’s old traditions may sometimes grow so large as to resemble Jacob’s wrestling with God on River Jabbok…

But nevertheless Abraham’s unwavering type of faith is what God calls his followers to imitate… Abraham’s obedience was immediate and a complete severing with all his past. Abraham never again went back to his roots. And neither do we find him wistfully reminiscing about his old traditional life…

Rather we find an Abraham who is animated with a newfound hunger and longing… and almost gripped by a beatific vision for a new life which was far removed from that of his father’s traditional life… and so it is written,’By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God’ (Heb 11:8-10).  

The radicalism of Christianity is what gives it power… and it is what makes it unique… And so Abraham’s life (and of every believer) becomes like a movement which begins in a low note (in Egypt) but which rises eventually to a crescendo in the Promised Land…and where one wave of faith sweeps all unbelief to oblivion, and where one glimpse of glory shines a light into a thousand possibilities….

Abraham lived fully the New Testament life before we got here: ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’ (2Co 5:17). And ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth…’ (Joh 3:8). Abraham was never (at any time) left in doubt that a higher Being had acted…had spoken…and had chosen him. Have you felt anything like that lately? Then by God’s grace act! Go! The voice can’t be seen…but it can’t be doubted? That is God. Obey him instantly! Many have felt something like that before…like being on the cusp of a mighty change…but they let it fall to the ground; the music floated in the air ever so sweetly, but it got carried off by the wind… ‘It was a vision’ we say, or ‘I had a close call’, or ‘I felt something, so sweet, so urgent… but I feared I was about to lose my mind! I dismissed it…what if it showed in real life as a fact?’ The vision may go… but the conflict never does. It only surfaces again slowly in small pockets of remembrances…

I believe the climax of all unbelief will show itself eventually --- it is especially heightened just before one’s death and when it is particularly strident… I have seen a patient throw a blanket over their heads and bury themselves under it, screaming…and why? Because it is the resurfacing of that vision again, and because it is where madness and reality intersect in a whirlwind of mental maelstrom…but God forbid that we should ever reach there!

And so Abraham believed, and Abraham let the wind carry him because he was certain it was from God and that is why it was counted to him for righteousness… Or else he should never have gone anywhere if he had not acted or obeyed (his first instincts) first! So what are you afraid of? Start moving! Pray to him for courage and the one who says ‘and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out’ will answer you in due time.

The Camels are Coming! Man, Get ready for your Rebekah!

And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming. Gen 24:63  

‘And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things’, so chapter 24 of Genesis begins in one of those scenes most beloved by pastors on marriage and the search for a wife. But what strikes me, or what would seem discordant at first, is the expression that God had blessed Abraham in all things. Really? But Abraham had only one legal child so far, only one! And at 100, he was still very far from being called a grandfather, or even the father of many nations! And yet the Bible writer says, ‘the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things’! Now does that not, in our own time, sound merely like a rich hyperbole?

But then it was a camel country… and it was a desert without roads… it was agrarian… and it was the land where a sower went forth to sow… and yet it was the land where God had blessed Abraham in all things! Now is there a parent today who is worried that his own beloved son, like Isaac, does not seem to be anywhere in a hurry to end his deafening loneliness? Then please get your camels and gifts ready! And then bring in your trusted servant and let him hit the road immediately and may God go with him!

And God had blessed Abraham in all things! And it was only fair therefore that Abraham should’ve blessed his son… Fathers …God has blessed you in all things… spoil your wife, but also bless your sons! God created men and blessed them…so they would spread the blessings… ‘And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing…. and kings shall come out of thee…’ (Gen 12:2;17:6).  

And so the camels came for Isaac at last… and so the journey of his blessings got in its right shift right here, and so was the birth of a nation’s destiny readied, and so were the blessings which were vouchsafed to Abraham by his almighty God about to take a new turn…but that only happened because there had been Sarah to begin with…and Rebecca! ‘The LORD make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem: And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife… And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David ’ (Rth 4:12-13,17). 

‘The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham’ (Mat 1:1). 

And so was Abraham blessed in all things as a matter of fact: ‘Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.  And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham’ (Gal 3:6-9). And may your own blessings too continue to bless others like Abraham’s and even long after you have left to sleep with your own fathers!

