4th Quarter in the Game (poem)

Ok, the big game has come and gone. As with any big game, the build-up to game day is longer than the game itself. Then, in a flash, the climaxes, especially those exhilarating ones in the 4th quarter, are over …gone, done, a quickly fading memory.

Similarly, the game of life has what should be an exciting 4^th quarter; replete with exciting climaxes to a life well lived.

Are you approaching or perhaps already in the 4^th quarter of your life’s game? Then join me in counting your blessings, considering the millions who never experience walking this part of our trail.  

As in a sporting game, the first 3 quarters of our lives have been the build-up to this 4^th quarter, anticipating a myriad of climaxes, much like the glorious heights reached by exploding fireworks. Suddenly, they burst on the scene, ‘exploding’ in all their glory… retirement parties, grandchildren, long-delayed professional recognitions and send-offs, and the launch of retirement dreams, peaceful times away from the world of work, time to pursue a hobby, etc. As fast as they exploded, it may seem the bursts of glory are too quickly over. Then what?

Like a parent watching a race in which his/her child is running, I imagine God watches to see us cross the line that begins our 4^th quarter. I believe He wants the world, your spectators, to see and to know what He already knows, namely how well you will finish the race that has been set before you! Will it be ho-hum, with more of the same stuff you tolerated and dished out to people during the first 3 quarters, or an invitation to Him into previously closed-off areas of your life, to do something significantly different and glorious …for eternal benefit? He already knows what you and others will come to know as each day unfolds.

Many people staunchly reject the very notion of changing gears or tracks, and getting on a more contemplative/reflective/service-oriented track during any quarter in their lives. Rather than embrace an awaiting 4^th quarter, perhaps they live an extended 3^rd quarter experience, continuing their push to increase their bottom line moneywise, working for ‘things that do not satisfy [or last]’ (Isaiah 55:2) until a debilitation sets in that prohibits their further push, or until their departure from this life.

While pondering the blessing of my own 4^th quarter experience, it became clear what we may call the 4^th quarter of life is really the end of the 3^rd quarter of God’s design for life. The 2^nd and 3^rd quarters are life in vitro, followed by life on earth. These experiences are sandwiched between the 1^st and 4^th quarter of His design, namely a pre- and post-eternity experience. Sounds odd? The Bible refers to God as ‘the Father of all spirits’ (Hebrews 12:9), from whom all human spirits come and to whom they certainly shall return.

Toward the end of the 3^rd quarter, a good coach carefully reassesses and adjusts the team’s line-up and tactics to enhance its chances for a winning 4^th quarter. If you are blessed to reach this far in the game of life, rest assured great Grace has been extended to you for this exact purpose. I hope you will join me in recognizing, and will not squander this tremendous opportunity.

Psalm 138:8 reports, ‘The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.’ Could much of this perfecting work possibly occur in our 4^th quarter of life, especially if we have spent much of the first 3 quarters pursuing what Jesus called mammon, and dealing with the steady onset of cares of this world? If so, the 4^th quarter should see our greater availability for Him to complete this perfecting work. Otherwise, I wonder if Heaven may have the equivalent of ‘make up’ classes’. ;o)

Here are some good tips from a wise man on the run-up to your 4^th quarter. As you read, consider what if we failed to follow his wise advice during the first 3 quarters of life?

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come,
And the years draw near when you say,

‘I have no pleasure in them’:

While the sun and the light,

The moon and the stars, are not darkened,
And the clouds do not return after the rain.

Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed,
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave (fathered) it.

(Solomon, Ecclesiastes 12)

One of my 4th quarter wishes:

Someone is being encouraged (by me).

Someone is being helped.

Someone is being urged,

To tighten his/her spiritual belt.

Our Lie-Stained Life

By and large, we earthlings (especially we Americans) are living a lie-stained life, having opened wide and swallowed the devil's lie that ‘life is all about money!’ 

