"Get a life!" is a statement that has been echoing down the corridors of my mind for as long as I can remember. Most of the time it Has been spoken to me with subtle nuances, even religious ones. As a child it was, "What are you going to be when you grow up?” I was raised unchurched yet I knew about Jesus and loved the songs my Grandmother used to sing. Most of my childhood was spent in a state of waiting to grow up so I could become someone. As a teenager I was a good student, plus outstanding in art and leadership, but there came a point when I began to fail. My parents decided to send me to a Catholic Girl's School. It was a great help to me, but more important to> me was the time spent in Chapel. It was mysterious because of the aura of the Lord that 1 so often encountered there. I was struck by this sense of the Lord's presence from the first visit. I had twice before in my teen years experienced such wondrousness so I shared with one or two of the girls about this from time to time. It didn't astound anyone because they were used to similar experiences.
The nuns and girls had a divine reverence for anything associated with "Our Lord" as they called Him, but no one evangelized me. I was taught doctrine and moral theology.
Later I became a Catholic, married, and began raising a family. I was devout and diligent in my efforts to become worthy and perfected, but inwardly I was a desolate city.
In desperation one day I knelt down in church and cried out to the Lord. I wanted Him to be first in my life! After that a new element - - JOY - - touched me. It didn't stay but it started me on a quest. My next spiritual encounter was the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the subsequent speaking in other tongues. It was a thrilling break through, however my personal life was headed for a long siege of trials.
I needed to become emotionally stable so I put myself under the guidance of an older charismatic lady who drummed some basic biblical truths into me and set me on a course that helped me. Christ was being formed in me, yet as I reflect back - - it's clear that I still didn't consider myself as having a life. The quest for the joy element in my Christian experience provoked me onward. Excuse me ... I sense a personal word from the Lord coming.” Win, the joy you are looking for you already have. It is the bitter that causes you to think you are in darkness and alone. On your quest, especially in American Pentecostal circles there are those who are content because of their comfortable lives. You feel you lack a great deal. The truth is there within you and there is no lack, for I am closer than a brother. My presence is all the joy, you need." I hadn't really considered for myself the Lord's presence in ME as being a joyful event! Repent Win.
Ps. 51:8 Make me to hear (be intelligent about) joy and gladness; that the bones (substance, life), which thou hast broken, may rejoice.
Ps. 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation (to be open) and uphold me with thy free spirit.
There is an elixir of life when we touch base with Jesus. It gives strength, it is joy, a calm delight, cheerfulness, gladness greatly (to be exceedingly) joyful, well off. (Strong's Concordance.) “I'm glad 1 have not a life, but LIFE - - trial's included.
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ALEPH TAU: BY WIN CAIN