joy
OLIT Post for December 14, 2025, 3rd of Advent/Joy, Year A
Resources for December 14, 2025, 3rd of Advent/Joy:
Joy in Judgment
Blog: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/2022/11/28/joy-in-judgment/
Printable Blog: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/olitjoy-in-judgment.pdf
Audio: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/olitsermonlindarex2022dec11a.m4a
Counting It All Loss
By Linda Rex
April 6, 2025, 5th Sunday in Preparation for Easter or Lent—How hard are you working at being a good person? Do you ever find yourself performing hard in an effort to make sure you are okay with God and other people? Sometimes we do not realize when we are depending upon ourselves rather than fully resting in Christ. And too often, when we are sharing our life in Christ with others, we throw people back upon their own ability to get themselves where they feel they need to be in relationship with God and others.
The apostle Paul reminds us in our New Testament passage for this Sunday, Philippians 3:4b–14, that we need to quit depending upon our own ability, our family history, our heritage, or any of those things we humanly count on, and to rest completely in Christ. When you consider Paul’s story, you can see that he experienced a tremendous about-face in his life when he encountered the resurrected Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). Nothing was the way it used to be after that conversation with the Lord.
Later on in his life, as he reached out to the non-Jews in the Roman Empire with the good news of Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul experienced severe opposition. Those who insisted that keeping the law of Moses was essential for salvation were strong and even vicious opponents, who sought a following. These zealous opponents counted on their merits as law-abiding Jews, along with their positions of importance, and their background of impeccable ancestry—all of which were valued in that ancient culture.
But the apostle Paul had all these merits—even more so than his opponents. There was a time when he had valued everything his opponents valued. But then he met the risen Lord Jesus Christ. After that, all of these things he had valued before became worthless to him. In God’s kingdom, our human pedigree, our observation of certain laws and rites and rituals, gain us nothing. Paul considered these things to be of no use whatsoever—in fact, he considered them to be garbage, the kind of filth to be thrown on the trash heap. Paul had come to see that in the long run, these items cherished by his opponents were valueless, and needed to be tossed out and replaced with Jesus Christ, in his life, death, and resurrection. What needed to be embraced was a new life in Christ given to us in the person and presence of the Holy Spirit.
Possibly, we may say that no one values things like pedigree, position, or law keeping anymore. But within the context of our own educational venues, spiritual communities, denominations, or religious cultures, we often venerate people with the appropriate pedigree or certifications, and give less attention to those who are not so educationally well endowed, or culturally accepted. We celebrate those with the degrees, those who are part of the religious elite, and others who have achieved great financial, physical, material, even spiritual success from a human point of view. It’s hard to admit, but we easily slip into focusing on the human aspects of our life in Christ, and forget to embrace the true humility of our personal need for Christ. We can easily forget that our efforts to achieve a right relationship with God and with others actually does us no good in the sight of God.
The apostle Paul reminds us to lay ourselves and our own efforts on the altar, and to pick up instead, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus has done the hard lifting—our life is in him. And Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.” It is Jesus Christ, living in us by the Holy Spirit, we are to trust in, rather than counting on ourselves and our own efforts.
Our response to all Jesus has done for us is meant to be a visceral pouring out of ourselves in gratitude and devotion to Jesus. This was demonstrated by Mary as she poured spikenard lavishly and in free abandon on Jesus’ feet, and then wiping his feet with her hair (John 12:1–8), even in the face of criticism and condemnation. Our response to Jesus is an internally motivated pouring out of ourselves in worship of and devotion to Jesus, not a forced, for show effort to get a response from Jesus or to win the praise of others. It’s true that Mary made some effort to procure the oil, and took some action in applying it to Jesus’ feet, but what we see happen is not slavish devotion driven by fear or an attempt to win God’s favor or love. Rather, it is an internal response driven by deep gratitude for the Lord’s intervention on behalf of her and her family, in raising her brother Lazarus from the dead. This is an expression of deep gratitude and devotion to Jesus—this is what drove her actions. And this is our response to God raising our “brother” Jesus from the dead, on our behalf.
