Dear friends,
I pray that you are well in body, soul, and spirit. In meditating and praying this morning I was reminded of this sentence: The joy of the Lord is my strength. What does this mean to you? I can remember many years ago singing the little chorus whose only lines were this sentence. I had a pastor once who chided the congregation with "If you have the joy of the Lord, you need to tell your face!" It's sad, but true that many of the faces in the church do not radiate the joy of the Lord. Do people want what you've got or are they afraid they'll catch what you've got? If you'll indulge me this morning I would like to share a few thoughts on joy.
The Joy of the Lord is your Strength.
Let's analyze this sentence for a moment. I've found it helpful to diagram it like we used to in fifth and sixth grade. "The" is an article modifying "joy". "Joy" is the subject. It means to rejoice and be glad." "Of the Lord" is a prepositional phrase modifying "joy". It tells whose joy it is. It is the Lord's joy. "Is" is a linking verb and in this case equates "joy" with "strength" which is a predicate nominative. That means the subject, joy, is equivalent to strength. "Your" is a possessive pronoun used as an adjective telling whose strength. So let me simplify it by writing it this way: The Lord's joy equals or is my strength. Strength in the Hebrew means "fortified place". Think about that. His joy is my place of security, safety, and protection.
The psalmist writes ,In thy presence there is fullness of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore." As I have said on a number of occasions that according to Paul that is our position. It may be that our condition doesn't always line up with our position, but it should increasingly do so. There is fullness of joy in His presence because the Lord is joyful. He is not up in heaven looking down with a fly swatter waiting for you to mess up. You are not a child of wrath; you are in Christ. If you are in Christ and Christ is joyful then how ought we to be?
As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
If Jesus' joy remains in you your joy is full. If we walk in sadness then it might be that our joy tank is empty. So how do we get our joy tanks filled? We might ask another question, "How is your love life?" This may be an over simplification, but the key to your joy tank being full is abiding and walking in His love. Some of you can relate to this. Think back to when you fell in love. Were your steps a little lighter, the skies a little brighter and an overflow of joy in your heart. Could it be that what had happened in the Ephesian church in Revelation that they lost their joy. As the old song goes they lost "that loving feeling." They were faithful, they were still doing the stuff, but Jesus said they had left their first love. Had they lost that passion of young love? Were they operating with empty joy tanks?
God has not called us to sadness, but to joy. When the birth of Jesus was announced the angels heralded, "We bring you glad tidings of great joy!" The kingdom of God is not eating or drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you look up the word wickedness in the Strong's you will find it is a very broad term and one of the definitions is actually prolonged sadness. There may be times when weeping endures for a night, but we are not to live there for extended periods of time.
Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies...Deut. 28:47,48a
They were cursed because they did not serve the Lord with joy. In the new covenant we have been delivered from the curse, but we still give the enemy access if we do not appropriate His provision. I know myself that there have been times when I allowed the weight of ministry to bring me low, and it was in those times that I took my eyes off the lover of my soul and focused on the problem. There was a season in my life that I lapsed into the idolatry of worshipping at the altars of disappointment. If our joy tank is empty we lose our protection. There was a season when I was extremely sensitive to my immune system. When I was full of joy in the Holy Spirit, I felt I could have walked through a den of disease, breathed diseased air or drink contaminated water and nothing would jump on me, because the Lord's joy was my fortified place. There were other times when I was angry, frustrated, or depressed that I felt my body's immunity was at the same level my joy tank was and I could feel my susceptibility. The enemy knows when to pounce.
Abide in His love and His joy will remain in us and our joy will be full. The Lord's joy is your place of safety. He loves you, so much.
Blessings,
Herb Dean
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The God of Resurrection
Dear friends,
I pray you all had a glorious Resurrection Day and that you are experiencing His life in you. I'd like to share a word of encouragement with you this morning. We have all had dreams and visions that have died. Some are so dead that we may have given up any hope or possibility of them coming to pass. As I was praying in preparation for my message this past Sunday, I felt strongly impressed of the Lord that He was resurrecting dreams and visions in the lives of His servants. Is there a dream that you have had that has died. If so, this word may be for you. These words were quickened in my spirit, "Remember Joseph."
The dream of every Hebrew girl was to be a wife and mother. Barrenness was considered a curse and a shame. When Sarai married Abram, I am sure that having children was her dream and expectation. Many years passed. Her husband responded to the call of God and obediently followed God's direction away from the house of his father. Later Abram would enter into covenant with God and God changed his and Sarai's names. God gave Abraham great promises concerning his descendants when he as yet had no child.
When the promise tarried Sarah tried to bring the fulfillment of God's promise through her handmaiden, Hagar and indeed a child was born, but he (Ishmael) was a product of the flesh and would bring grief to her. Trying to fulfill's God's plan man's way reduces our faith to dead religion. Approximately 24 years after the promise of a son God visited them. When God reiterated His promise to them Sarah laughed within herself. She did not laugh out loud, but still God asked the question," Why did Sarah laugh?" He also asked another question, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" What is our answer to Him? Circumstantially speaking, they were old. Not only were they old, but Paul makes it pretty clear in Romans that medically speaking, child-bearing for them was an impossibility.