Consider the depth and the far-reaching implications and the price of believing this lie.  Going with the cultural currents and worshiping at the devil's money alter, we:

-Abort unborn babies

-Beggar our neighbors

-Rob graves of the dead

-Steal the tithe from God

-Cheat governments of taxes owed

-Promote wars for the sake of profit

-Orphan and sell our children's bodies

-Steal and sell body organs, even our own

-Borrow and finagle ways to avoid repaying

-Lie, cheat, steal and scheme our way through life

-'Shack-up' and refuse marriage over the fear of money loss

-Distort our paths, accepting do anything/go anywhere jobs

-Sell armaments to the highest bidder, ignoring the intended uses

…and the list goes on, and on, and on, with each generation finding ever more cleaver ways to … sin for the sake of money.

This stain is so deep and its implications so pervasive that we have practically squeezed all the 'life' out of life.  We have become like 'dead men/women walking', indiscriminately marching to the beat of m-o-n-e-y.  Both by example and urgings, we prompt our children early to board the money-hungry train, warping every decision of their lives around the money pole. 

Our push for money isn’t really all about money, per se, but about things money can obtain.  Money essentially offers the potential to purchase things tangible and intangible.  World economies are largely based on the assumption of infinite growth in production and consumption, mostly of consumer and military goods, thus massive consumerism and war mongering are considered ‘good for the economy’!

The taproot of our lie-stained, money-for-things-driven life style is the spirit of covetousness.  Consider the pressures you have personally experienced from intense (sometimes inexplicable) desire for some things, and the pressures from the threats/fears of not having necessary things.  These pressures are the direct manifestation of the spirit of covetousness.  The well-disguised root of covetousness easily triggers these pressures that can and do seed a wide range of emotions (both positive and negative), thoughts, words and actions.  Given this, it is clear the spirit of covetousness is a major ‘mover and shaker’ in our world.  No wonder satan and his crew have worked tirelessly to convince us covetousness is only about desiring other people’s stuff!  Cleaver but dead wrong!

Given the ease with which we are deceived, would it help to have a ready gauge to determine when this spirit is operating and when you have unknowingly fallen into its powerful grip?  Like you, I have struggled both to recognize this spirit and to free myself from its grip.  The rapidity of change in ‘the latest/greatest whatever’ (be it fashions, cars, tech gadgets, fads, games, movies, productivity aids, etc.), working in conjunction with the increasing income/wealth imbalances in our world, effectively assures the roots of covetousness will be increasingly fruitful in our world!     

Thankfully, Jesus gave us both a clear warning of, and the escape route from the vise-like grip of the spirit of covetousness:

Warning:  And He said to them, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses." (Luke 12:15)

Escape route: [Recognize/know that] …your Father knows you need …things.  Seek first the kingdom of God, and ...things shall be added to you. Give and it will be given to you.  Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Luke 12:32, 6:38; Hebrews 13:5)

Here’s a helpful handle to grab and hold onto this escape route:

                              M-ammon [for things]

                              O-ught

                              N-ever

                              E-dge-out (as in replace)

                              Y-ahweh!

I attest this escape route really works and works well!  The spirit of covetousness and the Spirit of Giving are opposites, and they cancel out the effects of each other.  Whenever you’re caught in the trap and grip of covetousness, quick-quick, find something worthwhile to give to somebody!  Do this, and repeat as often as necessary, and that ole spirit will high-tail it out of your life!  Why does this work?  Giving in the very face of your need or desire is an absolutely great way to usher in the presence and power of God into situations, and to demonstrate your trust in Him to meet your needs and also to give you the desires of your heart, as you rest on His Word.  This is like taking a spiritual sledge hammer to the spirit of covetousness and its works.  Try it; have fun with it; let me know how it works for you!  

Quite simply, this is faith in action -- trusting God for things accessible and inaccessible with money.  As if to really get our attention, the admonition to live by faith is reiterated four times in The Bible!

Faith -- the currency of Heaven’s economic system on earth.

Study it well.  Learn to ‘LIVE by it’…really!

I Love How You Love Me (Poem)

Remember this song? 

