TEEN TREE 
OF LIFE
Having Joy When Facing of Trials!
Part 2
August 25, 2019
Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1JOHN 1:9: If we confess [name] our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
Have you ever heard of sharing God’s Happiness? It’s an important part of enjoying happiness in the face of trials. Sharing God’s Perfect Happiness is one of the Ten Problem-Solving Devices (tools) which God has given us to equip us for our Christian Walk. They are also very important tools when we face the inevitable trials in our lives.
As you accumulate more and more of God’s Word, by studying, learning and applying it daily, a structure is being built in your soul. The foundation of the structure is Jesus Christ. The various floors that are built upon Him include: Grace Orientation (Problem Solving Device # 4); mastering the details of life; developing a relaxed mental attitude; having impersonal, unconditional love for all mankind (Problem Solving Device # 8); and having Personal Love for God The Father (Problem Solving Device #7). The penthouse of this structure is Sharing the God’s Happiness! This is taught in EPH 4:14-16 (New International Version): Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
But how do we reach a point in our lives at which we’re really, sharing God’s Happiness? The only way to do it, is the consistent faithful perception, metabolization & application of Bible Doctrine. So, what you’re doing right now, by reading this, is a step toward this amazing goal. Nothing else you can do in life will result in sharing His Happiness. It can only come from having the Mind of Christ! Sharing God’s Happiness comes from knowing God. God’s Word originates from His essence and Perfect Happiness belongs eternally to God! The believer who is persistently instructed with Bible Doctrine by a pastor/teach will share in God’s happiness. It’s is an incredible and inevitable fact!!
The City of Corinth was a wealthy trading center. It was also known as a wicked city. The city of Corinth was the Las Vegas of the ancient world. It was located on a peninsula that allowed sailors, merchants, refugees and adventurers from all over the world to mix together, blending their customs and ideas. Corinth was rich with agriculture and a variety of export products. The city had adopted a “pleasure now” philosophy. There was a saying; “Not everyone can go to Corinth,” meaning that if you were lucky enough to visit Corinth, live it up!
However, the church in Corinth was new, it was hard for the Christians there not to act like all the other people living around them. So, the church was having some problems. In his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul wrote to them about Christian conduct. When you look at this book, which contains some of the most familiar and beloved chapters in the entire Bible, you’ll learn that Paul was personally concerned with the Corinthians’ problems. Their problems stand as examples of problems we face as Christians today and Paul’s advice is vitally important in our everyday lives. Look at 1CO 10:13 (The Message Bible): No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it. This is a verse you should never forget! As you grow as a Christian, you’ll one day look back on difficult times in your life and you’ll see how true Paul’s words are. You’ll recognize how Faithful God has been to you. Paul wrote this to the Corinthians at the beginning of his first letter to them: God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1CO 1:9)
So, if we remember that God is Faithful, and we consistently and faithfully study, learn and apply His Word, we’ll accept the trials we face as blessings from Him and share His Happiness instead of freaking out. This doesn’t happen overnight. The key to enjoying happiness during life’s trials is soaking up His Wisdom. PROV 1:7 (The Message Bible) states: Start with God—the first step in learning is bowing down to [respecting] God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning. In this verse, wisdom is the Hebrew word “chokmah.” “Chokmah” (pronounced khok-maw) isn’t the word knowledge as we know it. It refers to the spiritual metabolization of Bible doctrine. Without the perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine, you can’t have wisdom. Receiving knowledge or understanding doctrine will allow you to have an impact in the world – in school, at home, in a part-time job you may have. It will be an invisible impact which will be greater than any impact in history. Isn’t that exciting to know?? In 2PE 3:18, we read: grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. In this passage wisdom refers to what The Lord Jesus Christ thinks and does. This wisdom is the Mind of Christ which we must have in order to share God’s Perfect Happiness!
Wisdom or metabolized doctrine gives the believer understanding and the ability to have sound judgement. When you put Bible doctrine in your soul, together with the facts of the stress that a certain trial is giving you, you’ll experience God’s Perfect Happiness.
The key is to realize that these trials are reflections of the Potter’s Hand at work in your life and that the trials are all for your benefit. The Bible teaches us that God is The Potter and we’re the clay. God molds and transforms us as we journey through this earthly life. ISA 64:8 states: But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. As the Divine Potter, God yearns to remove and break the hold of certain areas of our life that are robbing us having His highest and best – including sharing His Perfect Happiness. Look at something else Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in 2CO 6 (The Message Bible): Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us, I heard your call in the nick of time; The day you needed me, I was there to help. Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right; when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all. Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively! Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way: “I’ll live in them, move into them; I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people. So, leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good,” says God. “Don’t link up with those who will pollute you. I want you all for myself. I’ll be a Father to you; you’ll be sons and daughters to me.” The Word of the Master, God.
Many times, just like the Corinthian believers, we need a thorough housecleaning of our souls to rid us of all the garbage that we’ve picked up in our day-to-day lives. This is to allow the unshakable things of God to stand clear and uncluttered. These unshakable things are the things we’ve learned by studying Bible doctrine. God, Our Potter, has the ability and the power to remove the garbage but only if we trust in Him to do it.
{to be continued}