Inspiring Follow Up Video's Regarding Part 4a

Hopefully these will hit you like they have me, and help clarify some things in the previous post Part 4a.






Can Armenian believers be Christian Hedonist?
(thought I did not discuss this, I wanted to share it for some I know who have been pondering it)


...also..
I need feedback as to whether this is helpful to anyone. I am debating whether to hit all these segments or to send you where you can find this information for yourselves. I will be happy to continue if it is meaning anything to anyone. Thank you for the feedback.

Christian Hedonism Part 4a: The Problem

Please read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 to know what is going on here.
I came back to the "table" of my thinking to finish this off with joy, frustration, and a great sense of being overwhelmed. There is no way to do Part 4 in one sitting. There is just too much for me to write and too much for you to read and I worry if I put it all out at once you will get exhausted of the reading. So, I'm breaking it down into what I believe will be 5 sub parts, both for my benefit in organizing the thoughts and your benefit in receiving them. They will be:
The Problem
The Power
The Praise
The Prayer and..
The Practical
I'm not trying to be all spiritual with the P's, it's just the best way I could come up with organizing the thoughts in my mind. I don't know how long it will take me to get to them either so I will be taking the week off blog themes till I get through them. They were just too important not to miss though.

The Problem:
I said when I ended Part 2 that the problem I felt in myself and other believers in Christ is that we don't enjoy God. That was bleak to me.
Now don't misunderstand, this is not something I'm just coming up with. In fact, what you read here to day will be more from others than from me. It is something the Lord has been trying to show me and I've been amazed at the congruency of his direction on this topic as many different things in my life that "coincidentally" come my way are right along the lines of this topic.
You may not understand what I mean when I say "we don't enjoy God" and you may disagree with me. If we are not enjoying God as believers, then what the heck are we doing? Well, see if any of this sounds familiar to you:
"....once we've been saved, once we've understood and accepted the message of the gospel, the person and work of the Redeemer becomes secondary to what we're focused on- living the Christian life. ....our attention is primarily focused on our performance, on our spiritual growth. We know that the incarnation and resurrection are important truths to our initial salvation, but that's pretty much where their impact ends. "
"We haven't felt his absence because we're so preoccupied with living life for him."
"I believe that most Christians think fondly of Jesus, are sincerely grateful for salvation, and remember his name as a tagline when they pray, but they don't see his work and life as something to contemplate every moment of every day. I have to admit that until fairly recently I, too, pursued godliness without much thought of him."
"In your pursuit of godliness, have you left Jesus behind?"
(from Because He Loves Me by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick)

Here I was studying Piper and then opened the book I was rather begrudged-ly beginning for our ladies discipleship group when I came across this in the introduction! Do you ever feel God is pretty much taking something and hitting you over the head with it!? I felt Elyse stated the problem a little more clearly than some of the more challenging poetic type language of Piper (that I do love, but it can tie your brain in knots within 30 seconds sometimes). Her focus in her book is really on Christ, so it may seem unrelated to what we talked about in Parts 1,2 and 3 but it's not. Why? Because of what is at the right hand of God Almighty, pleasures forevermore....Jesus Christ. They are all connected and therefore her points are completely valid to this discussion.
Now that we've done some stretching with Elyse and started to feel our mental muscles warming up, let's visit the "Jillian Michaels" of Christian thought exercises- Mr. John Piper:
"For many, Christianity has become the grinding out of general doctrinal laws from collections of biblical facts. But childlike wonder and awe have died. The scenery and poetry and music of the majesty of God have dried up like a forgotten peach at the back of the refrigerator.
And the irony is that we have aided and abetted the desiccation by telling people they ought not seek their own pleasure, especially in worship. We have implied in a thousand ways that the virtue of an act diminishes to the degree you enjoy doing it and that doing something because it yields happiness is bad. The notion hangs like a gas in the Christian atmosphere."
The trap for the believer is working out our righteousness rather than enjoying God. We so often put the cart before the horse. We do our duty and hope to find our delight when we need to delight and find that our heart response to God when we do, is nothing we would dare call "duty" at all. Working out our righteousness actually distracts us from Christ and it causes us to focus instead on our measure and the measure of others. We still are not focused on God.
This is a serious thing because it is falling into deceptions of the enemy. Let me try to explain how.
If God's main goal for us is to be happy in Him, what then would the enemy's main target be? Well, it seems that he would be working that we would attempt to fill that with anything BUT God. For the unbeliever that would be through false "happiness" and pleasure seeking of the world. But what would it be for the believer? What would it look like? How would he take our eyes off Christ and have us once again drinking from an empty well? By the very deception that we don't need to enjoy God, but we need to be a better Christian. God calls out to us trying to give us the joy and happiness of Himself, the goal He has had since the dawn of our existence and we sit there with our hands over our ears and our mouths gabbing "la,la,la,la,la!" at the top of our lungs. The only difference is that the unbeliever does not want to hear God say there is more than the happiness of the world, and the believer does not want to hear that there is more than the striving and striving to be holy!
"We assent to these precious truths of Scripture, but we frequently find ourselves living life like practical atheists- not much different from our unbelieving neighbors down the street- except that our garages are empty on Sunday morning. We forget who he is, what he has done; we don't know why it really matters. Because of this, we fail to remember who we are and how he has called us to live."
(Elyse)
This is the saddest of the sad! I believe it's the passion in God's heart when he says to the church of Ephesus that they have forgotten their first LOVE! What were they doing then? Well, the passage says they were doing really good at working on being Christians! Sobering don't you think?

