JOY-SING! REJOICE! CELEBRATE! WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE.

The water dripping down the window formed a cross, so odd yes, but it caught my eye.

It's Holy Week and there it even looked as if there were two streaks next to the cross and to me represented the two thieves next Jesus. 
I grabbed my camera and took a picture of it. Here it is:

Fascinating. 

God reminding me, I AM HERE. Stay close to the cross daily and learn from the creator Jesus, who is gentle and humble at heart. He loves you!

The foundation of the temple had not been laid. The resources came and the Israelites went to work laying the floor. As they worked with praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

"He is good; His love to Israel endures forever."

"And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord and shouted for a JOY, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of JOY from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away!" Ezra 3:11-13😊😊

When I witness the sightings of God and I find myself rejoicing! I pray I just don't miss the sightings!

I am loving this JOY ride as I witness the Israelites having a right relationship with God and they rejoice. Shout for JOY! They are aware!

Friends, do you want to experience this. It is the practice of gratitude. It is simply put JOY! Grace is radically and JOYFULLY God-centered.

Prayer:

Father in heaven thank you for taking me on this JOY ride. I am enjoying the sightings I am seeing! Amen.

 

At the completion of the temple the people of Israel celebrated the dedication of the house of God with JOY! For seven days they celebrated with JOY the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because the Lord had filled them with JOY by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria, so that he assisted them in the work on the house f God, the God of Israel.

JOY ALWAYS follows when you are in communion with God! A right relationship is always JOY!

Ezra continues, "For seven days they celebrated with joy." Ezra 6:22

"The king had granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him." Ezra 7:6

JOY-GREAT JOY IN JERUSALEM

 King Hezekiah had much to rejoice about in his reign. So the service of the temple of the Lord was reestablished. Hezekiah and the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for His people, because it was done so quickly.

I love that God did restored joy so quickly to the Israelites. There obedience and willingness to draw near to God brought peace among their nation. 

Hezekiah only asked that the people come back to the Lord the God of their fathers. A very loud crowd assembles in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Rejoicing they sang to the Lord every day, accompanied by the Lord's instruments of praise. They rejoiced so much so that they agreed to stay seven more days; so for another seven days they celebrated joyfully. 

The entire assembly of Judah rejoiced, along with the priests and Levites and all who had assembled from Israel, even others from different lands. There was GREAT JOY IN JERUSALEM. Since the days of Solomon (maybe the time they rejoiced over the temple building, I wrote about recently) there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. 

The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them for their prayer reached heaven his holy dwelling place. 

How amazing that we can know because of this story that our prayers reach heaven God's holy dwelling place. 

Expect peace in your land when we faithfully follow Christ. Troubles come and go but the Lord is steady and reliable.

As we come to Easter. Let us remember events that happened surrounding the death of Jesus.

Before, during, after.

Each part of the story is valuable and relevant for our everyday life. As we look at the characters, what they were doing, what was going on in the culture, what Jesus accomplished with the disciples all play the part of the story. Jesus surrounded himself with women who evangelized and proclaimed the His coming. All worth noting for us today.

Let's pray:  Father in heaven may your kingdom come again. May we see the daily will for our life. May we walk faithfully with you. Amen.

JOY-INEXPERIENCED

 Isolation can lead to not only loneliness, feeling worthless, lack of hope. When no positive words are spoken by those around you it can fester or make your thoughts worse. Have you ever experienced that?

This is a whole inner chamber of work that can only be filled by one. I am being serious. Going for a walk, meditation, work-out high helps a bit, but really it's keeping on track with what God says about life through His son Jesus. I speak from my inexperience that now I have learned to experience. Inner workings of your soul in the form of  time management. Time management can be hard for me. Maybe you can identify with this picture in my head...picture a ball of yarn, each strand wound around becomes a hard messy ball. It doesn't form anything. If you took the yarn apart and orderly began to make something it will make sense. Hmmm...am I confusing you?