Easily, the title of this song is something we would all like to say to that special someone who loves us… romantically.  We all love to be loved. We all need other kinds of love as well.  But consider this: To whom in your life can and would you honestly say, apart from romance, “I love how you love me”?  The notion of love has been so hijacked that we hardly/reluctantly think ‘it’s love’ apart from romance.  What a narrow perspective. Like you, I’ve been guilty of it as well.

If your answer to this question is, “No one.”, consider this: Whom can you practice loving, apart from romance, to the point where that person might one day say to you, “I love how you love me”, or something equivalent?  Got the picture?  Now find that person and get to work.  Consider starting with Jesus, then find another, and another…

~~~

No one but Jesus loves us more, better and longer.

Living closer to Him, our love grows stronger.

“I love how You love me!”

But here's a novel idea, the truth about the matter:

He longs to sing to you, and overcome the clatter,

And in His singing, all your fears completely shatter.

“(Your name), I love you. I love how you believe,

How you cling to Me, and from My Word receive.

I love how you love Me!”

But if your lifestyle is currently such

That you can’t hear Him singing so much,

‘I love how you love Me!’

He's sent this note to you to say, through me,

“Cheer up, there’s still time and opportunity.

 I want to love how you love Me!

“If you embrace Me with all your heart, mind and life force,

A mutually satisfying love we’ll have, of course!

Oh how I want to love how you love Me!”

As Long as I Abide (poem)

When reading and hearing about the many great promises God has made to us who accept Jesus as His offering for sin, is your initial inclination to ‘Grab and go!’ – that is to embrace and accept the promise, and then run with it, forgetting the small conditional phrase ingrained into each promise – ‘…if you abide’? If so, I am in your good company!

Abide: continuing in a particular condition, attitude, relationship, etc. I have been pondering this a small word to understand what it may mean in the context of life today. This word appears in the Gospel of John 17 times, 10 (60%) of which occur during the most passionate, private moments Jesus had with His 11 faithful disciples. With such an emphasis on this one word, I wonder what these disciples may have heard, what might they have imagined this meant given the socio-cultural context in which they lived. More importantly, what does and should it mean to us in our world today, especially with so many things vigorously competing for the attention of our minds, hearts and bodies 24 hours a day?

To get the point across, Jesus used the example of a grape vine and its many branches that can only produce grapes as long as their connection to the vine remains unbroken or undamaged. This was a familiar and visual example for His audience (even to the fishermen), but may not be as familiar with us who may not have experience in grape orchards. On one extreme, we might interpret this to mean seeing just about everything we experience ‘through the lens’ of Scripture – perhaps not a bad idea if you can do it … sustainably. I cannot! On the other extreme, we may easily be tempted to ‘throw in the towel’ from trying to understand and apply a realistic/practical meaning of this word to our lifestyles today.

So what does abiding look like, practically speaking? Do the meaning and intent of this word flex with culture? Is the interpretation monolithic or individualized? Since we humans think in pictures, what images come to your mind when considering the oft-repeated instruction to ‘abide’? Whatever it means, clearly these questions are worth pondering since only as we abide:

• Are God’s promises made effectual and full in our lives (Psalm 91:1);
• Do we become fruitful for the Kingdom (John 15:4-5); and
• Does God answer our prayers according to His will (John 15:7).

Ergo, when we cease to abide, the effective reach and impact of these promises may be significantly blunted or blocked altogether (unless Grace intervenes); we lose the opportunity to be fruitful for The Kingdom; and our prayers are hindered or unanswered. 

Yep, I conclude this tiny word, ‘abide’, packs a powerful wallop! Would you agree?

Here is a possible way to increase the volume on this soft-spoken, inherent condition of God’s promises. With every reading or hearing of a relevant promise, consider inserting into your understanding this phrase or one of its many variants: 

"as long as I abide".

Variants include: as I abide, when I abide, if I abide, because I abide, since I abide, due to my abiding, while abiding, etc.

Abiding enables us to remain on, and in the equivalent of God's private property or territory, whereas ceasing to abide in Him immediately puts us onto/into our enemy's property or territory. Other words for abide include 'dwell' (Psalm 91), ‘stand’ (Ephesians 6:14), and ‘stand fast’ (Galatians 5:1). Do you know others?