 And so are you still very far away from your own blessings as yet? Get a Rebekah! As it is written, ‘Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD’ (Pro 18:22). And so Isaac brought his wife into his mother Sarah's tent, ‘and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death’ (Gen 24:67). Guys, the camels are coming! So stop meditating and look yonder… isn’t that a train of camels raising the dust of history and coming specifically for you? Stand up then… and be ready to embrace your bride!

 

 

The Word of God as the Joy of God!

‘neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.’ Nehemiah 8:10

For years I had struggled to understand what Nehemiah meant by the term ‘the joy of the LORD’, but now thank God I understand! A week ago I made a poor decision, and, at the time it seemed so bad that I ranted, I puffed, and I huffed but to no avail! Yes it was a stupid decision initially and from all standpoints, though at the time I made it I never saw this (and isn’t this the road we travel all the time in life?) Sometimes revelations only follow after a failure and never before! And yet, later, that poor decision proved quite profitable in the end! So it wasn’t fate or bad luck, but God’s providence which was in full work after all! And suddenly I recalled something even more liberating... Over the last two weeks what had I been preaching on, if it wasn’t joy? So where had my sorrow come from? And suddenly I saw how Satan had craftily played me! For two weeks I had sang about joy, so where was mine? Why could I not live with the same medicine I was so enthusiastically prescribing to others? And with that flash of light my joy was restored!

And from that time the Holy Spirit just began to rain on me these wonderful nuggets of encouragement (pray, why had I not seen them before?)

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 2Co 2:11  

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. Jas 1:2

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Rom 8:28

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1Th 5:18 

Pray without ceasing. 1Th 5:17 

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. Rom 12:12

Rejoice evermore. 1Th 5:16 

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 1Pe 1:6-8

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 2Co 4:7-9

And that was how the same medicine that I had dispensed to others came back to heal me! Trials are good because they also check our pride, as Paul pointedly noted, ‘And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure’ (2Co 12:7). In the end I learnt that there was nothing special about me, but that I was just another ‘unprofitable servant’ before him!

So what is ‘the joy of the LORD’? It is everything his word says he is! He says ‘I AM’ so whatever one lacks in life God declares that he is precisely THAT THING at that time… and so he is love, joy, peace, patience, mercy, comfort, wisdom, protection, shelter in storms, shelter for weary souls, provider, protector, rest, savior, teacher… Father…shepherd, joy, bread, he is life, the way, and the truth! – ‘And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’ (Joh 8:32). And so ‘the joy of the LORD’ tends towards liberation of a person always, unlike Satan’s which always leans towards sorrow and enslavement. Ah God! That I would be free for life! And how true is your word that I can do nothing without you! So now fill me O God with this joy now and forever more!

And Here Cometh the Joy of an Abundant Life!

 

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Joh 10:10  

And ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. Joh 16:20 

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Psa 30:5

It is something that immediately strikes you, the way Scripture juxtaposes sorrow and joy, weeping and joy, sackcloth and gladness - as if joy is something that travels a long way before it bursts out in the open – and so the psalmist would sing (and joy always flares up in a song, doesn’t it?), ‘And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD’ (Psa 40:3). And immediately it becomes an expression of deep contentment, deep appreciation and deep satisfaction, so that, joy by design, can only come from God. Some days though it is too deep for words that it can be mistaken for pain…

And that has always been the form and trajectory of the Christian joy. It broke out suddenly in the world in the middle of the night, where some were asleep while others made merry, and nearby, a woman soiled with blood, and her pain being followed by a star, poetry and gifts, she cuddled her new born joy ‘wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger’. And so joy became ‘God with us’, as ‘a multitude of the heavenly host’ broke out in praises…‘saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.’ This is the cup of ‘mercy promised to our fathers’ … It is the ‘knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins’, and it is the light promised ‘to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death’ - and who is become the guider of ‘our feet into the way of peace.’ So count the mercies, count the love, count the benefits, and count the promises… ‘But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life’ (Joh 4:14). And truly there is no one who can exhaust this cup! And finally isn’t this the joy which the whole world sings at the end of every year? ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.’ And this, in summation, is the source of our abundant life in Christ Jesus…and whose abundance continues up to this day finding expression in the many Bible Schools, Colleges, Universities and Seminaries, and in the various missionary works, churches, in the faith based schools and hospitals, in the faith based NGO’s and in the faith based media (Radio, TV, magazines, newspapers and book publishing).

