Thursday, September 21, 2006

Intoxicated with Holy Joy

Layering verses is, I think, a good way to understand the Scriptures better. Take these two passages, which are quite similar:

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, - Ephesians 5:18-20 ESV

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” – Colossians 3:16 ESV

Being filled with the Spirit, and being richly filled with the word of Christ are one and the same. The word is only effectual when accompanied by the Spirit, and Spirit-filling comes only through drinking deeply of the word of Christ. Jesus said,

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive... - John 7:37-39 ESV

The Spirit and the Word – God’s breath – are indivisible in their joy-producing work in the soul. And when they breathe together in and through us, they produce joyful, Scriptural, spiritual singing!

Just as one can only be drunk on wine by drinking plenty of it, we must drink the Word of God - plenty of it, praying for the Spirit's help, reading, drinking, meditating on its glories, trusting in its promises, until there is an intoxication with holy joy. Then, let all who by the Spirit are happy in Christ and His promises sing songs of praise!

Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. - James 5:13 ESV

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Is this a right application of the Scriptures? Feel free to comment and tell me what you think!

3 Comments:

Blogger Deb said...

Alyssa, I was just listening to a tape on teaching about drunkenness from Dr. Ed Welch and he quoted two of those verses - the one in Isaiah and the one from Ephesians!

9/25/2006 7:55 PM  
Blogger Joe and Terri said...

Love your photos of His creation, Guyana. Also love the application of layering the two verses on Spirit filling. May we be filled to overflowing with God's Word! Joe

9/26/2006 12:57 PM  
Blogger Alyssa Faith said...

Thanks for the comments. I really do like posting pictures of God's creation - as a note, the picture in this post I took in 2002 at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California.

9/26/2006 5:40 PM  

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