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Posted by Dion Todd May 14th, 2015 14,444 Views 0 Comments
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:11 ESV
Peter and the apostles were beaten by the religious leaders and told not mention Jesus anymore, yet they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for His name (Acts 5:41). When Paul and Silas were imprisoned, they prayed and sang hymns to the Lord as the other prisoners listened (Acts 16:25).
There is a joy that surpasses all understanding, and no matter what you face on this earth, it cannot be taken from you. It does, however, have a requirement. Jesus taught that we could have this joy if we kept His commandments, and directly under it said, Love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34). If we do not have love, we are nothing but noise like a clanging cymbal (1 Cor 13:1). People do not care what you know, until they know how much you care.
If we do love one other, we will be filled with His joy. I guess it does make sense that we cannot be filled with joy and anger, bitterness, jealousy and happiness at the same time. We are commanded to love each other; the only choice that we have is whether we will observe that. We can choose to show no love, and have no joy.
It is usually easy to love the Lord. After all, He is perfect and God is love (1John 4:16). The times where we had a disagreement always ended up with me changing my attitude, seeing things through His eyes, and never once Him because He was always right to begin with. Other people though, ouch. He really made us work for that joy when He said love your neighbor as yourself. It is not easy. You gotta want it. Love that neighbor.
We are in the middle of replacing the firewall, switching, and upgrading the Internet to Fiber. In the end, it will one-hundred times faster, from 20 to 2,000, but things are a bit hectic here at the moment. You may have received 20+ devotionals this morning. I did. Hopefully that will not happen tomorrow! We have been working on it since 3AM and are aware of the issues. Thank you for patience and understanding during the upgrade which will hopefully be over this week! God bless. 😀🙏
Comment from Sylvia Todd
1 day ago
We are back up and things are looking good :)! Thank you so much for your prayers 🙏!
Comment from Liesel aka lisa Wardle
2 days ago
Dear Pastor, please know that you and Sylvia are in my prayers!!! Had been trying to sign in yesterday, but couldn't, and since we had some really bad storms up here practically all of Monday, rain and flooding, I thought that something happened to you! Please know that you are in my prayers! 🙏 My heartfelt gratitude for all that you do and your dedication, thanking the Lord for you! 🙏🤗
Comment from Lynn Brown
2 days ago
Prayers for the switch to be smooth!🙏 We appreciate your hard work and look forward to the upgrades!😀
Comment from Celeste Strenn
2 days ago
Thank you so very much for your dedication and hard work ❣️ thank you so much, so very very much for this most Blessed and most loved devotional ❣️