01 Aug

Posted at 10:00h in Uncategorized

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ~ Hebrews 12:2 (NIV) A Family Guide to Joy (in All Circumstances) (Chapter 12) concludes with Destination Joy? Here we celebrate the twelfth station of Jesus’ Journey to Joy (see map below): Jesus knew joy because He conquered death! Through this guide, and through our lives, we’ve walked with Jesus on His journey. That journey included good times, transitions, rejection, and dying to self, to name a few. Jesus, considering the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2), endured the cross, and His journey has reached its final destination. Jesus’ journey is complete. But what about our journey? Will we also reach destination joy here on earth? No! As we’ve seen, joy is not something we get...

01 Jul

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Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. ~ Luke 23:46 (NIV) (Jesus’ seventh statement from the cross) This month’s focus in A Family Guide to Joy (in All Circumstances) (Chapter 11) is Joy in Dying to Self where we reveal the eleventh station of Jesus’ Journey to Joy (see map below): Jesus knew joy because He died to self. What is dying to self? Leonard Bernstein, the late conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, was once asked to name the most difficult instrument to play. Without hesitation, he replied: “The second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists, but to find someone who can play the second fiddle with enthusiasm — that’s a problem; and if we have no second fiddle, we have no harmony.” Hit close to home? It seems we all want...

01 Jun

Posted at 10:00h in Uncategorized

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. ~ John 19:30 (NIV) (Jesus’ sixth statement from the cross) This month’s vulnerable focus in A Family Guide to Joy (in All Circumstances) (Chapter 10) is Joy in Misery where we uncover the tenth station of Jesus’ Journey to Joy (see map below): Jesus knew joy because He cried out in misery. As defined by Google dictionary, misery is “a state or feeling of great distress or discomfort of mind or body.” We could say Jesus’ crucifixion was a state AND feeling of great distress AND discomfort of mind AND body AND soul. Toward the end of His crucifixion, Jesus was literally almost beyond misery. God’s Word puts misery in personal terms that we can all understand. Here are some of Scripture’s most chilling accounts of misery. “Then [God] will say...

01 May

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Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” ~John 19:28 (NIV) (Jesus’ fifth statement from the cross) Can I really experience joy in sickness? Yes! This month’s tender focus in A Family Guide to Joy (in All Circumstances) (Chapter 9) is Joy in Sickness where we uncover the ninth station of Jesus’ Journey to Joy (see map below): Jesus knew joy because He thirsted in sickness. On the cross, the end of His suffering nearly complete, Jesus gasped His fifth cry, “I thirst.” In His cry, we keenly sense Jesus’ humanity. But while His broken body thirsted for water (He twice refused drink), the thirst to do His Father’s will was far greater. Throughout His earthly walk Jesus encountered sick and thirsty people who desired to know the Messiah. And to be blunt, not knowing Jesus is far worse than any sickness:...

01 Apr

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About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) Matthew 27:46 (NIV) (Jesus’ fourth statement from the cross) Joy. Pain. Not two words we often see in the same sentence much less experience together in life: joy in pain. This month’s raw focus in A Family Guide to Joy (in All Circumstances) (Chapter 8) is Joy in Pain where we revisit the eighth station of Jesus’ Journey to Joy (see map below): Jesus knew joy because He anguished in pain. After Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was released, Jim Caviezel, the actor who portrayed Christ, revealed in an interview on the Today show that “he dislocated his shoulder carrying the cross, caught pneumonia and a lung infection, [and] endured cuts, scrapes, and backaches from the chains he bore.” The interview also shed light on just...

01 Mar

Posted at 22:00h in Uncategorized

When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household. ~John 19:26-27 (NASB) (Jesus’ third statement from the cross) The cross stood as the brutal physical reality of the world rejecting Jesus. Yet despite the agony and pain the cross offered, Jesus, in His third recorded saying from the cross, planned not only for His rejection but also for His mother. As we saw above in the verses from John 19, the apostle recounts how Jesus, even while He was hanging on the cross, instructed John to take care of His mother. This month’s tender focus in A Family Guide to Joy (in All Circumstances) (Chapter 7) is Joy in Rejection where we uncover the seventh station of Jesus’...