“If it is not about Jesus, it’s not about anything”
Motto of the
Fountain of Life
Psalm 100:1. Shout for joy to the Lord all
the earth…Serve the Lord with gladness.”
Matthew
Henry wrote, “By holy joy we do really serve God. Gospel-worshippers should be joyful
worshippers.”
Brethren,
when the Fountain of Life has a Thanksgiving dinner or a Mother’s Day
breakfast, I really feel good. Senior
Pastor Rev. Todd Crouch always advises the congregation that if they want to
eat anything they must get to the kitchen before I do. Yes, there is gladness, happiness, and
joy. Services seem filled with lively
hymns and filled with the moving of the spirit in the preaching and anticipation
of fellowship in the dining area. I
really love those sit down dinners with the congregation and guests. Likewise, when Miriam and the Israelite women
danced and sang in Exodus 15:20 they were joyful and happy. Imagine the joy and happiness of the 70
elders when they ate and drank in the presence of the Lord on Sinai (Exodus 24:11). At the marriage feast in Canaan (John 2:1)
Jesus and the disciples surely had a good time and were joyful and happy.
BUT…Brethren,
humanly speaking sometimes we don’t feel happy or glad when serving our Great
God, as the Psalm says we should. Do we
ever hide our sorrow and pretend to be happy just because people expect GOOD
Christians to be happy all the time? Sometimes
we experience what Rev. Crouch calls “A Dark Night of the Soul.” He wrote, “…we
can agree that all of us…will pass through times that truly seem to be ‘Dark
Nights of the soul’, when God appears to be so distant and removed, we feel so
alone and abandoned. Our Spiritual moorings are shaken, we feel adrift.” (Read Rev. Crouch’s complete teaching
in the August 2012 dropdown box on this web page.) During those times do any of us experience
the joy of Jesus Christ in our lives?
There
are Christians who begin to feel guilty if they are not positive and upbeat all
the time. They begin to feel bad about
feeling bad. They begin to feel that
they have failed Jesus in their witness for Him and guilt accelerates their
downward emotional spiral. Personal
tragedy is real and Christians are not exempt from it. However, holy joy is also real and it exists
in the difficult times too. Remember
Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail (Acts 16)? Remember Jesus imparting His joy to the
disciples on the night before His death (John 15:11)? I want that joy. But what is it really? How can I get it? More importantly, how can I know I really
have it if I can’t always feel it?
Logic of Grace
The Logic of
Perspective
The Logic of
Spirit
The Logic of
Dynamic Eternity
Associated
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:18: “While
we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen: for the things which are seen are
temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
The Logic of
Grace: We are made in the image and likeness of God
and given the ability to think and to reason.
This ability is based largely from our sense perceptions and human
thought perspectives, which are bound by the limitations of space and time. Centuries of human activity have proven human
reason to be a workable and largely reliable tool in providing a rational
understanding of reality. Nonetheless,
we do not humanly understand many of the mysteries of God. And perhaps, because of our limits we may
woefully underestimate the power of God to rationally resolve the mysteries
which divide many congregations.
[Side
Point: Brethren, it is important to
remember that human reason of even the most excellent quality never leads to
salvation. The importance of rational
thought is this: Irrational thought does
not produce faith; 1 Corinthians 14:33, “God is not the author of
confusion.” If I may offer a free
rendering. “God is not the author of
irrationality.” Therefore, none of the
mysteries of God are irrational. While
not understandable, they are apprehensible; they are rational, and therefore
the substance of saving faith.]
 |
| Theologian Elmer Colyer |
CAUTION: Dear reader, please take note that these
three tools are not found defined in any book of theology of which I am
aware. There is no referable body of
authority behind them. They are not
presented here as dogma or doctrine.
They are submitted here as a dialogue with you about Joy for your
consideration in an attempt to present and to resolve some difficult issues and
remain true to Biblical teachings.
The
Logic of Perspective:
Excerpted from the article “Filling of the Spirit” Part 2 of 6 found on
this web FOL page on the May 8, 2013 drop down tab.
“Perspective is an
important element in understanding anything.
A meteorologist in Pittsburgh, looks up into a clear night sky and sees
a bright full moon setting in the west.