~~~

Though God loves one-and-all un-conditionally,
His promises are not un-conditional, so we see!
They have an embedded condition, spoken softly,
Whose volume will increase when on our knee.

He doesn't have security fences electrified
To teach us in His territory to abide.
Nor does He use even one simple lock
Our desire to leave His abode to block.

He must put baby Christians in sort of a crib,
And feed them The Word with a spiritual bib.
An older, bibbed Christian sucking on milk 
Will be very easy prey for satan to bilk!

Without meat he’ll have insufficient spiritual energy
To achieve necessary heart-mind-and-body synergy. 
Abiding requires a mature, disciplined heart and mind--
Someone whose eyes, satan's lies can't so easily blind.  

Whenever we step into the spotlight of pride,
Right then and there, we've ceased to abide. *
But in so many areas of our spiritual walk
We can’t see so clearly with eyes like a hawk.

Calendars, notes, alarms -- all sorts of reminders
To help us remember our time not to squander.
Avoiding consequences of wrong directions we’re sliding
Requires a clear signal of when we’ve stopped abiding.

Here is the quick way we're all inspected
To see if our abiding has been infected.
Clearly and loudly God’s message it'll convey: 
‘Abide is the other side of My word … OBEY!’

—————

* The Lord allows only ONE exception on the matter of pride. In Jeremiah 9:23-24, He authorizes us to ‘glory in’ knowing Him, and that He is in the Earth exercising Grace, Judgment and Righteousness. This is my favorite Bible passage, about which I write extensively, from various perspectives. For more on it, search for these verses. Look up the verb, to glory, in quality dictionaries. 

The Reluctant Judge (poem)

Jesus loves us. God, Himself, IS Love. God, who is Spirit, has turned over all things in and under Heaven, to His Son, Jesus (Luke 10:22). He planted Himself as a Seed in Mary’s womb, to grow into a mortal human body that would be sacrificially slain, to pay the price He declared, for our sins. Now, as a resurrected, immortal Man, He has returned to The God-head (yes, there is an immortal human being in the Holy Trinity!), seated on ‘the Throne (singular) of God and of The Lamb.’ 

One of the things delegated to Him, is judgment. (John 5:22)

Can you imagine how much of a challenge it would be for Love, Himself, to judge those whom He totally and absolutely loves, eternally? Both Father God and Jesus, The Lord God, must be extremely Reluctant Judges. How do I reach this conclusion? Just open your eyes and review not only human history, but also current affairs in our world. Consider the following highly reliable trend, one you yourself may have gotten caught up into. I know I have. 

People who have been given and who received God's gift of righteousness moan and wail to God against the wicked -- the unrighteous, pleading for God to

‘Do something!’ Like David and other psalmists, we long for the day when folks’  righteous judgment will manifest, and they will be 'out of our hair'. Psalm 58:10 goes much further; ‘The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they dip their feet in the blood of the wicked.’ I'm not sure about you, but this certainly isn't one of my wishes. In many places, The Bible even promises the righteous will see the unrighteous receive their FINAL judgment! *

Alas, we have totally forgotten one little, highly pertinent fact:

We, the righteous, were once numbered 

among them, the unrighteous!

God extended to us the richness of His Grace and Mercy when we, likewise, did not deserve it. And we embraced it! But how long did it take you to embrace it? Would you be willing for God to extend to the current unrighteous among us, the exact same degree and number of years to reject His Grace and Mercy? This is hardly a question we are brought to ponder when horrible breaking news reports are daily flashed across our screens and minds. 

The good news: God is willing to go even much further than that, and to give the most desperately wicked even more time to repent! He and Jesus are truly Reluctant Judges. James 2:13 staunchly affirms, 'Mercy trumps justice'. But judge They do, and will continue to do, through Jesus, once a person's, people's or nation's 'cup of iniquity' is filled, and their allotment of Grace and Mercy has been exhausted.

