{"id":1898,"date":"2021-08-27T13:09:06","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T03:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/?p=1898"},"modified":"2021-08-27T13:09:06","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T03:09:06","slug":"talking-about-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/talking-about-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking about Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jesus answered,\u00a0\u201cCan you make the friends of the bridegroom\u00a0fast while he is with them?\u00a0<\/p>Luke 5:34 (NIV)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It’s a question with the answer “NO” is very obvious isn’t it? Regardless of any cultures, wedding is considered one of the most joyful & festive event, celebrated with a crowd of friends and families. In some culture event “strangers”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Imagine you come to those weddings with a lot of food and merry, and you refuse all those food in front or take part in the celebration. And you come with not even a party attire, how would that make you look like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impossibility is so HUGE, that we all will scream out loud, “it’s impossible”, to be the friends of the bridegroom on his presence, and look gloomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s why I like what Paul says in Phillipians,”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For to me, to live is Christ\u00a0and to die is gain. <\/p>

… <\/p>

Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!\u00a0I am torn between the two: <\/p>

I desire to depart\u00a0and be with Christ,\u00a0which is better by far;\u00a0<\/p>Phil 1:21, 23<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For sure Paul is not suicidal, because he chose to be living in the body, for the sake of Christ’s church (His body). But he knows the joy of being with the Lord. And he considered that by far the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the question for you and me, how much do we desire to be with Christ? Do we see the joy of being with Christ in person greater than anything else? During this COVID-19, everyone say they miss the in-person meeting. Do we miss the in-person meeting with Jesus? Jesus guarantees us the joy of being in His presence and in contrast the sorrow of being separated with Him in person (Luke 5:34-35).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, while waiting for that DAY, Jesus had sent His Spirit to be our friend and comforter. In that sense, we could still be joyful. He is the Spirit of God, and in His presence is joy forever more. While it’s true that when Jesus was present in body they walked with Him in fullness of joy, I do believe that while Jesus is absent in body now, we can still experience joy through His Spirit living in us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus was full of joy, despite called man of sorrow while he lived here on earth. For His disciples that follow Him then and now, I am convinced that we’re called to know that JOY. There are cost to be paid, cross to be endured, yet despite all those, joy to be enjoyed. The call to follow Him is not a call to drudgery or dragging ourselves out of bed. It is a call to experience true joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus answered,\u00a0\u201cCan you make the friends of the bridegroom\u00a0fast while he is with them?\u00a0 Luke 5:34 (NIV) It’s a question with the answer “NO” is very obvious isn’t it? Regardless of any cultures, wedding is considered one of the most … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,38,46,69],"tags":[129,141,183,345,214],"class_list":["post-1898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blessedness","category-luke","category-philippians","category-touched","tag-calling","tag-daily-life","tag-gods-presence","tag-holy-spirit","tag-joy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1113,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/a-prayer-heard\/","url_meta":{"origin":1898,"position":0},"title":"A Prayer Heard","author":"clay","date":"December 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"But the angel said to him, \u201cDo not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard,...\" ~ Luke 1:13 Earlier, we were told that Zechariah was a\u00a0righteous\u00a0man (v.8), who walks blamelessly in ALL the commandments of the Lord. So he was the equivalent of Noah and Abraham during the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Luke"","block_context":{"text":"Luke","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/bible\/luke\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1801,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/holy-spirit-i-need-thee-every-hour\/","url_meta":{"origin":1898,"position":1},"title":"Holy Spirit I Need Thee Every Hour","author":"clay","date":"October 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"As I was reading the gospel of Luke, I can't miss the occurrences of Holy Spirit being mentioned at every turns and corners. In these short verses, Holy Spirit was mentioned again and again. Here what I meant: He will baptize you with\u00a0the Holy Spirit and fire. (3:16) And as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ephesians"","block_context":{"text":"Ephesians","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/bible\/ephesians\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":806,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/the-happiest-man-on-earth-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":1898,"position":2},"title":"The happiest man on earth today","author":"clay","date":"January 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Just can't contain my joy inside. Since last nite, I had sent the news of my wife pregnancy to a few friends. Then this afternoon, I announced it in office. Also I sms few good friends. They all so supportive & encouraging. I just overwhelmed with their love & joy.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Joyful"","block_context":{"text":"Joyful","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/emotion\/joyful\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1852,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/a-servant-mindset\/","url_meta":{"origin":1898,"position":3},"title":"A Servant Mindset","author":"clay","date":"January 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cBe dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning,\u00a0like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him....\"\u00a0Luke 12:35-36 (NIV) This morning as I meditated on the verse above, and looking at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comforted"","block_context":{"text":"Comforted","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/emotion\/comforted\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1819,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/promise-keeper\/","url_meta":{"origin":1898,"position":4},"title":"Promise Keeper","author":"clay","date":"October 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"We received quite a numbers of prayer requests from people. And going through the list, I started to draw similarities. Here is the grouping based on similarities that I observe: From a concerned parents (usually mothers) for their children and even grandchildren, secondly from a concerned husbands for the well-beings\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blessedness"","block_context":{"text":"Blessedness","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/truth-vs-lies\/blessedness\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1424,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/face-of-the-father\/","url_meta":{"origin":1898,"position":5},"title":"Face of the Father","author":"clay","date":"September 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I was quite sleepy from lack of sleep. And this morning spent some times to talk with God about all the things that bother me. So in the afternoon I went down to swim as I brought the costume already. As I was swimming, first I was troubled with all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hebrews"","block_context":{"text":"Hebrews","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/category\/bible\/hebrews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1899,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898\/revisions\/1899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}