In our call to worship psalm, the psalmist declares that God has done all that is needed for our salvation, therefore we rejoice: “When the LORD brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting; then they said among the nations, ‘The LORD has done great things for them.’ The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad” (Psalm 126:1–3 NASB). The point is, Jesus has saved us, is saving us, and will save us. Therefore, in response, our life is a praise song of gratitude and joy, as we rest fully in Jesus’ finished work, and let go of all our human efforts to get ourselves right with God and each other. The Holy Spirit, filling our hearts and minds, unites us with Christ, and we are never the same, ever again. Our lives, our relationships, and our actions are never the same again, because we are “in Christ.”
Our Redeemer and Savior, Lord of all, thank you for your faithfulness and goodness to us. Grant us the grace to surrender all our human efforts to save ourselves. Enable us instead to trust in you completely, allowing you to transform our hearts and lives by faith. We celebrate your mighty and wonderful work of salvation with gratitude and praise. Amen.
“… If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:4b–14 NASB
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/olitcounting-it-all-as-loss.pdf ]
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Hope Fulfilled
By Linda Rex
January 5, 2025, 2nd Sunday in Christmas—As we enter this new year of 2025, we face many challenges. We look forward with optimism as we see opportunities for growth or anticipate achieving certain goals we set for ourselves. We may dread the outcome of long-term illnesses. Or we may look forward with hopeful joy as we expect the coming of a new child.
No matter what our future may hold for us, we have learned during our Advent and Christmas seasons, that we can have hope. We can have hope, not because we know how things will turn out, but because amid every circumstance of life, we are not alone. We do not do any of these things on our own, but in relationship with our heavenly triune God through Jesus in the Spirit.
In our Old Testament passage for this Sunday, Jeremiah 31:7–14, the prophet inserts in the middle of his prophetic warning to ancient Israel, a word of hope. This hope is not based upon the nation’s willingness and ability to live rightly or to bring it about, but solely in who God is as their covenant partner. God declared they were his people and he was their God. For that reason alone, he would ensure their return and their blessing.
However, we find that the blessing God intended for his people went far beyond what they expected. God had much more in mind than simply returning this people to a location here on earth and giving them a lot of earthly blessings. God was more concerned about their eternal destiny and their spiritual renewal. What God had in mind is what he had in mind for all humans everywhere in all time—the restoration of our relationship with him through our Lord Jesus Christ, and the unity we would one day have with God in the Holy Spirit in the new heaven and earth.
We read about God’s heart in the New Testament reading for this Sunday, Ephesians 1:3–14. In this passage, the apostle Paul celebrates the loving heart of our heavenly Father, who, from before time, intended us to be “holy and blameless before him.” It was always on God’s mind that we be adopted as his beloved children through our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything we have celebrated during this Christmas season points to the important event of the incarnation, where God’s Son entered into our human existence and joined us here on earth. This was always God’s intention, and he worked towards this end in spite of our human fall into evil, sin, and death.
When we read the prophecy of Jeremiah, we hear the echoes of the future fulfillment of this prophetic word in Jesus Christ. For example, he writes that the Lord says, “… I will make them walk by streams of waters, on a straight path in which they will not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.” In looking back through the lens of Jesus Christ, we see this word differently than we would see it through the lens of the Mosaic covenant.
We see that the ancient nation of Israel is wrapped up in the person of Jesus, who fulfilled all that was required of them in their covenant with God. We see the “father” talked about in this passage revealed by Jesus to be his own heavenly Father, and the “streams of waters” to be the Helper, the blessed gift of the Holy Spirit. We see that in Jesus, the Son of the Father, who in our human flesh, walked the road we are to walk in relationship with his Father, we have a path to live in and follow which will prevent us from stumbling. As we walk in the Spirit, and not in our flesh, we walk in Jesus, and in doing so, we will not stumble, for he upholds us.
