John 10:10 - turned upside down

[Twinky]

We all know John 10:10.  Here's a slightly different version, from HCSB:

A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

Read something interesting today:

If it's robbing, stealing, killing or destroying my joy, then it can't be from God."

- Joyce Meyer

Here is where joy should come from:

Then I will approach the altar of God, even to

God in whom my joy finds its source. Then I will praise you with the lyre, God, my God.

- International Standard Version, Psalm 43:4 - well worth a look at other versions

I think I'm going to try thinking of things this way, for a little while, see what difference it makes.  Does what I'm doing, seeing, being - enhance my joy?  Or take away from it?

[Bolshevik]

When I google Joyce Meyer if find arguments on Word Faith / Positive thinking AKA The Law of Believing.

[Twinky]

I don't know JM's philosophy of the Bible, of life.  But I do know from the few articles by her that I've read that she doesn't subscribe to the "law of believing" stuff that TWI does.  She's much more realistic.

Her idea of turning Jn 10:10 upside down strikes me as being a sort of spiritual William Morris kind of thing.  Wm Morris (late 1800s, leader in the "Arts and Crafts" Movement) is he that said: "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

Or the current interior design thinking coming from Japan: "Put your hands on everything you own, ask yourself if it brings joy, and if it doesn’t, get rid of it."

 

So... does your spiritual life bring you joy?  How do you need to de-clutter your spiritual life?  What steals your joy, what kills the joy of service?  Are there things or activities in your spiritual life that don't bring joy? 

If not, why not; if improvement is not possible, don't do those things or activities.  Only each individual knows what (or who) always has that depressing effect.

[Taxidev]

On 3/25/2018 at 6:43 PM, Twinky said:

Are there things or activities in your spiritual life that don't bring joy?

What a great viewpoint!  I would even extend it to my physical and emotional life.  Since they all reside in me, then it is best that none detracts energy from the other.

Thank you, Twinky!

[krys]

How interesting to have this framework. There are many things that contribute to my joy (of life), it we can look at it that way.  Spiritual abundance spills over into my "natural life" increasing that abundance too.