In his blog post titled, "Happiness Is," my friend Daniel ( @daniel626 ) cited Psalm 16:11 (NKJV):

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 

In response, I made the following comment:

I LOVE the title! Many Christians make an incorrect distinction between happiness and joy, but the distinction that should be made is between earthly happiness/joy and heavenly happiness/joy. The latter is rooted in and flows from God and God alone, and there is NO true, durable, and genuine happiness or joy found apart from our relationship to God in Christ. God is not a vile curmudgeon, but rather a loving, exuberant heavenly Father who makes available fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore to all who will come to Him!

Related to that... my recent post "you would begin by blowing out all his lamps..."  included Edward Payson's testimony of God's increasing his happiness in God. Payson wrote that God made him "as happy as he could be in this world ... by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my usual sources of enjoyment." Payson also reminds us, "Christians might avoid much trouble and inconvenience, if they would only believe what they profess,— that God is able to make them happy without any thing else." (pp. 410-411)

On that post, my friend Elizabeth ( @stephensmustang ) commented: "It is such a difference in joy and happiness."

I commented back to her:

Yes, when [you] define happiness as fleeting, fleshly, worldly happiness (which I know you do).

I really would love for the Church to reclaim the rightful use of words "happy" and "happiness"! The devil has so many souls hoodwinked. He wants us to believe the lie that God does not want us to be happy (e.g. - see Genesis 3 and the fall), but that's so very far from the truth. God is not at all against our happiness, so long as that happiness is rooted in and flows from Him. Any happiness we may find apart from Him will diminish and exclude God, and that is no true happiness.

Psalm 146:5 you'll often find translated, "Blessed..." but the Hebrew word there is "esher," meaning "happy."  "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God" (KJV).

Psalm 32:11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

From Strong's Concordance:

be glad = probably to brighten up, i.e. (figuratively) be (causatively, make) blithe or gleesome:--cheer up, be (make) glad, (have, make) joy(-ful), be (make) merry, (cause to, make to) rejoice, X very.

rejoice = to spin round (under the influence of any violent emotion), i.e. usually rejoice, or (as cringing) fear:--be glad, joy, be joyful, rejoice

shout for joy = to creak (or emit a stridulous sound), i.e. to shout (usually for joy):--aloud for joy, cry out, be joyful (greatly, make to) rejoice, (cause to) shout (for joy), (cause to) sing (aloud, for joy, out), triumph.

Thanks for bearing with me here, dear sister, this is one of my pet peeves.   (((hugs)))

Once again, I bring you more of Payson's words on the source of true happiness:

   "Suppose a son is walking with his father, in whose wisdom he places the most entire confidence. He follows wherever his father leads, though it may be through thorns and briars, cheerfully and contentedly.

Another son, we will suppose, distrusts his father's wisdom and love, and, when the path is rough or uneven, begins to murmur and repine, wishing that he might be allowed to choose his own path; and though he is obliged to follow, it is with great reluctance and discontent.

Now, the reason that Christians in general do not enjoy more of God's presence, is, that they are not willing to walk in his path, when it crosses their own inclinations. But we shall never be happy, until we acquiesce with perfect cheerfulness in all his decisions, and follow wherever he leads without a murmur."

Sept. 26 [1821].   "While lying awake last night, enjoyed most delightful views of God as a Father. Felt that my happiness is as dear to him as to myself; that he would not willingly hurt one hair of my head, nor let me suffer a moment's unnecessary pain. Felt that he was literally as willing to give as I could be to ask. Seemed, indeed, to have nothing to ask for."

I John 5:11  And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

More from Payson:

• "Who wants candles when he has the sun?" ~ Edward Payson | letter 124 on assurance & joy
• "if I would but cease struggling ... I might be happy" (Edward Payson)
• "My situation was so dangerous, so hopeless, that nothing less than the incarnation..." (Payson)
• "Your business is to trust, and go forward." (Edward Payson)
• Ascension Day: "He went up, scattering blessings; & he has done nothing but bless them ever since"
• "you would begin by blowing out all his lamps..." ~ Edward Payson

Other related posts:

my other letters on assurance and fighting for joy
Moderation in pursuing God? An answer from Jonathan Edwards
Finding pleasure in Him
As a deer pants ... Is your soul panting for God? (Psalms 42 & 43)
The flags unfurled ... Christ's eternal banner | Lloyd-Jones ~ a third type of assurance
The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it..." | the Father's assurance
Our Twisted View of God
All things (even BAD things) work together for good... (from the archives)
Christian, don't waste your life whining
Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
"The duties of religion are delightful" ~ the fruit of "The Life of God in the Soul of Man"
Martin Luther: "The Spirit ... renders the heart glad & free, as the law demands"
Embittered, pricked in heart? Go into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73)
Are you a radiant Christian or a drunken old woman? (letter 82 on assurance & fighting for joy)
"the treasure you can never find in a mall" ~ Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift!
"Too long, alas! I vainly sought for happiness below ... " | letter 150 on fighting for joy
The Thorny Hedge for your joy (Hosea 2) | Letter 144 on assurance & fighting for joy
Her Eyes Were Still Restrained ~ "When it looks like he is buried for good..."
Naphtali News: Happy Anniversary

Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. Emphasis mine.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Photo credits:

I edited the original work found here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goalposts_and_thorny_hedge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1086796.jpg / CC BY-SA/3.0

"bottle_2618" - own photo / CC BY-SA/3.0

"you would begin by blowing out by blowing out all his lamps..." ~ Edward Payson| Letter 154 on assurance & fighting for joy...

In my last post, the 6th sola: "The Price of salvation is the Prize of salvation" I blogged about John Piper's most recent sermon "God in Christ: the Price and the Prize of the Gospel."

Edward Payson (1783-1827), pastor of the Congregational Church in Portland, Maine for twenty years, had learned experientially that the Price of salvation is the Prize of salvation. Almost two hundred years later we have the privilege to witness the rivers of living water flowing out of his heart (John 7:37-39) through the testimony he gave with his mouth in the month prior to his passing into the glory everlasting on October 23, 1827.

   Sept. 26. "Christians might avoid much trouble and inconvenience, if they would only believe what they profess,— that God is able to make them happy without any thing else. They imagine that if such a dear friend were to die, or such and such blessings to be removed, they should be miserable; whereas God can make them a thousand times happier without them. To mention my own case,—God has been depriving me of one blessing after another; but as every one was removed, he has come in and filled up its place; and now, when I am a cripple, and not able to move, I am happier than ever I was in my life before, or ever expected to be, and, if I had believed this twenty years ago, I might have been spared much anxiety."

   "If God had told me some time ago, that he was about to make me as happy as I could be in this world, and then had told me that he should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my usual sources of enjoyment; I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing his purpose. And yet, how is his wisdom manifest even in this ! for if you should see a man shut up in a close room, idolizing a set of lamps, and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps; and then throw open the shutters, to let in the light of heaven."

~ John Piper in his October 13, 2012 sermon on Philippians 1:12-16,
God Is Most Glorified in Us When We Are Most Satisfied in Him

What lamps have you been idolizing and rejoicing in that prevent you from basking in the True Light?

basking:
1. to lie in or be exposed to a pleasant warmth: to bask in the sunshine.
2. to enjoy a pleasant situation: He basked in royal favor.

In this Thanksgiving season, will you strive and labor diligently to rest in Christ, to be a weaned child, to hope in the LORD, to trust His inscrutable ways (Hebrews 3:7-4:16; Psalm 131), and ask God to strengthen you by His grace to walk by faith and not by sight, to thank and bless Him each and every time He blows out one of those lamps?

Let us not despise what appear to us very strange modes, as our heavenly Father wisely and lovingly works to accomplish His good pleasure and His good purposes in our lives.

Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Job 5:17-18
Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;
therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.
For he wounds, but he binds up;
he shatters, but his hands heal.

Psalms 65:4
Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!

Source: "Memoir, Select Thoughts and Sermons of the Late Rev. Edward Payson, Volume 1" by Edward Payson (1783-1827) and Asa Cummings, 410-411, (boldface, mine). HT for the text: http://books.google.com/books?id=nAZMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. The Memoir is also included in Volume 1 of "The Complete Works of Edward Payson," published by Sprinkle Publications (1987); page numbers the same.

Photo credit: Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hammershoi_sunlight.jpg /{{PD-Art|PD-old-75}}

basking. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/basking (accessed: November 16, 2012).

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

More from Payson:

• "Who wants candles when he has the sun?" ~ Edward Payson | letter 124 on assurance & joy
• "if I would but cease struggling ... I might be happy" (Edward Payson)
• "My situation was so dangerous, so hopeless, that nothing less than the incarnation..." (Payson)
• "Your business is to trust, and go forward." (Edward Payson)
• Ascension Day: "He went up, scattering blessings; & he has done nothing but bless them ever since"

A couple more saints from the great cloud of witnesses who experienced happiness in Christ through their sufferings:

• "Happy are they who can say..." ~ J.C. Philpot | Letter 139 on assurance & fighting for joy
• To take whatever thy Father's pleasure | "May adversities uninterrupted be my lot" ~ Edward Griffin

My other letters on assurance & fighting for joy including...

