KEY PRINCIPLES FROM THIS MESSAGE:
Pastor Philip in Myanmar:
“The purpose of your life isn’t happiness; the purpose of your life is usefulness.”
As a general rule, the “happiest” people are the people with the most purpose.
We all ought to be encouraged by the simple fact that we have been made unique and placed in the Body of Christ with a definite, personal purpose. If you know you have a purpose, and accept it at face value, then you are driven to contribute to the welfare of Christ’s Body.
Burned Out Happiness – blog 6/16/17
We live in a world where multibillion dollar industries exist for a single reason, to counterfeit the fruit of true peace in the soul. Notice I used the word peace and not happiness. The word “peace” shows up in the New American Standard Bible over three hundred and fifty times, the word “happiness” less than five and “happy” less than twenty. What does that say to you???
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The apostle Peter, like every other writer in the Bible, understood that peace is the transcendent quality God seeks to impart to believers. Happiness is more of an expression, but it cannot truly exist in the absence of godly peace. This is what the Bible reveals to us over and over.
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Happiness is much easier to counterfeit than peace. There are many counterfeits that stimulate some form of happiness, but they cannot stimulate peace in the soul. For some, it’s food, others drugs or alcohol, and for others wealth or travel. Choose your poison.
Satan knows this, so he redefines the goal of living in terms of happiness instead of inner peace. If he can get you to accept this fundamental misdirection, he can get you to shift your eyes to myriad counterfeits. The saddest part about his version of happiness, as Solomon alluded to, is that it is an empty shell.
He who has a crooked mind finds no good, and he who is perverted in his language falls into evil.
— Proverbs 17:20
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Happiness without true peace is as fragile as glass. It can be shattered in a moment, devastating its possessor. Have you ever wondered why ungodliness produces instability? Well, now you know – people who have bought Satan’s lie are like yo-yos – one minute they’re on top of the world, enjoying their so-called “happiness”, and the next they are crumbling into a heap of distress and emotional despair. Sadly, most of them, at the encouragement of the world, will saddle up for another round of “seeking happiness”. This cycle will continue indefinitely. I call this “dysfunction junction”. It’s a horrible, debilitating, diseased existence. The only cure is Jesus Christ, the Word of God.
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.
— Proverbs 17:22
Your spiritual gift is NOT for you, it is for others in the Body of Christ.
Fear and Faith – blog 9/11/20
While I was reading the Gospel of Mark this morning, I was stricken by a recurring theme – fear of God. I know I’ve written multiple blogs on this topic, at least one in recent memory, but I do not hesitate to write on it again due to my feeling that many people still fail to fully grasp what the Spirit’s trying to impress upon them. As a result, they remain without proper fear of the Lord; instead, they fear others (see previous blog, Whom Do You Turn To For Love?). This misplaced, inferior fear keeps a person in bondage to the sphere of spiritual death, perpetuating misery, anxiety, and general malcontent with life, itself. Furthermore:
How can there be faith and obedience when there’s a lack of fear of the Lord?
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
— Proverbs 9:10
If true faith and obedience lead to blessings, how can a person ever expect to be blessed in the absence of fear of the Lord?
You see, true wisdom, as Holy Scripture describes it, is understanding the answer to the above rhetorical question. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding” (Psalm 111:10a). The Bible is very clear on this topic – fear of the Lord is the foundation for faith, obedience, and blessing. In keeping with Paul’s oft used athletic analogy, how does a person finish a race if they don’t even know where the starting line is? “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules” (2 Timothy 2:5). Wisdom dictates that fear of the Lord is equivalent to finding the starting line (contrarily, if you don’t find it, you certainly cannot partake in the event).