Joy Is Deeper than Laughter

 

                                                      (In New York City)

If someone laughs, does that mean they are filled with the joy of the Lord? 

Not necessarily.

Laughter is not equivalent to the joy of the Lord.

A person may laugh when someone they despise fails. Or when someone does something stupid and hurts themselves. A person may laugh at a sexual joke. Surely such laughter, in cases like these, is not the joy of the Lord.

Finding something funny, at the expense of someone else, is not the joy of the Lord. 

The joy of the Lord can sometimes produce laughter. The joy of the Lord can also sometimes produce tears. I have experienced both. I have also experienced the joy of the Lord inwardly, with little outward expression. It's felt like an inner glow, a holy warmth, an existential sweeping gladness.

While the joy of the Lord can manifest in laughter or tears or inwardly, heaven-sent joy transcends all of these. Anyone who has read C. S. Lewis's autobiography Surprised by Joy understands this. For Lewis, the experience of the joy of the Lord had this beyond-earth quality. So much so, that Lewis had to invent a word in his attempt to describe it: Sehnsucht. 

Sehnsucht, wrote Lewis, is “an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and from Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again.”

The very feeling of transcendent desire is itself a form of Joy. The longing for the satisfaction is itself a kind of satisfaction.

One excellent book on Lewis and Sehnsucht is Joe Puckett's The Apologetics of Joy. Here's a snippet.

"In his own autobiographical sketch of his journey toward Joy, Lewis explains that, “authentic Joy . . . is distinct not only from pleasure in general but even from aesthetic pleasure. It must have the stab, the pang, the inconsolable longing.”13 In this way, the Joy Lewis spoke of is not always expressed as a feeling of pleasure. “It might almost equally well be called a particular kind of unhappiness or grief.”14 But strangely it is a kind of grief that we want. It is a pain like we feel when we are separated from someone we have loved more than anything or anyone else. For Lewis, we “ache” in desire because we have a sense that there exists a love greater than anything in this world. It is a kind of unhappiness felt like one feels because of homesickness. The difference is that this feeling of homesickness is for a home we have never been to or seen before."

In John 15:11 Jesus says to his disciples, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

His joy is deep, right?

The Coddling of the American Mind Redux

 

One of the best books I've read in the past decade is The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Ideas and Bad Intentions Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, by Greg Lukionoff and Jonathan Haidt,

I find myself referring to it often, as a lens through which to interpret things like microaggressions and victimhood culture. 

Their book is a more thorough follow-up to their famous Atlantic essay, "The Coddling of the American Mind." This article provoked much discussion. So does the book.

Read the article to get the idea. 

If you find Haidt valuable, see also The Rise of Victimhood Culture: Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and the New Culture Wars, by Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning.

See also Haidt's recent book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. 

Worry

 

(Sunset, Monroe County)

Here are some thoughts about worry.

Of all the things I have worried about in my life, I estimate that less than 5% have come to pass. I have spent too much time worrying about things that came to nothing.

Worry, anxiety, fear… I’ve experienced them all. You have, too. What kind of person would not worry? One answer is: someone who had their brain removed. But then, of course, they wouldn’t be able to enjoy their worry-free life.

How is it possible to have the brains we have and move into greater freedom from worry? The answer Jesus gives is this: a person who trusts in God would not worry. “Trust” and “worry” do not go together. 

Jesus speaks about this in Matthew 6:25-34. Slow down and re-listen to these words.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 

Are you not much more valuable than they? 

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 

And why do you worry about clothes? 

See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

So... 

1. Worrying adds nothing to our lives. I’ve read studies that claim worrying actually subtracts from the days of one’s life. Worrying is non-productive. Worry, anxiety, and fear immobilize, and lead to non-action. Worrying makes worrisome situations worse. If today you are worried about something, rest assured that “worry” will not make the situation better and, in some cases, will make it worse because of the resultant non-activity.

2. Trusting in God will lead to basic needs being provided. We must distinguish between basic needs, and personal wants and desires. I have found myself, at times, worrying about something that I don’t even really need. This is a true waste of emotional time and energy!

