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Joy of the SpiritJesus Christ was the very Son of God. He was also very human, subject to the very same emotions as any human today.
Jesus certainly knew human pain during the agony of His crucifixion. He knew human anger when he drove the money changers out of The Temple. He knew human grief when His friend Lazarus died. He knew human weariness when He slept in the back of Peter's fishing boat despite the great storm that had come up. And He knew human joy, and especially that special kind of joy made possible by The Holy Spirit.
Being filled with The Holy Spirit makes us joyful because it makes us feel safe. It gives us the knowledge of the freedom that awaits us. The Spirit of God in us keeps our "eyes on the prize" - the eternal life of happiness that is surely coming. Knowing that, and knowing it for certain, no doubts, makes any of this te mporary physical life's troubles seem less of a burden, less painful, less important.
Even in times of pain and unhappiness, there can still be joy of The Spirit. Paul and Silas, after being arrested, severely flogged and locked up in a small cell with their feet clamped into the stocks, still sang joyful hymns during that night. (Acts 16:22-25) They had the joy of The Spirit. And it didn't let them down - God sent them deliverance.
As you read this, why not let a little joy of The Holy Spirit out, and treat yourself to a joyful smile.
It feels good, doesn't it?
Fact Finder: Is joy one of the many fruits of the Holy Spirit?
(a) yes (b) no
Galatians 5:22
A brighter Day
God created humans with the ability to feel a wide range of emotions, from joyous happiness, to the darkest depression. It's a natural part of being human. Everyone has feelings, regardless of how obvious they may be. And sometimes, those feelings hurt. For some, the hurt goes on longer, and is more severe, than for others. People even take their own lives because of it, a tragedy that should absolutely never happen.
When God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness" (Genesis 1:26), that included emotions, high and low, that God Himself experiences. What? God experiences emotions other than happiness? According to your Bible, He most certainly does e.g. When humanity became corrupt by the time of Noah, "The Lord was grieved..." (Genesis 6:6)
Jesus Christ was as human as anyone who has ever lived. He knew joy and happiness of course, but He knew the other side as well. When Lazarus died, The Lord felt much grief (John 11:35). When He drove the money changers out of the Temple and overturned their tables, He was genuinely angry (John 2:15-17), though in a measured, self-controlled, righteous manner. He didn't just "lose it."
Been There, Done That
During His human lifetime, The Messiah experienced the full range of human sufferings:
"For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted." (Hebrews 2:17-18).
The prophet Isaiah described Him as a man with a heavy emotional burden:
"He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." (Isaiah 53:3).
Did Jesus experience depression from time to time? You bet He did, and the knowledge of His coming horrible crucifixion could only have weighed heavily on His mind constantly as well The night before His execution, the stress was so severe that He said, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." (Matthew 26:38)
But today, Jesus Christ is in Eternal Glory, just as we too will be when we have completed our time here.
Strength and Encouragement For Our Coming Glory
The Holy Bible is the greatest source of encouragement and hope for humanity.
"The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." (Romans 8:16-18)
"But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV)
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow m e all the days of my life: and I will dwell in The House of The Lord for ever." (Psalm 23:1-6 KJV)
"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)
Fact Finder: How could a loving and merciful God permit all of the troubles in this world?
See Why does God allow Suffering?
Freedom
We live in a very sinful world. The effects of all of the evil are felt by everyone, everywhere. No one is immune. And yet there is much hope - great hope!
The apostle Paul became one of the greatest Christians that ever lived, and yet he struggled endlessly with sin -
"When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law [see The Ten Commandments], but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:21-25)
Paul was not yet completely free. Neither are any of us - yet.
The good news is that sin, that is, satan, will soon have had his day. He will be defeated and imprisoned forever (Revelation 20:2-3,10). And then, when our change comes, we will be truly free in ways that we cannot now imagine. See Why Were You Born?
Fact Finder: What is it that Jesus Christ said will lead to our freedom?
John 8:31-32
Why does God allow Suffering?
The question is often asked, "If there is a God, a loving, merciful God, why does He allow people to suffer? How can He allow humans to experience the terrible accidents, illnesses, crime, wars and troubles that are so common in this world every day? Doesn't He care?"
God does care. He knows when humans suffer. But, let's remember, God isn't a mere human. He is God. His perspective is infinitely greater than ours. He sees the "bigger picture" - that our experiences as mortal humans, however painful or unhappy, will be to our eventual benefit. Make no mistake, the good and loving Creator would not allow such things to happen otherwise.
When a parent takes an infant to the doctor for a regular vaccination to prevent some childhood disease, it's because the parent cares for and loves that child. The young child however will almost always see things very differently. When the doctor's needle goes into that little arm, the child will often cry out and howl from the pain. It may look up at the parent, with those big innocent eyes, in the most pleading and pitiful way, as if to say, "Look at the horrible thing that's happening to me! Don't you care about my terrible suffering? How can you just stand there and allow this to go on? Don't you love me?"