At the same time a meteorologist in Honolulu looks into an overcast sky
and sees a reddish moon rising in the east.
The same moon, the same absolute time, the same absolute position in
space, the same profession yet two different perspectives offer two very
different interpretations for weather forecasts. Perspective is vitally important in
understanding the Bible. For example in
1 John 1:8 the Apostle says that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
Yet in 1 John 3:9 John states that “whoever is born of God doth not
commit sin.” In chapter 1 John presents man from the perspective of a temporal
fallen man who lives in the present time on earth and through original sin is
in bondage to his fallen nature and sins daily, and desperately needs a
Savior. In chapter 3 John presents the
same man from God’s perspective. The
LORD sees the regenerated man who even now lives in eternity and through Jesus
death and resurrection is free eternally from sin and because of Jesus God
“Hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). That man
is now, today, eternally present in Jesus and sharing in Jesus’ life and that
man can no longer sin. The same man from
two perspectives yields two true yet different meanings.”
The Logic of Spirit: It explores spiritual dimensions that
transcend unregenerate human understanding; the things seen and things unseen. For example 1 John 4:16 says that God is
love. Humanly speaking we view this
statement as a metaphor which indicates God’s expression of benevolent
affection and care for us which we see.
But the Logic of Spirit understands this as a declaration of God’s
ontology, His essence, His being, which we do not see. It is not a metaphorical statement but a
literal one. In other words the Logic of
Spirit says that God does not have or express perfect love, but rather; God’s own
being is perfect love, God’s essence is love. The Logic of Spirit also gives meaning to
Jesus’s apparently contradictory saying in Mark 5:35, “Whoever will save his
life will lose it; but whosoever shall loose his life for my sake and the
gospel’s, the same shall save it.”
The Logic of Dynamic Eternity: This introduces a transcendent
view of time which expands our understanding of spiritual events and processes. “He declares from the beginning things which
have not been done,” Isaiah 46:10. This
means that He views things which do not yet exist in our space time continuum
as already existing; Romans 4:17, “(God) calleth those things which be not as
though they were.” He does that because
His omnipotent decrees are irresistible.
Also, the eternal life of Jesus inhabits Eternity (Isaiah 57:15) bringing
with it dynamic omnipotent power. An illustration
of Dynamic Eternity may be that it is like an electric wire and a live wire which
are similar but entirely different. A
wire may be discussed, dissected, spliced, coiled etc. It is inert and lifeless and somewhat useless. But a live wire contains the power of
electricity and is active and powerful.
It may not be cut or spliced. If
it is coiled it produces magnetism. Both
wires appear the same, but the live wire is just that; it is alive with dynamic
power. Eternity and Dynamic Eternity may
be viewed like the wire and the live wire.
Eternity may be discussed, dissected, debated etc. As a concept it is understandable, inert and
lifeless. But Dynamic Eternity contains
the eternal life of Jesus. That life
makes Eternity come alive with dynamic power and force. Dynamic Eternity enters into our lives with
life altering effect.
An example is our view of the great
events of salvation history. Consider
the Resurrection of Jesus. Humanly
speaking we view the Resurrection as a point in History. It is the necessary salvific event which
occurred in the timeline of history on a Sunday, three days after the
Crucifixion. However brethren, consider
a statement written by Pastor Todd Crouch in his June 25th, 2013
article on this FOL web page “A Time to Mourn.”
Jesus speaks to Martha, the sister of
Lazarus. In John 17:25 He tells her; “I
am the Resurrection and the life.” Rev.
Crouch wrote, “Jesus speaks of the Resurrection as it being who He is, not just
an event but who He is. Jesus tells her and us all, even before His own
resurrection occurs; that means His resurrection only demonstrates what is
and has eternally been true.”
The Logic of Dynamic Eternity shows
the Resurrection as much more than a static event on the timeline of history; but
also as a dynamic living present which is continuing in and through Jesus even
yesterday, today, and forever.
