Advent Joy
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Advent Joy
Advent Joy
The chariots of God are twenty thousand,
Even thousands of thousands;
The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place.
Picture for a moment the scene in New Orleans La as if you are on a work and witness team and you are walking into one of the worse hit areas of town. The water has subsided, the sun is out, it is hot, very humid, so much so you can’t take a step without sweat pouring from your forehead, and you look out the van window toward the first home you will repair.
Daniel
Small. Seems like it is leaning, siding is faded and paint chips fall away, shutters are crooked, the high water mark is above the windows, and when you walk in the silt from the ocean, the sand, is over 12” high on the carpet.. The sheet rock is wet, the carpet can’t be seen and the furniture is covered in settled mud.
A fiery stream issued
And came forth from before Him.
A thousand thousands ministered to Him;
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.
The court was seated,
And the books were opened.
The home owner has pitched a tent next to the house and has lived there two weeks prior to your arrival.
What do you say? How do you react? What can you do about all this? How will you restore hope? When will this person feel joy?
Has there been a time in you life when that was your home? Fire, tornado, wind, took down all that you called yours and warped it, twisted it and all together ruined it with a vengeance. It was hard to find anything to save.
Maybe your home was destroyed by a parent who abused alcohol or drugs, a place where darkness loomed and fear reigned?
Was it death that stole your joy? A family member close to you?
Has there been a time in your life when you felt this way spiritually? Undone. Nothing mattered. Maybe you were on a path that took you where you wanted to go, when you wanted to go, and no one could stop you. A path of destruction, sin, grief, hatred, selfishness that hurt those around you. Sin filled your heart like silt and mud after the storm.
How did you get back, what did you do? What will you do? How does a person replace the worldly with the heavenly? How do we convince people there is a sphere of supernatural about them, unseen, evil and good, working about, longing, craving the souls of men.
Who will bring them the good news? Who will help them clean up the destruction and prosper? Who will share the good news with them?
Sarah Bessey, a blogger, author, Canadian, President of Heartline Ministries in Haiti, an organization with a mission to nourish the children in Haiti through food and education say this:
“I can’t escape joy. I can’t escape the exhortations of joy, the call to joy, the prayer for joy, the yearning for joy in Scripture and in the Spirit and in the Christian tradition. Joy! Laughter, song, dance, life, goodness, hope overflowing. I want you to experience that kind of joy, that life of joy, a peace joy brings even in the midst of disaster.”
I want you to think about the shepherds, the wise men, the city of David. Mary, Joseph, Caesar Augustus, Herod, the Pharisees, the Scribes, the lawyers, and the tax collectors, the high Priest, his court.
No word from the Lord for 400 years. No new revelation about salvation, no salvation has taken place, no redemption, no real peace. No joy. Nothing new had happened lately. It was as if a dark cloud hung over all and the spirit of the Lord had departed. Temple sacrifice, rituals, mundane, dreary.
Dark souls, silt and sand piled up on the heart, ruined lives, bad laws, tyranny, no warmth, no true laughter. Sigh....
One night, when God’s perfect timing aligned, the heavens burst forth with song, and angel of the Lord appeared and and a fourth manifestation of the God who loves came this time to the shepherds.
“Do not be afraid, I bring you good tidings of great ______ !JOY! which will be for all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Joy to the world! the Lord is come; let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare Him room, and heav’n and nature sing, and heav’n and nature sing, and Heav’n and heav’n and nature sing.
No more let sin and sorrow grow, Nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessing flow, far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as, the curse is found.
Joy! Unspeakable Joy!
Lets be clear.
Joy isn’t emotionally or spiritually or intellectually dishonest. Christian joy doesn’t mean that we are sticking our heads in the sand and saying, “it’s fine, we’re fine, everything’s fine” while running past the gutter of broken dreams, bad choices, twisted values, wrong priorities, selfish decisions, undisciplined appetites, stuffed rage, jealousy, and the like.
Joy isn’t denial of grief or pretending happiness.
Joy is the affirmation of the truest thing in this life.