Considering the other side of the coin, their reluctance to judge means the world needs to have sufficient 'shock absorbers' to handle the iterative and horrible sins of extremely wicked people, while Grace and Mercy are being extended, and are at work in their hearts and lives. Does the concept of 'shock absorbers' sound unusual? If this characterization is appropriate, what pray tell, are the 'shock absorbers?' I believe they are the hearts/spirits and actual lives of:

a. People who are spiritually troubled (John 14:1); 

b. People whose physical hearts fail them (heart attacks) in the face of the direct and indirect impacts of wickedness (Luke 21:26);

c. People who suffer as the collateral damages of wickedness; and especially 

d. The Lord’s born-again saints who diligently pray for the wicked to wake-up spiritually, and embrace Jesus as their Lord and Savior!  

Consider the unique case of the ancient Jewish King Manasseh, son of King Hezekiah. During his wicked years, Manasseh had many innocents killed, and Isaiah, The Lord’s prophet, sawn in half – a fact Isaiah reportedly prophesied to King Hezekiah when Manasseh was a young child. Yet Manasseh subsequently repented and served God until his death. Having 'absorbed the shocks' of this king's evil rule, Isaiah, other innocents, and their murderer are now friendly neighbors in Heaven! Imagine such a work of Grace and Mercy!

Ok, before you return to your customary moaning and wailing about the God judging the wicked (and return you will because it is our nature), consider the people who absorbed the many shocks your own pre-Grace life had on the world...the hearts and lives of people stained, crippled and destroyed, spiritually or physically, by your sins.  I find this to be quite humbling.

Yep, Mercy truly does triumph and excel over Justice!
 
Once a Heavenly judgment sentence is passed, Jesus directs His angels to remove their spiritual protections from around the guilty who have staunchly rejected Grace and Mercy. This flings the door wide open for any and all devilish spirits to finish off the wicked, as we, the righteous, stand by to wait, watch, whine and wonder about that which is unfolding …right under our noses.
 

We say, ‘Judgment delayed is justice denied.’
God says, ‘Not so long as Grace and Mercy abide.’
The wicked say, ‘Begone! With my life I'm satisfied!’
I say, ‘Thank God, these twins sure saved my hide!’

When next you wonder why justice hasn't found the wicked,
And revenge come to us who in God's Books are listed,
Remember, judgment delayed is not justice forgotten.
From judgment delayed, nouveau righteous may be begotten!

—————

* See: Psalm 107:42, 56:2 and 91: 8, Proverbs 29:16, and especially Isaiah 66:24, picturing them as alive, fully sentient, immortal humans, writhing in eternal anguish in The Lord’s brimstone-lit lake of fire! Re. Isaiah, In Isaiah’s day, folks had no notions of the modern day expressions, zombies and the ‘un-dead’. Thus, to convey this notion, in the prophecy given to Isiah, The Lord used the expression, ‘…their worm does not die’. As if to correct the misinterpretation that Isaiah 66:24 meant people in the lake of fire will be DEAD, rather than ETERNALLY ALIVE, The Lord, in Matthew and Luke, 5 times repeated the expression, ‘There (in the lake of fire) will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ HEY, physically dead people don’t weep and gnash their teeth!!!!!!!

Give ‘em Faith and Time (Poem)

Here's a companion rhyme to the post,

Dancing on the Feeling Ceiling

Could there be somewhere between Heaven ‘n Earth,

Answers to prayers to which you never gave birth?

Prayers you prayed earnestly in times of need,

‘D-o-A’ due to instructions you failed to heed?

Instructions in Mark 11: 23–26 that Jesus laid out;

You know: ‘Have faith, forgive, speak and don’t doubt.’

Then there’s a really critical one to add to this list--

‘Believe you receive when you pray’; these are the gist.

Just between you and me, here’s one thing I’ll admit:

It’s usually the latter two that put me in a fix!

Perhaps we all may need help to find faith unwavering,

‘Believe we receive when we pray’ – Umm, how baffling!

So that our joy may be full, Jesus said, ‘Ask, then receive,

For only in My presence to full joy will you cleave.’

So be sure to fill-up regularly with this joy unspeakable,

Ensuring your faith to receive doesn’t become incapable.

