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You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

Psalm 4:7

Nala does this EVERY TIME!

"Made Alive" by Citizens

I once was dead in sin, Alone and hopeless. A child of wrath I walked, Condemned in darkness. But your mercy brought new life And in Your love and kindness, Raised me up with Christ And made me righteous.

You have bought me back With the riches of Your amazing grace And relentless love. I'm made alive forever, With You, life forever By Your grace I'm saved, By Your grace I'm saved.

Lord, you are the light, That broke the darkness. You satisfy my soul, When I am heartless. If ever I forget My true identity, Show me who I am, And help me to believe.

You have bought me back, With the riches of Your amazing grace And relentless love. I'm made alive forever, With You, life forever, By Your grace I'm saved, By Your grace I'm saved.

My sin has been erased, I'll never be the same. My sin has been erased, I'll never be the same.

You have bought me back, With the riches of Your amazing grace, And relentless love. I'm made alive forever, With You, life forever, By Your grace I'm saved. You have bought me back, With the riches of Your amazing grace And relentless love. I'm made alive forever, With You, life forever, By Your grace I'm saved, By Your grace I'm saved.

If you can't say "No", you're probably a slave to people's expectations.

Lecrae

Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

1 Corinthians 8:6

"Come to the River" by Rhett Walker Band

“Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” (Proverbs 20:6)

Greater love has no one than THIS, that one lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

This.

Peace is not to be found in your control of the people and things in your life, but in the faithful and righteous rule of your Savior.

Paul David Tripp

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Romans 14:7-9

Putting the "Christian" in Christian Friendship

Is there anything distinctive about Christian friendship? What’s different about how two fellow followers of Jesus relate to each other, compared with two friends who don’t identify with Christ? Romans 15:2 helps us consider one essential component of what puts the Christian into Christian relationships.

“Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”

Who Is Our “Neighbor”?

"Neighbor" can be used very broadly (as Jesus does in Luke 10:29), but in this case, Paul is plainly talking about fellow believers (as he does in Ephesians 4:25). This is confirmed in the verb "to build up" — a word which Paul reserves exclusively for the church. We're talking about Christians here in Romans 15:2 — Christian neighbors, fellow followers of Jesus with whom we share some proximity. So we could say this text carries significance for Christian friendship.

And the imperative is to “please” them, to accommodate them, to make their welfare of higher interest than our own. To please our Christian neighbor is to serve them. Undoubtedly, this will be for our own joy — no one is really served when it’s done in stiff reluctance. But it being for our joy doesn’t mean it’s always (or often!) comfortable. Pleasing our neighbor will take sacrifice. It’s not typically easy — it’s "not to please ourselves.” We’re giving something up for something better and that better is the building up of our brother or sister.

Sacrificially Build Up One Another

The sacrificial building up of one another — this is what makes Christian friendship, well, Christian. It’s Christian both in the adjective (sacrificial) and in the verb (building up).

Sacrificial building up ("not to please ourselves") means it's Christian in its manner. The foundation to our serving, our sacrificial edifying of others, is rooted in the example of Jesus. We're to have the Philippians 2:6–8 mind among ourselves. He didn’t give prominence to his own comfort when he “left glory.” Nor when he prayed in the Garden. It wasn’t easy when he bore our sins and suffered the wrath we deserved. Yet even in the midst of the pain, there was a joy set before him. It wasn’t easy, but it was glorious. And when we walk in that example, it works the same way (1 Peter 2:21). It shocks the world — for the glory of God.

But this sacrificial building up is not only Christian in its manner. It's also Christian in its goal. The friendship goes beyond discussing the latest scores (though it may involve that), or the newest app (though that may be a part, too), or the best book we’ve read (another good one). The purpose is to build them up. This is what the pleasing is about, for their good. It’s about their conformity to Jesus. Our little place in their life is to serve the goal to which God has elected them, Jesus has died, and the Spirit is working. We want to build them up.

For Your Friends

Now then, let each of us, by grace, please our neighbor for their good — count them more significant than ourselves, and their needs more pertinent than our own; to build them up — play the God-ordained role of a means of grace in their lives, investing in their transformation into the likeness of Jesus. Let’s stir this Christian intentionality in our relationships — that we not seek to please ourselves, but that we pursue the pleasing of our neighbor for their good in Jesus.

