I am using the term “us” loosely. At the present time, I am the only contributor to this blog. My credentials for writing this blog are an intense love for Jesus Christ, His gospel, and God’s Holy word. My relationship with Jesus began at the age of 9 or so. Like so many Christians, I learned how to live the Christian life from Sunday school, sermons, and Bible studies. The implication of so many teachings was Christ gave me a new start but it was up to me to live holy and do things for God.

Many well meaning teachers adulterated the gospel of Christ. So my walk mimics what I believe to be a common experience of believers in America. We have periodic encounters with the living Christ which are refreshingly joy filled but there are other times when we are stressed and depressed. We feel like failures.  Friends told me that there was nothing unusual about my experience but I believed that Jesus promised a more joyful life than the one of my experience.

Anyway, another mini crisis began about 7 years ago caused me to reflect on the absence of joy in my walk with Christ. By that time I had read through the Bible a couple of times. The many references to a believer’s joy in the New Testament caught my attention. So I prayed to God in Christ to reveal to me where I had gone wrong. I am still reading my Bible each year using a one year reading plan. I encourage every believer to get a one-year Bible or use a Bible application on your phone or tablet that has a one-year plan for reading the Bible.

Another habit that I  introduced in to my daily life is a daily prayer on my knees beside my bed. C.S. Lewis encourages Christians to pray on their knees. We live in a body and the mechanical exercise of humbling ourselves before our maker and Savior. My prayers are praise, confession, thankfulness and petitions for others.

God graciously began to flood spirit and life with His joy. Therefore, I feel compelled to share what I have discovered about life in Christ. Nothing I discovered is new to the faith but in fact date back to the early church. How do I know they are that old? Everything that was new to me is from the pages of the Old and New Testaments.

Lest anyone be deceived that this odyssey was my solitary effort, let me quickly dispel that notion. My long time, Godly Christian friends consistently encourage and challenge my walk in Christ. My wonderful pastor, Nick Harris of Ariel Chapel in Norman, Oklahoma is a great Bible teacher. John Piper and John MacArthur are other solidly Biblical preachers and teachers. Their ministry websites are Desiring God and Grace to You, respectively.

And that brings me back to my purpose for writing this blog. By sharing some of the lessons taught to me by the Holy Spirit, I hope that other Christians will begin to walk in the joy which God gives freely to His children.