The parent however knows better. He or she is aware that everything is going to be all right in a very short time (even though it almost always has an emotional impact on the parent to see the child distressed in such a way). A minor, brief pain is the price the child pays for a healthier life later.
Just as an infant cannot possibly understand the motives of its parent while it is still only a child, so too we cannot appreciably comprehend God's will for us while we are still as we are. It's a matter of perspective - the brief few years of a physical human lifetime, versus the eternity, time without end, that will follow.
God is our ultimate parent. He knows all about the problems we often have, but He also knows that our experiences with pain and suffering, along with all of the good experiences that we may have, will, among other things, help to make us more understanding and compassionate - necessary qualities for those who themselves may one day be granted the power to create worlds.
No human tragedy that has ever occurred is yet final. No one who has died an untimely death has been lost. None will be left out, from little ones who died in infancy to old ones who never had the chance to learn of God. Everyone will have a fair chance in their appointed time. God is not about to willingly abandon any of His children for whom the price of life has been paid. Loss will only occur as the result of a knowing, deliberate refusal to accept God's offer of life.
Jesus Christ Himself, when He died for our sins, did not die without terrible suffering. He did not die peacefully in His sleep. He was not executed by painless lethal injection. Even though He had lived a perfectly sinless life, and had committed no crime, He was brutally beaten, flogged and crucified in great agony before being gored with a spear.
Let's remember that even the longest human life is merely like a single grain of sand on the infinite beach of the eternal life to come. After we have become immortal, even a century of the worst human pain and suffering would seem to us as almost insignificant, a momentary jab with a vaccination needle, and we will surely be the better for having experienced it.
Fact Finder: What will follow the life of human suffering?
(a) death (b) nothing (c) more suffering (d) glory
Romans 8:18
Imagine...
"In the last days the mountain of The Lord's Temple will be established as chief among the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and people will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of The Lord, to The House of The God of Jacob. He will teach us His Ways, so that we may walk in His Paths.' The law will go out from Zion, The Word of The Lord from Jerusalem." (Micah 4:1-2)
"He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore." (Micah 4:3) (see In Flanders Fields)
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:1-4)
"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him. They will see His face, and His Name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for The Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:1-5)
Fact Finder: Does eternal glory await those who remain faithful?
Romans 8:18-19
Making sense of it All
If God intends for us to one day be spirit beings, why didn't He just create us that way to begin with? Why must we first go through a mortal existence that can sometimes include the troubles and sufferings (see Why does God allow Suffering?) that are so common in this world? Wouldn't it be easier if we just skipped the hard part and go straight to the glory?
Character Comes From Experience
Character cannot be instantly created. It comes from all of the experiences, good or bad, that we have had. If God created us as the spirit beings that we have the potential to become, without our physical phase, we would not be the same. We would be much less, in some ways merely an empty shell.
Our life now also enables us to develop the ability to "stick with it" when things get difficult. Just as we expect God to never quit on us, He expects us to never quit on Him -
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by The Holy Spirit, whom He has given us." (Romans 5:1-5)
God's Own Example
When Jesus Christ came to die for the sins of humanity, why did He bother to live a physical existence for over thirty years before fulfilling His mission? Why not have just let Herod kill Him as an infant? Why did He live a physical life, just as we have now, for so many years? The amazing answer is in your Bible -
"Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus The Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one Who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16)
It's been said that a good leader would not ask anything of his followers that he wouldn't do himself. Jesus Christ is The Absolute Good Leader. The Lord isn't expecting anything from us that He didn't require of Himself. He knows the struggle, because He has lived it - and fortunately for us, He never gave up.
Fact Finder: What does the Bible say about giving up on life?
Peace at Last
The GOOD NEWS - peace is coming. True, everlasting peace. No more wars. No more killing. No more grief. Humankind is going to find the happiness that it has sought for so long. We can all absolutely count on it!
The history of humanity has been the history of war. Anyone who reads of the past will soon be confronted by records of wars, big or small, short or long, among all peoples, everywhere on earth. Any day's news in our modern "enlightened" world is still filled by it. Human nature, with all of its wonderful genius and actual good that it does, is also just as violent as it has ever been, or perhaps more so, because now we have more powerful tools at our disposal for the conduct of war. (It has been said that a single commander of a nuclear submarine has more firepower available to him alone than the total all of the bombs and bullets fired by all countries during all the years of the Second World War!)
The Bible has much to say about wars, past, and future. Not because of the way it is, or because of the way God is, but because of the way we are. To ignore war's existence in the Bible would be dishonest; to deny war's existence in the Bible would be a lie.
And yet there is real hope. Things are going to eventually work out all right. Human nature is going to be changed, and even more importantly, The One who has the ability to make it all happen is coming back!
Consider:
"In the last days, the mountain of The Lord's Temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of The Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of The Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore." (Isaiah 2:2-4) (see The Kingdom of God)
Peace, true permanent peace is coming. Humanity's journey toward an end to all war is nearly complete. And to that, everyone on earth will one day say, "Thank God!"
Fact Finder: What are some of the fruits of The Holy Spirit?
