Monday, April 26, 2010

The Love and Joy of Jesus

The Holy Spirit of God is one of pure love and joy. God gave this tremendous gift to keep us in the proper frame of mind regarding Christ Jesus in the life of the believer. We are to walk in the light of the Lord of our Salvation.

However, there are stories about people simply walking past other people in need without any concern or regard. There is one story whereas one person was being robbed with a knife and another person went to help. This person was stabbed and no one helped him as he died on the street. There were a large number of people who walked by him as he laid there dying. Not one person did anything.

We live in a world where the love of Jesus may be hard to find. We pray for all of the people involved. The robber, the robbed and the poor person who gave their life. Yet more importantly the people who simply walked by and did nothing. We pray that the Holy Spirit will indeed speak to our hearts and fill us with the Christ-likeness to do what is proper in the sight of the Lord. All this is for the love and joy of Jesus in your life.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

The Joy of Jesus is LOVE

Sermon: The Joy of Jesus is all about love. We see that love has lost a great deal of meaning in today's society. People mistake love with lust and wants. Jesus spoke of a love of sacrifice, one of giving and sharing and of compassion.

The Joy of Jesus believes in what God said and what God does to advance the kingdom of heaven. We must return to loving one another as Jesus loves.

Jesus gave His life on the cross for our sins. Jesus was beaten and shed His blood for people who did not deserve such favor. Jesus will return with all power, honor and glory.

We must love one another as God has loved us with His grace. We thank God for His grace in Christ jesus. The power that raise Jesus from the grave will also save us who believe that this is true by faith. Praise God for all spiritual blessings in the Joy and love of Jesus.Hear our prayer in Jesus name, A-men.

Scripture:
John 15

King James Bible

1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. 23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Three Reasons for The Joy of Jesus Church

What are the three things in life that are important regarding your heart and soul? There are so many issues that tear at our attention. We are living in a world where the media bombards us with millions of messages that have nothing to do with ones soul. Jesus offers a new life. Faith, Hope and Love are three important steps toward heaven.

We are to wrap ourselves in Hope, Faith and Love of Jesus Christ. God so loved the world that he gave us Jesus, in him we find that our faith will result in eternal life.

The Bible is so rich in love. Jesus gave His life on the cross for our sins. God raised Him on the third day with all power, honor and glory. We thank God in Christ Jesus until his return.

Meanwhile, what are we to do until the return of Jesus? We are to wrap our ourselves in The joy of Jesus with Faith, hope and love, We are to love Jesus because He first loved us. Praise god for all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus and to His absolute Joy.

The Joy of Jesus is all about Hope, Faith & Love


Corinthians 13 >>
New Living Translation

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Love Is the Greatest

1If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;a but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8Prophecy and speaking in unknown languagesb and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

11When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.c All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.


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Footnotes:
a 13:3 Some manuscripts read sacrificed my body to be

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Happy Earth Day from The Joy of Jesus

Genesis 1
The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.


Footnotes:
a.Genesis 1:2 Or possibly became
b.Genesis 1:26 Hebrew; Syriac all the wild animals

The Joy of Jesus is to Wait on The Lord


Wait on the LORD

Wait on the Lord. This idea consists of three things:
1. We are to WAIT
2. He is LORD
3. He forms, builds, causes, works, does, teaches, leads.

Psalms 25:3 Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

(Those who do not wait are transgressing without cause. We run out of patience, and therefore lose trust in Him. Anything that is not of faith is sin.)


Psalms 25:5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

(Our waiting starts when we arise and ends when we go to sleep. We are waiting to be lead and taught. Instruction means correction. When we encounter attributes in others that we do not like, it is to show us what we are like. Not waiting results in not seeing.)


Psalms 25:21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

(Integrity is a "united heart," a heart with one Lord.)


Psalms 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

(Wherever we are in the process of our salvation, waiting is our task. He will not fail to teach us.)


Psalms 37:7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

If ones we know seem to prosper in their own way, do not be concerned. The end of each matter takes time. The fool is "prosperous." Prosperity does not refer merely to money, but to "happiness," an elusive thing which is lost when sought. We do not "try Jesus" to be happy. Jesus is our Lord, not our hobby. He changes us radically. Radical change does not make one "happy." Radical change causes you to reject YOUR OWN WAY.

We must cease performing and start RESTING. Resting and waiting go together. If we are not resting, we can not wait. The Lord provided a remedy for the sins of man BEFORE he created man. This should make us to rest in Him. He provides before the need exists.


Psalms 37:9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.

Psalms 37:34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

Psalms 52:9 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.

Psalms 62:5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

Psalms 69:3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

Psalms 104:27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.

Psalms 106:13 They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:

Psalms 130:5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

Psalms 130:6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

Proverbs 20:22 Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.

Isaiah 8:17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.

Isaiah 25:9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Isaiah 26:8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

Isaiah 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

Isaiah 33:2 O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 59:9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

Isaiah 64:4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

Jeremiah 14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.

Lamentations 3:25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

Lamentations 3:26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

Hosea 12:6 Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

Micah 7:7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

Zephaniah 3:8 Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.

Zechariah 11:11 And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD.

Romans 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Romans 12:7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;

2 Thessalonians 3:5 And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Those that are busy never truly KNOW God.



By the way, the LORD picked this very chapter to say BE STILL and KNOW that HE is GOD.

In the King James Bible, the 46th word from the top of chapter 46 is shake and the 46th word from the bottom of the 46th chapter is spear . Now in 1611, Shakespeare was 46 years old.