3. Some run after material things as a cure for worry. But even acquisition can be worrisome. Richard Foster, in A Celebration of Discipline, argues that the more material things a person has, the more things they have to worry about. 

Here I am reminded of research I’ve done on materialistic cultures and levels of anxiety. Dr. David Augsburger wrote a brilliant study showing how some cultures, who have little materially, do not have a lexical entry for “anxiety,” because the condition is nonexistent. These cultures are tribal. In them, the community absorbs the worry. 

Thankfulness is an antidote to worry. I have found that when I am thankful for what I have, rather than needing to have more things to be thankful for, I am more at peace in myself.

“Worry” is the tip of an iceberg. Melt off the tip, and more surfaces. To get rid of the tip, get rid of the entire iceberg. 

Spiritually, this is about our heart. I am asking God to heal my heart that is still too consumed with the cares of this world. Only then can He use me to help others with their cares and concerns. The more self-obsessive I am, the less good I am to others.

Here are some things to get help and healing from worry.

- Keep a spiritual journal. Write down your fears and worries, and give them to God. 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxiety on him for he cares for you.”

- Re-read your journal periodically. Remembering how God has been with you in the past gives hope for the present.

- Saturate your heart, soul, and mind with God-things. Do not let the news surrounding the reporting of the pandemic occupy every room of your heart. I have found that when I make it my first priority to fill my heart and mind with God-things, I gain an eternal perspective on world-things. While the coronavirus is real, surely some of the fears accompanying it will not happen.

- Separate your real needs from your mere wants. Observe how our American materialistic culture works to create false needs within us that lead to false anxiety over a) either not having such things, or b) over having them and needing to care for them, protect them, store them, worship them, etc.

- Follow Jesus more intently and more intensely. Read Matthew 25 about what Jesus says in regard to helping the poor and needy. Take His words seriously and move towards others. As you begin doing this, you will find that your own cares and worries diminish.

- Make a list of blessings you are thankful for. Carry it with you, pull it out occasionally, and re-read it.

Trust God. Trust is not an emotion, but an action. Trust in God and worry cannot coexist in the same human heart.

The Differences Between American Christianity and Biblical Christianity

(Sea of Galilee, Israel)

(I'm re-posting this, to keep it in play.) 

***

From Joseph Mattera's "13 Contrasts Between American and Biblical Christianity." The differences are:

1. American Christianity focuses on individual destiny. The Bible focuses on corporate vision and destiny. Correct. It's the tribe, the community, and less the individual. American churchianity is individuated. Note that the apostle Paul's use of the pronoun "you" is overwhelmingly plural.
2. American Christianity focuses on individual prosperity. The Bible focuses on stewardship. "Much American preaching today focuses on "our rights in Christ" to be blessed. However, in Scripture the emphasis regarding finances has to do with being blessed by God in order to be a blessing by bringing God's covenant to the Earth (Read Deut. 8:18; 2 Cor. 9:10-11). Jesus promised material blessing only in the context of seeking first His Kingdom (Matt. 6:33)."
3.  American Christianity focuses on self-fulfillment and happiness. The Bible focuses on glorifying God and serving humanity. In contrast to the Bible "much of the focus from the American pulpit has to do with individual fulfillment and satisfaction."
4. American Christianity appeals to using faith to attain stability and comfort. The Bible encourages believers to risk life and limb to advance the Kingdom. Read Hebrews 11, THE premier biblical text on the meaning of "faith," the kind of faith that, without which, it is impossible to please God.
5. American Christianity usually focuses on individual salvation. The Bible deals with individual and systemic redemption.
6. The American apologetic focuses on human reason. The Bible's apologetic focuses on the power of God and experience. "If the foundation of your faith is human reason, then the first person that has more knowledge than you in science could talk you out of being a Christ-follower. Truly, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, not human reason (Prov. 9:10; 1 Cor. 1:17-23)." BTW - anyone who reads apologists like Bill Craig and J.P. Moreland (and even myself), and thinks our interest in rationally defending our faith is about the primacy of human reason over the God-encounter, has misunderstood us.
7. American believers have a consumerist mentality regarding a home church. The biblical emphasis is being equipped for the ministry. See here, and here. Mattera notes: "Americans shop for a church today based on what meets their personal and family needs the best. It is almost like a supermarket mentality of one-stop shopping." The Consumer Church, as Eugene Peterson has said, is an Antichrist Church.
8. American Christianity promotes a culture of entertainment. The Bible promotes the pursuit of God. See here.    
9. American Christianity depends upon services within a building. The biblical model promotes a lifestyle of worship, community and Christ following. Mattera writes: "Most of the miracles in the book of Acts and the gospels took place outside a building in the context of people's homes and in the marketplace. In Acts 2 and 4, the churches met house-to-house, not just in the temple. The man at the gate was healed before he went into the temple (Acts 3), which caused an even greater revival to take place."
10. American Christianity is about efficiency. The biblical model is about effectiveness. "Often, the American church is modeled more after the secular corporate model rather than the biblical model. The church is not an organization, but an organism that should be organized!"
11. In American Christianity the pastor is elected. In the biblical model God calls the pastor. 
12. In American Christianity the individual interprets the Bible. In the New Testament the hermeneutical community interprets the Bible.
13. American Christianity trains its leaders in Bible colleges. Biblical Christianity nurtures leaders through personal mentoring. "Biblically, leaders were not sent outside of the context of a local church to be trained for the ministry. They were nurtured personally in the context of congregational life by church leaders acting as mentors (as the Apostle Paul did with Timothy; as Aquila and Priscilla did with Apollos in Acts 19; and as Barnabas did with John Mark in Acts 15)."