Let
us now return to our question and ask, what is joy when viewed from the Logic
of Spirit and Dynamic Eternity? How can
I get it? Certainly it is the fruit of
the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22), therefore it is real. How can we get it? By having the Holy Spirit indwell us through
Baptism of the Spirit. That means that born
again people always have joy and they know it because of the Logic of
Spirit. Joy has a spiritual dimension which
is very real and may or may not manifest itself as emotional
happiness. We can’t work up this joy under
own power. As a spiritual element, the Logic
of Spirit dictates that spiritual joy be imputed to us. Imputed how?
The fruit of the Holy Spirit includes joy. The Holy Spirit’s being, His essence, His
life is infused with joy. It is a part
of His being not a description of a divine attribute. Therefore where the Holy Spirit is, this
fruit is also there in Him. If the Holy
Spirit is in us, the joy that resides in Him is also resides in us. We don’t have to work up the joy, to show it
and feel it in order to become Christians.
Nor do we have to show and feel joy to remain good Christians. Once again, because our perceptions are
physical and this aspect of joy is spiritual we may or may not physically
discern it. Since happy emotions may or
may not associate with the fruit, emotions cannot define the fruit.
Sometime
we feel love and joy and peace. Other
times we do not feel them. Should we be
concerned when we don’t feel it? No! Why not? Spiritual things about sin and Jesus and the
Resurrection are foolishness to carnal man.
Spiritual things include the fruit of the Spirit such as joy. You can’t confess nor believe these spiritual
things unless the Holy Spirit lives in you (I John 4:2). You
don’t have to feel Him to confess He is with you. He is there because you can’t confess Him if
He is not there. You know this because
when the Spirit of God lives in us that means that we understand the spiritual
things of God, which the unregenerate mind cannot understand. If we understand these things that means He is
residing in us and that His joy imputes to us because He is in us.
What
happens when we mix spiritual understanding with carnal understanding? The Logic of Spirit may call for us to
rethink our natural presuppositions.
Consider Hebrews 11:3, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of
things which do appear.” Let us apply
that concept of things seen and unseen to John 20:26. “The doors being shut, then came Jesus and
stood in the midst of them.” Our natural
paradigm here is that the doors were the substance, the reality. They were the things seen, the solid
thing. And Jesus’ resurrected Body was
like a vapor or a mist or an ectoplasm passing through or around the solid doors. The radical yet perhaps correct view is that
Jesus, His body, was the substance, the true reality. His body was the solid thing, not the doors. The doors did not splinter or explode when He
passed through them because the doors to His resurrected body were as a vapor or
a mist would be to us. In like manner,
our physical world, our bodies are as a vapor compared to the spirit world and
resurrected bodies. Spirit, the word of
God, is the ultimate foundation of all creation; it is the ultimate substance;
therefore Spirit is the ultimate reality.
In
like manner Spirit is the ultimate consciousness. We are totally depraved. That does not mean that we are utterly
depraved. It means, rather, that
original sin effected our total being.
It attached to every corner of our existence, not one part was
spared. Original sin did not split our
personalities or make us schizophrenic. But
it did badly damage the relationship and functioning of our spiritual and
physical consciousness with each other.
And the effects of that corruption remain even in born again
Christians. Therefore, we cannot physically
see Him today yet he says that He will be with us always (Matthew 28:20). We know that one day we shall see Jesus as He
is because we will be like Him (1 John 3:2).
That day our total consciousness will be healed. We have a spiritual life right now with Jesus
seated in Heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6)*. Yes, Jesus is with you right now, but you
don’t see Him, yet your spirit does see Him because it is conscious of the
spiritual things concerning Him. The
incomprehensible power of His life enables this mystery to be true. Therefore we may not physically feel His joy,
but our spirit does feel it, does experience it.
[* Side point submitted as a dialogue with
you, not as doctrine: Some Christians
believe in the doctrine of Soul Sleep and ask; how can this be? Soul Sleep does not affect the Logic of Dynamic
Eternity concerning the reality of our current presence in the Heavenly places
(Ephesians 1:20). That is because the
dynamic life of Christ inhabiting eternity is a power beyond our
comprehension. When it is applied to our
concepts of death and time it yields radical results beyond our comprehension,
but not beyond our apprehension and most importantly, not in opposition to
Scripture. Our position is forever in
the living Christ. Our position in Christ
is continual not intermittent: Romans
5:8, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We are in Christ literally, not
metaphorically. That is true whether we
are conscious or not; whether we understand how it works or not. Through the power of Jesus’ life we are there
at the throne of God with Jesus yesterday, today and forever because Jesus exercises
His Kingly and Messianic office from before eternity past, throughout today and
beyond forever (Hebrews 13:8) and we exist in and through Him yesterday, today,
and forever. Just as God will not be who
He is without us (See
the September 2012 article “Who Are You Lord?” on this web page) wherever Jesus
is we are. Whenever Jesus is we are and
Jesus is yesterday, today and forever.]