And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Romans 4:19
It sounds like Abraham was impotent and Sarah had already gone through menopause. It was impossible for her to conceive, but God resurrected her womb and made Abraham alive as well. In fact, we know Abraham went on to father other children after Sarah was gone. Abraham was 100 and Sarah about 90 when Isaac was born. Look at what Sarah said when he was born: "God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me." Laughter was a sign of joy. In Psalms 126 it says: When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Sarah was joyful and when people heard about what God had done, it made them joyful, too.
I wish I could look back and see what Joseph must have been thinking at the different stops along the way. Did his faith waver when he was in a pit, probably hearing his brothers talking about killing him? Did his dream die when he was tied to a camel on the way to Egypt to be sold as a slave. What must he have thought as he was being auctioned off? What about when he was arrested and thrown in jail? What did he think after the butler forgot him and he languished in jail for another two years. I don't know what he was thinking, I only know how I may have responded. His dreams were dead, but at God's appointed time they were fulfilled. At God's set time Isaac was born. At David's worst moment, he was days from being king of Judah. I know I have shared these things before, but I believe there is a set time coming for many of you.
There are many concerned about our nation because we have forsaken God and they believe we are headed for bondage and judgement. They might ask," How can we be successful with things like they are?" Don't you find it encouraging that as slaves in the most powerful empires of their day that Joseph and Daniel both ascended to high levels of leadership in pagan cultures? We have a future and a hope. There is nothing too hard for the Lord.
Do you have God-given dreams that have died? Our God is the God of resurrection. Jesus said, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." Our hope is in Him. Is anything too hard for the Lord? For promotion comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, but God is the judge; He puts down one and exalts another. Psalms 75:6,7
Be blessed,
Herb Dean
I pray you all had a glorious Resurrection Day and that you are experiencing His life in you. I'd like to share a word of encouragement with you this morning. We have all had dreams and visions that have died. Some are so dead that we may have given up any hope or possibility of them coming to pass. As I was praying in preparation for my message this past Sunday, I felt strongly impressed of the Lord that He was resurrecting dreams and visions in the lives of His servants. Is there a dream that you have had that has died. If so, this word may be for you. These words were quickened in my spirit, "Remember Joseph."
The dream of every Hebrew girl was to be a wife and mother. Barrenness was considered a curse and a shame. When Sarai married Abram, I am sure that having children was her dream and expectation. Many years passed. Her husband responded to the call of God and obediently followed God's direction away from the house of his father. Later Abram would enter into covenant with God and God changed his and Sarai's names. God gave Abraham great promises concerning his descendants when he as yet had no child.
When the promise tarried Sarah tried to bring the fulfillment of God's promise through her handmaiden, Hagar and indeed a child was born, but he (Ishmael) was a product of the flesh and would bring grief to her. Trying to fulfill's God's plan man's way reduces our faith to dead religion. Approximately 24 years after the promise of a son God visited them. When God reiterated His promise to them Sarah laughed within herself. She did not laugh out loud, but still God asked the question," Why did Sarah laugh?" He also asked another question, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" What is our answer to Him? Circumstantially speaking, they were old. Not only were they old, but Paul makes it pretty clear in Romans that medically speaking, child-bearing for them was an impossibility.
And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Romans 4:19
It sounds like Abraham was impotent and Sarah had already gone through menopause. It was impossible for her to conceive, but God resurrected her womb and made Abraham alive as well. In fact, we know Abraham went on to father other children after Sarah was gone. Abraham was 100 and Sarah about 90 when Isaac was born. Look at what Sarah said when he was born: "God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me." Laughter was a sign of joy. In Psalms 126 it says: When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Sarah was joyful and when people heard about what God had done, it made them joyful, too.
I wish I could look back and see what Joseph must have been thinking at the different stops along the way. Did his faith waver when he was in a pit, probably hearing his brothers talking about killing him? Did his dream die when he was tied to a camel on the way to Egypt to be sold as a slave. What must he have thought as he was being auctioned off? What about when he was arrested and thrown in jail? What did he think after the butler forgot him and he languished in jail for another two years. I don't know what he was thinking, I only know how I may have responded. His dreams were dead, but at God's appointed time they were fulfilled. At God's set time Isaac was born. At David's worst moment, he was days from being king of Judah. I know I have shared these things before, but I believe there is a set time coming for many of you.
There are many concerned about our nation because we have forsaken God and they believe we are headed for bondage and judgement. They might ask," How can we be successful with things like they are?" Don't you find it encouraging that as slaves in the most powerful empires of their day that Joseph and Daniel both ascended to high levels of leadership in pagan cultures? We have a future and a hope. There is nothing too hard for the Lord.
Do you have God-given dreams that have died? Our God is the God of resurrection. Jesus said, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." Our hope is in Him. Is anything too hard for the Lord? For promotion comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, but God is the judge; He puts down one and exalts another. Psalms 75:6,7
Be blessed,
Herb Dean
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