What Joy Looks Like

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First, this is not an article about the “gifts” of the Spirit.

Second, this is definitely not an article about the “fruit” of the Spirit.

However, it might be fairly close to “the evidence” of the Spirit. That is, how one can know that the living God is actually indwelling his life and the body of believers with whom he/she associates.

We can sit here all day and talk about gifts of the Spirit such as healings and prophecies and tongues, and we’ll probably agree on little and disagree on much.

But there are three evidences of the indwelling Holy Spirit, around which I’m thinking all God’s children can come together. Surely none will find reason to opt out of these.

Three evidences of the Spirit 

When the Lord is in your life and when He daily “lords it over” you, and when you are actively serving Him in a body of believers of the same sort as yourself (so to speak), then you should expect to see these three incredible gifts from the Holy Spirit making their presence known….

1. Joy in your heart.

2. Sweetness in your fellowship.

3. Passion in your service.

Call these fruits or gifts of the Spirit, or whatever term works best for you. They are evidence that the Lord is in this place and flying His flag high.

One. Joy in Your Heart.

Joy is the flag flown from the castle of your heart to show the king is in residence.

No joy? No Lord.

Wherever He is, look for the joy. It seems to accompany Him at all times. “In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

Here’s our problem. We tend to think of joy as the icing on the cake, the meringue on the pie. That is, it’s nice when it’s present, but there’s not a lot of substance to it, it’s mostly for show, and we can function perfectly well without it.

We couldn’t be more wrong.

Joy is the atmosphere in which God lives and which He breathes. Joy is the very air of Heaven.

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How to detect a fake

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In the latter months of World War II, as the Allies were closing in on Germany, the Nazis developed a ruse that worked well for a while.

They would find German soldiers who spoke English well and dress them as Americans. They would arrange for them to be “lost” and to rejoin the Alllied forces as they moved forward. Their task: to infiltrate the American troops and assassinate Generals Eisenhower and Patton.

In time, the good guys developed some tests for exposing the fakes. One German was cut down by the Americans when they saw how he was walking. He was ramrod straight whereas all our troops slouched when they walked.

Another group learned to address the soldier using “pig Latin.” If he was stymied by that, he was exposed.

And they developed questions. Two, I recall, were: Who is Betty Grable? and What position did Lou Gehrig play?

The answers were: movie star/pinup girl and first base for the Yankees. It was understood that every GI in the world would know this.

If you have been in the warfare against the forces of righteousness and the enemies of all that is good and holy for any period of time, you have come up against counterfeits and pretenders, fakes and shams.

The question is, how do you tell? And what should we do about them?

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How a nobody can change the world

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I’m not anyone big or famous. I’m not an over-achiever. Not a Phi Beta Kappa, never voted “most likely to succeed,” and not even close to being a Fortune 500 CEO. No one is ever going to look my way and be impressed that they are in the presence of a mover and shaker.

Maybe so. Maybe not.

But if you are a serious follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you can literally change the world and do it in a significant way. This is not unrealistic, not a dreamy preacher-type overstatement, and not out of the realm of possibilities.

Now, there are a few presuppositions we need to lay out before we name the three actions which you can do to change your world.

1) We’re talking about people who have genuinely received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

2) Okay, you’re a Christian in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Next, we’re talking about you taking seriously Christ’s mandate to be salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13) and light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

3) And, finally, we’re talking about you being willing to obey the Lord in whatever He assigns to you. That is, you read something in the Word and sense in your heart a tugging (pushing?) from the indwelling Holy Spirit that this one has your name all over it, and you get up and obey.

If that’s you–if you have received Christ and you are serious about making a difference for His sake and you are willing to obey Him–then, here are three actions for you to take which will be used of God to change your world.


1. Start where you are.

That may sound a little obvious, but you’d be amazed how often I hear people say things like, “I do not like living in this city. If I lived in (fill in the blank), I could serve the Lord.” “I know I’m not much of a witness here, but if I were living in a foreign country, I could be a great missionary.” “If the Lord will only let me move to (wherever), I will serve Him.”

But it does not work that way. Not ever.

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Lots of reasons to rejoice, and one really big one

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It’s Friday night and the home team is struggling.  The coach walks up and down the sideline in front of his players.

“Get your heads up! All of you!  Take those stupid towels off your head!  Let’s show some courage around here!  The game is not over yet.  You’re not defeated until you quit fighting.  Lift up your heads!  Look like champions!”

The disciples had returned from a trial run in which they had practiced preaching the gospel of Jesus.  Since the time would come when Jesus would be absent and they would be doing this “for real,” the Lord wanted them to get a taste of what to expect.

They returned sky high.  “Lord! It was wonderful!  We saw miracles.  Lives changed.  People healed. It was great!”

Jesus agreed.  “You’re right.  In fact, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

“However,” He said, “I need to tell you something.”

Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you. Rejoice because your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20)

It wasn’t that He didn’t want them joyful and excited.  He loves overflowing praise and exuberance in His children.

He just wants it based on something more substantial than the latest results.

