I know. I know. Christmas is supposed to be a sign of joy. But where is the joy? Perhaps you are not feeling it. Sociologists tell us that Christmas is one of the saddest times of year for many people. As we light the joy candle, the Shepherd’s candle today, we may wonder why we should rejoice. Again, in the life-giving stream of scripture we discover the head-waters, the source of the spring of joy in our lives. Good news! God’s joy includes us. Message based on Zephaniah 3:14-20 and Acts 16:25-34.
Quotes:
Medieval King Abd Al-Rahman III: I have now reigned above fifty years in victory or peace; beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity… I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: they amount to fourteen.
Duane Brooks: “What happened to joy?” What would have to happen for you to find happiness? As we wonder in this season, we may wonder if we will ever laugh again.
G. K. Chesterton: Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian life.
Duane Brooks: Nothing steals our joy like sin. When we are living in unconfessed unrepentant sin, we will not experience God’s joy because we are grieving the Spirit who produces the fruit of the Spirit of joy. Nothing replenished our joy as much as salvation.
Duane Brooks: A distant, do-nothing God, does us no good. But the God who invaded our world joyfully in the coming of Jesus is working among us, even still.
Unkown: Joy is the flag which is flown from the castle of the heart when the King is in residence there.
R. A. Torrey: There is more joy in Jesus in 24 hours than there is in the world in 365 days. I have tried them both.
Dr. Travis Lunceford: Happiness depends on happenings; joy depends on Jesus.
George Frederick Handel composed his amazing musical The Messiah in approximately three weeks. It was apparently done at a time when his eyesight was failing and when he was facing the possibility of being imprisoned because of outstanding bills. Handel however kept writing in the midst of these challenges till the masterpiece, which included the majestic, “Hallelujah Chorus,” was completed.
Duane Brooks: We don’t have to wait until circumstances improve to rejoice in God.
A.W.Tozer: What do you hear when you imagine the voice of God singing? I hear the booming of Niagara Falls mingled with a trickle of a mossy mountain stream. I hear the blast of Mt. St. Helens mingled with a kitten’s purr. I hear the power of an East Coast hurricane and the barely audible puff of a night snow in the woods. And I hear unimaginable roar of the sun, 865,000 miles thick, 1,300,000 times bigger than the earth and-nothing but fire, 1,000,000 degrees centigrade on the cooler surface of the corona. But I hear this mingled with the tender, warm crackling of logs in the living room on a cozy winter’s night. I stand dumbfounded, staggered, speechless that he is singing over me—one who has dishonored him so many times and in so many ways. It is almost too good to be true. He is rejoicing over my good with all his heart and all his soul. He virtually breaks forth into song when he hits upon a new way to do me good.
Jonathan Edwards: God created man for nothing else but happiness.
Brennan Manning: Because my Abba is very fond of me.
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