"I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;
and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary.
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent."

(Revelation 2:2-5)

The strong admonishement is just as heavy as those given to the believers behaving as the ungodly! Yet, we seem to not realize the severity of these words.

The problem with the unsaved is their love affair with themselves. Are we falling in love with Jesus just to abandon enjoying Him (and thereby enjoying God himself) only to fall back in the pit of a love affair with ourselves?
I present to you that this is why God called me OUT of homeschooling. NO, I do not mean that all should be called out. Yet, I had fallen guilty of the above, my friends. I had barely a thought of enjoying God and my savior, I was too busy working harder at the Christian life. I was looking for my fulfillment and my happiness in one person's work, mine. You may not struggle with that if you homeschool, but I did and I THANK GOD EVERY DAY THAT HE PULLED THAT IDOL FROM MY LIFE, AND I HOPE HE KEEPS PULLING THEM! (This does not mean it is an idol or form of idolotry for all or any for that matter, for them I cannot speak nor do I dare to presume, but it had become that for me. It did not start that way, but it became that) He may even call me back at some point but I know now that it would never be to me what it was then. When I stopped homeschooling I had to take a huge leap of faith into the very hand of God. I began to acknowledge how powerful and huge he was and how I needed him. I began to be more and more focused on Him every day. He used that to grow my faith. I still struggle with this battle of self-righteousness. I use to want to be godly to keep up with the godly, now my heart has changed to want to be godly because I want to be like Him. "..our desires will be transformed when our eyes are fixed on his godliness." (Elyse) How often I still struggle with that godliness meter I parade around with me. I've been praying lately that God work in me now not to let the enemy have a foothold in my heart toward my brothers and sisters through that stupid meter either as I interact with them in any way. God has no use for such measurements and they dishonor him entirely. They only serve to do one thing and that is puff up my pride. I don't have to worry about others when my focus is on Christ. But, I digress and see the dust of a rabbit trail starting! LOL!
"Instead of humbly receiving the gracious love of our Father and depending daily on him, we want to believe that we really can improve ourselves. God's love is wonderful at first blush, but because it's not based on anything we've done, it humbles us to the dust." (Elyse)
Does it not pain you as it does me that we are just as bad as the world then in not enjoying God!? This is what I mean when I say I put the cart before the horse. I focus on me! I pray for help for me! I ask that I would do better! OH, heavens! I have forgotten my first love, which is NOT me! My LOVE is CHRIST! All that he has done, all that he will do, all whom he is, all he forgave of me, all he will work in me, all he does in the church around me, the world around me, his wisdom, his might, his promises, his peace above understanding. Do you know that if we pondered more the great things to enjoy about God, we would have so little time to fret about our performance. Our performance is pathetic, and it will always be pathetic. So what is the glory in our life? Whatever God does in us and through us, but that which he can only do if we let him and stop trying to grab the wheel of our deceptive strive for holiness!
I have to bring this back around at some point.....
I think that what we mean when we say that God's goal for us is our complete happiness, that this is what we mean, our enjoyment of Him. We enjoy Him by so many means I'll get to later. It's a constant hunger and pursuit, a passion, a delight and a constant need that God fills. Our joy stays with us through it all, but we also pursue our happiness through pursuing enjoyment of God in many ways. If we don't focus on Christ, we do just as the unbelieving and focus on our flesh. Even if the way we do that is by focusing on our Christian performance, that is still us, and it's still the flesh and it's satisfaction is deceptive.

"Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:2-3)

"Religious 'flesh' always wants to work for God (rather than humbling itself to realize God must work for it in free grace). But 'if you live according to the flesh you will die' (Romans 8:13). That is why our very lives hang on not working for God.

You may also be discouraged repetitively, depressed again and again, and insecure. Though these are a struggle for us all, the more we understand this view of God not needing our service to Him, the more freed from these we become.

"God is not looking for people to work for Him, so much as He is looking for people who will let Him work for them. The gospel is not a help-wanted ad."

"From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him." (Isaiah 64:4)

"Most of us think serving God is a totally positive thing; we have not considered that serving God may be an insult to Him. But meditation on the meaning of prayer demands this consideration.

Acts 17:24-25

'The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.'

'The Son of Man came not to be served (Mark 10:45). He aims to be the servant. He aims to get the glory as Giver.

This is true, not just in the days of His earthly humiliation, but even in His glory at the close of the age.

'Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.' (Luke 12:37)

To be sure, we are called servants- and that no doubt means we are to do exactly as we are told. But the wonder of this picture is that the 'master' insists on 'serving' even in the age to come when He appears in all His glory 'with his mighty angels in flaming fire' (2 Thess 1:7-8). Why? Because the very heart of His glory is the fullness of grace that overflows in kindness to needy people. Therefore, He aims 'in the coming ages to show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus' (Eph 2:7)

What is the greatness of our God? What is His uniqueness in the world?

Isaiah answers:

'From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

All other so-called gods try to exalt themselves by making man work for them. In doing so, they only show their weakness. Isaiah derides the gods who need the service of their people"

(All taken from John Piper's Chapter entitled "Prayer" from Desiring God.... I went from thought to thought that struck me. I really do it injustice to say that is all however as reading on your own you will find much more in between)

The obvious question would therefore be what about all the scripture that tells us to serve God? How do we serve Him. Well, first I have to recommend reading this yourself because I'm not getting it all as I just stated in the parenthesis. But here is a morsel:

"The way to serve God so that He gets the glory is to look to Him for mercy. Prayer prevents service from being an expression of pride." Piper

Ah, and there in lies the rub as they say! Pride is self, self is flesh, flesh is me. I'm back to square one where I'm not enjoying God I've started to enjoy me and my fine tuning Christian ways.

I hope you start to see therefore, how this all comes together. It's a lot I know, and there is more important stuff surrounding it.

Next post I'd like to hit the really joyful aspect of the power behind this happiness. Where does it come from? What makes it such a strong desire in us, this pining for happiness?

Please, please, and I say again, please ask any questions and make any statements of thought. I welcome them all.

A Side Step In Job: Christian Hedonism Part 3 (i guess:)

Well, man may make his plans but God directs his steps. I planned to pick up part three talking about how we don't desire and enjoy God though we may trust him. I posted Part 2 yesterday and noticed much reading and little commenting. I cannot say enough how much of a research this is for me still. If you read and have questions please ask because I'm asking them too and if you don't agree feel free to say on what point. This discussion is an invitation to dive in and filter out what is not true and what is but that does not come from any of us, it comes from the revelation of God through the Holy Spirit to our hearts AND minds. I really do mean when I say I that invite discussion. I want to hear what's turning in your heads even if it's just that you are dizzy! :) Or if you are drawing a blank...you can share that too:) If it's that you just think I'm talking circles and don't get my point, I pray it becomes clear soon.....my point that is. And, you know, I realize that mainly this is a journey God has me on, and I delight in it but I don't expect it to make sense to everyone (as it barely is starting to make sense to me). It's my joy to share with you but I also write so I will not forget.
I do have two things that have come up or been shared with me on my facebook regarding this topic that I'd like to share at the end.

Still, I was pondering some things I had written and re-evaluating their validity with the rest of scripture. I wanted to make sure to clarify that we are not unhappy because we have sinned (though that may sometimes be true, it is not true all the time especially as I think of Job) but that because of sin and our fallen state, we struggle with happiness. It is the same with righteousness. Christ has cleansed us, we are righteous, but yet, we struggle here with being righteous in our flesh. I hope that helps a bit. We have to remember our redeemer HAS indeed redeemed and we are not trying to work for any reward, even happiness, we seek it out of delight from our eyes being opened and our hearts therefore responding.