Miriam
and the women saw their deliverance from Egypt and sang and danced and played
the tambourines to the Lord. Miriam and
the women felt spiritual joy with lively human happy emotions. At times we may physically experience this
spiritual joy. At times we may not even
realize that we have it. The tax
collector in the Temple prayed, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.” His head was bowed and he went home
justified. The tax collector did not
feel his joy in the manner of Miriam, but he had the joy. We know because the scripture says he went
home justified. How does your spirit
feel when God justifies you? Blessed
and joyful! How do you feel when you get
a complement from your boss or teacher or spouse or child; when they justify
you? Good I bet. You feel blessed and joyful.
Consider
the blessings found in the Sermon on the Mount:
For example, blessed are the peacemakers. Christ is not saying, “If you do these things
you will become converted and be saved.”
Those who do the beatitudes are already converted. The beatitudes list qualities of holy
righteous character, which is possible only through the in dwelling of the Holy
Spirit. When the Holy Spirit lives in your temple (your body - 1 Corinthians
3:16) you are blessed and your spirit is joyful…Yes, even if your body does not
feel happy. For example: Blessed are those persecuted for
righteousness sake. Honestly,
persecution is not happy, warm or fuzzy, and to avidly seek it is
abnormal. However, Paul and Silas in the
Philippian jail were persecuted for preaching Jesus, beaten in their bodies,
but their spirits sang psalms. In that
jail, they were blessed; they were joyful.
Joy is spiritual nevertheless it is very real. Blessedness is a wonderful yet overlooked
joyful state.
Blessedness
Let’s
look more closely at the Sermon on the Mount:
When
you study think of it as divided into four sections:
1.
Relationship
of the subjects of the kingdom to self (Matt. 5:1-16 (The beatitudes)
2.
Relationship
of the subjects of the kingdom to law (17-48)
3.
Relationship
of the subjects of the kingdom to God (Matt. 6)
4.
Relationship
of the subjects of the kingdom to others (Matt. 7)
Blessed
is the word which precedes each beatitude.
Blessed is the Greek word “makarios”.
Among its several meanings are:
receiving God’s favor; good (in a position of favor); happy (feelings
associated with receiving God’s favor).
It is translated 44 times as blessed, 4 times as good, once as fortunate
and once as happier.
Blessedness
is a condition that exists over and above our will or works. Blessing exists in
anything receiving of God’s favor:
Proverbs 3:33, “The Lord blesses the home of the righteous.” Ex. 23:25, “worship the Lord and he will
bless your food and water.” How much
more does the gospel knowledge of salvation in Jesus Christ show God’s ultimate
favor toward us? Because we are included
in Jesus the Holy Spirit is in us. Where
the Holy Spirit is, His blessing is there; it is our blessing; His joy is
there; it is our joy too. The Holy Spirit
draws us up into the great dance (perichoresis) which He shares with the Father
and the Son in the Trinity. Trinitarian
theology sees this ministry of the Spirit as relational and inclusional. That means that regardless of the events in
our lives, no matter how dark a night of our soul, the earnest of His joy is in
us like a glowing ember waiting to blaze forth.
Our joy is that The Holy Spirit has given us the earnest of a new birth
by grace through faith. Living by faith
we see in the beatitudes a glimpse into the higher spiritual life. And as good sons of our heavenly Father, we
strive to please Him and emulate that higher life. Brethren, what does pleasing
God mean except that we bring joy to Him too.
Rev.
George Relic, Assistant Pastor
Fountain
of Life Church
2021 Old National Pike
Washington, Pa 15301
A
congregation of Grace Communion International
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