Paul
Break Every Chain
Open Up The Heavens (Floodgates)
This Is Amazing Grace
Sweetly Broken (To the cross I look)
Jesus You're More Than A Friend (In the quiet of my soul)
Jon
16 “A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.” 17 Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying to us, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18 They said, “What does he mean by this ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” 19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’? 20 Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. 22 So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
John 16:16-22 (NSRV)
1 Does not wisdom call,
and does not understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
4 “To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all that live.
5 O simple ones, learn prudence;
acquire intelligence, you who lack it.
6 Hear, for I will speak noble things,
and from my lips will come what is right;
7 for my mouth will utter truth;
wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are righteous;
there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
9 They are all straight to one who understands
and right to those who find knowledge.
10 Take my instruction instead of silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold;
11 for wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
12 I, wisdom, live with prudence,
and I attain knowledge and discretion.
13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.
14 I have good advice and sound wisdom;
I have insight, I have strength.
15 By me kings reign,
and rulers decree what is just;
16 by me rulers rule,
and nobles, all who govern rightly.
17 I love those who love me,
and those who seek me diligently find me.
18 Riches and honor are with me,
enduring wealth and prosperity.
19 My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,
and my yield than choice silver.
20 I walk in the way of righteousness,
along the paths of justice,
21 endowing with wealth those who love me,
and filling their treasuries.
Wisdom’s Part in Creation22 The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
23 Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth—
26 when he had not yet made earth and fields,
or the world’s first bits of soil.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.
32 “And now, my children, listen to me:
happy are those who keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it.
34 Happy is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
35 For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the Lord;
36 but those who miss me injure themselves;
all who hate me love death.”
Proverbs 8 (NSRV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
John 1:1-3 (NSRV)
John’s “the Word” can be translated as Wisdom
Raqad
Ed. Note: Frolicking warrior king immediately makes me think of one of Dave Kellet’s comics about Klingons. 😀
17 The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
Zephaniah 3:17 (NSRV)
How does it make you feel to know that God is ecstatic about you?
Joy and sorrow are not mutually exclusive; they can co-exist!
Anguish melted by joy
It doesn’t go away
Joy is different from happiness or contentedness
4 But as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7 truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
2 Corinthians 6:4-10 (NSRV)
This joy is rooted in God’s sense of reality, not our sense of reality
It’s a joy that is stoked up as life presses down
Joy is the buoyancy that results from the enjoyment of the unchanging privileges we have in God.
When I’m hopeless and mired in hopelessness and sunken in despair, I don’t want to hear that God delights over me
Sometimes I can’t feel like singing the songs we sing here
For those of us that can’t sing, will you sing for us?
If you are delighting in God, can you sing louder for us?
Faith and doubt are not mutually exclusive; they can co-exist!
When you are sad, feel sad! Admit it, embrace it.
A spirit filled community can create enough space to allow these people to be included
We hold one another up
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help
Psalm 42:5 (NSRV)
Joy is not just for the optimists, it’s for the pessimists too!
Nothing will be able to take this joy from you!
Our joy is ….
Author Joni Eareckson Tada
Paralyzed from the neck down since a swimming accident when she was a young girl
Her future hope is in being resurrected in a new body and being able to kneel before Jesus and delight in him in a way that she has never done before
Paul
How Deep The Father's Love For Us
Jesus You're More Than A Friend (In the quiet of my soul)