"Our Resemblance"

"He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour." (Psalms 112:9)

 I think when it comes to happiness, being happy is something that is based upon how well we feel about ourselves; a happy life is what you make of it, if you get dealt lemons, you make lemonade, or something to that effect. Happiness and joy are two totally different things and come from two totally different areas or directions. Jesus was referred to as "a man of sorrows," but I don't think that he was not happy. As a matter of fact, I believe that He demonstrated what true happiness was to everyone that hung out with Him, as He practiced doing good by healing and blessing all those that were in need along His path. The way I see it, the sorrows spoken of in Isaiah 53:3 were not His, but it was the image put forth by His being rejected and persecuted for having done nothing wrong. It is the way that people shook their heads, and thought, 'What a tragedy,' as they looked at Him; besides that, the way He was raised and where it was that He was known to come from, His earthly origins did not offer anything to be proud of. I believe the way we obtain happiness is by doing those things that make us feel good about ourselves; if we do not like the way that we are, it is impossible to be happy. Joy on the other hand is something that we are blessed with and that comes from outside our selves: "The joy of the Lord is my strength," because it is not mine to begin with, it is based upon the Lord's doing and His accomplishments, not my own. Which is way Paul says, "Count it all joy," because the joy is constant and never-ending; we just need to turn and face it...

"If we love our brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion -how can God's love be in that person? Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God." (1 John 3:14-19) NLT