When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! John 15:10-11

When we know Jesus is around we are happy regardless of circumstances. This is a joy that overtakes every situation.

Often we refer to the trials of Paul as an argument for the difficulty and suffering that are common to life. However we fail to note that even though Paul is describing very difficult circumstances he ended all such descriptions with a statement like, “nevertheless, I have joy in the Lord.” Paul had learned that joy is constant and circumstances are fleeting. How did he do it?

One case is the situation in Philippi where he was beaten and imprisoned and is found singing to the Lord. How is that possible? Really it is not difficult. Paul merely chose to realize the truth of Christ rather than succumb to the illusion of circumstance. Present circumstances were bad. He was suffering, he was uncomfortable, and he was in a great deal of pain, but… Jesus was with Him. In His presence is fullness of Joy. While, I for example, would have intensified my misery by falling into the circumstances, I would have spent the entire night in that jail. I would have focused on the disgusting mold covered wall. The rats crawling around me and scurrying about would have driven me crazy. I would have moaned and cried at the injustice of the beating and I would have despaired that no one cared about my plight. Paul made another choice.

Paul spent the night in the presence of Christ! While I would have been in jail, he spent the night in heaven. And that is all the difference. So now I must ask myself, where will I spend today? Here on earth, or in the fullness of deeply abiding joy.

AWAKE!! Micheal

1 Thessalonians 2-4

It seems Paul had a special place in his heart for the people in Thessalonica. When he left Philippi he left with his reputation very much abused. His feeling upon arriving in Thessalonica was apparently one of discouragement but God gave him courage to share with the people there and what a glorious thing that became because the people in Thessalonica received that good word.

Paul appeals to the integrity of that event in chapter 2. He admits that his motives were pure, that he sought only to please God. He confesses the earnestness of that initial ministry. “We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For He called you to share in His Kingdom and glory.” This pleading came in the face of, or rather as an introduction to, persecution that he warned them would come.

Why the persecution? Why the suffering? Does true faith always couple with suffering and persecution? The persecution in Thessalonica came from the religious more than the political. Is that always the case?

“…live in a way that pleases God.” This is Paul’s plea beginning chapter 4. Live in a way that pleases God. He lists avoiding sexual sin as opposing Holiness. He lists our goal … “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before.” This kind of life earns respect and secures successful business and life.

A quiet life. There is so little to commend a quiet life today. Isn’t the world in a state of disquiet? Isn’t chaos the air we breathe? Quietness is a holy pursuit and a pleasing pursuit. Sexual purity is also a holy and pleasing pursuit. Loving others is a holy and pleasing pursuit.

This gives me more of a context for an ordinary faith. A life more ordinary is a life of faith lived out in the context of our day to day existence. Ordinary faith is a life that embraces each ordinary, mundane moment as a divine miracle, and an operation of God.

Our culture is entirely built upon the sex drive. Everything is about sex. Movies, advertising, even causal greetings are seen as mere preludes to some sexual meaning. An ordinary faith embraces the intimacy of life yet maintains sexual purity in thought and deed. Ordinary faith loves others purely without the corruption of impure sexual flirtation. An ordinary faith is quiet, at peace, shameless, and free. This is one way to take Paul’s instruction to heart and to life.

Every moment is divine. Ordinary is only the divine that we routinely experience.