We see that God’s heart toward us desires our blessing and our joy. He worked for millennia to keep his promise to heal and restore our relationship with him. Jesus, when he came, was diligent to fulfill the promises given in the Old Testament to his people, and to the nations. What we celebrate during this Christmas season reminds us that God is faithful, and that we can place our trust in him, because of who he is as our faithful Lord. We are filled with hope, peace, joy, and love, as we reflect on all he has done for us, is doing for us today as he is present in this world by his Spirit, and what he will do one day when Jesus comes in glory to establish the new heaven and earth. In all these things, we have every reason to celebrate. Merry Christmas!
Heavenly Trinity, thank you for your faithfulness and your love expressed to us in the gift of Jesus Christ. Open our hearts and minds and enable us to receive this precious gift, and respond to all have done, are doing, and will do, in faith, putting our faith completely in you and not in ourselves. We thank you for keeping your word, and giving us every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. Amen.
“For thus says the LORD, ‘Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise and say, “O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel.” Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, and I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together; a great company, they will return here. With weeping they will come, and by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, on a straight path in which they will not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.’ Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare in the coastlands afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’ For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, and they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD—over the grain and the new wine and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; and their life will be like a watered garden, and they will never languish again. Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together, for I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow. I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness,” declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 31:7–14 NASB
See also Ephesians 1:3–14; John 1:10–18.
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/olithope-fulfilled.pdf ]
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Such Great Love
by Linda Rex
December 22, 2024, 4th Sunday in Advent | Love—On this fourth Sunday in Advent when we celebrate the theme of God’s love, we reach the end of the season. We have been anticipating the coming-and-presence of Jesus Christ, which involves looking forward to his coming in his incarnation, his coming and presence now by his Spirit, and his future coming in glory when he ushers in the new heaven and earth when our Triune God will be present with us forever.
Our reading in Micah is a messianic prophecy written by one of the minor prophets during the reign of King Hezekiah. Micah, along with his contemporary, Isaiah the prophet, ministered to the people of ancient Judah, reminding them to be faithful to their covenant with God, and warning them of the coming consequences due to their injustice, immorality, and idolatry.
What Micah’s nation did not seem to realize was that God’s passionate love for his people would not allow him to let them wander away into sin and idolatry without him doing something about it. God told his people that he would allow them to go their own way for a time, to experience the consequences of their sin and idolatry, however horrible those consequences might end up being. But God also gave a promise that he would send the ultimate solution.
In Micah 5:2–5a, the Lord speaks about the role the small town of Bethlehem would play in the future of the nation. This town, which wasn’t even mentioned as one of the cities of Judah, the tribe from whom the kings came, would be the place from which the Messiah would come. Remarkably, this one Micah predicted would be a ruler in Israel, who would shepherd his people, would have his origins from the far distant past, as from eternity, with no beginning. Because of him, his people would return from where they had been taken or wandered as a result of their turning from God.
What is interesting is the way this passage was interpreted by the Jews at the time of Jesus’ birth. When the wise men from the east came looking for the newborn king so they could worship him and give him gifts, King Herod asked the chief priests and scribes where the Messiah was going to be born. According to Matthew, the chief priests and scribes told Herod that he would be born in Bethlehem, quoting Micah in this way: “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; for out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd My people Israel” (Matt. 2:6 NASB).
Herod’s response to this news was to send the wise men to Bethlehem to search out the child, telling them to return to him with the news of where the child was located, ostensibly so he could worship the newborn king too. Later in chapter two of Matthew, we see the wise men were warned by God to not go back to Jerusalem after visiting the child, but to leave by another way. And they did. And when King Herod found out, he sent soldiers to Bethlehem to kill every young infant up to two years old. Because Joseph was warned in a dream to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt before this happened and they left before the soldiers came, the newborn king Jesus was kept safe by God from King Herod’s plans to execute him.
King Herod, who had been installed in his position by the Romans, took this prophetic word from Micah very seriously. He wasn’t about to allow any other person to take away his position of authority in the Jewish nation. What he did not realize was the kind of king Jesus was and would be. Jesus is our Shepherd and reigns in God’s name. As the newborn child laying in a manger, he may not have looked like much, but he had come from time past, from eternity, and would be great, reigning over all the earth, as God in human flesh.