If the black domino in this picture is God’s answer when you pray,

What role in this scenario could white, falling dominoes play?

These are precursors to your answer from God, you to bless.

Pre-conditions His angels must arrange, the answer to manifest.

Pray, then imagine what the answer’s precursors could be.

Could they be something God is trying to get you to see?

Or something He may speak to move others ‘off the dime’?

Whatever they may be, chill out, stay in faith and joy...

...give 'em all time. 

As God’s angels go to work, getting each precursor in line,

Devils track their progress, then seek your thoughts to realign.  

Then, as angels put on each precursor God’s ‘glory stamp’,

More and more 'noise' there will be in your enemy's camp! 

The voices of fear, doubt and frustration seem not to quell.   

You’ve heard them many times before and know them well.

Recognize them quickly; let them trigger you to ‘Stay…’

Stay in joy and rejoicing, to help you stay in faith!

This requires learning to stay in the presence of The Lord,

Which is done by keeping head and heart on His Sword.

In His presence, one-by-one, these voices will be sentenced!!!

For only there, will all these voices eventually...be silenced!

Pic credits: 
TrueJoy.co.uk
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/270356783856479270/

Dancing on the Feeling Ceiling

There's no mistake in the title, as you may presume.
 
Some time ago, Lionel Richie co-wrote and performed a hit song, "Dancing on the Ceiling", the chorus of which is a memorable couplet,

Oh what a feeling,
when we're dancing on the ceiling. 

Flipping this couplet upside-down by mistake, I realized every emotion (whether positive, negative or neutral) probably has an entry threshold level, and also a ceiling -- a "feeling ceiling". For positive emotions, there's nothing quite like reaching, that is 'dancing on', its ceiling. I get this feeling when receiving something that was longed for. The sheer happiness and relief of its arrival, triggers waves of good feelings. You've been there.
 
While it takes faith to please God, the idea of ‘dancing on the feeling ceiling’ (of positive emotions) could play an important role in our faith! Sounds strange, like nothing you have ever heard being connected to faith talk?  If disciplined and controlled in a mature heart and a Word-renewed mind, these emotions could very well serve as an excellent faith catalyst and gauge in your life. "Say what?", you ask? "How could this have anything to do with faith at all, and how could they be simultaneously a gauge and catalyst?!"
 
In Mark 11:24, Jesus lays out the simple, 5-step process for receiving God's answers to our prayers:

1. Have well-developed faith in/of God. (Start with, but go well beyond undeveloped seed faith -- according to His will.)
2. Forgive whomever for whatever, wherever, whenever necessary. (Practicing 'forgiveness in advance' may be the best way to do this -- according to His will.)
3. With well-developed faith, speak to mountain-size problems. (If we do not waver in faith while waiting, God's angels will get the job done -- according to His will.)
4. Don't doubt in our heart. (News flash: The heart and mind are well connected. Imaginations are the thoughts seeds of/in our twins heart and soul, so guard them well.) 
5. Believe we receive (present tense) from God when we pray [according to His will], and we shall receive (future tense) ... afterward. (Since we live in a time warp, and everything, except miracles, works on the 'seed, time and harvest' principle, we need to have well-developed patience for God's angels to do their work, meticulously orchestrating in you and others, all the precursors to His answers to prayers. See: Working With Angels (Series). 

Admittedly, the last two items on this list are my most challenging. How about yours? Perhaps we all could use some help in the departments of remaining unwaveringly in faith, and believing we receive when we pray, not when the answer shows up! Both holy and evil angels must certainly have a well-developed ability to gauge faith (the product of Love) and doubt (the product of fear). Hey, what if we had such a gauge, and could help level the playing field, so to speak??
 
Would you start out driving across a desert range with insufficient fuel to get to the next gas station? Most certainly not. Similarly, we need enough of the right 'fuel' to make it across the seemingly dry, desert range of 'waiting for physical answers to prayers to arrive.' God knows this well, and has provided us with access to this fuel in abundance, as well as countless reminders in His Book for us to "fill up!"
 
