WHAT IS THE JOY SET BEFORE YOU ?

Sorry everyone for the delay between writings. The devil has hit the ole Kenny G. household pretty hard over the past three weeks or so, but Jesus has triumphed and we are much stronger in Him. Victory is yours dear brothers and sisters....be patient, stand strong on the promises of God and you will use the devil as a footstool. Give me an AMEN. Let us pray..Almighty God, we sure thank You so much for Your love poured out for us on Calvary. Thank You for hope, faith and the most wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. Oh Holy Spirit, we worship You. Please help us to love the Father and Son through our obedience. Keep us and help us to be strong in the dark hour which is before us. Let Your living water flow through us towards others in these days. Let Your Glory cover the earth. In Jesus name...AMEN.

Let us read together from the Word shall we.."...who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning it's shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." We find this most interesting verse in Hebrews 12;2. Why is it interesting? In this verse we can find the key which will help us go through to the other side of Calvary.

Lets get a broader picture of what we are studying here. Remember that Jesus had quite a war in the Garden between His flesh and Spirit. His flesh and soul agonized over the fact that He would be tortured, ridiculed, put to great shame and crucified. Sweating drops of blood during this war surely can be labeled as agonizing. Have you ever sweated drops of blood? I haven't but the very thought gives a small glimpse of what we all go through when God gives us certain directions and we war and war until we finally surrender to His most perfect will.

But what helped Jesus make that turning point toward the Father's will? The Word says that He saw a joy before Him which was greater to Him then the agony which awaited Him on Calvary's hill. I have heard some say that the joy was the fact that if He went through this then many would come to salvation and have the opportunity to be snatched from the eternity of hell. My view is quite different. In Hebrews, toward the last part of verse two, we might see something which will help us all. Jesus had a promise from the Father that He would be with Him again. And that He would even sit down once again at His right hand as it was from the beginning. In the Father's very presence is where Jesus longed to be. I wholly believe that when the Father placed our sin on His Son, Jesus died. The moment when our Jesus cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The Father had to turn His back on the sin upon His Son, just like He does ours. Even that brief turning was enough for Jesus to die of a broken heart. A most severe case of loneliness. All of a sudden being without His most precious Daddy.

And so it is with us my most precious brothers and sisters. Remember what I am about to say. It will tie all of this together in just a moment. Every time we sin our Father in heaven looks away until we can get that relationship killer under the blood of Jesus through godly sorrow and repentance. Now, may we talk a moment about my crisis which has plagued me for the past three months? I will not go into too much detail because many involved will be reading this one day. About three months ago a crisis hit our immediate and extended family. One which changed many of our lives forever. This crisis added much anxiety and responsibility to my wife and myself. New additions to our family unit quite unexpectedly.

At first I entered into this new responsibility with open arms because it was an emergency situation which encompassed safe guarding a couple of God's little ones. But to be honest, for three months I have been fighting with God because I didn't want His perfect will in this matter. I became angry at Him and it spilled over to everyone around me. I became depressed at times, even hopeless because I was against what God had brought my way. Of course this disposition was sin and it took me away from my first love...Jesus. But things finally turned around and I have embraced this new family dynamic and God's perfect will for me with open arms.

What brought me from the place of kicking against the goads to one of absolute surrender? Like Jesus, I couldn't live without the Father's presence in my life. So, dear hearts, God might be asking you to do something which may temporarily put you at odds with Him. Make it just that...temporary. Its OK to resist. Sometimes we have to see what is still in our flesh while we wrestle with the Almighty One. Remember this, these end times in which we live will test us all...DON'T GIVE UP. And through the pain you too will finally cry out just like Jesus....MY GOD, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME..I AM SO, SO SORRY...I WILL NOT LIVE WITHOUT YOU.......I CAN'T.

So, lets summarize what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. Do you have a cross in your life? By that I mean something that God has put in your life to fulfill His divine purposes. Something which your flesh is warring against. Something you just don't want to embrace right now. You are in the garden just like Jesus. Crying out to God.."Oh God, I don't want this, is there some other way?" After a little while you will come to the end of yourself and like Jesus you will relinquish your will to the Father's. Thy will done oh God. But it doesn't end there now does it? Faith without works is dead. Jesus mentally and spiritually agreed to do the Father's will and go to the cross. The joy of being with His Father again compelled Him in that direction. But like Jesus, we too have to actually embrace our cross. Saying is one thing but faith is in the doing. Have great joy because on the other side of embracing our cross (God's will) we have the resurrection.

How did my crisis turn out? After much pain and sorrow I finally (by the grace of God) said Thy will be done because I just cant live without being one with You oh God. That joy (just like Jesus) moved me to embrace my cross. And I did. And you know what? When you take that first step out of the boat, the Holy Spirit will give you grace and more grace to live out the will of God, which you first resisted, with great joy and peace. Kind of weird though. I have so embraced the crisis (God's will and cross for me) that if it were taken away now I would be so sad indeed. What cross is in your life? Are you even now in the garden struggling? That's OK because we all know that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Find that joy which is set before you. The joy of being one with the Father in Christ Jesus. Like captain Kirk...MAKE IT SO !!