We will soon celebrate Christmas, when we remember how the Son of God entered our human sphere, taking on our human existence, to live, die, and rise again in our place, on our behalf. This infant that would be born in a small town in Bethlehem in Judea, the newborn king Jesus, is our peace. This is the One who reigns on high, while submitting himself to life in a human body, even that of a tiny infant whose life was threatened by an ambitious, heartless ruler. What a beautiful expression of God’s love!
Father, Son, Spirit, thank you for the faith, hope, and love we have been given. Thank you for being our hope, our peace, our joy, and our love. We look forward in anticipation to what you will do next, through Jesus our Lord and by your Spirit. Amen.
“ ‘But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.’ Therefore He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel. And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth. This One will be our peace.” Micah 5:2–5a NASB
“Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,‘Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in whole burnt offerings and’ sacrifices ‘for sin you have taken to pleasure then I said, “Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do Your will, O God.” ’ After saying above, ‘Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and’ sacrifices ‘for sin You have not desired, nor have you taken pleasure’ in them’ (which are offered according to the Law),then He said, ‘Behold, I have to come to do Your will.’ He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:5–10 NASB
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/olitsuch-great-love.pdf ]
[More devotionals may be found at https://lifeinthetrinity.blog ]
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He Sings for Joy
By Linda Rex
December 15, 2024, 3rd Sunday in Advent | Joy—Who is the most joyful person you know? You know who I mean—that person who seems to always have something pleasant and joyful to say, even when it feels like your world is coming apart. During this Advent season, we may not appreciate such a bubbling fountain of joy. We may be carrying around the weight of past losses and sufferings, and not enjoy the positivity such a person may pour over us when we are around them.
But, as followers of Christ, we are given the admonition in Philippians 4:4 to “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (NASB). This can be difficult at times. Our theme for this Sunday is joy, and Advent is a time when we anticipate the coming of our Messiah with joy in our hearts. But our experience in this world may not be one where we feel happy and glad about our circumstances and situations. Like the people in the ancient nation of Judah, we may be living in perilous times, where suffering and struggle are the everyday norm. We may be going through the consequences of some poor decisions we may have made in the past. Or we may be living out of our brokenness, which causes us to continually bear up under some very heavy burdens we were never meant to carry. How do we rejoice no matter what we are going through?
The good news in the midst of this quandary is found in our Old Testament verse for this Sunday, Zephaniah 3:14–20. Here in this prophetic passage, we find the truth that the one who rejoices first and most, and who is the source of our joy, is God himself. Even though the people of ancient Judah were experiencing the consequences of breaking their covenant with God, their Lord promised that one day they would once again experience the joy of his salvation. His word to them through the prophet Zephaniah told them to shout or sing for joy. They were to rejoice because the Lord, the King of Israel, was in their midst.
In this short passage, this concept is mentioned twice. Its repetition signals to us that this is an important concept. The Lord is in our midst. Not only that, he is in our midst as “a victorious warrior” who is exulting over us with joy, shouting in his joy over us. Can you imagine Jesus in that way—as shouting in great joy over you?
Jesus is delighted that he has come and conquered over all our enemies. The Lord has “taken away His judgments” against us, as “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21 NASB). In Hebrews 12:3, we read how “Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (NASB). That sounds to me like a joyful warrior who has triumphantly accomplished a great deed of deliverance, and is shouting with joy over those he has rescued and saved.
As we continue in this season of Advent, looking forward to the coming of our Savior, both in his incarnation which we will celebrate at Christmas, and his triumphant return in glory to usher in the new heaven and earth, we have every reason to be glad and celebrate. Our joy is not something that we try to put on by ourselves, but rather is a grace of the Spirit which wells up within us and spills out of us as we contemplate the great deliverance of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are a joy to the Father, and his Son takes great joy in you, the one God has delivered and will deliver. And the Spirit pours God’s own joy into our hearts so that we can truly rejoice, no matter what may be going on around us. It is the joy of the Lord which is ours in Christ by the Spirit.
