Complete Joy

I John 1 we read this,

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life  and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—  what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

Notice here what it is that these guys proclaim:

·         What they heard

·         What they saw

·         What they touched

·         What was manifested to them

What are you listening to, seeing, touching and hearing from the Lord?  He wants to speak to us in all of our senses, and then he wants us to proclaim that which we’ve experienced and heard with others.

Why?

Read the last part of the passage:

So that our joy may be made complete.

Endurance

James 5 reminds us of the story of Job, the man of suffering.

We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.

Runners who endure great hardship in order to finish a race get great recognition and praise, as the fall over the finish line, with shin splints, pulled muscles, and injuries.  People shout in one voice because that runner endured such pain and hardship, yet finished. 

However, when we endure conflict and pain, we want to sit on the sidelines, quit the race, and shake our fist up at God in anger, because he “let” us fall.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

When we hear of Job’s endurance and see his outcome, we realize that God is fully aware of our circumstances and has a plan of restoration.

There’s always a plan for restoration. There has been, since the first sin and the first fall.  That’s who God is – a God of restoration.  Full restoration and more…

We need to read the book of Job over and over again, hearing of the faithfulness of God in the middle of despair.

And we need to count ourselves blessed, when all else is failing.  Because God is with us, he is for us, and he is merciful to restore and heal.

A Mirror

James 1 says,

 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a  hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Okay, let’s look at this passage practically.  Go to the mirror, look at yourself intently, and then walk away.  What did you see?  I’m guess you either saw your imperfections that you want to adjust before you leave the house, or you saw an image you liked, and you walked away pleased.

When we hear the word of God it’s like peering into God’s image he has for us.  And obviously, we will see places where we fall sort.  But if we do what the word says (become a doer not just a hearer) it’s like brushing our hair, cleaning our face, and stepping out to face the world with confidence in how we look – in His image.'

Not many of us forget what we look like when we look into a mirror.  The image we see sometimes even haunts us throughout the day.

This passage says if we hear His word only, and never do it, we delude ourselves.   We fool ourselves. We deceive ourselves.

Just as straightening our look in the morning presents a better picture than crawling out of bed and greeting the world with bed hair, so does hearing the word and responding to it.  

We become that which we hear and receive – the word of Life.

Slow...

James 1:19

This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Quick to hear.  This means instead of running everywhere else and listening to everyone else, we purposefully and swiftly run to his word, first.

Slow to speak.  This means instead of whining, arguing, and discussing things to death, we close our  mouths and receive His word so that we can truly hear all that he has to say without our interruptions of fear and unbelief.

Slow to anger.  This means just what it says.  Instead of rising up immediately, shaking our fist at others and in the face of God, because we have a kneejerk reaction, we stop and breathe, and settle our souls, and rest.

Why?

Because the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

That’s some sound teaching, right there. What will we do with it, now that we’ve read and heard?

Dull of Hearing

Hebrews 5 says,  Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though^]by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

These past few days have included some stern words to us about responding to what we’ve heard from the sound teaching of the word of God.  This verse is no exception.

Have your kids ever become dull of hearing?  They tune you out?  I remember as a kid humming softly when my mom went on a tirade and started accusing me, instructing me, and criticizing me.  I was trying to calm my heart, ignore her voice, and still my soul by blocking her out.

We do the same to Him.  We become dull of hearing when we ignore sound teaching, deliberately turn away from life-giving instruction, and drift away from the root of his goodness and protection over our lives.

And it’s then that we revert back to being like a baby on milk.  We become needy, crying for self satisfaction, and unable to stand on our own two feet – all because we should be eating meat by now – but we’re still sipping on milk.

Ouch.

Being dull of hearing can be an easy fix, if we make the decision to turn our ears once again to the truth.  It’s a choice we have to make.

Indeed

Hebrews 4:2 says For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

Here’s the crux of the whole matter.

We can go to church every week and hear the good news of God’s love for us.  We can sit in classes that instruct us in how to honor our husbands, how to love our neighbors, and how to trust in our Father.  We can even listen to musical lyrics that lift our souls in worship to the God who loves us completely, and unconditionally.

However, if we don’t have faith that rises in our hearts when we hear, the words that we have just listened to profit us nothing!

For some of us, weekly church attendance, signing up for classes, and moving to the music is all a bandaid, a fix-all, a soothing lotion that we rub on week after week, because  we’re so dry and sore from living life.

But what if…we rise up in faith that we attach to what we hear?  No longer will our activities in listening be a bandaid, although of course they will heal and soothe us.  But our activities will then be an offering of praise, thanksgiving, and adoration for the ONE we have now come to trust completely!

Indeed, we’ve heard the good news.  But what profit are we experiencing from all that we’re hearing?

Hearken

Hebrews 3 instructs us again to hear and hearken to what we’ve heard. (hearken is just a fancy word for listen)

“Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,

As in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,

And saw My works for forty years.

Did you know…when God speaks to us, when we hear his word, when we receive good instruction, and when we see God at work in our lives…we have a responsibility to adhere to and receive all of that goodness by walking with Him in complete trust and abandonment?

Did you know…when we choose to turn away and ignore the goodness of God in his rich word and love toward us, we are provoking our Father, we are testing him, and we are not pleasing him?

God is full of goodness and mercy, he is.

God is also all about forming us into the image of his Son.

And the son of God respected, honored, obeyed, and gladly submitted to his father’s will in his life, knowing that in obedience he would experience joy and life.

In school, if we don’t respond to the learning we receive, take the test, and make the grade, we then fail, and we have to repeat the class over again…until we get it.

Something to think about…