Faith and Obedience, Joy and Happiness, Part 1

Sunday was a profound day for me. I’ve been struggling on how to convey this. The struggle is over the fact that there is significant information that I cannot share. Some of it is very personal and some of it is involves sensitive information. These things I cannot share. I have written and re-written an account of Sunday, but have been unable to express clearly what has happened spiritually. There is a message attached that I’d like to share, but the message has greater meaning than I can relay with a simple linear discourse.

The theme for worship Sunday was missions with a focus on the sovereignty of God. I sang the following song:

I Will Go

Give me ears to hear your Spirit,
Give me feet to follow through,
Give me hands to touch the hurting,
Give me faith to follow you.

Give me grace to be a servant,
Give me mercy for the lost,
Give me passion for your glory,
Give me passion for the cross.

And I will go where there are no easy roads,
Leave the comfort that I know,
I will go and let this journey be my home,
I will go, I will go.

Dejaré mis ambiciones, (I’ll let go of my ambitions)
Cortaré cualquier raíz, (I will cut any root)
Que impida despojarme, (That impedes or defiles me)
De lo que no sea de ti, (Of what is not of you)
De lo que no sea de ti. (Of what is not of you)

Por la fe de seguiré, (By faith I will follow)
Tu poder yo vestiré, (Your power I will don)

Yo iré siguiendo tu voluntad, (I will go following your will)
Dejaré el confort atrás, (I will leave my comfort behind)
Yo iré y donde estés será mi hogar (I will go and where you are will be my home)
Yo iré, Yo iré, (I will go, I will go)

I will go, Lord where your glory is unknown,
I will live for you alone,
I will go because my life is not my own,
I will go, I will go.

Our Sunday school teacher, David Moss, develops his own material and this lesson fit right in with everything this morning, although it may not be readily apparent. He’s been teaching on the subject of Holiness using a book by Francis Schaeffer as a guide. Despite having 150 members in our class, we still manage to have good discussion, well moderated by David. The discussion Sunday developed to make a comment that follows a post I made several days ago about happiness:

“I have considered that God does not want us to be happy. He wants us to be faithful and obedient and there through He gives us joy.”

David heartily agreed and spent the rest of the class unpacking this statement. This is where I have derived the title of this post. I’ll unpack it here briefly adding to what I posted earlier.

One of my Christian Philosophy professors posed the question, “What is Faith?” He said the answer lies in considering the definition of Faith with regard to the question, “What is faithfulness?” The answer to the first question is answered not by Paul in Hebrews 12, which is more descriptive, but by James, whose letter handles Faith more definitively.

Our church is involved significantly with missions around the world. Venezuela is only a small part of it. We have at least 10% of our congregation going to places such as Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, Uganda, Sudan, the Middle East, India, Nepal, Vietnam, China, Canada, Four Corners and the Gulf Coast. That’s not to mention local missions. And I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. Sunday evening we had a share service for our biggest mission effort.

Brian Burgess preached a message last week that fit well with what went on this week. Listen to it here. He goes into much more detail about one of our missions than I am willing to in my blogs.

I will continue the topic of this past Sunday in my next post.