The Joy of the Lord

Great week teaching for UCCF, Exeter CU and some guests from Exeter New Frontiers on joy and missions, and a God-glorifying life and small groups and all kinds of stuff. Loved interacting with Relay Workers. One thing that struck me was that when we talk about the joy of the Lord - something the Bible does all over the place and in which it roots our strength and our faith - people found it hard to nail down definitions. Here are a quick three:

• The joy of the Lord is the delight that Christians have in being satisfied in the Lordship of Jesus. Phil 3:1; 4:4 “rejoice in the Lord.” puts the word “lord” in quite deliberately. Rejoice that you have a ruling, wonderful king to whom you belong. I use the word “be satisfied” quite deliberately. We have joy in the things we rejoice in. And we rejoice in the things that bring us satisfaction. The joy of the Lord is the greatest of all joy because he is the person in whom we find the greatest satisfaction for our souls, and therefore the person over whom we do the greatest rejoicing
• The joy of the Lord is a settled character trait that the Holy Spirit produces in us as we rest in Christ. Gal 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit is Love, joy… And that is especially the case as we actively believe. We reckon on our belief and act on it. So Rom 15:13 “may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” And it is even more especially the case as we hope in Heaven – that is we actively believe and act on our belief about what happens after this life. So, Romans 5:2: we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God
• The joy of the Lord is the fresh appetite we get for God when we accept that we have no righteousness of our own, but accept that Jesus Christ is all our righteousness. It overwhelms earthly appetites for food or drink or sex or success with desire for the Kingdom. (Those things aren't bad, but they become bad when they overwhelm appetite for God) Romans 14:17: the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Delight, Spirit-empowered character, appetite, hunger, desire for God, rejoicing in the righteousness of Christ. When the Psalmist cries “I am consumed with longing for you” and our hearts leap, that’s it!That’s the joy of the Lord I am talking about.

Is Christianity All About Being Religious?

Here is the link to the audio of my lunchtime talk to students at Cambridge a couple of weeks ago

Is Christianity All About Being Religious?

A Pretence of Religion

Here is the audio of last night's sermon on Malachi 2:17-3:5, the covenant broken through injustice

Malachi 2:17-3:5 The Covenant Broken Through Injustice

The Lord's Prayer

Here is the audio of last Sunday's message on the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6

The Lord's Prayer

The Wife Says .......

Marcus has been trying to persuade his wife to create a blog entitled "the wife says .....".  However, she is not quite so sure it's a great idea, particularly as her husband seems to be addicted to all things blog.

However, since he's had a week off from the blog thanks to a few days holiday with his wife, she thought she would give him a one off birthday present and write one entry.

So the wife says .....

She doesn't blog, because she has nothing worthwhile to say in the realm of theological wisdom!

However the wife's top tip for today is:

Make sure your husband at least attempts to keep up with his admin, rather than finding other more exciting things to do.