Also, when I respond to the verse "he will give you the desires of your heart" with "he wants to make you happy!" I DO NOT mean that he wants to give you what you want and crave of the temporal because the fact is that that is NOT what will make you happy. It may give you an earthly delight that can indeed be from him as a gift, or it may be a flat out deception of happiness, but either way, it will not give you what he made you for that being HIM. So, God knows more than we do that the desire of our heart is for Him. He knows that because He put that desire there. It is a separate desire than the desires for earthly goodies from him and it is the very desire I'm wanting to re -captivate and seek, and tell you about. There is a happiness that leaves us wanting, and there is a happiness that when we seek it and desire it, and find it, it fills up our joy. More on that later (don't you love that I always say that;)

So, I take a side step into Job, my chronological reading and study that the Lord used to embellish my train of thoughts about happiness (quite unexpectedly I might add! I love that He works that way!). I was starting to see a connection in the over all message of Job but I was not sure what it was yet. I jumped ahead to start evaluating the very last three chapters of Job as I will be responsible for that devotional post on the Bible In A Year And Beyond site I've graciously been asked to take part it. Yet, I was still back in today's readings in Job 26-29. Job 28 is a pivotal and crucial chapter in the book of Job, and it is a turning point of the story. Job begins to turn toward not just the bigness of God, or his mighty ways that we observe, but his WISDOM that we cannot fathom and that no man can understand.


I began to ponder about wisdom. The Lord reminded me the language he uses to entice us into the glory of wisdom:


For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; (Prov 2:10)


For wisdom is better than jewels;And all desirable things cannot compare with her (Prov 8:11)


How much better it is to get wisdom than gold!And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver(Prov 16:16)


He who gets wisdom loves his own soul;He who keeps understanding will find good. (Prov 19:8)


Notice the language of pleasure, of treasure (paralleling our earthly "luck" or "pot of gold"...prosperity, riches and prosperity), of desiring and wanting, of seeking your own happiness or "loving your own soul" by seeking wisdom. It would at first sound like selfish language to say "loves his own soul", for should he not love God? Ah, but as Piper points out in his book, they are the same, wrapped up in each other. God is our greatest good that we should seek for ourselves.

Now notice the language of desire and seeking:


I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me. (Prov 8:17)

If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; (Prov 2:4)

She (wisdom) is more precious than jewels;And nothing you desire compares with her. (Prov 3:15)

Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding!Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.(Prov 4:5) (here we are not just enticed or encouraged to seek but commanded! God does that too and we need to listen when he is this serious!)


At the same time, as Job discovers in chapter 28, wisdom cannot be gained by human study of any kind, it is from the Lord. The men who advised him did not have it (according to God himself, he says that of them at the end of Job), and Job had heard of it but had not seen it yet.

For the LORD gives wisdom;From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Prov 2:6)

The LORD by wisdom founded the earth,By understanding He established the heavens.(Prov 3:19)

Counsel is mine and sound wisdom;I am understanding, power is mine.(Prov 8:14)


And these words seem to echo Job 28:

Surely I am more stupid than any man, And I do not have the understanding of a man. Neither have I learned wisdom, Nor do I have the knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His son's name? Surely you know! Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar. (Prov 30:2-4)

For Job reflects:

"But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? 'Man does not know its value, Nor is it found in the land of the living. '"

He even takes a few verses to mention specific gems and precious metals of earthly fortune that cannot compare giving the word picture and enticing of Proverbs that what man desires most and enjoys so highly, cannot compare to this delight.

Another important parallel though is found in verse 22:

Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.’

I found this astounding because the Word tells us : "We were dead in our trespasses and sin...but you have been made alive in Christ" (my paraphrase of Eph 2)

Because of our state of death we can only hear of wisdom and it's pleasures. Only God, through Christ now to us who came after his coming (and through faith credited to them as righteousness as in Jobs day) can open our eyes to see wisdom. At the end of Job this is the very conclusion of Job himself when he says:

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Job 42:5

Job has passed from death into life. God has let him move beyond hearing into seeing. Even in his state of knowing how great God was, it was not enough to convict his heart to repentance. God brought him to that place (through his suffering) to see that God was wise and that he desired that delightful part of God.

Now, here is the amazing thing about wisdom that ties it in with our discussion on happiness. Our fallen-ness does not keep us from God's wisdom. Even if we were never interrupted with the fall of man, we would not comprehend these things. The moment we understand fully the wisdom of God, we will be his equal. Now, let your mind stretch around this one.....

You will (if you are redeemed) spend now and all of eternity receiving new pleasures and delights from God's wisdom. You will never reach the end. THAT is how wise God is. THAT is what blew Job's mind to realize. THAT is what led him to repent. Yet, the part I feel we are missing out on as Christians is the continual seeking and desiring as for hidden treasure.

