Joy

Lourdes Pinto

JOY

Message of the Lord to the community for lent,  3/14/19

I am making all things new.

Do you think that My death and resurrection were useless and powerless?

 No, My little one, I am making all things new, yet few believe, they have not come to know Me, My Father, and the power of the Holy Spirit. They live in the deception of Satan’s lies and darkness. Their gods have become, money, wealth, power, self, but the truth is that I am alive in the world, present with all My power and glory, and at the designated time, chosen by our Father, I, united to My faithful remnant of victim souls, will seize the dragon.

 Many will be lost because their pride kept them from believing in Me, the God of heaven and earth. Persevere in the mission I have entrusted to you. (I stopped to ask Jesus how He wants me to persevere… So many times I do not know what to do or say….) 

Tell My family (LC) to pray for greater faith to believe in the words I have spoken (I understood His messages to us). If My words remain in your hearts, you will persevere through the many trials predestined for you to suffer for the glory of God and the salvation of countless souls.

 I desire to see each of you rejoicing ALWAYS, in good times and in bad, because you have come to believe that I am with you. You have come to taste the goodness of the Lord. 

Joy is the fruit of trust, and therefore, My followers live in the praise of God. My witnesses will be known in the world through the light of praise and joy that radiates from your lives.

 My little ones, believe that in the midst of this darkness, I am making all things new through you, with you, and in you.

 Proclaim what I have done in you (plural) through The Simple Path I have been leading you in. Go forth and be My disciples of Light, for the Light has already conquered the darkness.  

•Three times He tells us: “I am making all things new”

Isaiah 65: 17- 19   

• For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
• But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
• I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people

Revelations 21:5

• And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.”

5 times He tells us “Believe”

What is Christ asking us to BELIEVE?

• “I am making all things new”
• I am alive in the world, present with all My power and glory, and at the designated time, chosen by our Father, I, united to My faithful remnant of victim souls, will seize the dragon.
• To believe in the words I have spoken
• If My words remain in your hearts, you will persevere through the many trials predestined for you to suffer for the glory of God and the salvation of countless souls.
• Believe that I am with you.
• Believe that in the midst of this darkness, I am making all things new through you, with you and in you.
• The Light has already conquered the darkness.  

The fruit of our BELIEVING -- our faith, hope, and love -- is JOY and the ability to live REJOICING ALWAYS even in bad times.

The Return of the Prodigal Son, Henri Nouwen, P 113-116

• God rejoices. Not because the problems of the world have been solved, not because all human pain and suffering have come to an end, nor because thousands of people have been converted and are now praising him for his goodness. No, God rejoices because one of his children who was lost has been found. What I am called to is to enter into that joy. It is God’s joy, not the joy that the world offers. It is the joy that comes from seeing a child walk home amid all the destruction, devastation, and anguish of the world. It is a hidden joy....

“I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” John 15:11

"Be filled with My joy in believing that God has found favor with you and He delights in you". (Simple Path #119 p.320)

I am not accustomed to rejoicing in things that are small, hidden, and scarcely noticed by the people around me. I am generally ready and prepared to receive bad news, to read about wars, violence, and crimes, and to witness conflict and disarray. I always expect my visitors to talk about their problems and pain, their setbacks and disappointments, their depressions, and their anguish. Somehow I have become accustomed to living with sadness, and so have lost the eyes to see the joy and the ears to hear the gladness that belongs to God and which is to be found in the hidden corners of the world. I have a friend who is so deeply connected with God that he can see joy where I expect only sadness. He travels much and meets countless people. When he returns home, I always expect him to tell me about the difficult economic situation of the countries he visited, about the great injustices he heard about, and the pain he has seen. But even though he is very aware of the great upheaval of the world, he seldom speaks of it. When he shares his experiences, he tells about the hidden joys he has discovered. He tells about a man, a woman, or a child who brought him hope and peace. He tells about little groups of people who are faithful to each other in the midst of all the turmoil. He tells about the small wonders of God.

This is a real discipline. It requires choosing for the light even when there is much darkness to frighten me, choosing for life even when the forces of death are so visible, and choosing for the truth even when I am surrounded with lies.I am tempted to be so impressed by the obvious sadness of the human condition that I no longer claim the joy manifesting itself in many small but very real ways. The reward of choosing joy is joy itself. Living among people with mental disabilities has convinced me of that. There is so much rejection, pain, and woundedness among us, but once you choose to claim the joy hidden in the midst of all suffering, life becomes a celebration. Joy never denies the sadness but transforms it into fertile soil for more joy.

Surely, I will be called naive, unrealistic, and sentimental, and I will be accused of ignoring the “real” problems, the structural evils that underlie much of human misery. But God rejoices when one repentant sinner returns. Statistically, that is not very interesting. But for God, numbers never seem to matter. Who knows whether the world is kept from destruction because of one, two, or three people who have continued to pray when the rest of humanity has lost hope and dissipated itself? From God’s perspective, one hidden act of repentance, one little gesture of selfless love, one moment of true forgiveness is all that is needed to bring God from his throne to run to his returning son and to fill the heavens with sounds of divine joy.

Go forth and be My disciples of Light, for the Light has already conquered the darkness.  

Not Without Sorrow, p117

People who have come to know the joy of God do not deny the darkness, but they choose not to live in it. They claim that the light that shines in the darkness can be trusted more than the darkness itself and that a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness.

There is seldom a minute in my life that I am not tempted by sadness, melancholy, cynicism, dark moods, somber thoughts, morbid speculations, and waves of depression. But when I truly believe that I have already returned and that my Father has already dressed me with a cloak, ring, and sandals, I can remove the mask of the sadness from my heart and dispel the lie it tells about my true self and claim the truth with the inner freedom of the child of God.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.”Mark 12:30

• We can BELIEVE with our mind, but that is not enough. Jesus tells us we must believe also with our heart. When we believe with our mind and heart, the truth or experience is consumed in our soul, the core of our very being. Yet, that is not enough, we must believe with all our strength, this is our will. We must CHOOSE the Light and joy. This requires our discipline, “you must deny yourselves”; it requires an act of our will. 

BELIEVING with all our heart, mind, soul and strength brings us to LOVE God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength!

Questions for reflection:

• Is there anything in my life going on now that reflects a lack of faith in the continuing power of Christ’s death and resurrection? 
• How evident is the fruit of joy in my life to others? If it's missing, then what am I missing?
•  God tells our community that I must believe that He is making all things new through me, with me, and in me. If I reflect on Christ’s statement, on a scale from 1-10 (10 being the highest) what number would I circle to ascertain my belief?