I'd like to start this blog with a challenge. If you hold to sound theology, is your joy in your grip of the doctrines or in Jesus Himself? Certainly the doctrines point to Jesus and should lead us into deep communion with and love for Him. But do they? Or do they create stoic, somber academics who act more like they are at a funeral service than a wedding feast?
If you are walking the same path with Jesus ("following" Him) then your life should be a passionate, joy-filled, exuberant testimony to the reality of Jesus.
This was the reality of the Purtians. It was the reality of the Scottish Covenanters. It was the reality of the Great Awakening preachers. "Theology on fire" produced fire-breathing, enthralled theologians. They were not stuffy. They were driven and consumed by joy.
Our problem is the same problem of Jesus' day. Pharisaism. Self righteous religious forms that know nothing of the reality of the presence of Jesus. Why don't our people care about the lost? Why don't they come to church faithfully? Why don't they serve without being asked? Why don't they pray? Why? Because they aren't consumed with joy. Joy makes every service to the Lord easy.
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