RADIATE the JOY of JESUS!

          Have you had your JOY JUICE today? You’ve got to drink yours first, so that you’ll be ready to share it with others!

            It is true that you can’t give someone what you don’t have!  That includes the JOY of the Lord, as much as anything else.  When people look at you, do they see a joy-filled, loving, kind Christian?  Is there any question about your faith in God?  Do you blend in with the crowd or do you stand out?  Paul teaches in Philippians 2: 15  that we should “become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.”

            Do we “shine” for Christ?  Do we have the joy of Jesus in our hearts? So much joy that it overflows onto and into the lives of others?

            Oswald Chambers wrote in his powerful devotional book My Utmost for His Highest: “We are not saved only to be instruments for God, but to be His sons and daughters.  He does not turn us into spiritual agents but into spiritual messengers, and the message must be a part of us.”  “Before God’s message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real to you.”

            Have you caught the “joy germ”?  Are you living for Christ each day and radiating His joy?  Are you contagious….spreading the JOY of the Lord everywhere you go?  Wouldn’t it be great if our community made the news by being the cause of an EPIDEMIC of JOY?

            Let’s allow our message of joy to start in our own hearts and then spread rapidly to all those around us!