And this joy is a joy, which by God’s Spirit, we can share with others. We often don’t realize how our own demeanor influences those around us. As we take time to contemplate the great deliverance of Jesus Christ, our divine Warrior, we can experience God’s very own joy. As we open ourselves up to God’s Spirit through the spiritual disciplines of contemplation, prayer, meditation, worship, and fellowship, we can experience for ourselves and also share with others his abundant joy as he is present with us and in us by his heavenly Spirit. “Rejoice and exult with all your heart” this Advent season!
Thank you, dear Trinity, for your great joy. Thank you, Jesus, for your triumphant shouts of joy as you celebrate all that you have done for us for our salvation and deliverance. Dear Spirit, please fill our hearts and minds with joy, and let your joy pour out from us into the lives of those around us, for Jesus’ sake and for the glory of our Father. Amen.
“Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away His judgments against you, He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; You will fear disaster no more. In that day it will be said to Jerusalem: ‘Do not be afraid, O Zion; do not let your hands fall limp. The LORD your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love [or, renew you in his love], He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feasts—they came from you, O Zion; the reproach of exile is a burden on them. Behold, I am going to deal at that time with all your oppressors, I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will turn their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you in, even at the time when I gather you together; indeed, I will give you renown and praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,’ Says the LORD.” Zephaniah 3:14–20 NASB
“ ‘Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.’ Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. And in that day you will say, ‘Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name.
Make known His deeds among the peoples; make them remember that His name is exalted.’ Praise the LORD in song, for He has done excellent things; let this be known throughout the earth. Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 12:2–6 NASB
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:4–7 NASB
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/olithe-sings-for-joy.pdf ]
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Spreading Grace
By Linda Rex
June 9, 2024, Proper 5 | After Pentecost—In last week’s blog, I wrote about how God’s treasure, his glorious presence, is hidden in these jars of clay or shells, as human beings, and how, by the Spirit, Jesus is made manifest to those around us. We are faced, as those who follow Christ, with the challenge of responding to Jesus’ command to lay down our lives, to pick up our cross, and to follow him.
In this Sunday’s passage, 2 Corinthians 4:13–5:1, the apostle Paul tells the members at Corinth that his message of the good news of Jesus Christ was birthed in the “spirit of faith” which compelled him. His ministry of sharing the gospel was other-centered, spreading the grace of God through Jesus Christ to more and more people, so that thanksgiving would abound to God’s own glory. Paul looked forward with great anticipation to the day when he and those he was sharing the message with would rise with Christ and be presented to God.
What is interesting to me about this passage is how the apostle Paul goes on to talk about the challenges he experienced as he shared the good news of Jesus Christ with others. He calls these “light affliction”, even though he experienced beatings, shipwreck, persecution, and rejection. In comparison with Paul’s experiences in his mission ministry, I find that my struggles are nothing in comparison. For example, this morning, as I started to do the Our Life in the Trinity tasks, the power went off in my home and was off until this evening. This inconvenience made doing my tasks very difficult, but it is nothing in comparison with the true difficulties the apostle Paul faced in his ministry.
Paul reminded the members at Corinth that even though we grow older and more fragile in our external being, our internal being is being renewed day by day. The false self, which died with Christ, is only temporal and will not last. One day it will be gone forever. The new self, which rose with Christ, is eternal, ever becoming more solidified in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who lives in us. When we die, that which is temporal and has died with Christ will be replaced with our true self—that which is hidden with Christ in God. Our true self will live eternally in the new heaven and new earth, when God comes to dwell with man.
It is this hope planted firmly in our minds and hearts that inspires us to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. As the Holy Spirit enables us to see this picture of our life in Christ, both now and forever, we are moved to talk about it. What has so profoundly changed our lives and given us a new vision of God and of the future compels us to spread the grace of God to more and more people. The result is a groundswell of thanksgiving and praise, all for the glory of God.
If we are honest with ourselves, we can see that too often our focus is not on the eternal realities, but on the temporal, passing pleasures or struggles of this life. Paul reminds us to focus on what will last forever, not on what will disappear one day. This is a real challenge for us, for what can be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or done is what occupies our attention more than what may be going on inside of us or in the hearts of others. Unless we make the effort to attend to the spiritual realities, we may live in ways that are indifferent or inobservant to what is most important. We may miss out on the joy of participating in what God is doing in this world as he brings many people to himself to participate in the grace of God through his Son Jesus Christ by the Spirit.