(by Jonathan Parnell)

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"Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." - Romans 12:9-21 (emphasis added to those words that really hit a cord with me)

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord." - 1 Corinthians 15:58

"Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith." - Galatians 6:9-10

"When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand." - Psalm 37:24

"Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love." - 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Child of Heaven, Can You Repine?

"Child of Heaven, can you repine When you were made by His design? Though merely dust, of earthly frame, Called child of God, by His great Name. Child of Heaven, can you repine When God Himself claims, ‘You are Mine!’ Once bound to Satan, kith and kin, Yet Christ has beckoned, ‘Enter in.’ Child of Heaven, can you repine, When all the love of God is thine? Despite your wrong, even your right, You stand no different in His sight. Child of Heaven, can you repine, When trials’ assaults serve to refine? Yes, life is filled with pain to face, Yet not of wrath, and all of grace! So Child of Heaven, can you repine?” “No, LORD, so gracious and benign. When through our Christ, all loss is gain We have no reason to complain!” (by Stephen Cheng)

Biblical knowledge

...doesn't mean spiritual maturity, necessarily. Though essential, just because you can clearly communicate truth, it doesn't mean you've submitted your life to that truth.

Invincible, Irrefutable Joy

Dear Brother …, At the beginning of a letter that in this solemn hour is meant to call you all to true joy, there necessarily stand the names of those brothers who have died since I last wrote to you: P. Wälde, W. Brandenburg, Hermann Schröder, R. Lynker, Erwin Schutz, K. Rhode, Alfred Viol, Kurt Onnasch, Fritz’s second brother; in addition to them, and presumably known to many of you, Major von Wedemeyer and his oldest son, Max. “Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads” [Isaiah 35:10]. We are glad for them; indeed, should we say that we sometimes secretly envy them? From early times the Christian church has considered acedia — the melancholy of the heart, or “resignation” — to be one of the mortal sins. “Serve the Lord with joy” [Psalm 100:2] — thus do the scriptures call out to us. For this our life has been given to us, and for this it has been preserved for us unto the present hour. This joy, which no one shall take from us, belongs not only to those who have been called home but also to us who are alive. We are one with them in this joy, but never in melancholy. How are we going to be able to help those who have become joyless and discouraged if we ourselves are not borne along by courage and joy? Nothing contrived or forced is intended here, but something bestowed and free. Joy abides with God, and it comes down from God and embraces spirit, soul, and body; and where this joy has seized a person, there it spreads, there it carries one away, there it bursts open closed doors. A sort of joy exists that knows nothing at all of the heart’s pain, anguish, and dread; it does not last; it can only numb a person for the moment. The joy of God has gone through the poverty of the manger and the agony of the cross; that is why it is invincible, irrefutable. It does not deny the anguish, when it is there, but ﬁnds God in the midst of it, in fact precisely there; it does not deny grave sin but ﬁnds forgiveness precisely in this way; it looks death straight in the eye, but it ﬁnds life precisely within it. What matters is this joy that has overcome. It alone is credible; it alone helps and heals. The joy of our companions who have been called home is also the joy of those who have overcome — the Risen One bears the marks of the cross on his body. We still stand in daily overcoming; they have overcome for all time. God alone knows how far away or near at hand we stand to the ﬁnal overcoming in which our own death may be made joy for us. Some among us suffer greatly because they are internally deadening themselves against so much suffering, such as these war years bring in their wake. One person said to me recently, “I pray every day that I may not become numb.” That is by all means a good prayer. And yet we must guard ourselves against confusing ourselves with Christ. Christ endured all suffering and all human guilt himself in full measure — indeed, this was what made him Christ, that he and he alone bore it all. But Christ was able to suffer along with others because he was simultaneously able to redeem from suffering. Out of his love and power to redeem people came his power to suffer with them. We are not called to take upon ourselves the suffering of all the world; by ourselves we are fundamentally not able to suffer with others at all, because we are not able to redeem. But the wish to suffer with them by one’s own power will inevitably be crushed into resignation. We are called only to gaze full of joy at the One who in reality suffered with us and became the Redeemer. Full of joy, we are enabled to believe that there was and is One to whom no human suffering or sin is foreign and who in deepest love accomplished our redemption. Only in such joy in Christ the Redeemer shall we be preserved from hardening ourselves where human suffering encounters us. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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