Joy is Jesus! Spill it!!

Sunday Morning Reflections!

The last few days in my morning readings have been centered around three verses from the Bible.

John 15: 11..."That my joy might remain in you and that your      
                      joy might be full."
I Peter 1:16... "You shall be holy, for I am holy."
John 7:38......"He that believes in Me.. out of him shall flow..."

Through the course of my life people have asked me...."What makes you so happy?"
or "Where do you get such peace in your life?"  And I usually respond with "from Jesus Christ".

But after reading these last few days I'm realizing something that maybe you haven't thought about either.  Jesus didn't get his joy from God... He got his joy in surrendering his will to his Father's... in doing what God sent him to do. And Jesus wants us to have the same joy that he has.  Can my joy be full then, if I'm not doing what God sent me to do here on this earth?

That joy stems from growing into a deeper understanding of who God is.   Oswald Chambers puts it this way- "The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external happenings, not in seeing God's Work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had."

I've never even thought about being capable of having that close of communion with him..."to have the same communion with God that Jesus had?"  That seems impossible... and yet I Peter says.. "that we shall be holy because He is holy".  We strive and strive
to be Liked, to be Happy, to have a nice House, to drive a nice Car, to read our Bible every day, to have a great Job, to go to Church every Sunday, to make the right Friends, etc...and while there is nothing wrong with those things... do we EVER strive to be HOLY???  That sounds a bit egotistical, doesn't it?   Is our destiny happiness or holiness?  This isn't man's idea... but our Father's intended goal for our lives; to be holy for He is holy... and we are to be like Him.

Growing up I always used to asked.. "I wonder what God's will is for my life?"  Sure, I was thinking of what I was supposed to do, who I would marry, where to go to college.. all those normal things we wonder about what God has for us.... BUT... I wasn't really thinking about HIS will for my life but what my lot in life would be.

His will is clear... and Chambers puts it like this." His purpose is not the development of a man; His purpose is to make a man exactly like Himself, and the characteristic of the Son of God is Self-expenditure."   WHOA!

"If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we Gain, but what He pours through us that counts.  It is not that God makes us beautifully rounded grapes, but that He squeezes the sweetness out of us--to others.  Spiritually, we can't measure our life by success, but only by what God pours through us, and we cannot measure that at all...."

"God is not an eternal blessing machine;  He did not come to save men out of pity;  He came to save men because He had created them to be holy." (read that again)

Or better yet... make it personal... He came to save You (me) because He created You (me) to be holy.  OK... That's a bit of spiritual pressure in my mind and heart.  How does that effect you?  I've been a believer for 53 years and I'm not even close to this kind of holiness in my life.  Why not?  Maybe because I don't think the way the Lord wants me to think.... I think the way the World wants me to think.   You know what I'm talking about, right?  Where is our focus?  Really?

Again from Chambers: "Our Lord is carried beyond Himself with joy when He sees any of us doing what Mary did, ( pouring out expensive oil upon Jesus... "an extravagant act of devotion") not being set on this or that economy, but being abandoned to Him.  God spilled the life of His Son that the world might be saved; are we prepared to spill out our lives for Him???"

Would we rather have it all and not know God's holiness and joy or have his holiness and not "have it all"?  Sort of reminds me of the rich young ruler story when he asked Jesus what he must do to be saved....What must or should we do?

"He that believes in Me out of him shall flow rivers of living water"---so hundreds of other lives will be continually refreshed.   It is time now to break the life...(my life) to cease craving for satisfaction and to spill the thing out.  Our Lord is asking who of us will do it for Hm?

 Nike says Just Do It!   Our Lord says... Just Spill It! 

And when you spill it... others are refreshed in Christ and will come to 

know him and then they too will spill out for Him... and on and on! 

Happy Spilling and Splashing!

As I finish writing just now... the little birds are just splashing away in the

water spilled out for them this morning in the bird bath...

 Let's spill out Jesus to 

others so that they can be refreshed and come to know Him deeply, too!

And I pray that each of us will grow into holiness... 

It is what He wants for us...to have true joy!  

love,

margie