Yehovah Bless You and “Serve Yehovah with gladness”

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“I enjoyed my time with the Lord this morning. Many good thoughts. It is like a satisfying meal. The one that I wanted to share comes out of Psalm 100 and says, ‘Serve the Lord with gladness.’”

“There are many ways to serve the Lord and I think that gladness is low on the list, if it makes it at all.”

“Many, I suspect, serve the Lord from a sense of duty or obligation. It is what we ought to do, what we should do, what we must do. There is no joy in it. And when you have labored hard…there is yet more to do. The work is insurmountable.”

“Some, I think, serve the Lord from fear. The fear that somehow God will ‘get’ me, punish me, express displeasure if I am not working hard. No joy here either”

“Some, I think, serve the Lord from a desire for glory and out of pride. You collect a team of guys, you speak well, you shine in the disciplines…there is glory and pride there. We all want the approval and applause of men.”

“But…to serve the Lord with gladness.”

“I think it is impossible to do whatever relationship, without a focus on our relationship with Jesus. Impossible without a conviction that we are desired, loved, delighted in. Impossible without the humility that understands that it is our Father’s work and he invites us to participate for His glory now we’re good.”

“It has taken me years to move or grow to this point in my thinking. And it comes and goes. None of us get it right all the time and perhaps not much of the time. We don’t have to. A compass and a good heading will always get us out of the swamp. It is still true that a righteous man falls 7 times and rises again.”

“When our father looks at us (and we are always under his gaze) he sees us through the righteousness of his son Jesus. We are acceptable, delighted in, and loved.”

Letter written to Michael from David Coffield, postmarked 21 Nov 20.

“The Gospel, Good News, is more about how good God is than how bad we are.” Michael Jay, John 3:16/17:3, J3 Khai Restoration.