(a) love (b) joy (c) peace (d) all of a,b,c
Galatians 5:22
The ugly Duckling
In the famous children's story, The Ugly Duckling from Grimm's Fairy Tales, there was once a young duckling that had difficulty living in the world that it found itself. Its size and appearance were not the same, and it behaved differently from the others. It was always friendly and good to everyone, but it just didn't fit into duck society. The ugly duckling was teased and rejected, and it was often quite sad because of it.
The time came however when a marvelous change occurred. The dull-grey awkward young bird developed into a beautiful white swan! It then found itself among many others of its own kind - a great many swans.
It turned out that it wasn't really ugly, because it wasn't really a duck. When those who used to make fun of it saw what had happened, they were amazed at how beautiful and glorious that it had become. There was then no more unhappiness, only love and respect.
People who try to live a good Christian life in what remains a very sinful world can sometimes experience life very much like that young swan before its change. Those who behave in a way that God would approve of may seem odd and unpopular for the time being. But, like the swan, the Christian's change will also one day come. And when it does, we too will be glorious.
Fact Finder: Did Jesus Christ say that those who obey Him would easily fit into the present sinful world, or would they sometimes have problems?
John 15:18-19
If you could create a World
Forever is a very long time. A million human lifetimes of a million years each would barely count as a beginning of forever.
"Heaven" (the English word translated from the original Bible words which meant either the sky, or outer space, depending on the context) is a very big place, perhaps infinite, perhaps destined to expand forever from the "big bang" creation event. See The Seven Days Of Creation. A journey at a million miles per hour for a million years would still not get us to very many of the places there are to go. There may be vastly more inhabitable planets orbiting the billions of stars than there are people who have ever lived.
If you add together this infinite amount of time, with the infinite amount of space that's out there, you get the potential for very much to do for a great many people - or rather, the spirit beings that we will one day become if we choose to accept God's offer of eternal life.
Does God plan to make us immortal "couch potatoes," sitting around doing nothing for all eternity? Such never-ending idleness and the resulting boredom would seem to fit the traditional idea of "hell" much more than "heaven."
On the other hand, is there a Plan, a Divine Purpose, for God to transform all the billions of mortal humans into immortal spirit beings as He has plainly stated that He is going to do? God does not do things in vain, and He did not create us in vain. Could it be that we are going to be sent out there as pioneers, settlers, creators of worlds?
Consider:
"The creation [i.e. the universe] waits in eager expectation for the sons [i.e. the transformed children, male and female] of God to be revealed [i.e. transformed to spirit beings]. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it [i.e. God halted its development until we are ready], in hope that the creation itself will be liberated [i.e. planets transformed from undeveloped, dry, lifeless hulks to living, breathing ecosystems] from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." (Romans 8:19-21)
Have you ever wondered how you would go about creating a world if sent out to do so? Why not give it some thought sometime, because there is a very real possibility that it could happen.
Fact Finder: Did the apostle Paul actually travel (bodily or in vision) into space and see "Paradise"?
2 Corinthians 12:2-4
A picture of Heaven
The term we know as heaven is the Old-English translation of the two original words in the Bible - the Hebrew word in the Old Testament is pronounced shaw-may, and the Greek word in the New Testament is pronounced oo-ran-aws. Both mean the same thing - either the sky, or the outer space above it, depending on what the writer was talking about at the time. Sky or space are quite accurate modern substitutes for heaven.
"The heavens are the work of Your Hands."
Psalm 102:25
* Stars are very hot spheres of gas (usually more than 90% hydrogen) that give off various forms of radiation, including light. The sun is an average-size star. Some stars are much smaller than the sun, others are millions of times bigger. Stars vary in color according to their surface temperature, from blue-white (the hottest at about 35,000 degrees) to white, yellow, orange, to red (the coolest at about 3,000 degrees). Stars are "born" from accumulating physical matter, live out their lives according to how much fuel they have, and then "die" - either by going cold and dark, or exploding (a supernova) when they no longer have the gravity to hold together. From the ejected matter, new stars will eventually be born.
* Constellations are merely chance alignments of stars that seem to draw an outline of something - a human, animal or an object. "The Big Dipper" (also known as "The Plow," or "The Wagon") is a familiar example (it is actually part of the constellation Ursa Major - the Big Bear). Some others (there are 88 "official" constellations) are Orion the Hunter, Leo the Lion, and Canis Major. There are thousands more that anyone can decide for oneself on any starry night. Some find the cross of orange stars in the above photograph quite beautiful.
* Galaxies are very large aggregations of stars, gas, dust, and physical matter. The "Milky Way," of which the sun is a member, has an estimated 200 billion stars (many of which are now known to have planets). Throughout the universe there are billions of galaxies.
Heaven is a very big place. There will be much to do when we are ready. See If You Could Create A World.
Fact Finder: Did the apostle Paul speak of how the stars of the heavens differ?
1 Corinthians 15:41
Note: Paul was very well qualified to make that statement. See 2 Corinthians 12:2-4
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