THE FIGHT!!!

Sometimes, life sucks!!! Plain and simple... there are days where crap happens and it is so easy to let those situations rob us of one of the things that the Bible mentions as a point of strength. Nehemiah 8:10b says "Do not grieve, FOR THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH." (emphasis added...) Let me take a moment here, to give some context so you don't think that my battle is against grief, because it's not... In the book of Nehemiah, the Israelites had just come back to Jerusalem and they had found the city in shambles and and they had finally had a chance to gather together for a reading of the Word of the LORD and after the word had been read, they started weeping... Seems like an odd reaction, but I think they were realizing the greatness of God's love and their failure to live in a covenant with Him and that is a lot to take in, but either way their grief was misdirected and so Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites tell the people that they ought to celebrate and not mourn because God had redeemed them once more and HIS joy would be their strength... Mourning when in a proper context is a beautiful and healing thing... But that is not what this post is about... This post is about THE JOY OF THE LORD!!!

SO back to what I was saying... As humans we find ourselves locked in this battle, between weeping and laughter, between joy and sorrow... Again, weeping and sorrow are also Biblical, but I live in a place where the the enemy has had too much time given to him to steal the joy of the people here. I have been learning more about the Khmer Rouge (if you don't know what the Khmer Rouge was please leave this blog and look it up right now) and I have been faced with this giant tragedy which took the lives of anywhere up to 3,000,000 people in a 3 year, 8 month, and 20 day time span... I have gone to the prison where people were mercilessly tortured and the field where they were taken to be beat to death and it is sad... I have mourned the loss of these lives and I would encourage you to do the same, but WE CAN'T STOP AT MOURNING!!! WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN JOY and I think it is about time to BRING THE JOY OF THE LORD TO THIS TIRED AND DYING WORLD!!! This past week I had many reasons not to be joyful and I can't honestly tell you that I was joyful... I missed one of my best friend's wedding (Grant and Molly Newman's) and it really bummed me out... I know that might sound like a small thing, but in a place where there are so many giant things happening, sometimes it just takes one small thing to throw everything out of whack... And thus I was confronted with the reality of this battle...

This can happen, that can happen, there are heaps of things that can go wrong on any given day... It would be so much easier to just lay down and take each punch right... but I say SCREW THAT!!!  JESUS DIDN'T COME TO REDEEM US SO THAT WE COULD LET the devil STEAL OUR JOY!!! WE HAVE BEEN SET FREE!!! But I am learning that joy and freedom are things that must be chosen... All aspects of life are dictated by choice... Our ability to make choices is one of our defining characteristics as humans... So why do we often choose sadness over joy? Why do we so often choose captivity and slavery over freedom? I think that many of us, even though we hat to admit it, are afraid of being free because with freedom comes responsibility... because in admitting that these things re a choice, if we are not experiencing freedom, or are not joyful, it comes back to us... A great price has been paid for us, Jesus Christ offered up His life and suffered because of the joy set before Him, and we are given the option of receiving this gift, or denying it... The choice is, and always has been ours...

The Bible talks about the relationship of the church and Christ as that of a shepherd and his sheep, and I am just stuck with this picture of Jesus beckoning us to come and see the wonderful pastures that exist outside of the pen that we have been living in, but we are too afraid to follow Him... He wants us to experience what we once thought was impossible, but now is made possible through the power of the Holy Spirit, oven freely to all who receive...

So, this is my call to arms, EMBRACE THE FREEDOM GIVEN BY OUR WONDERFUL FATHER!!! ABIDE IN HIS LOVE WHICH COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS!!! TAKE HEART AND FIND STRENGTH IN HIS JOY!!! 

FOR HE IS GOOD!!!

Now, just to clarify once more, this is NOT saying that we can't ever mourn or that sadness is at all anti God in any way!!! There are moments where we see that Christ wept and mourned, and that is perfectly good, pain is real, BUT SO IS HOPE!!! And that is the point!!! Joy is real, freedom is real, and hope is real!!! I am not trying to encourage you to be an energizer bunny Christian that just keeps going and going and going and never stops to allow the things in life to affect them, but I am encouraging us all to keep pushing through the pain to find the joy on the other side!!! Sometimes I have been known to say "CHOOSE JOY!" to my mom, and I have said it so many times and now she uses it against me when I get upset, but the point is that we can choose joy!!! I encourage you to take some time and evaluate areas of your life where you have let the devil steal your joy and CLAIM FREEDOM IN CHRIST AND CHOOSE TO RECLAIM THE JOY HE HAS GIVEN YOU!!! DON'T LET the devil STEAL YOUR JOY!!! 

BE FREE!!!

 FOR HE HAS SET YOU FREE!!!