Joy either spills out or dries up

Joy. We have been talking the last few weeks about the joy offered to us in Christ. We are hedonist (pleasure seekers) by nature, yet in our sinful nature we seek pleasure in all the wrong places, this is sin and the "wages of sin is death." You see, God created us to glorify and ENJOY HIM forever. Yet we have a problem due to our sin nature and the flowing sin actions we are incapable of glorifying Him and enjoying Him. We are dead as a door nob, as scripture puts it we are "dead in our sins and trespasses." And as the catechism summarizes we are made liable to all the miseries of this life... and the WRATH OF GOD. All your friends, your family, your neighbors, everyone apart from a miracle is subject to the alimghty infinite wrath of God. Where is the hope then? In Jesus Christ through His Spirit. We are going to see a little more this Sunday from John chapter 1 how this is possible for us to be Born Again.

One must be Born again, or born from above to experience true joy for as we are told in Galatians it is a fruit of the Spirit. If you do not experience daily joy in Christ, you DO NOT have the Spirit. We all have our bad days, but we judge a tree by its fruit! DO NOT FOOL YOURSELF! Look to your fruit, do you see Gospel joy shining though even the bad days of your life? Remember as Martin Loyd-Jones said, "Joy is a response and reaction to seeing the glory of God (aka Christ)." It flows from and is rooted in Him and that joy is to overflow. If your joy is not overflowing in sharing Christ it will dry up. Let the Spirit of God fill you to overflowing with the Spirit of CHrist as you bask in His Glory by seeing Him in the Word of God and then may your joy spill out onto others. May we see a mighty harvest as God uses these little old Spounges to show His Good NEWS to a dying world. Let His love flow!