Advent Journal Day XXI: The Journey to Joy

This past week Joy was the theme for Advent. I confessed to you that this week would be hard; Joy does not come easy for me…or so I thought. 

For a long time, I have beaten myself over the head with my Bible, for not being more Joyful. I am saved, after all, I love Jesus, why don’t I feel more joyous—especially at Christmas—the season of Joy?

C.S. Lewis taught us that Joy is not to be sought after like an “esthetic feeling.” He explained that by seeking a feeling, we are missing knowing the person of Christ and that we should seek Him, instead of a feeling or a “thing.”  Instead of seeking a feeling, seek God, and He will fill us with Joy. Go hard after Him and He will fill us full of Joy.

I spoke about how to cultivate joy in our lives; it comes by our thanksgiving, by cultivating a thankful heart. Thank God for all the wonderful things He has done in our lives and everything He will do.  God sent His Son to us and it was the greatest gift He ever gave; save the crucifixion and resurrection. A sense of Joy can easily be drowned out because sometimes life is very hard, and it throws some very breathtaking circumstances our way; but we can drown out the voice of discouragement and despair when we cultivate true thankfulness. If God never gives us one more thing, sending His Son is enough to move us to spend a life-time worshiping Him.

Spurgeon inspired us to awaken our worship, and by it, we can practice the sacred leading of your captivity captive. “Arise Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, the son of Abinoam”{Jdgs. 5:12. {ed. note: see also Ps. 68: 18; Eph.4:8}. Awaken your worship and it will lead you out of the captivity of despair and discouragement.

Don’t stop seeking God; chase after Him fervently. He will fill us with the Joy we need and long for. It comes from a life determined to be eucharistic, more thankful; I want to have a theology of thanksgiving, will you join me? 

Lewis, C.S. Surprised By Joy. Orlando: Harcourt Books, 1955.

Lewis, C.S. The Joyful Christian. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1977.

Spurgeon, Charles. Joy In Your Life. New Kensington: Whitaker House, 1998.

Spurgeon, Charles .The Joy Of Praising God. Kensington: Whitaker House, 1995.

To read the entire Advent Journal click here:

Advent Journal: A Theology of Thanksgiving

Advent Journal Day XX: Awaken Your Praise: Spurgeon and Joy

Awake, awake, Deborah; Awake, awake, sing a song! Arise, Barak, and take away your captives, O son of Abinoam {Jdgs. 5:12 NASB}.

Many of the saints of God are as mournful as if they were captives in Babylon, for their lives are spent in tears and sighing. They will not chant the joyous psalms of praise. If anyone requires of them a song, they reply, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” However, we are not captives in Babylon. We do not sit down to weep at Bable’s streams. The Lord has broken our captivity. He has bought us up out of our house of bondage. He has brought us up out of our house of bondage. We are free men, not slaves. We have not been sold into the hand of cruel taskmasters, but “we which have believed do enter into rest” {Heb. 4:3} {pg. 7}.

We are not captives, sold under sin. We are a people who ‘sit every man under his vine and his fig tree, and none shall make us afraid’ {Mic. 4:4 NASB}. “We dwell in a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks” {Is. 26:1 NASB}. Babylon’s mourning is not suitable in Zion, which is “beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth…the city of the Great King” {Ps. 48:2 NASB}, “Let us serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing {Ps. 100:2 NASB} {pg.8}.

If God were a faithless God; If Christ were not a perfect Redeemer, if the Word of God might after all turn out to be untrue. If He had not the power to keep His people, and if had not love enough with which to hold them even to the end, then might they give way to mourning and to despair. Then might they cover ther heads with ashes and wrap their loins with sackcloth. But while God is just and true, while His promises stand as fast as the eternal mountains, while the arm of God is unpalsied, and His eye undimmed, while His covenant and His oath are unbroken and unchanged, then it is not proper or fitting for the upright to go mourning all their days. You Children of God, refrain from weeping and make a joyful noise unto the Rock of you salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, expressing our gladness in Him with Psalms {pg.9}.

Your harps, ye trembling saints, Down from the willows take; Loud to the praise of love Divine
Bid every string awake {Your harps, Ye Trembling Saints: Augustus Toplady (1772)}.

First, I will urge you to stir up all your powers for sacred praise, to “awake, awake, utter a song.” In the second place, I will persuade you to practice the sacred leading of your captivity captive. “Arise Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, the son of Abinoam”{ed. note: see also Ps. 68: 18; Eph.4:8} {pg.9}.

Let us look to stirring up all our powers to praise God, according to the words of the holy woman in the text, “Awake, awake,” repeated yet again, “Awake, awake.” What is there that we need to awaken if we would praise God?...Our flesh is sluggish. We have been busy with the world. Our limbs have grown fatigued. But there is power in divine Joy to arouse even the body itself, to make the heavy eyelids light, to reanimate the drowsy eye, and quicken the weary brain. We should call upon our bodies to awake, especially our tongues. Let it put itself in tune like David’s harp of old {pg.10}.

This song is beautiful worship...

Charles Spurgeon, The Joy Of Praising God (New Kensington: Whitaker House, 1995), 7-10. 

To read the entire Advent Journal click here:

Advent Journal: A Theology of Thanksgiving

Sabbath Sanctuary: Strength For Your Day

Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be {Deut. 33:25 KJV}.

Here are two things provided for the pilgrim: shoes and strength.

As for the shoes: they are very needful for traveling along rough ways and for trampling upon deadly foes. We shall not go barefoot—this would not be suitable for princes of the blood royal. Our shoes shall not be at all of the common sort, for they shall have soles of durable metal, which will not wear out even if the journey be long and difficult. We shall have protection proportionate to the necessities of the road and the battle. Wherefore let us march boldly on, fearing no harm even though we tread on serpents or set our foot upon the dragon himself.

As for the strength: it shall be continued as long as our days shall continue, and it shall be proportioned to the stress and burden of those days. The words are few, “as thy days thy strength,” but the meaning is full. This day we may look for trial, and for work which will require energy, but we may just as confidently look for equal strength. This word given to Asher is given to us also who have faith wherewith to appropriate it. Let us rise to the holy boldness which it is calculated to create within the believing heart.(1)
In His Grace,

(1) Charles Spurgeon, Faith’s Checkbook (Seaside: Watchmaker Publishing, 2003), 137.