In worship, we are reminded through the hymns that our celebration of joy can sometimes be found in the midst of great pain. Some of the most endearing celebrations of joy have been in the presence of much pain, for the joy is not found in life’s circumstances but in the joy of the Lord. 

Horatio Spafford stands witness to this so powerfully. Spafford was born in 1828 and lived much of his life in Chicago as a successful lawyer and businessman. He was deeply religious and active in his church. 

Beginning in 1870, a series of tragic events tested his faith greatly. In 1873, a doctor advised the Spaffords to take a vacation for the family’s well being. Hearing that a dear friend, Dwight L. Moody, would be preaching in England, the Spaffords decided to leave for a vacation there. Spafford’s wife and their four daughters set sail, and Horatio would follow after completing some business. On November 22, 1873, while enroute, their ship sunk. Mrs. Spafford survived, but the four daughters were lost. When she arrived in Wales, she cabled her husband with the news: “Saved alone.” 

Receiving the news, Spafford left immediately to join his wife. He asked the captain of the ship to notify him when they approached the approximate location of where his daughters’ ship went down. Notified that the area was near, Spafford went down into his cabin and wrote this hymn, which today we know as “When Peace Like A River,” or better known as “It is Well With My Soul”: 

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, 

When sorrows like sea billows roll; 

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, 

“It is well, it is well with my soul.” 

It is well with my soul. 

It is well, it is well with my soul. 

Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come, 

Let this blest assurance control, 

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, 

And hath shed His own blood for my soul. 

It is well with my soul. 

It is well, it is well with my soul. 

My sin . . . O, the bliss of this glorious thought, 

My sin, not in part but the whole, 

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. 

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It is well with my soul. 

It is well, it is well with my soul. 

And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, 

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, 

The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend. 

“Even so” – it is well with my soul. 

It is well with my soul. 

It is well, it is well with my soul.”
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

God understands our basic need and desire to celebrate. He knows that our delight in Him needs a chance to express itself in community. This is one of the great joys of worshipping with other Christians. The Old Testament places a lot of emphasis on the feast days. 50 Days Ablaze - Celebrate 167 These days of feasting were to be as influential as were the strict regulations of fasting and sacrifices. The Book of Leviticus has the reputation for being a book of laws and regulations. It has a fair share in its pages. But it also has a lot to say about celebrating among the community of believers. 

God is pleased when His people gather to celebrate in His name—celebrating His victories, His faithfulness and grace. This is what rests at the very heart and center of worship—the celebration of God’s goodness and glory. So often we want to make worship about us. We look for hymns that move us in certain ways; messages that help us with “real life” problems; worship time that helps us to experience His presence. I rejoice when this is the result of worship, but these are secondary. First and foremost, our worship celebrates Him. He alone is worthy to receive our praise and honor. This is reflected so well in the hymn of praise, “This is the Feast”: 

This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia. 

Worthy is Christ, the Lamb who was slain, 

Whose blood set us free to be people of God.

Power and riches and wisdom and strength 

And honor and blessing and glory are his. 

This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia. 

Sing with all the people of God, 

And join in the hymn of all creation: 

Blessing and honor and glory and might 

Be to God and the Lamb forever. Amen. 

This is the feast of victory for our God, 

For the Lamb who was slain has begun his reign. Alleluia, alleluia. 

(Lutheran Worship. pp. 182-183) 

When worship is carried out in spirit and truth as Jesus taught (John 4:23), all of worship is a feast—a feast on the love and faithfulness of God. The highpoint of this feast is the celebration of Holy Communion. What a great way to refer to this meal—the celebration of Holy Communion. That is precisely what it is—a celebration. God is victorious. He rules. He alone is worthy. 

Worship is nothing less than offering Him the praise He deserves in a rhythm that echoes our daily walk with Him.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

Joy in the life of a believer is not only fun; it is a necessity. Take to heart the words of Nehemiah: “. . . for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (8:10). 

For all those times I know the joy of the Lord through His body and blood, which I receive at His altar, or through the comforting presence of His Spirit, I ditto what Nehemiah said: “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” In times of trouble, joy gives strength. In times of temptation, joy gives strength. It is the absence of joy that makes us weak. 

 “Celebration heartily done makes our deprivations and sorrows seem small, and we find in it great strength to do the will of our God because his goodness becomes so real to us” (Willard, p. 181). 

It is very basic when we delight in God as our greatest joy. Sinful actions are not as appealing or attractive. There is strength in that joy. Don’t get me wrong. Temptations are still attractive. They are just not as attractive. It only follows that where there is a heart of joy, it will seek the opportunity to celebrate. 
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Laughter is a good thing in life. It refl ects joy in the heart. Joy is a good thing. It must be, because there are over 800 passages in the Bible that deal with “joy.” God must like the word. Even more than liking the word in the Bible, God loves it when there is joy in life.

