Joy and pain seem unlikely bed-fellows.  They just don’t fit together.  Imagine building a house, you’d make it out of bricks.  Without fire, a brick is just a block of mud, which will wash away given time. It must be fired.

Pain can fire joy into something that you can build with.

In this podcast which began with episode 1 about what joy means and why bother searching for it, I reveal just how I turned a corner when I was most down through fire working on the joy that was within me.

Here’s the TLDR version.

Joy is the serious business of heaven

This whole podcast builds off of the bible.  No apologies there.  The bible has a great deal to offer. Psalmsif full of lament.  And yet God promisesJoy. In the new testament we read about Joy in all circumstances. How can thisbe possible?

Joy with God

This is why joy is so much deeper than just being happy.  It’s so much deeper that it’s hard to describe.  It gives internal peace.  It’s about external peace living with others.  It’s about peace with God.

One thing I talk about openly is that sometimes people don’talways like it when we talk about Jesus. This is true, but I just want to balance it in case anyone becomes putoff from sharing faith (this particular podcast was aimed at saying that iflife is tough you can see it as refining joy!). 

I talk about the troubles people face and struggle with.  Jesus doesn’t promise us an easy ride but does promise his peace.

Here are some details from the folks who put together ‘talking Jesus’   at https://talkingjesus.org/

Most people know, trust and like Christians.  That’s MOST PEOPLE!!!!

1 in 5 people (who later DID NOT BECOME A CHRISTIAN) wantedto know more about Jesus when asked. Please note that had they asked people who became a Christian the answerwould have been 5 in 5 people wanted to know more.  Which would have made a very sillystatistic!!!

So can you see that whilst it is true that sometimes you geta bit of a ‘no’ that you don’t need to think that everyone thinks that. 

And just to top that off (though at some point I will make a podcast on this), the right way of sharing your faith is to live a distinctive life of loving and serving, and not even pushing people. Just pray that someone will ask you what you are doing.  See what God wants and do it.  Then when they ask you why have a reason for your faith.  Ask them if they want to know more.  And that’s about it.

What joy means

This is my very favourite bit of the three podcasts and itsright at the end…Jesus first, Others next, Yourself last.

Check out the podcast for more details

Listen here or on your preferred service by searching for ‘onegraydot‘

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Resources (links to out to bible verses)

The apostles persecuted

1 Peter 4.13 : suffering with Christ

Jesus says the world won’t be exactly favourable…

The firey furnace story

Jesus leaves his peace

Colossians 3 aiming to live in peace

Blessed are the peacemakers

We are Jesus’ Brothers and sisters

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