Colors

"Joy unspeakable and full of glory."
Since it is joy unspeakable one would not be able to describe the experience even if you did experience it. So to qualify my question how many know what this feeling is? If so would you be kind enough to elaborate on it? Don’t you think every Christian should have this experience and know what is meant by the term, Joy unspeakable and full of glory?

1 Peter 1:8-9 (The Message)
8-9You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.

1 Peter 1:8-9 (Amplified Bible)
8Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy. 9[At the same time] you receive the result (outcome, consummation) of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:8-9 (New International Version)
8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

And- yes! Absolutely! all Christians should know this feeling (although- ‘feeling’ is not the best word) I would use ’state of mind’ or ’state of being’ (the word ‘feeling’ has too much present tense emotion associated with it to describe joy in all it’s forms)

For me- the joy is always there (in my heart) because as a Christian- I have security (love, forgiveness, peace & salvation- all great things to be joyful about) but at times, the joy ‘feels’ closer to the surface and more tangible especially when I think specifically about any of these gifts or contemplate Jesus’ sacrifice for me!

Any other reasons?

Try to be as specific as possible. For example, simply saying "it gives people joy", that doesn’t count, because any religion can be claimed to do that. Muslims feel joy from Allah, Hindus feel joy from Hinduism.

I’m looking for benefits of being a Christian that ONLY Christianity can give, if possible.

Christianity is the only faith that enables a one-on-one relationship with the risen Lord. Only through salvation and receiving Christ can you have a living relationship with God. Even if Heaven was out of the picture, the Earthly walk with Christ, the wisdom, love, challenges, rewarding of faith, is all worth it.

My father is very talkative while with outsiders. When at home, he is very very quiet. He rarely advices or talks to us. But when visitors come he belittles us infront of then. He criticises us before them as he laughs. Why does he find joy in ashaming us?

Because he’s an egotistical jerk.

So i have to choose 2 books to read out of this selection, for my english class and start a big project that will last months.. I havent read any of these books and it would be very helpful if i could have any recommendations before i spend hours on hours for this project

• The Purple Hibiscus (Adichie)/ Things Fall Apart (Achebe)/ The Poisonwood Bible
(Kingsolver)

• Cry the Beloved Country (Paton)/ Things Fall Apart (Achebe)/ Go Tell It On the
Mountain (Baldwin)

• Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)/ The Awakening (Chopin)/ A Doll’s House (Ibsen)/ Madame
Bovary (Flaubert)/ Ethan Frome (Wharton)

• The Color Purple (Walker)/ Beloved (Morrison)/ Sula (Morrison)/ The Bluest Eye
(Morrison)/Song of Solomon (Morrison)

• A Raisin in the Sun (Hansberry)/ Native Son (Wright)/ Black Boy (Wright)
A Lesson Before Dying (Gaines)/ Invisible Man (Ellison)

• The Bell Jar (Plath)/Member of the Wedding (McCullers)

• Great Expectations (Dickens)/ All the Pretty Horses (McCarthy)/ The Chosen (Potok)

• Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)/ Dr. Faustus (Marlowe)/ The Trial (Kafka)/ The
Stranger (Camus)

• The Things They Carried (O’Brien)/ For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemingway)/ Catch-22
(Heller)/ Slaughterhouse Five (Vonnegut)

• The Joy Luck Club(Tan)/ The Poisonwood Bible (Kingsolver)

• Dreaming in Cuban (Garcia)/The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz)

• Obasan (Kogawa)/ Snow Falling on Cedars (Guterson)

• Bless Me, Ultima (Anaya)/ One-Hundred Years of Solitude (Garcia Marquez)

• Ceremony (Silko)/ House Made of Dawn (Momaday)

• Wuthering Heights (E. Bronte)/ Jane Eyre (C. Bronte)

• Long Day’s Journey Into Night (O’Neill)/ Oedipus Rex (Sophocles)

• A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Solzhenitsyn)/ Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky)

• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Albee)/ A Streetcar Named Desire (Williams)

• Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)/ Frankenstein (Shelley)

• The Jungle (Sinclair)/ Hard Times (Dickens)

Oh gosh. So many good books. I assume you have to choose out of the same set?

Like the poster above, I would recommend Crime and Punishment, but I would actually chose Dr. Faustus or The Stranger instead of Frankenstein (I read The Trial as well, and it was a quick and easy read, but to be honest, I’m just not a big fan of Kafka. It would be REALLY easy to write an essay comparing The Trial to Crime and Punishment, though.).

All of the books under the "The Things They Carried" category are incredible, too, and comparatively far more recent, if contemporary fiction is more your bag (although most of it is actually modernist, but… um, anyways, yeah, it’s all at least 20th century).