When we keep our eyes and hearts on the passing, temporal concerns of this life, it is easy to lose heart. Paul encourages us to remember the spiritual realities, our grounding in Christ, in his life, death, resurrection and ascension, and all that means for us. This grace moves us to thanksgiving and praise, and our faith in Christ compels us to share the good news with others. As we gather to share this journey in Christ, we find ourselves participating in the divine life and love, experiencing a foretaste of the joy we will experience one day when Jesus returns in glory.
Dear Trinity, thank you for sharing your life and love with us through Jesus in your Spirit. Grant us the grace to pay attention to what really matters, and to keep our eyes on you. May your grace spread out into all the world and may you be fully glorified, now and forever, as all give thanks to you, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Corinthians 4:13–5:1 NASB
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/olitspreading-grace.pdf ]
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The Grace of Joy
By Linda Rex
December 17, 2023, 3rd Sunday in Advent | Joy—Sometimes this time of year, we have a hard time coming up with any sense of Christmas cheer. It doesn’t help that our budgets are tight and we’re concerned about possibly catching one of the viruses going around at school, work, and the supermarket. This season may bring to mind significant losses or changes in our lives, and we may sense hovering over us a raincloud of grief, sorrow, pain, or even anxiety at having to cope with family issues as we gather with others.
On this Sunday of Joy in the season of Advent, we look at what the apostle Paul has to say about this in 1 Thessalonians 5:16–24. He tells the believers at Thessalonica to “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks” and goes on to say that this is God’s will for each of us who are in Christ Jesus. If we are in the midst of a snowstorm of grief and loss, it can be really hard to rejoice, much less give thanks. We may even find it next to impossible to pray—the words get stuck in our mind and heart, and nothing comes out. We can only weep.
So how do we respond to this imperative or command given to us in God’s Word? When reading the commands or imperatives in Scripture, we must always first look for the indicatives or foundational spiritual realities on which those imperatives are based. In this case, notice the phrase, “in Christ Jesus.” This is important to pay attention to. Also, when we look a little further on, we see, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” Notice who is doing the sanctifying and who is bringing to pass our being without blame. Our wholeness is grounded in the God of peace who sanctifies us in and through his Son Jesus Christ.
Our joy isn’t in the circumstances we are experiencing, though at times we may have joyful and happy experiences with family and friends doing things we enjoy. No, the source of our joy is our faithful God of peace, who has given us his Son and his Spirit. As we come to faith in Christ, trusting in God’s grace and love, we are united with Christ and receive from him the Spirit. The Spirit of God pours into us Christ’s own love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, and other fruits of the Spirit.
This means we are able to receive and experience Christ’s own joy, even though at times our circumstances and experiences may be less than joyful. We are also able to be thankful in less than blessed circumstances, because we have already received the greatest gift possible, the gift of Christ in us by the Spirit, who enables us to be thankful in all circumstances.
Going even farther, being in union with Christ by the Spirit means that we share in Jesus’ own life of joy and thanksgiving in his face-to-face fellowship with his Father in the Spirit. Our life of prayer is grounded in Jesus’ own life of prayer with his Father so that he offers the things of the Father to us in the Spirit, and offers our prayers to the Father in the Spirit. When we cannot pray, for our hearts are too broken, Jesus prays for us and the Spirit intercedes for us, already knowing what is in our hearts which so yearns to be spoken.
This offers us great comfort in times when we find it hard to rejoice, pray, or give thanks, even though we know this is God’s will for us. Our faith isn’t in our ability to hang in there and do what is needed in our relationship with God. Rather our faith is in the One who is faithful and will do all that is needed to sanctify us and keep us blameless before God. We can rest in him and trust in his perfect love and grace. What a precious gift!
Dear Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thank you for holding us in the center of your love and grace. As we go through this Advent season, remind us anew of your compassion and tender love, and fill our hearts with joy and gratitude so we may do your will. Blessed Jesus and Holy Spirit, let your prayers fill our hearts, not just for ourselves, but for all those you bring to our minds, that we may fellowship with you and one another as a communion of faith throughout this sacred Advent season. For our Father’s glory, through Jesus and by your Spirit. Amen.
