Touched by His Joy

~~~ Acts of the Apostles 15:7-21~~~ Psalm 96 ~~~ John 15:9-11 ~~~

 

The writings in the Acts of the Apostles makes it very clear;

 the message brought to us from God through Jesus was for all peoples.

The Jews were given the message first; after all Jesus was a Jew.

Once rejected it was shared with all the other peoples.

Not being of Jewish origin myself, I am very happy that the Gentiles

were offered the chance to hear the message and respond to it.

 

Remain in my love.

“I have told you this so that
my joy might be in you and
your joy might be complete.”

 

Have you ever thought about what brought joy to Jesus?

Did he experience joy when he was preaching?

Did he feel joy when he gave sight to the blind?

Did he have joy when he healed the lame and crippled?

Perhaps he experienced his greatest joy forgiving sins

or was it when he broke bread with the apostles?

 

It seems that love and joy are closely related.

When we love we tap into the joy of Jesus.

When have you ignored the joy of Jesus?

Have you ever deliberately blocked the joy of God?

 

Sometime we can actually be afraid of joy.

We may even think that if we open up to joy

we will be disappointed in the end.

 

What brings joy to your heart?

Jesus wants to make that joy complete in him.

He is the true source of all joy.

 

 

 God, who knows the heart...

 

God knows us in a most intimate way; he knows the depths of our heart.

God knows those things great and small that bring joy into our hearts.

He knows us so well that he can surprise us

with a gift of joy when we least expect it.

Joy comes to us from many different sources...

it might be the wildflowers along side of the road....

it may be the peaceful sleep of a baby in your arms...

it may be the gentle caress from a spouse...

it my even be the sweet taste of a chocolate drop melting on your tongue.

 

Believe that you do receive his joy.

Prepare to receive more of it into your heart.

 

He is forever making our hearts a place for his own dwelling place.

....by faith he purified their hearts...

 

So we come again to faith...

A purified heart eager to be filled up with his complete joy.

 

Blessings of Easter bathed in his Joy.

How can we not rejoice?