My friend Amy made one of the most pertinents observations in the comments from part 2 and I don't know if you caught it. She mentioned this verse:

You will make known to me the path of life;In Your presence is fullness of joy;In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. (Psalm 16:11)

She went on to mention that we know from the Word EVERYWHERE else, who is positioned at the right hand of the Father. It is our savior, Jesus Christ. He is associated with our pleasure and pleasure is something we seek, yet we never attain.

An aspect of joy within Christianity is that it has become more defined as quiet trust, dependence and hope, supernatural delight so to speak (and yes, these are my personal definitions in my mind). The scripture continually uses the language "that your joy may be full" or "restore to me the joy of my salvation". The part of this that we, I, am missing in my walk with the Lord, is that though joy is continual in the ways I defined above, it is missing the element of being continually filled and restored. That is the part that happiness brings into joy that is to crucial to throw out.

So, this was where my thoughts were wondering, and rabbit trailing, and then coming back together. I find that all is connected and all is on it's own as well. The Word of God is amazing that way. But, I wanted to cover these aspects of what happened to Job and the issue of the parallel of the wisdom of God before moving on to the topic of enjoying God. I honestly don't know where I'm going, I'm just enjoying the ride as God brings it along.

On this trail I'm hiking came a quote my friend Donna posted to our C.S. Lewis reading club that my husband and I are in. It is from St. Augustine I believe:

"Humans love many different things and when they seem to have all that they desire, we are accustomed to call them happy. But we can be happy only if we are loving what ought to be loved. Happiness does not consist simply in having what we happen to love. We sometimes are made more unhappy by having what we love than in not having it. When unhappy persons love something hurtful, they are made even more unhappy."

I am tickled by the circles we go in just in that quote! You can truly get logically dizzy you know! It does happen! Yet, I love it. :) And, hey, at least you are along for the ride!

I really liked the quote, and in response to it and something I said about it my friend Alyce commented back to me and I so appreciate her sharing that she was struggling with the concept! Struggling is good because it's movement toward seeking!

"Alicia, I thought of you when I read this. Lewis said so much better what I was wrestling with. 'To pursue being happy can be disastrous, because our natural bent is so self centered, and we love ourselves so much that we go for the wrong things. But to love God results in the happiness we so long for. Happiness should be the result, not the goal.'"

This has been a light bulb moment for me! Thank you btw Alyce for that, and thank you again Lewis! It is a key breakthrough to these discussions . It's the part I have perhaps been missing.

Happiness is not our goal, it is God's goal for us! We don't have to worry about being happy! We don't' have to seek it, we have to seek him! We don't have to seek our desires, we have to seek Him! At His right hand are pleasures forevermore, our Christ Jesus, full of wisdom and truth (full meaning as God is! God made flesh once again...all ties together people!). So, perhaps the originating statement bothered me ("happiness is not God's goal for us") because the Holy Spirit in me knew that it WAS!

Okay, get ready....we are going to circle again....

We do have to seek Him, we do have to desire Him, we do have to find pleasure and enjoy him, NOT happiness, HIM. Why? Because He is our happiness! His goal for us is Himself resulting in our happiness and Himself resulting in our righteousness.

Are you dizzy now? If you are not....read it again..LOL!

So, do you? Do I? Seek, desire, enjoy?

This is the verse on my heart to talk about next "Taste and see that the Lord is good"

What is our trip up? What do we do instead? The world goes to empty wells of happiness, and we may struggle with that too, but what else keeps us specifically as Christians, from craving more pleasure from God? What does it have to do with Christ?

Which Came First, The Happy Or The Joy? Christian Hedonism Part 2

I cannot express enough my bewilderment at where to start the next part of these thoughts. I've prayed that the Lord would make the way clear to me because it has been like a bunch of individual pertinent butterflies fluttering around in my head, delightful and true but I could not, and still am having a hard time putting the random importance into order that would help the reader get my overall point in the best most logical way. I'm a random thinker and a random writer and I have to say, I apologize to you, the reader because you may not get the point until I'm well on my way. You may understand it in different sequence than my brain does and you may have to dive in with me, go "huh?" and then backtrack once a light bulb comes on and you don't understand the randomness before your moment of "ah,ha!". So, bear with me, and I thank you ahead of time. The Lord has encouraged me that I just have to give it the way it comes and let Him do the rest. He did give me two starting points though and I'm hoping He will lead me from there. FIRST OF ALL... you need to read Part 1 to know what the discussion is here.

