Tag: joy to the world

“Let us sing ‘Joy to the World the Lord is Come'”

A song can bring hope. Let a song bring healing and light in the dark spaces.

 

Classic Christmas hymns are memorable. They’re powerful with their clear and focused doctrinal lyrics.

They also can fall into the danger of being over familiar, where the words aren’t heard anymore. They become as elevator music to a hearing ear. 

Isaac Watts penned Joy to the World in the 1700’s for Christmas. Hundred’s of years later, these lyrics are rich in wisdom and carry remedy for our hearts in turmoil, sadness, and fear.

“Joy to the world the Lord is come, let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing.”  

Hearts are burdened and weary. Believers in Jesus, His birth, death, resurrection can be tempted to doubt, forget the good, and lose the song of His grace and new mercies for each new day.

Let’s prepare Him room. The dark world around us needs a God song. Let heaven and nature sing, and let’s take a breath and join this chorus in our attitudes and willingness to shine for Him. 

Christians need their lives to sing for the Lord at this time. 

People of all ages, the young, the elderly, everyone in this troubled day are in need to hear heaven and nature sing. There’s  power and refreshing of outside crisp air, the cover and color of evergreens, the cloud’s formations. A change of space brings revival. 

I’ve thought about changes in melody and song. Think of the classic lyrics, Amazing Grace how sweet the sound.

They’re sung in many melodies. Each brings the deep truths alive. 

How about “Hallelujah“? Oh, the many different melodies we sing those glorious words of praise.

I ventured to put a new twist to Joy to the World to bring out the lyrics of some fantastic verses: 

“No more let sin and sorrow grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.”

How glorious are these thoughts. We receive Him, and we don’t have to let sin and sorrow grow, we can walk in newness of life and He fills us with His Spirit. 

Simply to speak these words lift a weary soul.

Jesus comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found. He is able. He is Savior of the world. He is a gracious, compassionate, slow to anger. He  abounds in mercy.

Jesus comes to bring forgiveness to whosoever will believe in Him.

To this we sing Hallelujah. So let us sing, “Joy to the world the Lord is come”!

The soil of our heart can become parched and dry as the day’s minutes pass by.

The winter winds of loss and outside fears bring a sting of pain. 

But hear the good news: He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The light of His righteousness
And wonders of His love . . . 

Hallelujah. Let earth receive her King!

Prayer: 

“Dear Lord, give us Your strength to sing: 
“Joy to the world! the Savior reigns; Let men their songs employ . . .”  

You’re the One who asks of us, “Do you have ears to hear? Do you believe I am He? Have you prepared your heart for Me?

You tell us, ‘I’m your peace.’

‘I’m your healing.’

‘I’m your rescue.’

‘I’ve come to bring salvation and grace.’

It’s time I agree with You, Lord. Do I believe You Lord? Help me receive Your love.

Yes, I receive. Yes, I believe. 

I pray now, help my unbelief. Bring Your joy to my world.  In Jesus name, Amen.” 

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—John 1:12. 

How many ways can we sing, “Amazing Grace”? How many ways can we say “Hallelujah”!

So, let us sing, “Joy to the World, the Lord is Come.”
Let our lives sing as we focus on Him as He lets His blessings flow .

 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Hebrews 12:11-13.

“Let us sing, Joy to the world, the Lord is come!”

Merry Christmas to you all, 

Toni




Finally, joy has come to this world of mine …

Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart
Prepare Him room
And heaven and nature sing. O how the familiar words of Isaac Watts play over again in our minds, but it’s on a glorious moment –
when the dust of our own personal world, and the North wind has blown to make us cold, but we are tired of being broken and alone –
that we invite the King in. That we finally make room for Him.
And the angels in heaven sing. And our eyes suddenly see all of nature, with exotic colors, form and  beauty, form a symphony of song as we walk on our journeys.
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns
Let men their songs employ
While fields and floods
Rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy
Finally, when our flesh, says, to the LORD, “Yes.” The words of the hymn come alive. And the word ‘joy’ has meaning for the very first time. Deliverance comes when the fight finally ends. When the Savior at last, has the reins of our soul, and a miracle I witness, as I feel my world – whole.
Joy has finally come into my world, because room as been made, that the Great Surgeon can cut away, the hardness of heart, the criticalness:
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love;
And wonders of His love;
And wonders, …
the wonder of His love for me, who, for so long refused to see – His truth, His grace, … His beautiful life He gave.  Joy to my world has come, with each new day, with each new breath.
Will you join my joyful chorus as well, and of the King and His greatness tell? We would sing together a joyful song:  “Joy has come to this world of mine. I will sing of my King for all – of  – time.”
 
 

"There's no room in this Inn!"PLEASE Change your mind!

“There’s no room!” You can’t come in! We are all full! Go, and find different place!”
These words are familiar to every child who has heard, the story of Mary and Joseph  traveling, when she was near to deliver – ‘how absurd!’
“Go find a different place!” Take down the Landmarks!” “Get God out of the schools-no prayers-no mention of Jesus in the public squares!”
“Where is there room? To receive His precious grace?” “Where is there room, for the King to reveal His face?””Where can He be born? The King of all mankind? Where is there room for Love Divine?”
There is an answer! God gave it Himself!” It’s hidden in a treasure of words, perhaps dusty on the shelf! But it’s there, and He’s waiting and He knows all things – He knows your name. He’s alive, remember-He died and rose again!”
The birth of the King happens in places rough and low. It’s in the story that we know – but do we really know? The story has become starched and stiff and fitted on fire-place mantles, yet it’s dead and forgotten…as we light up the candles.
So, here it goes, straight from His word, in Isaiah 35 – powerful and full of hope and delight. So if your heart is stuck in a ‘desert place’ – rejoice! You are ever so close to even see His very face, as you draw near to Him in your rough ‘wilderness’ and He restores your sight and brings light to your night:

“Even the wilderness and desert will be glad in those days.
    The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses.
2 Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers
    and singing and joy!
The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon,
    as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of Sharon.
There the Lord will display his glory,
    the splendor of our God.
3 With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands,
    and encourage those who have weak knees.
4 Say to those with fearful hearts,
    “Be strong, and do not fear,
for your God is coming to destroy your enemies.
    He is coming to save you.”

5 And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind
    and unplug the ears of the deaf.
6 The lame will leap like a deer,
    and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!
Springs will gush forth in the wilderness,
    and streams will water the wasteland.
7 The parched ground will become a pool,
    and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land.
Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish
    where desert jackals once lived.” (Isaiah 35: verses 1 through seven, New Living Translation. Hope for the hurting and broken and lost, because there’s room in the desert, He can find entrance there. There’s room in the solitary place,  yes, there is room for Him there!

8 And a great road will go through that once deserted land.
    It will be named the Highway of Holiness.
Evil-minded people will never travel on it.
    It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways;
    fools will never walk there.
9 Lions will not lurk along its course,
    nor any other ferocious beasts.
There will be no other dangers.
    Only the redeemed will walk on it.
10 Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return.
    They will enter Jerusalem[a] singing,
    crowned with everlasting joy.
Sorrow and mourning will disappear,
    and they will be filled with joy and gladness.” (Isaiah 35:1-10, New Living Translation).

“Joy to the world the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart…

prepare Him room. And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing: “Joy to the World!”