This essential fuel is Joy, the emotion of keen pleasure or delight. How crucial is this fuel in our walk? Consider this:

• Joy ranks a whopping "Number 2" (right next to Love Himself!) in the list of nine varieties of The Fruit of The Spirit. (Galatians 5:22)
• During His most intimate and passionate time with His faithful disciples (His pre-departure time after Judas had been dismissed), Jesus reportedly mentioned the word, Joy, 7 times between John 13:31 and John 17:26. (Biblically, the number, 7, represents perfection and completion.)
• During this time, He thrice spoke of Joy being "full or ful-filled", underscoring the critical need for us to fill-up, and stay full of this essential fuel. (John 15:11,16:24, 17:13)
• The force or energy produced by the fuel of Joy is the verb, rejoice. This single word is cited 238 times in the Bible (179 and 59 times, respectively, in the Old and New Testaments, NKJ Version). Must be a pretty relevant word, I’d say!!!

Since Joy is a fruit of The Spirit, we cannot self-produce it. We can, and must, however, make ourselves available for Him to produce it in and through us. How? The Spirit produces Jesus’ joy inside us (John 15:11, 16:24), as the by-product of our continually abiding in His presence. (Psalm 16:11. See: As Long as I Abide (poem)) NB: Fear and its by-product, doubt, cannot abide in His presence, as His perfect love casts them out. Ergo, when we are out of His presence, we are ‘outside’ where fear and doubt reside. Read that again~ To win, we need to ‘practice His presence’ from moment-to-moment!
 
Consider this: The word, ‘abide’, and its derivatives appear 39 times in the Bible (NKJV), 29 of which are in the New Testament, and 27 times in (3 of 5)  New Testament books written by the ‘beloved disciple’, John. Since he was highly privileged to be the only disciple to write one of the four Gospels, and also to write the concluding book of The Bible (Revelation), John’s credentials must be impeccable, and his sage advice worth embracing with a vise-like grip!

So it’s a fairly clear choice. Like a magnet or compass, Joy is our faith gauge and catalyst. The more and closer we abide in/to Jesus, the greater and fuller our Joy. It enables us to ‘dance on the feeling ceiling’ when we pray according to His will, assured that He hears and answers, right then and there, and has dispatched His angels to begin patiently orchestrating and manifesting His perfect and loving answer, in accordance with His will. 

Our patience must match or try to keep up

…with His and theirs! 

 
Rest assured, postponing being joyful or rejoicing until you see the answer to your prayer, pretty much guarantees you will be one un-fulfilled, wavering soul, as far as faith is concerned. You will be haunted by the echoes of James, brother of Jesus:

…ask God… in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts
is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
For that person must not suppose that he will receive
anything from The Lord; he is a double-minded man,
unstable in all his ways.
(James 1:-7)

Saints, 

Find creative ways to stay joyful in The Lord,

no matter the circumstances!

Lights, Cameras, Action

Not that long ago, mankind thought the earth was the center of the universe.  How ridiculous that may seem to us today, given our accumulated knowledge and wisdom of "the way it is" compared to what we used to think was "the way it was".  Right?  We may be tempted to look with a pitiful eye on those who came before us as we consider their thoughts about "the way it was". 

But hold on a minute!  Our relatively ignorant predecessors may yet have some lessons to teach us in this matter. 

In His scheme of things, God has established two, clear focal points, main stages if you will, onto which He has spread out props, carefully arranged the spectacular lighting, readied His always-on cameras, and invited His guests (people like you and me) -- all to orchestrate and record the unfolding ‘music of life’ before Him.  These stages are His Heaven and His earth.  Heaven is His center stage, spiritually, and earth is indeed His center stage, physically -- the “center of the physical universe”, focally.

Consider this: The multi-faceted reason for the rest of the entire universe – the galaxies, solar systems, planets, moons, stars, asteroids, comets, black holes, etc., is:

…to divide the day from the night;

be for signs, seasons, days and years

(Genesis 1:14)

The sole object to which this multi-faceted reason points is earth, not to Heaven or some other central point of the physical universe.

Still feeling much smarter

than our predecessors, hmmm?