Part 2
Here is one of my main thoughts:
The fact that we seek happiness in the wrong ways does not prove that God's focus is not on our happiness. It only proves that we are off track.

This would be like saying that because our lusts are corrupted by sin, sexual pleasure is not what God wants for us.
HOWEVER....there are some legitimate observations about the images that these terms procure in our thinking. So, I want to start there because words are so crucial to our understanding but they also can become something they are not through cultural conditioning and experience. The bible uses both terms (though joy is used more) and John Piper bounces back and forth between them himself in his book "Desiring God" and I've noticed that sometimes you could substitute one for the other but not always. This solidified my theory that they are both important, different, and wrapped up in each other somehow. I invite further help on this if you have any because I'm searching with ya.
The Logistics....
Happy: Middle English ; Origin 1300-1350; adjective
"Hap"= "luck"
1. delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing.
2. characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy.
3. favored by fortune; fortunate or lucky
4. apt or felicitous, as actions, utterances or ideas.
5. obsessed by or quick to use the item indicated; characterized by spontaneous or obsessive inclination to use something.
Synonyms- joyous, joyful, blithe, cheerful, merry, contented, gay, blissful, satisfied, favorable, propitious, successful, prosperous, fortunate.

Joy: Latin (guadium-guad meaning to rejoice or take pleasure in; base of gaudere- "to be glad")
Origin: 1175-1225
Noun
1. emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation
2. a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone valued or appreciated.
3. the expression or display of glad feeling; festive gaiety.
4. a state of happiness or felicity
-verb form- (used w/o object)
5. to feel joy; be glad; rejoice
-verb form- (w/ object)
6. to gladden
Synonyms
1. rapture, bliss, pleasure
Greek versions: gaio- I rejoice, guaire "noble"

Ironically the Latin word for for joy itself is "Laetus" which means: happy,fertile, rich.

So, these are interesting and I don't know about you but they give me the feeling that I'm circling around and coming back to the place from which one begins and the other ends over and over and over. I mean that they are all tied in with each other, but I still knew there was something different between them and something that we were missing when we left out that difference. I have been searching to put my finger on that.
Even from these logistical definitions we get the feeling that happy leans into superficial and joy leans into profound. There seem to be things that happy has for us and there seem things that joy has for us. I think the big trip up here in the human definition of happy is the "luck" element. "Luck" gives a feeling of chance and human prosperity completely temporal. It really gives us a feeling of there being no God at all. And yet, part of joy means "fertile and rich" so again we circle.
What is the frustration?
I think I'm frustrated that time and culture have taken the older word joy and added ungodly parameters to the definition, because in our distaste for these, we throw out some things that the word has for us that we cannot miss. I present to you that the enemy has allowed this concept to be tainted because it is one of the most powerful concepts of our relationship to God, but I'll come back to that later.
What is the solution?
We cannot find our true definitions just here. We have to go biblical. Before we take that dive though, let's notice a few other important things about the logistics.
Happy is an adjective, it shows action. It has movement. Joy is a noun and just is what it is so to speak (I'm not good with grammar so help me or let me know if I'm off base here). Many of the things associated with happiness come and go: fortune, obsession, favor etc. Joy has more noble definitions that seem more solid: rapture, keen pleasure, valued delight, exceptional.
Hmmmm, you can see why we find one more biblically appealing than the other. So this is why we now must dive into the biblical intentions and these are not as easy to see because they don't have written explanations and parameters. Remember when I ask you to go back with me that the traditions of men have made these above definitions. I guess I'm asking you now, after filling your head with so much, to take a moment to wipe it clean and journey with me. I promise we will come back around, it just may take me a while.

Which Came First, the Happy or the Joy?
I asked my Christian friend this a few days ago and she said "of course, the joy! it had to!". She was bewildered when I said "nope".
My Premise:
God brought forgiveness through Christ to redeem our righteousness;
He brought joy through the Holy Spirit to redeem our happiness.

