Reflections of Joy - D. Willeman

One liners from the Grace Community Church ladies' retreat this past weekend, Speaker: pastor's wife and co-church planter, Dori Willeman

* [re her husband] Our greatest common factor is that we love Jesus....We live to know Him and make Him known....

*The younger we are, the more we think we know.

*...The Lord has used those circumstances to shake, and shape, my faith in Christ.

*Sometimes it's the silent answer that speaks the loudest to you.

*...It was just an uncovering process....and God met me.

*There were no bells and whistles. We were just trying to meet people and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

*The one thing we had to cling to was the Gospel.

*Trusting the Lord is not an easy thing. Sometimes it's a wearisome thing.

*...It became obvious there was no stopping it. This woman's life was being changed by Christ and I had a front row seat.

*..."You know what I see? When you sing, you forget to not believe." [re a story of an athiest friend of hers who had joined a local Gospel choir.]

*...God is just catapulting her towards faith in Christ! And it is a beautiful thing!

*..."Why me? Why me? Why of all the people in the world, why why why would God want to be merciful to me?"

*...We want our faith to be authentic; we want our hope to be genuine and true; we want our love to be genuine and true.

*...The reality of Joy is that it is not trivial, it is not merely surface or temporary. Rather, it is a deep satisfaction in God; our participating in God's delight in himself. [with a nod to John Piper's teaching on this topic]

*...The God who called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a fountain of joy, full as a spring is full. We were created by God - not because of some lack in him, as if he needed us to be happy, but because he wanted to give...of himself. ["...for Thy pleasure, they are created...." and re "...the kind intention of his will...."]

*...God magnifies his glory by creating and redeeming creatures who would reflect back to him his Joy. [here, she quoted Piper re "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied him him."]

*It is precisely our NEED which qualifies us for the Joy of Jesus....SIN is the means by which we approach Jesus! Until we experience our desperation and absolute [spiritual] bankruptcy before God, we won't come to him!

*Guilt makes us hide. We don't want to get close to the one to whom we are guilty.

*My primary concern cannot be to get gifts from God; my primary concern is to get the Giver!

*As he exposes us to ourselves, LET that feel good....It is a gift for him to expose [the sinfulness] our hearts. It is his kindness that leads us to repentance....It is a beautiful thing as he opens our eyes and we can experience the Joy of knowing HIM!

*Repentance is owning the responsibility for our sin and turning to Christ for forgiveness. Repentance makes us broken, and broken people are beautiful, and make for beautiful relationships.

*Our big problem with Joyful community is "rivalry" and "empty conceit." Where we tend to struggle? Self-sufficiency, self-reliance, self-importance. In a word - Pride. "I can only really trust me."

*We live by the motto: "Never let 'em see you sweat." We'd rather give than receive and have difficulty being receivers. But we need to do both - our receiving is giving others the blessing of giving.

*Conceit takes a defensive posture. We believe the lie that "I must be my own savior!" And we put others down to make ourselves feel better.

*Our perspective towards others is perpetually and incurably cloudy. [cf. Matthew ch. 7 re log vs. speck] We lobby for our own cause; we think we are worthy or able, self-sufficient. And we are thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought.

*Jesus' pattern of action is in exact contrast to ours. He, who had every right to be "puffed up," emptied himself, humbled himself.

*Our ego is empty, yet we seek to put ourselves equal with God. Christ's "ego" is full of God, but yet he emptied himself. Consider the beautiful portrait of Christ!

*When God exposes our conceit to us, we tend toward one of two reactions: One, we are crushed by it - and we need to repent. Or Two, we get angry! At ourselves for not being as good as we think we ought to be, or angry at God for making us this way. This is pride! STOP it!

*The Gospel is the only power that can break this self-addiction, our dependence on our idols.

*Here's how God graciously rescued me from the destructive kingdom of my self: He gave himself up for me and for my sin, even when I hated him! I am radically dependent on God....This produces in me a radical humility - a humility that I am unable to create on my own. On my own, I've earned nothing but death and condemnation.

*God is in total control and loves me absolutely. What do I possibly have to fear? Everything and everyone that comes my way is designed by God for my ultimate good and enjoyment in God.

*What right do I have to my own life? It is all a gift.

*To the degree that we trust in ourselves, we will feel displeasure at the world's criticism or persecution. [context was the command to be Joyful even in times of persecution. Text was 1 Peter, ch. 1]

*Some may say "But I don't experience joy when I am persecuted," and they conclude that the test has failed. No, the test is working just fine, you just don't like what it is showing you....You need to repent! Your trust and your treasure is not CHRIST!

*Self-justification robs us of our Joy. Our Joy is anchored in who God is, and what he's done for us.