Jesus entered into His public ministry talking about joy. As He began His public ministry, some of His first words were regarding joy. He stood before the people in His hometown and read the words of Isaiah: 

 “The spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). 

 Is it only coincidence that the text for His message is tied into the Old Testament celebration of the Year of Jubilee? As He entered ministry with a festal shout, so He prepared to end His days talking about joy: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15: 11). Amazing, when you think about it—on a night when Jesus is faced with deep anguish, He talks about joy. 

Martin Luther once said, “God is not a God of sadness, but the devil is. Christ is a God of joy. It is pleasing to the dear God whenever you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart.”
 

At a time when Jesus shared some difficult teaching (some of it regarding obedience to His command to love as He has loved), He followed it with these words, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” He does not give us His commands because we are too happy and He wants to make us more serious. He gives us the command to love one another because He believes that we are not joyous enough. There is no one in the entire universe who is happier or more joyous than God! He wants that joy to be in you and me.
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

There are many times in our lives that the expectations and needs of other people will tug at our hearts. What is the guiding principle that determines what we say yes to and what we turn away? The answer rests in living our lives before an audience of One. 

 The demands of a hurting and hungry world were always before Jesus. How did He know when to say yes and when to say no? Henri Nouwen offers this thought: 

“In the lonely place Jesus finds the courage to follow God’s will and not his own; to speak God’s words and not his own; to do God’s work and not his own. He reminds us constantly, ‘I can do nothing by myself . . . my aim is to do not my own will, but the will of him who sent me’ (John 5:30). And again, ‘The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself; it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work’ (John 14:10)” (1974, p.14)
 

I am under His command to make disciples as I go along my way. I do this in obedience to Him and with love for those to whom I give witness. Even more important, though, is that my witness flows out of my first love for Him. This, in the end, will be the most winsome part of my witness. People will sense and see this, just as they will hear the witness I offer. 
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

There are many men and women of faith who I admire and respect. Many of those have blessed my life directly. Some I have never met and yet their lives are such a witness and inspiration to me. One whom I never met but will someday meet in heaven is Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. I am moved by his words: 

 “My life’s message is to be a slave of Jesus. And all that it involves. Love your master, trust your master, and obey your master. Obviously, I’m a son of God, heir of God, joint-heir with Christ, and if He was described as a slave—Paul, and Peter and the other apostles were slaves—this to me is the highest privilege any one could know. I evaluate everything I do in light of what He wants me to do. I try to relate every move, every day, in light of how I can help fulfill His great commission and fulfill His commandments.`` 

Responding to the Great Commission first out of obedience and love for Jesus rather than the needs of the lost will have an effect on my daily walk. When my response to the Great Commission is rooted first in obedience to His authority, then my life’s mission will reflect His own. The primary reason that Jesus came to this earth was not His love for you and me. It was not even so that He could die on the cross or rise from the grave. The primary reason that Jesus came to this earth was out of obedience to His Father. The result of that obedience was that He would die on the cross and be raised on the third day. Within that obedience there was, of course, His love for you and me. Clearly, though, His first love and passion was to follow His Father’s will. I tend to so often focus on the loving Jesus that I diminish His primary motivation and purpose—obedience to His Father: 

“‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘ is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work’” (John 4:34). 

“. . . but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (John 14:31). 

“Then He said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets aside the first to establish the second” (Hebrews 10:9).
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

For years I have said that my passion is for the lost—for those who are dying without Christ. Whether in my personal life or as a leader within the church, I have sought ways to keep this as my primary passion. Then recently, I took a closer look at Matthew 28: 18-19: 

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations. . . .”

Many are familiar with this Great Commission. But do we know what should compel us to carry it out? I have always assumed it was because of our love for the lost, our concern that without Christ people will spend an eternity in Hell without Him, but this is not the basis He gives for the Great Commission. He says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go. . . .” 

Jesus certainly wants our hearts to be filled with love for the lost. This, however, is not the primary motivator He gives for us to reach out with the saving message of the Gospel. His Lordship is what should compel us. Nothing less. All authority belongs to Him, and He commands us to do this. Jesus has come through the crucifi xion and the three days in the grave as the Victor! 
 

His blood has not only freed me from my sin, the fear and punishment of death and the power of the devil—His blood has made me His own. “That I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him. . . .” He is my Lord. He has the right to ask of me whatever He wishes. I am His slave. The disciples understood this on that day of His Ascension. Scripture records for us this moment immediately before He gave them the Great Commission: “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted” (Matthew 28:16-17).
 

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,