Joy is born, not from pretending everything is fine, but from holding both hope and truth together. We can stand, even in that difficult space, the place of grief or suffering, even there with joy. Why? Because joy is the affirmation of the thing that is truer than any trouble, any affliction: the affirmation that Love wins. Jesus is as good as we hope, it’s all worth it, and all will be redeemed.
Almost all of our theology – and therefore our practical lives – has its roots in what we believe about the nature and character of God. It all tracks back to Him. And really, if we want to know what God looks like, we can look to Jesus. That’s what the Bible tells us. Jesus was meant to clarify, to answer the questions, to clean up the dirty window through which we kept trying to behold the holy. states that Jesus is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.”
You can learn how to practice joy even before there is grief and sin if your eyes are fixed on Him. Think about these shepherds. What a life. Sheep! Not an exciting, overwhelming existence. Watch the sheep. Move the sheep, feed the sheep, water the sheep, move the sheep again, over and over! Imagine what it must have been like when, all of a sudden, BOOM! An Angel of the Lord stood before them. Fear, anxiety, adrenalin, pumping through your veins. You want to run, but you can’t, you are frozen to the ground, you mind is trying to decide what to do, but nothing works.
And then, an announcement and more heavenly hosts! A multitude!
The chariots of God are twenty thousand,
Even thousands of thousands;
The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place.
A fiery stream issued
And came forth from before Him.
A thousand thousands ministered to Him;
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.
The court was seated,
And the books were opened.
The shepherds found Joy. They found Him wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
They learned, as you and I must learn that God can be trusted. And when God is trusted, and our focus is on Him, no matter the circumstances, there is Joy!
Jesus is as good as we hope, and everything for which you are longing – love, joy, peace, justice, mercy, home, good work – is real because it rooted in God’s heart for us. Those are gifts from a good good Father. God is against the evil and suffering in this world. He is not the origin of evil nor does God “use” evil as a means to justify some cosmic end.
God is our rescuer from the injustices of life, not the cause of them. I see God as the redeemer of the pain, not the origin of it. I see sovereignty, not as hyper-control over the minute and painful details of the world, but as a faithful promise that all things will be restored, all things will be redeemed, all will be rescued.
Restored. Silt removed, mud cleaned out, sheet rock replaced, painful memories are replaced with a love for the most high and Joy is present.
So as the people of God, the ones whose citizenship lies in the Kingdom of God, we are part of the resistance, the work and witness team, overcoming of sin and evil, bringing redemption and hope, carrying a message of hope in the midst of hurt, grief, sorrow and pain, because these are not of the character of God. God’s heart is pure. God’s nature is love and from a heart of love pour’s forth joy!
Sovereignty is a promise. All will be held accountable, God is at work to bring redemption and reconciliation, and at the end of all things, we don’t escape from the goodness that pursues us, the life we are promised, the love that redeems we burst forth into new life through Christ Jesus.
Joy is born out of trust, hope, gratitude and faith in that coming Kingdom. We have a reason to rejoice. And it’s not denial or innocence or naivety or stupidity. Joy is the affirmation of the truest thing of all: redemption, restoration, reconciliation.
The joy of the Lord is rooted in the now.
When Christ returns and sets all things right and heaven is established on earth, there will be no more tears, no more sorrows, no more good-byes. The kingdom will be a reunion, a shocking and wild oh-hallelujah-at-last gathering. The castoffs of our world – the last will be first and those whom our culture disdains and discards and disappoints and devastates – will lead the laughter and the dance. Part of our worship must be wiping the tears from every face, the labor of drawing buckets from the well of salvation to water the tired soul into renewal.
It’s messages of joy to our children, our parents, our grandparents. It’s a message of joy to those who have forgotten Christ long ago and are coming back. It’s a rich harvest of exiles gathered from all the nations, refugees finding home, weapons are beaten into ploughshares, we’re not fighting anymore, we’re laying our armor down and taking up the cross of Christ.
Our joy is rooted in this hope and in this confidence: our Abba, our heavenly Father is steadily putting things right. God will not tire, God hasn’t fallen asleep on the job, and God will not quit. Jesus has not forgotten you. We are a people of life, not death.
Our joy is rooted in truth and that truth is the nature and character of God. Whatever we face, joy is the truest thing and this is not the end.
May your joy overflow.
Stand
I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.