You can see that this leads to one thing only, that being that God was originally and fully focused on our happiness. For something to need redemption implies that it has been corrupted or torn away from it's original purpose and position. Our original purpose was happiness. In fact, the biblical concept of joy is proof that we were intended to be happy and it's purpose is to be a supernatural redemption of that state.
"All men seek happiness. This is without exception" Blaise Pascal
"seeking one's own happiness is not a sin; it is a simple given human nature. It is a law of the human heart, as gravity is a law of nature" John Piper
We have been given a hunger to be happy, a desire, a longing, by God. It was his original intent for us above all other things (an interesting side note is that even other religions are a proof of this fundamental truth. For instance Buddhism is all about living a life void of the effects of pain and suffering). There was one thing meant to fill that, Himself. God, being completely full of happiness and of fullest value sought to do the most loving thing for us that he could, make us crave the most supremely valuable thing, Him. It was the birth of the greatest love story that will ever be. The Creator wanted us to want Him above all (here was born our desire for happiness), not because he needed to be wanted but because out of his love for us he knew He was the ultimate thing we would need and delight in because He was the supreme source of happiness. Happiness is best experienced when it is extended to another and God did that for us. More on that later as well.
"It is not a bad thing to desire our own good. In fact, the great problem of human beings is that they are far too easily pleased. They don't seek pleasure with nearly the resolve and passion that they should." John Piper

"God finds our desires not to strong but too weak" C.S. Lewis
Here is a key difference from joy to happiness. The seeking of pleasure, the fostering of desire. This is what happiness brings to the table that joy does not. Notice above that joy is a noun and happy is an adjective. One is a continual state, and one is in motion. We've got the siting part right people, we are joyful (or so we say...more on that later too), but we lack the pursuit of more, the seeking of our pleasure. The very use of the term "true happiness" that we Christians employ is proof that we have decided there is a "false happiness" and I tell you, we have let the false one keep us from the true one not just in our thoughts of eternity but HERE and NOW. The enemy has used our culture to rob us of a great gift that God is standing and holding out for us but we cannot see it. The unsaved putter around that God picking up empty packages that don't satisfy and Christians don't realize that God has more to give because we are sitting wrapped in our blanket of joy (as we have defined it) thinking the gifts from him have been given all ready. We are in a white robe of righteousness wrapped up in a blanket of joy and sitting at his feet not seeing the further gift in hand for us (which really is Himself....continually given). I understand these are challenging things to absorb and excuse me if my word pictures do not help you but distract you. Please throw them out if they distract.
That God does not want us to be happy is a rooted deception of the enemy as are the lures to false happiness he has set up. To say "I am joyful" seems to leave out the action of pursuit. The very "I am" part of that trips us up. The very fact that happiness is fleeting shows us that we need to be up and moving, desiring and seeking pleasure meant for us from God. It's characteristic of fleeting does not prove it invaluable but attained differently. I am joyful but I need to keep wanting joy and that is a process of seeking happiness. Joy is not a finished state, it is in essence a balm for us when we hit rock bottom in this world of sin and there is nothing else. That is why the unsaved don't have it. It is a gift given to us from the Holy Spirit for our aid in our state of fallenness.
"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4 He will make you happy!? He wants to make you happy. Happiness essentially is the fulfillment of our desires! Our delight in Him is tied to our happiness and it is the meaning of our lives and that is why we cannot say that God's focus is not our happiness and that it's not the meaning of life. It is the VERY purpose for which we were created, to glorify Him by enjoying Him forever.
"As a dear pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you O, God, for the living God" Psalm 42:1-2. Need, want, I am joyful but I need to keep wanting. I am made to want, I am made to desire. I am made to seek happiness. Joy is to help me supernaturally when I cannot be happy because of the effect sin has had on God's intent for happiness ORIGINALLY. The main effect of sin and fallenness here is sorrow, loss, bad health and pain. God intended for us to be happy, but he also intended for us to be righteous. We are no more happy through our day than we are righteous. This does not mean he did not intend these things for us, that they were not his focus and goal, it means we are in a fallen state. Does God want you to be happy all day? Yes, I say that he does (well, the bible says that he does, he commands happiness). Can you? No. Why? Because of sin from which we are freed in our position with Christ but from which we still suffer the effects, not on our souls, but on our minds and bodies. Does God want you to be righteous all day? Yes, I say that he does (well, the bible says he does, he commands righteousness). Can you? No. Why? Because of sin from which we are freed in our ...okay..you get it.
In conclusion (on this point anyway...):
Happiness was the focus of God for us. It still is. He works all things for His glory and His glory defines that we should be happy. Sin corrupted that (as he allowed, but that is ANOTHER blog theme!). His Son brought redemption we call joy. It's a love relationship he wants with His created, a desire that we should want to be happy because He is our Happiness, our fulfillment of ongoing desire. He wanted so badly to redeem our intended happiness that he sent His son not only to bring us the balm of joy, but to restore our continual fulfillment of desire...our happiness. This is why I cringe when we say "God's focus is not on our happiness and it is not the meaning of life." Oh, but good Christian it is! The elements of happiness that were intended for the Christian is something I propose that the enemy does not want us to see because it would catapult our view of God to a level he can't handle. It would make us motivated beyond measure to delight and enjoy God. It would make us his biggest threat. He wants us to call it bad and throw it out along with the precious life changing truth that it holds for us.
So, what is our problem as Christians?
We don't enjoy God. (and yes, I post that black because it is bleak indeed)

..and that is where we will pick up next time.