The Lord knew what the disciples would find out. The days would come when they would return empty-handed from their preaching missions, their evangelistic trips, their revivals and door-to-door visitations, and their overseas outreach.

Yes, there would be times of great successes and glorious testimonies. But at other times, they would return empty-handed, with no glowing stories, no big numbers, no sparkling testimonies of victories.  Sometimes they would do well to get out with their lives, and occasionally they didn’t even manage that.

If their joy was based on impressive victories and big numbers, it would be constantly fluctuating.  Sometimes they would be happy in the Lord and overflowing with praise, and at other times, they would be depressed and discouraged.

He wants none of that.

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Preparing for your moment. It could come at any time.

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Be sure of this, that if the home owner had known what hour of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore, you must be ready…. (Matthew 24:43-44)

A few years back, a young woman in a North Georgia town was suddenly thrust into the spotlight. An escaped criminal burst into her apartment and held her and her child captive. When the episode ended, the woman told her story to the world. During that nightmarish ordeal, she had talked to the man about the Lord and read to him from one of Rick Warren’s “purpose-driven” books.

Every media person in the country reacted the same. Here was an attractive single woman frightened out of her wits doing something truly courageous. What kind of person is she?

So, they delved into her background.

The reporters found she had a checkered past. But at some point she had come to know the Lord and would tell anyone who listened how Jesus had changed her life.

The young woman was an incredible witness. And she had done nothing–absolutely nothing–to prepare for her moment on the world’s stage. She was authentically Christian and the Holy Spirit did in her exactly what Jesus had promised. “Do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say.” (Matthew 10:19)

Her testimony quickly catapulted Pastor Rick Warren into the spotlight, a place he had already grown accustomed to. And because he always seemed to stay prepared for whatever the Lord had in store for him that day, Rick was ready and seized the moment.

Hundreds of people will be in Heaven as a direct result of that woman’s ordeal and her amazing testimony.  And, to no one’s surprise, Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life, sold an additional hundred thousand copies.  Heaven alone knows the fruit all of this bore.

On ill-fated September 11, 2001, when Islamic terrorists took down the World Trade Towers and the four ill-fated airliners crashed, within hours the media was interviewing every person related to each aspect of this world-shaking event: the families of the victims, the first-responders, architects, politicians, and anyone who had seen anything. No one had time to prepare for the cameras and microphones and the print reporters.

Okay.  Pause and reflect on that a moment.

No one knew this day was coming.  No one prepared.  It was the ultimate happening.

When we know in advance the world’s attention is about to focus on us, when we know in advance the media is coming–even the Christian media which will be considerate and responsible in its reporting–we are given a gift. We have time to prepare our thoughts on what we want to communicate and time to ask the Father to clear our minds and use our words.

Bottom line: We have no way of knowing when we rise in the morning what the Father has awaiting us later in the day. That’s the joy of the Christian life, of course.

And, let’s be honest–it’s the frightening aspect of the Christian life too!

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Two books that changed my life as a young pastor

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I have a story for you, one I love to tell.

It’s the tale of a message God sent, of nagging doubt and how God is able to use that doubt to do something extraordinary in the life of the believer who will stay in class.

Don’t skip past that:  Stay in class.  Which simply means when the Lord allows a nagging doubt to come your way, don’t run from it.  He’s trying to build up your faith. So, stay with Him here.

Recently, I went back and re-read the 1927 Sinclair Lewis novel Elmer Gantry.

First, a side note about the movie on that book. Far more people have seen the Burt Lancaster movie Elmer Gantry, made in 1960, than have read the book. The problem is, the book is like a 6 hour movie, whereas the movie was necessarily much briefer. The movie covers only about 100 pages of the book.

I recommend the book to every preacher I know. It’s painful reading, I grant you. However, in many ways, Sinclair Lewis knew what he was talking about. The charlatan who was Elmer Gantry–the one in the novel is far worse than the on-screen version played by Burt Lancaster–exposes the scoundrel in each of us who would deign to speak for God and lead His flock.

In order to convey the full impact of the renegade preacher’s words, I’ll need to quote a long passage from the book.

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The pastor’s in trouble, so he prays. (Good idea!)

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Nothing jerks our prayers out of the “blessed generality” stage like a crisis. The best kind of crisis for that is for a close loved one to get in serious trouble–car wreck, cancer, emergency surgery, that sort of thing.

But a close second is a personal crisis, the kind where someone is making life miserable for you and it’s taking all the reserves you can muster to get out of bed in the morning and walk into one more day. You either quit praying altogether, the worst possible choice, or your prayers lose their vain repetitions and meaningless phrases and get down to business.

Yesterday, going through a stack of notes from the 1990s, I found such a prayer of mine, written in the thick of church conflict. It’s undated, so there’s no way of determining what particular struggle was going on then. We went through so many, the first six or seven years of my 14-year pastorate at the last church we served.

The prayer was written in longhand and filled two pages. It’s about as specific as one would want a prayer to be. No more “bless him” and “help her.” But on the other hand, it does not call names and I’m glad to report, it’s not as harsh as some of the Psalms where David or whoever is praying for the children of his enemies to not live to see that day’s sunset.

