Inexpressible Joy

1 Peter 1:8 “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.” It is hard to express something that is inexpressible. Here is an attempt from the diary of a Mrs. Kitty Trevelyan quoted by Paget Wilkes in Missionary Joy in Japan (1912) “How is anyone to know the false joy from true? Well, Missis, I can’t say. I think folks can’t unless they try. As far as I know, it’s a kind of joy that makes you ready to let all the world trample on you and never mind a bit. It’s a joy that makes you feel as if you could forgive your greatest enemy, because if they only felt what you feel they would like to be your brother at once. It’s a joy that lifts you above all the joys of the earth as if they were poor forgotten dreams, and makes you ready to stoop beneath any burden or trouble in the world because of the hand that fits on the yoke. It’s a joy that makes you feel lower than the lowest upon earth, because you’ve been forgetting and neglecting Him who died for you; and it’s a joy that the whole world cannot take away, but the heart full of pride or breath of sin can dim and soil and stain. If we lived in it always, we should be as meek as lambs, as busy as bees, as happy as angels; and when we lose it there is nothing to do but to go back to where we found it, to the Lord who won it, to the Almighty who gave it. For we’re as weak as Samson with his hair shorn without it; and as strong as Samson when he took up the city gates when we’ve got it. And though it’s never to be found by looking for it, it’s always to be found by looking for the Lord.” The joy caused by the salvation of our souls is too great to shout it and too great to sing it. Although not expressed, this joy is seen because what is on the inside shows on the outside. This joy is not only inexpressible, it is glorious. It is the glory that will be seen.

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Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a...

Ripe for Harvest: Prepared to Give an Answer

As you read through the book of Acts, look at every conversion, and see what happened right before it: what was said, who said it. The situations are the same today. A long time ago, my duty in the Officer’s Christian Fellowship was the east coast of the United States. I went to an officer’s office at Fort Lee, VA, and stayed overnight, then I went on to Norfolk and Fort Bragg. Forty years later, I was no longer on the staff of OCF, but I had to go to Denver. While I was in Denver, I checked in at the OCF offices. There was the same Air Force officer I had met in Fort Lee, retired now, a colonel. I had stayed in his house when he was a first lieutenant. He asked me, “Do you know what happened when you stayed overnight?” I said, “No, I just remember staying in your home.” He said, “You led the next-door neighbor to Christ.” I had no memory of it. Ten years after that, I was speaking at a banquet at the Hotel Salisbury, and who was th...

Lifted Up

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Roots by the River

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