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Friday, March 13, 2009. We have been reading Philippians 4 recently in our bible study group. Paul ask Christians to live in the joy of the Lord, every day. How can we manage to do that? What does it mean? How is it realized? Some people might think that this Joy of God is a pure illusion - that it does not exist. If God is some distinct idea with no real reality, it is clear that the joy of the Lord is difficult to touch.

But God exists, he is the living creator and God of the universe. God is an active force in the middle of the world. God is the one, who is with us on every single day, where ever in this world we may be. And God wants us to experience his joy. His joy has always accompanied his actions and his people. When Jesus was born, the stories speak of joy, of singing, of happiness. This joy came in the middle of a difficult situation. Mary and Josef did not find a place to stay. But they found God's joy. The people of Israel were in the desert, far away from any reasonable culture. But they had God going with them. The apostles were in prisons and under attack many times. But they had the gospel of Jesus as a world changing story, which God used to re-establish contact to us humans in a new and ground-breaking way.

I might have trouble in my job, I might be in exactly this situation where I cannot find a place - like Mary and Josef with the child Jesus. This is the day where the Lord wants to be with me. He wants to show me that he is still in control of the situation and that his joy is more than everything else. And in fact, his joy comes when we turn to him, and our world changes, both the interior world of our thoughts and our feelings, but also the hard facts. He IS in control, halleluja. [R.P., Reading, UK]

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