Joy is prayer – Joy is strength – Joy is love – Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

~ Mother Teresa ~

During the last couple of weeks, Jesus has been challenging me in the area of having joy. It started one day when He told me to repent for not being a happy christian. It seemed a little odd at first. It made me feel like happiness was something I should always possess, or that I couldn’t be real with how I was feeling. But he prompted me to see that the Joy that is our strength and is the fruit of His Spirit isn’t somber, but full of cheer.

So I confessed this as a sin to one of the Thais here. And something odd happened. My happiness increased and my perspective changed. And she cried… And I cried. But the bliss… oh the bliss.

During Pattaya Praise, I was worshiping and grew really tired, so I laid down in the back of the crowd with a friend who was also weary and lifted my hands to heaven. And then I heard, “I am the Glad Worker for Pattaya.” And I saw a picture of Jesus in the middle of a rice paddy with mud up to his ankles. He was bending over to plant seedlings into the ground. Under the wide brim of the straw paddy hat he wore, was a grin so big I thought His face would split in two. He took so much delight in working the field of Pattaya and saw it as a good and fertile soil. The bliss in His heart was so beautiful! He truly is dazzling and radiant (clearly emanatinting joy, love, and health)!