This is going to be a tough one. Most people won't want the biblical model. They won't recognize it. 

Pastors - if you transition from the American Church to the Biblical Church you will lose some people, and gain some disciples.



**
My books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Encounters with the Holy Spirit (co-edited with Janice Trigg)

Deconstructing Progressive Christianity

31 Letters to the Church on Discipleship

31 Letters to the Church on Praying 

The Great Invasion: 31 Days of Christmas

Character Matters

 

 

I am a case study in character formation. Because I have needed it so badly.

N.T. Wright, in After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters, identifies four cardinal virtues that characterize actual followers of Jesus. They are: humility, charity, patience, and chastity. This "composite of virtues" is what true humanity looks like. Jesus exemplifies such humanity. 

Jesus-followers are to look like Jesus, just as a disciple is to look like his mentor, as a student looks like his teacher.

Wright writes:

"It is thus more or less impossible to speak of God with any conviction or effect if those who profess to follow Jesus are not exemplifying humility, charity, patience, and chastity. These are not optional extras for the especially keen, but the very clothes which the royal priesthood must “put on” day by day. If the vocation of the royal priesthood is to reflect God to the world and the world back to God (the world, that is, as it was made to be and as, by God’s grace, it will be one day), that vocation must be sustained, and can only be sustained, by serious attention to “putting on” these virtues, not for the sake of a self-centered holiness or pride in one’s own moral achievement, but for the sake of revealing to the world who its true God really is." (p. 247)

Forget speaking of God to others if your heart is proud, miserly, irritable, and perverted. Obviously, Jesus hasn't made an impact on such a person's life, so why would anyone listen to them, about anything? 

Christian character matters, not as a means to gaining God's acceptance, but as marks of real, transforming Christianity.

The Jesus-follower who follows Jesus into his ever-presence will inexorably be morphed into a humble person who is free from the need for self-congratulation and self-adulation, into a loving person whose heart's modus operandi is dialed into the needs of others, into a person who can wait because their heart has great enduring staying power, and into a pure thing whose sexual desires have been freed from the objectification of others.

All of this is, contrary to our kingdom of darkness culture, counter-intuitive. Yet it is the road to freedom, and people truly free in Jesus possess these interior qualities.

Letter to My Redeemer Family

 

Dear Redeemer Family,

Linda and I fly home today from New York City.

In NYC we have been hosted by our dear friends Dr. John Hao and Rosie Hao.

I preached three times at their annual conference.

They have thirteen services on Sunday (in multiple buildings). I preached at three of them.