The rest of the abundances in the world are chiefly measured in pleasure…and which is a poor substitute for joy…and this is where Satan excels in lying, stealing, killing and destroying peoples’ lives… like how the prodigal, in his quest for joy and an abundant life, would end up in bondage instead. But in contrast, his elder brother (even while being home at his father’s place!) misses his new song… and he turns out to be more lost than his prodigal brother…and while to the outside world the elder’s life might look like an abundant life…but in reality his loneliness is staggering… And so our prayer this evening is that God may open our eyes to see the differences in these things, and that our own lives might abound even more in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that, in him, our labour is not in vain.

 

 

The Joy which No Man can Take from You

And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.  Joh 16:22

Joy is not exactly happiness, but a deep contentment. Happiness is ephemeral. It shows on the face shortly before it vanishes. But joy is subtle. It operates in the heart, and it may even be felt in the blood. Joy is divine, and it is a revelation much more than a feeling. But first let us hear what others have to say on the nature of joy.

‘Joy, not grit, is the hallmark of holy obedience. We need to be light-hearted in what we do to avoid taking ourselves too seriously. It is a cheerful revolt against self and pride.’ Richard J. Foster

‘The Lord gives his people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to him.’ Dwight L. Moody.

 To pursue joy is to lose it. The only way to get it is to follow steadily the path of duty, without thinking of joy, and then, like sheep, it comes most surely unsought, and we "being in the way," the angel of God, bright-haired joy, is sure to meet us. Alexander MacLaren

Joy is distinctly a Christian word and a Christian thing. It is the reverse of happiness. Happiness is the result of what happens of an agreeable sort. Joy has its springs deep down inside. And that spring never runs dry, no matter what happens. Only Jesus gives that joy. He had joy, singing its music within, even under the shadow of the cross. S.D. Gordon

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psa 16:11  

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Galatians 5:22

If you have no joy, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere. Billy Sunday

Joy is Strength. Mother Teresa

Joy is not necessarily the absence of suffering, it is the presence of God. Sam Storms

I'm not going to get upset. I'm not going to let people steal my joy. Joel Osteen

Joy can mean different things to different people: ‘Poor food and water for dinner, a bent arm for a pillow - that is where joy resides. For me, wealth and renown without honor are nothing but drifting clouds.’ Confucius. Respect them. It gives them joy, and it steals nothing from you.

Finally it is impossible for a Christian to be truly joyful without prayer, without contentment, and without an attitude of thanksgiving.

"Prayer changes us in ways that we never thought would be possible. When we are unhappy, prayer can lift our hearts and fill it with unspeakable joy." Julia Bristol.

"When the Christian praises and gives thanks to God, this not only pleases God, but it enriches the Christian's life with joy." Rick Warren

"Joy is a choice based on being content regardless of circumstances. Understanding what encourages joy in your life can help you cultivate it and build up your resources for when circumstances are difficult." M. Ahlers

"The reality is that this is how you know if you're getting closer to God: more kindness, more gentleness, more joy, more peace, more patience." Matt Brown.

 "Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." Franklin Roosevelt

"Live for today, but hold your hands open to tomorrow. Anticipate the future and its changes with joy. There is a seed of God's love in every event, every unpleasant situation in which you may find yourself." Barbara Johnson

"Joy can be real only if people look upon their lives as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness." Leo Tolstoy

"We all have battles to fight. And it's often in those battles that we are most alive: it's on the frontlines of our lives that we earn wisdom, create joy, forge friendships, discover happiness, find love, and do purposeful work." Eric Greitens

 "There is more joy to be found in owning less than can ever be found in pursuing more. In a world that constantly tells us to buy more and more, we often lose sight of that." Joshua Becker

 And Finally One can Never Separate Joy from Loving.

"A joyful heart is the normal result of a heart burning with love." Mother Teresa. 

‘Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things… Charity never faileth.’ 1Co 13:7, 8 

Jesus’ disciples were sorrowful because they thought he was going away forever, never to be seen by them again. But he calmed their fears perfectly: ‘I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.’ And may you too be surprised today by his joy, and may it be your strength now and forever, life without end, Amen.