Jesus…Others…You…

Jesus… Others… You. In that order. JOY, if you will. The first letter is “J” for Jesus. Without Jesus, there is no joy. Without Jesus, there is no life. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” Paul said, “for me to live is Christ.” Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

Eternal Life is not a reward for imitating Jesus. Jesus IS Eternal Life. You don’t live forever as a child of God because you performed well enough to earn it. Eternal Life is Jesus, Himself, living in you, through you, for you, and as you. When you invite Jesus to live His life in you, you will live forever because you become united with Jesus. You become one with Him. Wherever you go He goes. Wherever He goes you go. Will Jesus live forever? Then so will you. He is not only eternal life, He is your life as well. You don’t live anymore, remember? You died on the cross with Jesus.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18 NKJV).

The old you. The old Adamic you. The you that lived independently in your own strength and wisdom rather than in total dependence upon the Lord for everything is outa here. The you who sinned and fell short of the glory of God is no more. All that bad stuff that you once were is annihilated. Wiped away. Never to return. Dead. Buried. Gone.

The NEW you is Jesus in a (your name) earthsuit. No, God did not take away who He created you to be. He did not take away your unique personality, talents, and gifts. He entered your earthsuit and now lives His life in and through you. Oh, yes, people still recognize you as you, but it is really Jesus who lives as you. Jesus explained how this works in John chapter 14.

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? ANYONE WHO HAS SEEN ME HAS SEEN THE FATHER. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you are not just My own. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work” (John 14:8-11 NIV).

Just as Father God lived His life in Jesus’ earthsuit when He walked the planet, Jesus lives His life in our earthsuit now. He lives for us and as us. People see us, but it is really Jesus they are seeing. Jesus modeled for us what it means to live in total dependency upon God.

Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (John 5:19-20 NIV).

Jesus’ life is characterized by the whole fruit of the Spirit. Jesus is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Since Jesus is your life, then that is who you are as well.

The first prerequisite for experiencing JOY is to understand that Jesus came to not only give life to you, but to be your life for you. A life that is so amazing and beyond your wildest dreams. You have a new identity in Christ. The old you is gone. The new you is here to stay. I can feel the JOY rising in you already.

The second letter in JOY is “O.” Others. Jesus is love. He loves people. He loved us so much that He came to earth to die for us so that He could give us life when we were dead in our sins.

Jesus does not DO love. He IS love. He cannot help but love. It is His very nature. He would have to deny His very essence not to love people. Now, if Jesus is your life, then He is going to be hankering to love people through you and as you. You and Jesus will be drawn to people in order to love them. And people will be drawn to you because they won’t see you, but Jesus living in you.

Now think about this. If Jesus is living in and through other children of God, whenever you love your brothers and sisters in the Lord, you are really loving Jesus. The mantra at our church, The JOurneY, is Loving God by Loving People.

A lot of people do not understand what true love is. True love is unconditional. It is called “agape” in the Greek. It is God’s love. Agape means, “giving of yourself sacrificially and unconditionally to meet the needs of another, not expecting anything in return.”

There are only two forces in the universe: LOVE and FEAR. Love is all about freedom. Fear is all about control.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1 NIV).

Whenever we love someone, we give them freedom to BE who they are without conditions. That is why you cannot truly love someone from whom you need something. Let me explain.

If I need something from you, I won’t give you freedom to be who you are. If I give you freedom to be, which is the essence of love, then you might not give me what I need. If I am depending on you to meet my needs rather than God, then I will try to manipulate you into giving me what I need. The thought of you not meeting my needs causes great fear to rise in me. Fear is all about control. It is the opposite of love. Understand?

That brings us to our final letter, “Y.” You. When you love Jesus first and foremost and trust Him totally, you can relax in Him. You don’t have to worry about anything because He will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory. All He asks from you is to allow Him to sit on the stool of your heart and live His life in you, through you, for you, and as you. You don’t have to do a thing. You can relax in the rhythms of His grace. He delights in His relationship with you. He enjoys what you enjoy. He experiences your happiness as well as your sorrows. He knows you inside and out and loves you anyway. And the result is JOY. Pure unadulterated JOY!

Now, you just need to remain aware of how crazy wild Jesus is about you. And that is why you are reading this book. This book is chock full of stories and prayers given to me by the Lord over the years to share with you to help keep His JOY in your JOurneY. EnJOY!

“I have told you these things so that you can have the same JOY I have and so that your JOY will be the fullest possible JOY” (John 15:11 New Century Version).

Blessings,

Kenny