And I have to put in a good word for Toni Morrison. She is BADASS. Song of Solomon is one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read– Beloved was pretty good, too.

“It is the unspeakable misery of a life so false as his, that it steals the pith and substance out of whatever realities there are around us, and which are meant by Heaven to be the spirit’s joy and nutriment. To the untrue man, the whole universe is false-it is impalpable-it shrinks to nothing within his grasp. And he himself in so far as he shows himself in a false light, becomes a shadow, or, indeed, ceases to exist.”

Roger Chillingworth is living his life a lie because he has committed adultery with Helen Prynne, but the public still sees him as an immaculate minister. The fact that he has not confessed weighs heavily on his soul and is ruining his life. Because his entire life is so wrapped up in his falsehood, it ceases to exist for all intents and purposes. He becomes like a shadow because the lie is separating him from life.

It seems that they follow an idea when if you pretend to be joy full then someday you actually will be. It is kind of creepy to others…

When I was a christian I felt surrounded with this pretended joy and it was just creepy to me.
I am not trying to bash christianity here…. just want others ideas on this. I truly experienced this feeling in the church I was in.

If you don’t act like what the group tells you to, you will be rejected and treated like an outcast. Most people want to be appreciated and fit in with their community. Therefore if he bible tells them that being a christian is a good thing and joyful, they should.

Where there’s a Wall
Written By: Joy Kogawa

where there’s a wall
there’s a way
around, over, or through
there’s a gate
maybe a ladder
a door
a sentinel who
sometimes sleeps
there are secret passwords
you can overhear
there are methods of torture
for extracting clues
to maps of underground passageways
there are zepplins
helicopters, rockets, bombs
bettering rams
armies with trumpets
whose all at once blast
shatters the foundations
where there’s a wall
there are words
to whisper by a loose brick
wailing prayers to utter
special codes to tap
birds to carry messages
taped to their feet
there are letters to be written
novels even
on this side of the wall
I am standing staring at the top
lost in the clouds
I hear every sound you make
but cannot see you
I incline in the wrong direction
a voice cries faint as in a dream
from the belly
of the wall

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?

Well, it sounds like the authror is trying to give himself hope with the belief that all problems can be overcome. There is always a way through, one way or the other.

I personally do not get much out of his style and his methods are crude and selfish, but I understand his point.

That specific kind of Joy Can Only Come From Yeshua/Jesus…….so, knowing Him is Mandatory. 1 Peter 1
Amplified Bible (AMP)
8Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy.
+++"Privileges of Christians. (a. d. 66.) III. He particularly commends the faith of these primitive Christians upon two accounts:—

1. The excellency of its object, the unseen Jesus. The apostle had seen our Lord in the flesh, but these dispersed Jews never did, and yet they believed in him, v. 8. It is one thing to believe God, or Christ (so the devils believe), and another thing to believe in him, which denotes subjection, reliance, and expectation of all promised good from him.

2. On account of two notable productions or effects of their faith, love and joy, and this joy so great as to be above description: You rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. Learn,

(1.) The faith of a Christian is properly conversant about things revealed, but not seen. Sense converses with things sensible and present; reason is a higher guide, which by sure deductions can infer the operation of causes, and the certainty of events; but faith ascends further still, and assures us of abundance of particulars that sense and reason could never have found out, upon the credit of revelation; it is the evidence of things not seen.

(2.) True faith is never alone, but produces a strong love to Jesus Christ. True Christians have a sincere love to Jesus, because they believe in him. This love discovers itself in the highest esteem for him, affectionate desires after him, willingness to be dissolved to be with him, delightful thoughts, cheerful services and sufferings, &c.

(3.) Where there are true faith and love to Christ there is, or may be, joy unspeakable and full of glory. This joy is inexpressible, it cannot be described by words; the best discovery is by an experimental taste of it; it is full of glory, full of heaven. There is much of heaven and the future glory in the present joys of improved Christians; their faith removes the causes of sorrow, and affords the best reasons for joy. Though good people sometimes walk in darkness, it is often owing to their own mistakes and ignorance, or to a fearful or melancholy disposition, or to some late sinful conduct, or perhaps to some sad occurrence of providence, that sinks their comfort for the present, yet they have reason to rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of their salvation, Heb. iii. 18. Well might these primitive Christians rejoice with the joy unspeakable, since they were every day receiving the end of their faith, the salvation of their souls,

Nothing offends us either.

Because of the hope that is within me!

If you’ve read the Joy Luck Club, what is some music that you think illustrates the novel or characters in it?

The theme song to "Requiem for a Dream." Definitely.