Here is the prayer, along with a few comments. I send it forth in the hope that some servant of the Lord in the fight of his life may find encouragement to hang tough and be faithful.

“Father, what I’m praying for is that….

1) Everything I preach may come from thee. Lead me please regarding subjects, texts, stories, applications, and especially in the delivery.”

When people are fighting the pastor, invariably they attack his sermons.  The critics are hitting us where we are most vulnerable, because few of us feel that our preaching is all it should be. They will find fault with what you are preaching, the scriptures you use, the stories you tell, the way you say it, everything. If you are doing all things well, they will criticize your tie–or the lack of one.

The remedy is to turn their opposition into motivation to pray harder, study more diligently, and do everything you know in order to preach the sharpest, most powerful sermons you’re capable of doing.

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Encouraging the young, struggling pastor

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It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. (Lamentations 3:27). 

Dear Young Pastor:

I hear you’re having a tough time of it.

Good. Glad to hear it.

As I got it, a group in the church doesn’t care for your leadership. They find fault with your sermons. They probably don’t like the color of your tie (or worse, the fact that you don’t wear one).

What makes their opposition dire is that they are the leaders of the church. Not a good thing.

Unity is always better than division.

You came close to resigning, I’m told. You probably felt, “If I don’t have the support of these elected leaders of the church, then I’ll not be able to do anything here.”

You actually wrote out a resignation, perhaps to see what it would feel like.

It felt wrong. You knew you were displeasing the One who sent you there in the first place.

So, you chose to hang in there and try to give leadership to a church that is not sure it wants any.

Welcome to the ministry.

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12 things pastors should do promptly–and several they shouldn’t

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Do these things promptly…

    1. Confess sins.  “Keep short accounts with God,” it’s called.
    2. Write thank you notes. Even two sentences.  Oh, and hand-write them, rather than dictating them for someone to type.  The personal touch is good.
    3. Write notes of appreciation.  “Great song Sunday.”  “I hear excellent things about your class.” My suggestion is you should begin every Monday morning in the office by handwriting five notes.
    4. When inspiration for a sermon or an article comes in the middle of the night, it must be recorded then or, count on it, you’ll never remember it.  Keep a pad by the bedside. Or, do what I do: get up and go into the breakfast room and pull up a chair and write everything out.
    5. When you agree to do a friend  a favor–write a letter of recommendation, call on a patient in a hospital, whatever–do it immediately or you will never do it. As a cartoonist, I try to do the same when asked to illustrate someone’s writing.
    6. Jot down a story, illustration, or thought for a sermon that occurs to you.  If you’re in the car alone, look for an exit and get off the highway so you can write this down.  I’ve sometimes asked my wife to make a note for me as we drove.
    7. Pray for someone when prompted by the Spirit.  When I spot someone who reminds me of a person I knew years ago, I take that as an impulse to pray for them.

And these also–

  1. Pray for someone when you are asked to pray.  Stop right then and do it
  2. Forgiving offenses.  Whether they ask for it or not.
  3. Tell your wife how lovely she looks.  Don’t wait for her to ask if that dress looks all right.  Every time you think of it, tell her she is lovely.
  4. Give your kids a hug.  Let them know how special they are to you, with no condition or strings attached.
  5. Worship God.  In your spirit, in a few words.  If  possible, say it out loud.

But do not do these things promptly.  Take it slow and reconsider these the next day…

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Things I love about the church. And several I hate.

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When a friend said he had a love-hate relationship with the church, I had a feeling that most pastors and their families could identify.  At this very moment as I type, a pastor-friend’s wife has been texting me about the awful business meeting they are enduring tonight.  She is so tired of this, she would like to leave.  Without reprimanding her, I gently reminded her that the Lord never promised to send us only where we would be loved and appreciated.  Ask Jonah.

You will have your own list.  Here is mine.

One: I like the idea of church. A regular gathering of the redeemed to worship, remember, nurture one another, hammer out questions, and hold one another accountable.  After all, “it is not good for man to be alone.” We were made needing one another, and do not function well in isolation.

Show me a Christian who can please God better alone than with other believers and I’ll show you a one-of-a-kind, something never before seen on planet Earth.  The Lord thought you and I would be needing each other, so placed us in a church fellowship when He saved us.

Two: I like the people in the church.  Two things can be said of the people who make up almost any congregation on earth:  They are a cross-section of humanity, of the very type found in a grocery store or in a schoolyard, and they contain a special group–the cream of the crop–of the best people on the planet.  Jesus said a sure sign that we are His is our love for one another, i.e., fellow Christians.

Show me a Christian who does not like church people and I’ll show you someone backslidden, out of fellowship with Christ.  This is a no-brainer, as sure as the sun rises in the east.  (See John 13:34-35)

Three: I like the work of the church.  Specifically, Jesus committed to us “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5), another term for spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:18-20).  Now, He gave plenty of commands to us–everything from loving each other to being salt and light in the community–but nothing trumps the Great Commission, taking the good news of the Savior to the world.

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