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said, " Brethren, are you enjoying it,
or are you only enduring it?"
Sorne people endure a solemn,
stiff, and formal church service. And
sorne, emotionally inclined, will go
to the kind of church meeting where
there is much shouting, and much
emotional response, merely to have
a good time duriog the meeting.
The rest of the week religion doesn' t
seem to have a great part in their
lives.
Others feel that if they become, as
they call it, "saved," they must for–
ever after live a gloomy life of giv–
ing up everything that they formerly
enjoyed, and that their solemn, un–
happy lives will somehow please
their Creator. Of course, that kind
of religion is more or less a super–
stition!
Chrlat Brought Abundant Living
L
et's get thís matter straight.
The founder of the Chris–
tian relígíon, Jesus Christ,
said that He carne to this
earth for a purpose. "1 am come,"
said Jesus, "that they might have
LIFE, and
that they might have it
more abundantly"
(Jo hn 10: 10) .
Jesus Christ carne to bring us the
"ABUNDANT
LIFE. "
Do you know
what that is?
God Almighty intended the real
Christian life to be one ofjoy.
Do you know that if you have the
real Christian life, if you have the
Spirit of God within you, it's going
to bring about this result? It's going
to, as we say, "produce fruits." Now
what kind of fruits will be produced
in a real Christian life? Not the mor–
bid, unhappy life. Here is the fruit.
Here is whl;lt will emanate from a
real Christian life.
It
is found in Ga–
latians 5, beginning with verse 22.
"The fruit of the Spirit"-this is the
· Spirit ofGod. This is the Holy Spirit
that God imparts only to those who
are truly converted. "The fruit of
the Spirit is LOVE"- first of all is
love- and the second is "JOY." Joy is
ha ppiness, brimful and running
over.
That doesn' t sound like an un–
happy. empty, morbid life, does it?
Here's love that will just ftow,
spontaneously, out from you!
The first "fruit of the Spirít of
God" is LOVE. Love will mean that
your face is beaming. It's going to
The
PLAIN TRUTH October-November 1977
mean that you are really giving out.
It's going to mean that you are radi–
ant and happy. Love results in JOY,
the second product of the Spirit of
God. The third is "PEACE." Instead
of going around quarreling, resent–
ful, bitter, unhappy, and arguing–
that's not peace, tha t's a kind of
war-you'll be a t peace in your mind
and with your neighbor, and with
your God!
And the next is, in the King
James Authorized Version of the
Bible, "longsuffering," which in
more modero English is "PA–
TIENCE." Impatience makes more
people unhappy than almost any–
thing else! If you can really learn
the lesson of patience, you're learn–
ing one of the things that will make
you happy, and make life worth liv–
ing.
The next is "gentleness," and then
"goodness, faith, meekness, temper–
ance: against such there is no law."
That is the fruit of the Spirit.
1t
will
spontaneously spring forth from
you. That, you will be emitting from .
yourself, radiating from yourself, all
the time, ifyou are a real Christian.
But Most People Are Not Chrlstlans
ou read in Romans 8:9
hat unless you have re–
ived , from
without,
the
Holy Spirit of God, you are
not any of Christ's! You are not a
Christian.
There are millions of people tha t
profess Christiaoity tliat are not
Christians according to God's defi–
nition. They' re not Christians at all!
Of course, in a Christian life,
there are troubles. There are going
to beeeven persecutions. Jesus Christ
was persecuted. He said, " If they
have persecuted me, they will per–
secute you." That comes from with–
out. That's something that comes
from other people. That doesn't nec–
essarily need to disturb you in–
wardly. And the person who does
have this inward peace, the person
who has this joy and this love and
this patience- and who has this tol–
erance for other people-isn't going
to be too much disturbed because
other people don't agree, and per–
haps persecute.
Yes, you're going to face prob–
lems and trials. Those things are
good for us. They come upon us for
a purpose- to help us develop char–
acter. And a real Christian under–
stands.
It
doesn ' t make him
unhappy.
We All Have Triala
We are going to have troubles,
problems and trials just like every–
body else. They come to test us.
They come to strengthen, to build
our character. And that's the very
purpose of our being- to make us
like God. We, like Jesus Christ, can
be born into the Kingdom of God.
Notice 1 Peter 4:12-13: " Beloved
(this is speaking to real Christians],
think it not strange concerning the
fiery trial which is to try you, as
though sorne strange thing hap–
pened unto you."
Sorne people, when sorne of these
trials and these problems come,
think nobody else has ever had any–
thing come upon them like that. lt's
sorne strange thing that is peculiar
· to them. That is not true! Every
other person on earth is having
problems. Everyone is having trou–
bles. They have things to meet and
to overcome, solutions to work out,
the same as you do. It's not strange.
And so here is the teaching of God.
He says: " But REJOICE," yes, rejoice
inwardly in these things, "inasmuch
as ye are partakers of Christ's suf–
ferings."
Christ suffered, but Christ also
said to His apostles: "My
joy
1 leave
with you." "1 am come," He said,
" that you might have life, and that
you might have it more abun–
dantly." He carne to give us THE
ABUNDANT LIFE. He had that kind of
life. He was happy. He was filled
with joy, even though at the same
time He was a man of sorrdws-and
why?
Because He LOVED all human
beings, and He saw the way they
were going. He saw how they were
destroying themselves, how they
were bringing unhappiness and
emptiness, fear and worry, poverty,
sickness, disease and sufferings on
themselves. He thereby shared their
sufferings. He was a man of sorrows.
He was sorrowful for them. But He
was a man who was happy
inside.
He was setting us an example of the
kind of life that we should live. So
we read here :
"Rejoice,
inasmuch as
ye are partakers of Christ's suffer-
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