January 29, 2019

Good Morning Fellow Travelers,

Read: I Peter 1:1-10, John 15:1-11

“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” I Peter 1:8-9

Maybe you think that the title is not possible. Maybe you have never had a joy you could not express in words. If you are disgusted as you read the opening words here because your life is not only joyless but extremely unhappy, then we have some encouragement for you.

There is an inexpressible joy that comes to the soul who responds by faith to the love of Christ. You have never seen Christ, but the fact is He is an historical reality. Few deny that He lived and died, and rose again some two thousand years ago. You can believe this without committing intellectual suicide. To believe this is good, but I challenge you to believe that the offering He made for mankind’s sin problem was made for you. To do that is to really believe, because when you claim this for yourself, the unspeakable joy that Peter writes about moves in. And this is only the beginning.

We are drenched with joy as our guilt is removed. We are drenched with joy in the fellowship of Christians who have faced the same things we have. We get soaked in the blessings of worship and praise. The joy flows in when our children come to deliverance of Christ also. We are drenched also by the joys of a strengthened marriage, and stable joyous home life. Jesus said that our joy can be full. I believe that means full to the brim.

Listen, my friend; there is not one thing in the world that can separate you from the love of Christ. He has promised that if you drink from His fountain, you will be drenched in a joy that will run out of you to others and drench them also.

– James Baer