“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16–24 NASB
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/olitthe-grace-of-joy.pdf ]
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Practicing Kingdom Realities
by Linda Rex
October 15, 2023, Proper 23 | After Pentecost—Over the years, I have come to see the kingdom of God and the second coming of Christ through a new lens and that is the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and reign of Jesus Christ. When examined through this new lens, these concepts take on a more paradoxical form and require that I live in a place where I must daily walk by faith, trusting in the near and faithful presence of Jesus in the Spirit.
The biblical concept of the kingdom of God revolves around the Trinity. God reigns over all, yet not all of us acknowledge nor submit to his reign in our hearts and lives. God gave humans the stewardship of his creation here on earth, but so often, we have lived as though we were self-sustaining, self-directed lords rather than simply stewards and creatures whose dependency and livelihood are utterly contingent and dependent upon the God who made us and who sustains us.
We find that our Triune God resolved this issue (as he had always intended to) by coming in the Son of God, the Word of God, into our cosmos as God in human flesh. His coming-and-presence, or parousia, was by the incarnation, and he preached the coming and presence of the kingdom of God in his person. In Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension and in the sending of the Holy Spirit, we as human beings begin to participate by faith in the kingdom of God, right now through the Lord Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit. We find ourselves today in the already-not-yet of the kingdom of God, which is present by the Spirit today but will come in its fullness when Jesus establishes the new heaven and earth.
When the apostle Paul talked about living in unity, bearing the fruits of the Spirit, and rejoicing in every circumstance in Philippians 4:1-9, he used the expression “in the Lord” or “in Christ Jesus.” Fundamental to our ability to walk in love or gentleness is Christ’s indwelling each of us by his Spirit. We participate by his Spirit in Jesus’ own love and life, living and working together in unity by helping one another and praying for one another. But even our prayers are merely a participation in the ongoing face-to-face conversation between the Father and Son in the Spirit. Jesus offers the things of God to us by the Spirit and offers our response to the Father in the Spirit. By the Spirit, the God of peace is in us and with us in the midst of whatever circumstances we find ourselves, so there is no need for anxiety or distress. We give thanks and rejoice instead, because Christ’s own gratitude and joy is ours to experience and share with others.
Paul says, “Let your gentle spirit be known to all.” This is the same language he uses elsewhere that seems to be a passive statement: “Be filled with the Holy Spirit.” There is a sense of receptivity, of being open to what is happening rather than ignoring, resisting or pushing back. We are given God’s Spirit freely, but if we are so busy doing everything ourselves and refuse to allow God room to work, we may not experience the wonderful blessings of God’s indwelling presence, our union with God in Christ, and his transforming work. And as we close ourselves to what God may want to do, then others will not see the beauty of Christ living in us and shining through us.
Lately, I’ve been pondering the journey I have experienced over the years in my own walk with Christ. How often it has been about getting the rules right or trying to earn the love and favor of God and others! How sad that I could not simply receive the love and grace of God and allow him to do all the heavy lifting, and focus on enjoying life in relationship with God and others in the Spirit by participating in all Jesus has done, is doing, and will do in bringing his kingdom into reality here on earth as it is in heaven.
Paul reminds us that our life is intimately bound up in Christ’s life with the Father in the Spirit. As he said in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (NASB). We live even now in the reality of God’s kingdom being realized in us and in our world by Jesus in the Spirit, and we participate as we practice these kingdom realities in our lives, keeping our minds on what is excellent and worthy of praise, rejoicing in all situations, and gratefully offering our requests to God, day by day. And we diligently practice loving God and one another as we wait in joyful expectancy for the fullness of God’s kingdom in all its glory.