(Note: if you are not all ready, I cannot urge you enough to pick up a copy of John Piper's book "Desiring God". There is so much more above, beyond and around this topic than I address here. In fact, I'm really taking a rabbit trail off of my thoughts from the book. Piper does not even get into the difference of these terms but there is so much more there to understand that I will be talking about here)

Does God Work For Our Happiness? Christian Hedonism Part 1

Sometimes I feel that we get in these modes as believers where we know the ropes and the rules and we just want to keep pressing on as we know it instead of being challenged to learn new things. I don't fit well in those circles because I have AMAZING joy in learning crazy new things about God. Things that hurt my brain to talk and think about. Things that I've not heard discussed yet in Christian circles. Things that people like Lewis and Piper blow my brain with and challenge me that THERE IS EVEN MORE! OH HOW I LOVE THAT ABOUT GOD! In fact it is the very essence of my discussion here, the very seeking for these pleasures from God, desiring Him, wanting more. To be totally content in Him and yet desire more is the foundation of happiness in Him and from Him.

I want to ask some questions. I want to enter a theological gym of sorts and do some stretches and some painful muscle building. I invite you to enter with me, and to challenge me in any way. I invite discussion and humble hearts who long to banter about the issues of our very existence. Doesn't that sound exciting!? Well, it does to me and you came by my blog so ...here we go:)

What is happiness?

What is joy?

Are they the same?

Is happiness even important to Christians?

Does God long for us to be happy?

Does he long for us to be joyful?

What do they mean?

Is our happiness on God's priority list?

What does the world define as "happy"?

Is it wrong to want to be happy?

Is it a right or a God given desire?

How has sin tainted this desire like it has so many others?

These are the things I want to talk about. This will take a while, and yes, I'm a wife and mother of three children and I work a small job for 2 hours a day. So, I'm not in a hurry to get through this. I WILL get through it though because I feel it is vital to the Christian walk. I think it's something we are missing.

Want to know where to start to get going? Go to http://www.desiringgod.org/ and read about Christian Hedonism. Or, pick up the book "Desiring God" by John Piper.

What inspired this?

I read a lovely Christian woman state that "we think we deserve happiness" and "our happiness is not God's focus and it is not the meaning of life". Although I completely understand where she was coming from and the validity of her statements (and trust me, they ARE valid and true in the sense she intended them), my soul cringes when we say these things. The reason is not because she is wrong but because there is SO MUCH MORE that IS important on the issue of happiness and unfortunately we as Christians stop at this and don't go on into the rest of it. We get this, as stated above, and we get the concept of joy. Those spiritual muscles are stretched and built and we think we are done. We are not. In between there is a whole element that is glorious about God. It comes down to understanding what he has instilled in us when he made us. It comes down to understanding definitions and where they are wrong.

I tell you, I know God wants us to be happy and I think we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater when we shun this word entirely. I will talk about why and how. I will be bold enough to say that God's whole plan was and is for our happiness. Joy, yes, but even happiness. We have to be willing to erase cliche thoughts and go back to the drawing board of EVERYTHING having to do with why we are here and how He is redeeming us back to himself. Like said, it's a lot but believe me when I say, your joy will be made full if you journey with me. It will be embellished in a way you never knew. I'm not the most knowledgeable on these things though so I'm just hoping to inspire and get you started. Seek the word, we will here. Read Lewis, we will be quoting his thoughts for sure, and please, please read John Piper. God has given this man a great gift of deeper thinking into the scripture that continually challenges me and makes God bigger in my thinking than He ever was before.

I'll start you off with this poem to ponder. I look forward to the journey.

When God at first made man,

Having a glass of blessings standing by,

Let us (said he) pour on him all we can:

Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,

Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way;

Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure:

When almost all was out, God made a stay,

Perceiving that alone of all his treasure,

Rest in the bottom lay.

For if I should (said he)

Bestow this jewel also on my creature,

He would adore my gifts instead of me,

And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:

So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,

But keep them with repining restlessness;

Let him be rich and weary, that at least,

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness

May toss him to my breast.

George Herbert