This fruit of joy because it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit coming from deep within is amazingly incomprehensible. For example look at the list of hardships and difficulties the Apostle Paul went through for the Lord Jesus and the gospel in 2 Corinthians 11:22-23; in labors, beatings, imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked, in dangers […]
Last week we looked at our joy in Him, today we are looking at His joy in us. God wants His people to be joyful; 1 John 1:3-4 indicates that there is a joy associated with fellowshipping with each other which has its roots in fellowship “with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ…” […]
Ephesians 2:8 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” It is the Lord Jesus Christ that has opened the door of “access…into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the […]
“The fruit of the Spirit is…joy” Galatians 5:22.The prophet Isaiah in a song of praise describes the abundant joy of God’s salvation procured through the Messiah, the Anointed one, Jesus, saying, “Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation” Isaiah 12:3. This leads us to the words of Jesus Himself in […]
Today we begin to look at the second fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives which is Joy. Joy is a feeling of gladness, happiness, and delight; it is expressed with rejoicing, and is the opposite of gloom and depression! In the natural Joy requires favorable circumstances to be operative; but let’s face […]
As we continue our journey into God’s orchard in Galatians 5:22-23, the first fruit we come to is Love. Love is very characteristic of the Christian life; it is the quality of which Jesus said to His disciples, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” […]
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given…” Isaiah 9:6. To both the nation of Israel through whom the side of his natural linage came, and also to the Gentiles, thus to the entire human race, as the Scripture says in Luke 2:32 “A light to bring revelation to the […]
Philippians 4:4 says “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” The Greek word here for rejoice according to the original Greek is to be filled with cheerfulness and happiness. And the word “always” means just that, being defined as “every when” or “at all times”; the importance of this in the Christian’s […]
Jesus often used parables emphasizing the same truth but from a different viewpoint; perhaps this way more people would understand these truths, then too, repetition of a thing emphasizes its importance. Today we are returning to Matthew 13:44-46 where in our previous meditation we noted two parables pertaining to the value of the kingdom of […]
In Luke 15:11-32 Jesus tells a story of a father with two sons. Since we do not have space in this meditation to talk about both sons we are focusing on the younger, who approached the father asking to receive his inheritance early. According to Jewish law at the father’s death the younger son would […]