Inexpressible joy! How can we express a joy that is inexpressible? Perhaps you have seen some crazy beautiful view in the mountains, or prairies or the heavens and you try to describe it to a friend and it just doesn’t translate.

In a similar, but magnified way, the believers to whom Peter was writing had a joy so great that words could not communicate it. But what is really interesting is in what context this joy happens.

Many of the verses of Scripture that I memorized as a child were not due to diligence on my part, but on hearing them quoted at me frequently. When I would try to wriggle out of reprimand saying that what I said was not that bad because I was only kidding, the verse that I heard was, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”

Are any of us free from annoyance? As I observe the conflicts in my family it seems that annoyance is at the root of a lot of them. Then I began to wonder what the cause of annoyance was, and was it okay as a Christian to get annoyed. We know! It is only human to get annoyed. But we as Christians are not called to be ‘only human.’

Many of us would be more than willing to be of the same mind, as long as it was our mind, not another’s.

What is particularly sad about this is that many would not rejoice as Paul says he would, if all the Christians we knew were of the same mind.

This is where Paul says that he will rejoice because the Gospel is being preached. ‘In pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this, I rejoice.’ We hardly rejoice in another’s preaching the Gospel if we don’t agree with them …

We tend to get this whole ‘flow chart’ back to front. We think we need to be intent on one purpose, united in spirit, having the same love and being of the same mind, then we would be encouraged in Christ, have the consolation of love and fellowship of the Spirit, and have affection and compassion.

Someone has just crunched your car, and you are angry. He was sixteen and hot-rodding. You are angry at the kid, at all of today’s kids, and at the system for letting such irresponsible people out on the streets. And to top it off some Christian comes up and tells you to put away all anger and wrath. Well, that really does it.

There are other things in our lives that are time consuming, and for which we aren’t necessarily appreciated when we do them, although we may hear about it if we don’t do them. Cleaning the bathroom, getting the laundry done, dinner on the table every night.

We all know that there can't be a harvest without ploughman, planters, waterers, waiters and then harvesters.  However, there is still the underlying misbelief that the harvester is the most important, therefore the most godly.

Years ago, when I was wondering if I should put my life’s effort into battling this great evil, I concluded that the real problem is in the heart of people. The whole situation would improve if people were more moral, if they were obedient to God, if they were responsible for their actions. But I knew that this could only happen when people came to know Christ.

A student once said to me, "We Muslims have to pray five times a day, what do you Christians have to do?" I replied we were to pray without ceasing, and not make a show of it. He also mentioned the five duties, and asked what we had to do. That would be "To love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves."

Here is a little math problem. How many years you have been a Christian, (i.e. when you consciously gave your heart, mind and soul to the Lord of the Universe to do with as He pleased), divided by how many times you know you have read the complete New Testament.

When we sin we don’t lose our salvation, but we certainly lose the joy of it. We have broken fellowship with the source of our joy.

The joy can be faked, however, with acceptable Christian lingo and behavior while before other believers.

News flash! God is not fooled.

Very often we go to prayer when, and only when we have no hope. “We are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us …”