{"id":2812,"date":"2011-11-23T08:30:45","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T13:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/?p=2812"},"modified":"2011-11-02T12:37:52","modified_gmt":"2011-11-02T17:37:52","slug":"increase-not-decrease-joy-in-god-given-vocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/increase-not-decrease-joy-in-god-given-vocation\/","title":{"rendered":"Increase Not Decrease: Joy In God-Given Vocation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegrooms voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.\u201d (John 3:29-30)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John, at this point of his life<\/a>, noted that his joy was fulfilled in being where God wanted him to be doing what God wanted him to do. The focus of his words is not on being the bride of the groom, but being the friend of the groom. He was the greatest of the prophets; his joy was full at that endeavor because it was his God-given position and he was operating in it.<\/p>\n

And his joy was fullfilled in hearing the groom enjoying the party with the bride. I\u2019m sure The Baptist knew about the bride metaphor in Scripture (God and Israel Hos 2:19\u201320) but he didn\u2019t know how Paul (who is Paul anyway?) would later use it (Christ and the Church Eph 5:32). He was the best man.<\/p>\n

What of us?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Christ says that the least in his kingdom would be greater than John the Baptist. Every single Kingdom Dweller had the distinct opportunity of pointing to Christ\u2014just like the Old Testament prophets\u2014but with clarity: something they didn\u2019t have. We\u2019re not Best Men. We\u2019re Bride. We\u2019re family. We have an explicitly clear message.<\/p>\n

The Christ, the Incarnate Yahweh God, is the Man Jesus Christ: Jesus is both Lord and King. Jesus, born of Mary, died in Jerusalem according to the plan of God and by the sinful hands of men: both Gentile and Jew. Jesus, the same Jesus that died, rose on the third day, vindicated by God and with power. Jesus was seen by the five hundred. Jesus was taken up into heaven. The way Jesus was taken up is the way Jesus will return. We are awaiting for Jesus.<\/p>\n

No prophet could be as explicit as us. Not one. Because where we\u2019re living is the age that has dawned: not the age of John which has diminished.<\/p>\n

Imagine what this age entails. If John was calling for repentance in preparation for what was coming, how much more dire are the words for us who live on this side of the cross. We\u2019ve seen the cost of sin: The God Man pinned to a tree. We\u2019ve seen the cost. We\u2019ve seen the payment. We\u2019ve seen the victory.<\/p>\n

John and his age did have to diminish so that Christ and his era would increase. Unceasingly increase. And it is in this God-given vocation, this work that is granted by God himself by finding us where we are in time, do we find our greatest joy and fulfillment.<\/p>\n

Yes we will struggle. Yes we will groan in ourselves. Yes we will speak words that are ignored.<\/p>\n

But that is exactly what Christ went through and we\u2019re following in his footsteps\u2014something the prophets didn\u2019t even explicitly know (Luke 9:23 cf. John 15:18-25).<\/p>\n

We ourselves do not diminish. Our goal isn\u2019t the mini-highs that we get from the small victories in our lives. Our goal isn\u2019t merely the applause at finding victory over sin for a season.<\/p>\n

In a conversation in John 10, Christ points out that he has come giving life (yes) but to also give life more abundantly (John 10:10). Our Joy is tied up in our mission of pointing to Christ as a community whose distinctions are emphasized as they function as a whole forever: even after sin and death and the need to give out tracts has been squashed.<\/p>\n

No, our goal is not to become Nothing as part of Something Else. Our humanity isn\u2019t subsumed into some ephemeral non-personal force. \u00a0There was so much wrong with what the holy man<\/a> was saying but this idea of destroying our humanity to be swallowed up, no matter what we believed or professed was more the attributes of a monster than of a good, personal, God.<\/p>\n

Our position is God-given<\/a>; we\u2019re to function as God has granted us ability to function<\/a> which is pointing to the living Jesus Christ in our lives, in our actions, in our words with wisdom and our own distinct sensibilities for now and forever; and it\u2019s in Jesus Christ and His work where we\u2019ll find our greatest joy and satisfaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegrooms voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.\u201d (John 3:29-30) John, at this point of his life, noted that his joy was fulfilled in being where God wanted him to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,8],"tags":[893,714,715],"class_list":["post-2812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acts","category-church","tag-church","tag-dispensation","tag-vocation"],"yoast_head":"\nIncrease Not Decrease: Joy In God-Given Vocation - Rey Reynoso's Bible Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/increase-not-decrease-joy-in-god-given-vocation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Increase Not Decrease: Joy In God-Given Vocation - Rey Reynoso's Bible Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cThe one who has the bride is the bridegroom. 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