• Letter 16 on assurance and fighting for joy (our prayers, His wise denials and joy)
• Rejoicing here on the Potter's Wheel (Psalm 66) | Letter 96 on assurance & joy
• year end reflections, # 1: "end of the year ... in the midst of heartache" | Letter 97 on joy
• year end reflections, # 2: rejoicing in "The Often Unwanted but Necessary Gift" | Letter 98 on joy
• disappointment ~ appointment | letter 119 on assurance & fighting for joy
• The Thorny Hedge for your joy (Hosea 2) | Letter 144 on assurance & fighting for joy

Other related posts on enjoying the Prize of our salvation:

• Finding pleasure in Him
• Our Twisted View of God
• All things (even BAD things) work together for good... (from the archives)
• don't waste your new year ~ teach us, satisfy us, make us glad (Psalm 90:12-15)
• Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
• Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor
• The Father's Inheritance (Eleven days' journey ~ A lamentation & an exhortation)
• Hast thou not yet seen ... Ev'ry billow tenderly ordained by Me!
• As the Visible Disappoints
• Embittered, pricked in heart? Go into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73)
• this earthly manna ~ the Christian hedonist's plea
• Lenten Reflections: When he broke all supply of bread (My breaking is for your blessing)
• Why read Christian biography? To help us examine our love for God.

In commemoration of Richard Baxter's (1615-1691) 397th birthday, here are some excerpts from the first portion of his book, "The Causes and Danger Of slighting CHRIST and his GOSPEL:  Or, Eternal Salvation made light of by Multitudes, to whom it is freely offered."

Matthew 22:1  And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, 2  The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3  And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. 4  Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. 5  But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: 6  And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

Matthew xxii. 5-.
But they made light of it.

. . .

That which carnal Hearers make light of, includes in it, Christ himself, and the Blessings, which he bestows.—Concerning Christ himself, the Gospel declares his Person and Nature, and the great Things he has done and suffered for Men, his redeeming us from the Wrath of God by his Blood, and purchasing a Grant of Salvation for us. The same Gospel makes an Offer of Christ to Sinners, that if they will accept him on his easy and reasonable Terms, he will be their Saviour, the Physician of their Souls, their Head, and their Husband.—the Blessings which Christ bestows upon Sinners, are the Pardon of all their past Sins, and Deliverance from the Wrath of God, and a sure Way of obtaining Pardon for all the Sins they shall commit hereafter, provided they obey sincerely, and turn not again to the Rebellion of their unregenerate State. They shall have the Holy Spirit to be their Guide and Sanctifier, to dwell in their Souls, to help them against their spiritual Enemies, and conform them more and more to a divine Likeness, to heal their spiritual Diseases, and bring them back to God. They shall, also have a right to everlasting Glory, when this Life is ended, and their Bodies shall be raised up to partake of it at the great Day. Besides these, they shall have many excellent Priviledges and Means, abundant Preservation and Provision in their Way, and the Foretaste of their future Joy. All these Blessings the Gospel offers to them that will accept of Christ on his reasonable Terms. For this is the Record, that God hath given to us eternal Life; and this Life is in his Son. He that hath the Son, hath Life, and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not Life [I John 5:11-12].

     The Sin of making light of Christ and Salvation appears in the following Instances.

1. When Men take no great Heed to what the Gospel declares, as if it was not a certain Truth, or else was a Matter that little concerned them, or as if God had not written it for them.

2. When the Gospel does not affect Men, or go to their Hearts; but tho’ they seem to attend to what is said, yet they are not awakened by it from their Security, nor doth it in any Measure excite such holy Emotions in their Souls, as Things of such everlasting Consequence ought to do. We tell Men what Christ hath done and suffered for their Souls, and it scarce moves them. We tell them of keen and cutting Truths, but Nothing will pierce them. We can make them hear, but cannot make them feel. Our Words stop in the Porch of their Ears and Fancies, but enter not into their inward Parts. It is as if we spake to Men that have not Hearts. Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For the Heart of this People is waxed gross, and their Ears are dull of hearing, and their Eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their Eyes, and hear with their Ears, and understand with their Heart, and should be converted, and Christ should heal them [~ Matthew 13:15, Acts 28:27; see also Isaiah 6:9-10].

3. Men make light of Christ, when they have no high Esteem for him and Salvation by him, but whatsoever they may say with their Tongues, or may speculatively believe, yet in their serious and practical Thoughts they have a higher Esteem for the Things of this World, than they have for Christ and the Salvation he hath purchased. It is despising Christ, to account his Doctrine but a Question of Words and Names, like Gallio; or a Superstition of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive, like Festus; or to ask the Preachers of the Gospel, as the Athenians did, What will this Babler say? [Acts 18:12-17; 25:13-27; 17:16-21]

Men make light of Christ, when being informed of the Truths of the Gospel, on what Terms Christ and his Blessings may be had, how it is the Will of God they should believe and accept the Offer, and how he commands them to do it upon Pain of Damnation; and yet they will not consent, unless they could have Christ on Terms of their own. They will not part with their Portion in this World, nor lay down their Pleasures, Profits, and Honours at the Feet of Jesus, to be content to take only so much of them back, as is consistent with his Will and Interest, but think it a hard saying, to be resolved to forsake all for Christ. ’Tis a high Contempt Of Christ and everlasting Life, when Men might have their Part in him, if they would; but they will not, unless they may keep the World too, and are resolved to please their Flesh, whatever be the Consequence.

