joyindestructible

In the world created by men and women, a world founded upon sin, I find everything that tears people down. The worldly, glitzy, glitter of false promise fades with reality and leaves those who trusted in those promises broken. The world responds by continuing to promote destruction and condemning those who fail to obtain those empty promises. Sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, wealth, and fame promise pleasure, a life of ease, and greatness but end in emptiness, suffering, and ridicule. People caught up in the same pursuits react to the failure of others with fear expressed in judgment. No one trapped within a lie and promoting lies wants to see the truth. Those broken by the reality of what the world offers are truth in living, breathing form and they are offensive to those living in denial. Judging others is the fearful practice of another false promise, that those broken are weak and the strong can’t be broken (this is human pride). Truth tells us that all are weak and fragile. Responding to people broken–down by the world, by crushing them further, does nothing to heal them. Maintaining the lie of human pride, which is the spirit of condemnation, only promotes the sins that threaten all and fills the world with evil. The personal destruction of others, through judgment, is the arch-enemy of the joy believers possess through faith in Jesus. The world is in the church and too often, believers respond to the sins of others by condemnation when the joyful, right response is edification.

The best this world, created by men and women, has to offer is gaiety but no joy. All that glitters but isn’t a diamond, delivers temporary elation that comes with moral abandon. When the evil that lives in every heart is released, there is the temporary rush of freedom-to-do-as-one-chooses and the feeling of godhood-power in self-direction, unrepressed. All gaiety withers when the natural consequences come pouring down. Persons shattered by sin don’t need more lies to soothe them; their only chance for healing is divine truth and honest reckoning. Divine truth as expressed in Jesus in sacrificial love is what all people blinded by the world and crushed by sin need to find their way out of dark-hopelessness and into the light of eternal life. All who are weak and broken need the love of Jesus and His true promises to mend their broken hearts and minds. God loves a broken and contrite heart and those suffering the consequences of being married to a life of moral abandon are ripe for salvation in Jesus. No one who upon comprehending the false promise of gaiety, will turn away from the opportunity to live a life of joy!

Edification is for believers because it isn’t possible to rebuild an unbeliever; as no one who denies Jesus can receive the eternal life He offers. Jesus is the cornerstone and without Him, no building or rebuilding can stand. Those who are broken, reach to Jesus by faith, and repent, should be gathered in by believers; and given the edifying love they need to construct a better, joyfully, abundant life. This act of divine love is the sign for all broken non-believers that Jesus saves and Jesus heals. It is God’s goodness that leads sinners to repentance and edification, not condemnation, is the mark of those who love as God loves. By the transforming power of edifying love, each believer is honed and becomes a fine stone Masterfully fitted into place, to complete the living temple of God.

1 Corinthians 13 & 14 1-5