He truly IS God and therefore we ought to wait on Him.


How is a Man Saved?




Jesus-is-the-Way John 14:6

"I am the way, the truth, and the life" - Jesus Christ

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Joy of Jesus is doing The Will of God

Lesson 9
Doing God’s Will
The Bible must be our only authority in religion if we want to please God and go to Heaven. People must give up all the various false doctrines that propagate the many different kinds of denominations and go back to only the Bible. There were no denominations in the New Testament times and there would be none today if only the Bible was taught and practiced. There would only be the Lord's one true church, the church of Christ.

How then do we make sure that we are among the few who are saved and not among the many who are lost? Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness". If you believe and call Jesus, "Lord, Lord", you are still lost if you have not done what God says. If we are not obeying God, we are practicing lawlessness. If we ever hope to go to heaven, we must do the will of the Father. This is the only way. Not the will of men, but God’s will. Not our own will, but God’s will. Just because we call Jesus our Lord, this will not save us.

We cannot go to Heaven by just calling Jesus, "Lord, Lord". Jesus says in the above scripture, on the Day of Judgment, many will be pleading with him, calling him Lord, Lord, and reminding him of the many wonderful works they had done in His name, but He will say unto them, "I never knew you, depart from Me you who practice lawlessness". Why? Why? Because they had not done the will of the Father in heaven. Oh, they thought they had, but they hadn’t. They had done their own will or the will of men in their many differing denominations. This will be the worst thing that will ever be said to an individual, when the Lord on Judgment Day says to the majority of people, "I never knew you; depart from Me". The majority of people will be told this and be punished forever in Hell. There will be no appeal to this decision. There will be no second chance. We have to get it right the first time.

These people in the above scripture seemed to be honest, but they were honestly mistaken as the majority of people are today. The people seemed to be sincere. There will be many surprised but lost people on the Day of Judgment who thought that it doesn't really matter what you believe as long as you are sincere. To believe this is to believe a lie of Satan. If it doesn't matter what you believe, then it doesn't matter if you believe at all. Apparently many were good people, because they had "done many wonderful works". But they had not done the will of the Father who is in heaven. Man generally wants to do things his way and he doesn't really care what God thinks. We cannot obey God without doing what God says to do, when God says to do it, how God says to do it, and for the reason God says to do it. Nothing is more important than pleasing God by doing His will so that we can go to Heaven.

We learn from the above scripture, that we don't go to Heaven by doing the will of men, or by doing what we think is right. The only way we can go to Heaven is by doing the will of the Father, and that will is found right in our Bibles. Do we really know what the will of the Father is so that we can be sure of going to Heaven? This is too important a matter to assume we do know or to take someone else’s word for it. One must know what the will of God is before he can obey it. Do you really know what the Bible says that God wants us to do in order to be saved?

What must I do to be saved? This is a very important question. Many people would answer this question in many different ways. The many different denominations give many different and conflicting answers. Only God's way is correct. The Bible is the only reliable source we can go to for our answer, since it is our soul that will be lost if we follow man's advice. Our obedience to Christ is a very serious decision and must not be taken lightly. It must be on the Lord's terms as laid out in the scriptures and not on our terms.

We have already seen in Matthew 7:13-14, 21, only few will be saved, and many will be lost, and only those who do the will of the Father can go to Heaven. We read in 1 John 2:4, "He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." "A liar" is pretty strong language. A person is lying to himself and everyone else who says he knows and loves God, but does not keep God's commandments. We know that a liar cannot go to Heaven (Revelation 21:8).

We must do all of God's will, so that we can go to Heaven. There is no other way. We must do all of what God has commanded us. Our Lord says in Matthew 28:20, “Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” We must do all things God has commanded us. We cannot pick and choose and take a verse out of context but we must take all of what the Bible says. We cannot be pleasing to God by dreaming up our own plan of salvation as to how God is going to save us. We must follow His plan and only His plan if we expect Him to save us. Our salvation in Heaven is too great to lose, because if we don’t go to Heaven we will spend forever and ever in a burning Hell. Many people don’t really believe this, but they all will one day.

No single condition, that God imposes, can be ignored. God has no non-essential commands. When we don't obey a command of God, we have just broken it. Many people think that God will save them, no matter if they follow God's specific instructions on what they must do to be saved or not. We must obey God by doing what God says to do, when God says to do it, how God says to do it, and for the reason God says to do it. What then is God's will, so that we can go to Heaven and not have to endure eternal punishment forever and ever? We will find the answer in the Bible in the following lessons.


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Questions Lesson 9

Doing God's Will
(click on the button of the answer of your choice)

1) (Matthew 7:21) How do we go to heaven?
By doing our will.

By doing man's will.

By doing God's will.


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2) All who call Jesus their Lord will be saved.


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3) (Matthew 7:21) Those who call Jesus, Lord, Lord

Will all go to heaven.

Many of which will not go to heaven.

Will all be pleasing to the Lord.


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4) On Judgment Day many will be vainly pleading with Jesus to be saved.


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5) (Matthew 7:23) What is the worse thing one can hear on Judgment Day?

Welcome to heaven.

That heaven has no more room.

Depart, I never knew you.


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6) If we haven't done the will of God, we will not go to heaven even if we have done many good works.


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7) (1 John 2:4) If I say I know and love God, but I do not keep His commandments,

I am telling the truth.

I am a liar.

God will overlook it.


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8) One is telling the truth if he says he loves and knows God but does not keep His commandments.

The Word of God