It is also a making light of Christ and Salvation, when Men will promise fair, and profess their Willingness, to have Christ upon his own Terms, and to forsake all for him; but they nevertheless cleave to the World, and to their sinful Courses, nor will suffer their Practice to be changed by all that Christ hath done or said.—This is the Sin of making light of Christ and Salvation.

CHAP. II.

Thy Christ is made so light of.

IT may seem a Wonder that ever Men, who have the Use of their Reason, should be so foolish as to make light of Things of infinite Importance. But the Causes are such as these—

1. Some Men understand not the Meaning of the Words in which the Gospel is expressed; and how can they value what they do not understand? Tho’ we speak to them as plainly as we can, yet they have so estranged themselves from God, and the Concerns of their Souls, that they know not what we say. It is with them as if God in just Judgment had said, With stammering Lips and another Tongue will I speak to this People [Isaiah 28:11].

2. Some understand the Words we speak, but not the Matter, because they are carnal. For the natural Man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God, for they are Foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. [I Cor. 2:14] The Things of the Spirit are not well known by bare Report, but by spiritual Taste, which none have but those that are taught by the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the Things that are freely given to us of God. [I Cor. 2:12].

3. Carnal Minds apprehend not a Suitableness in these spiritual and heavenly Things, and therefore set light by them. Tell them of everlasting Glory, and they hear you, as if you, as if you was persuading them to go and play with the Sun. The Affairs of another World are out of their Element, and therefore they have no more Delight in them, than a Fish would have in the pleasantest Meadow, or a Swine in a Jewel. They that are after the Spirit, may mind the Things of the Spirit; but they that are after the Flesh, do mind the Things of the Flesh. [Romans 8:5]. . . .

 7  But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8  Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 9  Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. 10  So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

11  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

My friend, are you making light of Christ?

Do you have a higher esteem for the things of this world than for Christ and the salvation He purchased?

Have you made your fair promises and professed your willingness to Him ––
and yet all the while continued to cleave to the World, and to your sinful Courses?

Do you delight in Christ –– or do you consider Him as a fish would the pleasantest meadow and a swine a jewel?

Source: Richard Baxter's "The Causes and Danger Of slighting CHRIST and his GOSPEL:  Or, Eternal Salvation made light of by Multitudes, to whom it is freely offered," 1763 edition, abridged by Benjamin Fawcett. Accessed 11.12.12 from <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/baxter/causes.html>. I added the Scripture references in brackets, as well as the surrounding Scripture text from Matthew 22:1-14.

Work found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Teachings_of_Jesus_29_of_40._the_man_without_a_wedding_garment._Jan_Luyken_etching._Bowyer_Bible.gif - Author Phillip Medhurst, Photo by Harry Kossuth. Copyleft: This is a free work, you can copy, distribute, and modify it under the terms of the Free Art License - http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en

More on Richard Baxter:

• Richard Baxter on "inward defects" and the "need of a higher work"
• the minister's examination: "Who is my master?"
• thoughts on necessity (Richard Baxter, myself)
• Happy Birthday, Richard Baxter: Reforming pastoral ministry

Other related posts:

• you say you want Jesus
• Resurrection Sunday: Two Responses to the Son (Psalm 2)
• Bible Reading: Lamentations 1:12-Is His Sacrifice nothing to you?
• Have you believed with your heart ... all your heart? (The Ethiopian Eunuch - Acts 8:37)
• How's your spiritual appetite? (Jonathan Edwards)
• Moderation in pursuing God? An answer from George Whitefield
• Moderation in pursuing God? An answer from Jonathan Edwards
• Who's the real thriller?
• Two Fountains ~ Where are you drinking? What is flowing? Don't waste your drinking!
• occupy ~ do you seek your own – or the things of Christ? does His Spirit occupy?
• "Saving faith is wanting Jesus" ~ Are you loving His appearing or this present world?
• consider ... our ways, the great cloud of witnesses, Susanna Anthony
• What is a nominal Christian?
• the Holy Spirit and Life
• Why preach the Gospel? # 1: Bad men need Good News!
• Why preach the Gospel? # 2: Dead men need Life!
• why we need a new heart (Bible reading - Matthew 5)
• At Calvary: Can you say, "I'm with Him"?