Then I taught my Spiritual Transformation class in their seminary from T - Th, 9-4 each day.

Then I went back to our hotel and took a nap.

After each of my messages Linda and I prayed for people to be healed. After Sunday's 2 PM sermon we prayed for people for two and a half hours. 

Then we went back to our hotel and took a nap.

I may share some of the things that happened at our Redeemer worship service this coming Sunday morning.

If you prayed for us, thank you. God is good!

Love,

PJ

(I just posted this to my blog. 54 Thoughts About Prayer)

54 Thoughts About Prayer

(Our front yard - snow in April!)

These are from my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God. (Kindle version HERE.)

1.  You will learn more about prayer by actually praying than you can get from a book.

2.  Prayer is talking with God about what God and I are thinking and doing together.

3.  Praying is revolutionary activity whereby I revolt against the kingdom of this world as I meet with the true Lord of heaven and earth.

4.  If you believe God is all-powerful and all-knowing, then you believe God is powerful enough and knows enough to address your struggles.

5.  If you believe that God is all-loving, then you believe that God desires to address your struggles.

6.  What we think about God affects how we worship and pray.

7.  Prayer is not a religious duty, something I “have” to do, but a relationship with God.

8.  In praying I must let go of control and trust God.

9.  The focus of praying is not prayer itself, but God.

10.             I can meet God at a conference. I can also meet the same God wherever I am.

11.             Assume God is doing something in you, now.

12.             Praying is the act of interfacing this world with the kingdom of God.

13.             I can hear the voice of God, speaking to me.

14.             Hearing God’s voice is a function of intimacy with God.

15.             Humility is needed to hear the voice of God.

16.             Discernment is the capacity to recognize and respond to the presence and activity of God, both in the ordinary moments of life and in the larger decisions of life.

17.             As intimacy with God increases, discernment increases.

18.             Discerning should always come before deciding.

19.             In praying, God changes me.

20.             I pray to be able to see God’s Bigger Picture of my life and reality.

21.             I pray for my heart to be shaped into a heart of God’s love.

22.             Praying for people is a God-given, holy burden.

23.             In praying I bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

24.             I pray for others because I believe that where prayer focuses, power falls.

25.             Blessed are the mono-taskers, for they shall see God.

26.             Praying is a slow-cooker, not a microwave.

27.             Teaching people to pray in solitude is one of the greatest needs and challenges of the church today.

28.             Solitary times with God prepare us for fellowship with people.

29.             If you commit to praying God will lead you deeper into community.

30.             One’s personal prayer life can never be understood if it is separated from community life.

31.             In praying we cry for the in-breaking of the kingdom into the brokenness of the present.

32.             In praying God aligns our heart with his kingdom heart.

33.             To pray is to explore and venture into the vast, limitless regions of God’s beautiful kingdom.

34.             Authentic praying is an act of self-denial.

35.             To pray is to let go of control.

36.             When God reveals personal faults it is never to condemn us, but only to rescue us.

37.             There is a “spiritual Alzheimer’s disease” which results in forgetting the many times God has rescued and delivered us.

38.             A main antidote to fear is remembering.

39.             In praying I enumerate things I am thankful for and give thanks to God.

40.             I pray because Jesus prayed.

41.             I pray for protection and guidance.

42.             In praying I am detoxified and released from burdens.

43.             Renewal can begin with one follower of Jesus, praying.

44.             The more Westernized a person is, the less they pray.

45.             Prayvailing – Travailing prayer brings prevailing in a person’s life.

46.             I need to set aside some time very day for active talking and listening to God. Just ten minutes each day can bring about a radical change in my life.

47.             Nothing can stop me from praying today.

48.             If I humble myself and pray, turning from any wicked ways, God will hear from heaven and heal the land.

49.             The antidote to spiritual burnout is time alone with God, praying.

50.             Pray even when, especially when, it seems or feels like God is absent.

51.             God isn’t in a panic room when you or I have doubts.

52.             Life is best lived when death is acknowledged.

53.             Kick the “bucket list” and live for a greater purpose.

54.             How a life begins and ends is important. Don’t forget the ending part.