Lord, thank you for your abundant gifts, most especially your indwelling presence by the Spirit, who enables us to participate in your own face-to-face relationship with your Father. I open myself up to the warmth and healing of your love and life, and welcome you here. Clear out anew the cobwebs and filth that may be gathering that you, my dear Father, may feel at home and welcome always, through Jesus your Son in the Spirit. Amen.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I along to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:1–9 NASB
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/olitpracticing-kingdom-realities-v2.pdf ]
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Living in the Triune Gift
by Linda Rex
June 4, 2023, Holy Trinity | After Pentecost—As we move on into the season beyond Pentecost, we begin to consider what it means that we participate and live in the Triune gift given to us in Jesus and the Spirit. What does it mean that we are included in God’s life and love, and are called together into community?
The Lord Jesus Christ gave his disciples instructions before he ascended, telling them to live out the implications of his ascended life by making disciples, baptizing and teaching them wherever they went (Matthew 28:16-20). His instructions to them were predicated on the reality that he had received all authority in heaven and on earth from his Father in the Spirit, and he would be going with them through whatever they might face, no matter the circumstances.
As the early churches were formed and began to gather, those who were not familiar with Jewish regulations regarding fellowship joined with those who had customarily followed certain Jewish customs and regulations throughout their lives. And the Roman culture of the day venerated social status, income level, and materialism—similar to our culture today. In the midst of these contrasting influences and expectations, the Corinth church was in disarray, caught up in unChristlike behaviors and practices, and being led astray by false teachers. The apostle Paul lovingly sought to call them back to the grace, love, and unity which was theirs in Jesus Christ.
As he closed his letter to the members at Corinth, Paul began to write in deep affection with his own hand the closing benediction (2 Cor 13:11-13). Using the common greeting of “farewell,” he encouraged them to “put things in order.” The NIV and ESV say “aim for full restoration” or “strive for full restoration,” while the NASB says “be made complete.” He wanted them to put aside their differences and all of the false identities they were embracing, and simply be who God said they were—his beloved children, bound together by the Spirit in love and grace.
Paul went on to encourage his beloved spiritual brothers and sisters to be “likeminded” and to “live in peace.” What was on the apostle’s heart was the unity of the body of Christ being made manifest in the way that they treated one another. He longed for them to drop the societal and cultural exclusivism and live in truly Christlike inclusive, caring, and sharing ways with one another. This call for unity and being of one mind and heart is reminiscent of Jesus’ instruction to his disciples before he went to the cross. He told them to love one another, and in this way prove to others that they were his disciples (John 15:7-11). In doing so, he said, they would rejoice. This resonates with Paul’s instructions to the members at Corinth, for he too tells them to rejoice in the midst of their unity and likemindedness in the Spirit.
And this is the key. It is impossible for us to have this kind of unity and harmony apart from the living presence of God himself through Jesus in the Spirit. It is the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and fellowship of the Holy Spirit we are living in the midst of and participating in when we join together as one body, the body of Christ. Our unity of mind and heart is a gift from the Holy Spirit. This is where our joy comes from, a gift of the divine joy God has in his own unity and love as Father and Son in the Spirit. We receive God’s Spirit and joyfully participate in the grace offered to us in Jesus as an expression of our Father’s love, fellowshipping with God and man in peace and harmony.
When we try to work this up ourselves, we find that we are unable to avoid the differences which cause division within the body of Christ. When we seek to follow what is culturally comfortable and what we’ve grown up doing all our lives, we discover that these things create differences rather than unity. When we allow our individualism to reign, we lose our mutual personhood, for those relationships which are meant to harmonize together become fractured and broken. Our best efforts at unity are fragile and at times even infectious. We desperately need the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit to make us one, heal our divisions, and unify us. May we live in the blessing of God’s gift in Christ by the Spirit—and receive from our loving Triune Lord, the unity, harmony, peace he always meant for us to enjoy, and learn to share it with others. May we receive the Triune gift and live within it in gratitude and praise.
Dear God, thank you for including us in your life and love, for the grace offered to us through your Son because of your faithful, bountiful love, Father, in the wondrous fellowship and joy of your Holy Spirit. Enable us to receive all that you have for us, to live in the truth of who we are as your beloved children, in the unity and harmony and peace you always meant for us to enjoy, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” 2 Cor 13:11-13 NRSV
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/olitliving-in-the-triune-gift.pdf ]
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