But if each strand had part of this verse on it and we took them and put them together in order it will sense of what God says about life and time.

One strand....I meet Jesus at the cross, I look up and listen to the story of the cross and the reason it happened. Another strand...you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 

Significant to note the word SET! Next strand...set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

There is that word SET again. Set your heart, Set your mind. But how? 

Next strand...for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. I'm hidden...concealed, kept secret. I'm His hidden secret. Picture you are hidden with Jesus and He is directing and giving order to this messy strand. 

The strands are starting to make something. The strands put in order have the words...LET HIM all over it. Let Him...fill you up...feed you...let Him speak to you...show you...guide you...let Him care for the world...let Him care for you...let Him love you. Will you just let Him? I think I will have to draw this and get back to you so it will make it clearer.

When I am hidden with Him I am a new creation, When He comes back I will appear with Him in glory. Hallelujah! Amen. 

Prayer: Lord I will let you! Help me to not take back control. Amen.

Joy journey continue...1 Chronicles 29 the word JOY appears two times. Rejoice appears twice. David is told by the Lord that His INEXPERIENCED SON, Solomon will be made the next King and he will build the temple for the Lord. Yikes. NOT King David! But Why? That is a messy ball of yarn. Yet David excepts the architectural plans for the temple. He presents it to Solomon, saying, "The Lord will not fail you. He will will present the courage, materials, money and people to get the temple done. He takes the messy ball of yarn (temple dream, ideas) and pulls out each strand (plan, detail) he gives it to the inexperienced  young man, Solomon (In 1 Chronicles 29:1 he calls Solomon inexperienced). King David explains this to the people and they REJOICED at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the king also REJOICED greatly! (CELEBRATE!) God fulfills the plans, materials, money, volunteers and David cries out, " I have seen with JOY HOW WILLINGLY YOUR PEOPLE WHO ARE HERE HAVE GIVEN TO YOU! Oh Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you. The people ate and drank with great JOY in the presence of the Lord that day.

The story of now and the story of David merge to tell us to LET HIM! Give him control. Can you do that? In fact He wants to unwind the string and make something beautiful.

Nothing is easy, but us inexperienced people have the ball of yarn and God will pull out each strand and make sense of the ball. He will bring it to something. He will help you to flourish. Really!

JOY-BY THE POWER OF THE CROSS

 It was a blue sky day and I walking on a mile long loop at a forest preserve. It was spring and the path was either drenching wet, at some point maybe to deep for my boots, snowy, or dry. I breathed deep determined to finish the loop despite the changes in the path. I almost slipped at one point but held my ground. Do you know what its like when you have to look at each step you take? It really feels as if I missing out of the surroundings because I have to cautiously look but oh how glorious when you come to a stretch that is smooth and safe. I can rest and just take in the warmth and sights in. That was my chance to find joy no matter what I came upon.

Isn't life just like that where you can be tossed to and fro? I just want the path to be smooth and really I don't want to twist an ankle. I was thinking about this as I walked. Walking, believing you are strong, you have a brain to consider the steps. More importantly you know Christ is with you in Spirit.  Or do you remember that in the moments? 

In my JOY journey I how David in 1 Chronicles 15 had been preparing to bring the Ark to the place God instructed Him. God arranged a procession where the Levite priests who lead the way and all the Israelites would follow and also He appointed singers to sing JOYFUL songs accompanied by musical instruments. When they were walking they sang thanks to the Lord; Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord REJOICE! Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and JOY in his dwelling place. Then the trees of the forest will sing, they will sing for JOY before the Lord. 

The first time they took the Ark it didn't work because they did not follow God's instructions. Now they did and it was JOYFUL. 

Prayer:  Help us to not get entangled emotionally when paths are rough. Let us remember you are with us and will guide us in your JOY and strength. Amen.

Triumphing over evil powers and authorities by the power of the cross.