The Fruit of the Spirit is...Joy

I can't get it out of my head how the sermon on Sunday pushed up against the materials we're studying at Morning Blend...without even trying. This happens all the time. And, perhaps, it's because the story of redemption has themes that just match up all the time. Or, perhaps, it's because are ears are tuned to hear things when we're paying attention. Or, perhaps, the Creator is just making sure that we hear it over and over again in all kinds of places so that the message will stick.

Pastor Healy spoke on Sunday about keeping our oil lamps full...about paying attention to what fills the lamp so that, at a moment's notice, we are ready for the Bridegroom. So that, in fact, we never let it run empty. We don't leave the house without it. We don't put it off until later. And he mentioned the fruit that flows from a lamp full of oil - the fruit of the Spirit, of course. This is the very thing we're studying.

I was reminded of last year's study of One Thousand Gifts. And, it seems to me anyway, one of the ways that we receive oil for our lamps is through gratitude, which, in turn, brings joy. When we remember to be thankful our cup overflows with joy..."the oil of joy" (Isaiah 61).

This part of our study is so timely, also, as the season of Thanksgiving is upon us. If you haven't been over to Ann Voskamp's site in a while, it's worth checking out her thoughts on Thanksgiving: Why Thanksgiving is Radically Subversive {And Everything You Need to Have the Best Thanksgiving Yet}. I stumbled completely astonished upon these words in her post, which fit right in with Pastor Healy's sermon about the women waiting for the Bridegroom in Matthew 25, as though it was planned. Wow.

You can live your life as the bride married to Hurry, having affairs with Not Enough, Always Stress, and Easy Cynicism.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement, vowed to Awe Himself, covenanted to Christ –and I took the whole of everything He gave in this gloried world into my open arms with thanks.

And here's something we do at our house to remember to give thanks and to allow our lamps to fill with the oil of joy: Last year we started the tradition of writing gifts/gratitudes on decorated squares of paper throughout the month of November and dropping them in a jar. At the end of the season, we hole-punched the papers and put them on a ring. We hung it from a hook on our mantle all year. We've got the jar back out this month again, and we're counting our gifts again.

 

If you want to read more on our previous studies of joy, gifts, and gratitude, click the "Joy" or "One Thousand Gifts" labels on the sidebar. 

If You Can't Say It About Jesus...

Beth shared a link to this article with me today: If You Can't Say It About Jesus, Don't Say It About God. Jason Micheli brings some fresh thoughts and new perspective to the theology of trinity:

Think about how many people you’ve heard, after a natural disaster or a tragic death or the diagnosis of disease, say something like: ‘It’s God’s will.’

     Trinity means that for that to be a true statement you have to be able to remove ‘God’ and replace it with ‘Jesus.’

     Trinity means that it’s not a true statement unless you’re able to say:

 ‘My mom’s cancer was Jesus’ will.’

 ‘Hurricane Katrina was Jesus’ will.’

 ‘9/11 was Jesus’ will.’

     For Paul, Trinity functions not as a philosophical concept but as a grammatical rule. Trinity binds us to the character and story of Jesus.

     We can’t say or think or act like God hates ‘sinners’ because we know Jesus didn’t.

     We can’t say or think or act like God doesn’t care about the poor because we know Jesus did.

    We can’t say or think or act as if God is against our enemies because we know Jesus loved them.

Click the link above to read the entire article. It tells a great story...one that also relates to the "fruit" of love that we've been discussing most recently.

The fruit of the Spirit is...Love

Last week we discussed the various words for love in the Greek language, and I made mention of C.S. Lewis' book, The Four Loves. It turns out you can find the book online here: The Four Loves PDF. As always, Lewis is humorous, straightforward, and thoughtful. I've put off reading this book for a long time because I thought it would be overly academic. I was pleasantly surprised.

For a "Reader's Digest" overview of the book, I recommend this article: Reflections on Great Literature: C.S. Lewis The Four Loves. From the article:

Our natural loves ... can be likened to a garden that needs tending. They cannot be their beautiful selves without allegiance to God.  Contrary to Augustine, who exhorted apathy to everything except God (in a fit of grief), Lewis sticks to the recommendation of Jesus and Paul that we love others, even if it means suffering for it.  We should accept all loves, and offer them to God.  Our loves can be inordinate, or out of proportion; they need ordering.  The way to order them is to relate them to the Love that is God.

God transforms all of our natural loves towards perfection or the ideal.  This results in their unification.

We have discussed love, especially as it relates to grace and action, in previous Morning Blend studies, and I thought it would add to the discussion to link back to some previous posts:

Jesus: The Revolution of Love
Grace: Love is the Bottom Line

For similar posts, find the labels in the right sidebar and click, "Love."