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WestBow Press - Deacon Francis G. King Ph.D.

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Joy comes from the fulfillment of our desires. Our deepest desire is to live forever: to live for all eternity with God in heaven. Joy in the will comes from being a co-creator with God to make the world a better place for one person at a time. Joy in the mind comes from knowing the Truth who is Christ: His blessings, Love, Righteousness, Care, and faithfulness. Joy in the heart comes from being loved and being one with our lover. God loves us beyond our imagination. Joy in the heart is to be one with God. Joy in life is to do His mission to save souls.

In 2010, God gave me the goal of my diaconate ministry: to bring peace and joy to all I meet. This book manifests the fruit of my submission to God’s will on joy. It describes how we can achieve joy through the soul’s three faculties: will to do good, mind to know the truth, and heart to love.

The function of the will is to do good, and we desire goodness. When we are co-creators with God to make the world a better place for one person at a time to the best of our abilities, we are joyful in the will, and therefore, are joyful in living. The function of the mind is to know the truth. Since Christ is the Truth, to know God is to know joy: His blessings, righteousness, love, encouragement, perseverance, and faithfulness. Joy in the heart is based on the Law of the Gift of self. In a relationship we receive joy in the heart when we become one with another as in marriage when the two lovers become one. Since God loves us more than we can ever imagine, joy in the heart is to become with one God. He loves us so much that He wants us to be one with Him for all eternity in heaven.

Joy is not merely happiness; rather, I contend that it is the realization of supreme happiness. Christ is the only true source of our joy. When we are one with Him and His mission to save souls, we receive joy in the will, mind, and heart. Joy is a choice, and not always an easy one; but as we reflect on it together, I hope it is a choice which you will take with me.

Sujets

Religion

Christianisme

Christian Living

Personal Growth

Philosophie et théologie

God is Love

Joy

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Publié par	WestBow Press
Date de parution	17 juillet 2023
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781664297944
Langue	English

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Unimaginable

In Your Love is Our Joy

Deacon Francis G. King, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2023 Deacon Francis G. King, Ph.D..

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-9793-7 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9794-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023907294

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/17/2023

Table of Contents
Abstract
Preface
Acknowledgement
1Joy from Free Gifts
Gifts to fulfill one’s desire
God fulfills our desires
2Joy in the Will
Chains on Joy – Disobedience
Chains of unfulfilled happiness – the Past
Chains of unfulfilled happiness – the present
Chains of unfulfilled happiness – the Future
Freedom to make the world a better place
3Joy in Living
The joy of creating life
Joy in saving and protecting lives
Joy in nurturing lives
Joy in providing basic needs
Happiness
The law of the gift
4Truth and joy in the mind
What is truth?
Distortion of truth in society
Distortion of truth about self
Masks and persona
Distortion of truth about God
Joy in the mind
5Joy in relationship
Desire for relationships
Demand for relationships
Other-centeredness
Acceptance and respect
Joy of forgiveness
Relationship of Love
Marriage – a union of the lover and the beloved
God loves us beyond our imagination
6Joy in God’s Kingdom
God’s Kingdom
Goodness in His Kingdom
Love in His Kingdom
Grace in His Kingdom
Expectations
Endnotes

Abstract
Human beings want to be happy. We see that in everyday life: from infants beaming with glee to children running around with laughter, from teenagers having fun with their friends to young adults courting their first love with elation, from parents slaving away to make their children happy to grandparents cuddling their grandchildren with delight. Such life experiences led Aristotle, a Greek philosopher from the fourth century BC, to say that the highest good of man is happiness. 1 Henry of Ghent, a thirteenth century Belgian philosopher, pushed the above statement to the extreme by declaring that “a man cannot not will to be happy.” 2 I assert that human beings desire more than happiness. They want supreme happiness, i.e., joy. It comes from the fulfillment of our desires. And our deepest desire is to live forever with God.
But we do not need to wait till heaven to receive joy. There is joy here and now. Joy in the will is a choice to do good as a co-creator with God to make the world a better place for one person at a time. Joy comes when we focus on the fruits rather than the pain of our labor. Many people experience joy in their jobs when they bring goodness to others. These jobs tend to satisfy the essential needs of others: physical necessities of food, housing, clothing, medical care, safety, and learning, etc., as well as emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. We receive joy in living when we satisfy our desire for goodness to the best of our abilities. We need to open our minds to know that being a co-creator with God is meaningful, open our will to make the world better place, and open our heart to the law of the gift of self.
The function of the mind is to know the truth. Since Christ is the Truth, joy in the mind is when we are graced with the truth about God: His blessings – to thank Him all the time, His righteousness – to do what is right and good, His love – to reflect it by serving and loving others, His encouragement and perseverance – to do the best we can, His care – to know all is well in His Hands, and His faithfulness – to forever rely on Him and trust Him without hesitation.
Love brings joy to the beloved as the lover fulfills all desires of the beloved by practicing the Law of the Gift of self to the beloved. Love also leads the beloved to become the lover. Both the lover and beloved now experience joy. Joy in the heart is based on the Law of the Gift. Marriage is one of the fullest joys in life. The two lovers become one. Joy in the heart is to become one with our lover. God loves us so much that He wants to be one with us for all eternity in heaven. Joy in the heart is to be one with God and to remain in His love.
God gives us His Kingdom to live in and receive joy. We live in His Kingdom when our mind knows Christ’s Truth that God is Good and God is Love, our will does Christ’s way of Goodness, and our heart lives Christ’s life of love. In God’s Kingdom, I rejoice in His Goodness through His numerous blessings in creation, natural or manufactured; I rejoice in His Love through the gift of His all to me as if I am the only person living; and I rejoice in His grace, unmerited divine favor, that He pours into me. I rejoice in the grace of His righteousness, the grace of His faithfulness, and the grace of His Law of the gift.
Jesus wants to restore us to divine health so that we can spend eternity in His Kingdom and thus in His Presence because we desire to be in the presence of the one who loves us more than we can ever imagine. There is no better way to be in His presence than to be one with Him, one with His will, mind, and heart. His will is to save soul; (1 Tim 2:4) His mind is to make us know God (Jer 31: 34), and His heart is to serve. (Mark10:45) Joy is a choice. We pray for the grace to choose to save souls so that by our service, others may know and choose God. Then we live in Christ and He lives in us. (Gal 1:20) Joy comes from being in His presence and love. He is the true source of joy.
God be blessed for His unimaginable love!
Preface
People are preoccupied with the search of happiness. The pursuit of happiness is one of the three unalienable rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. About one out of 3 Americans claim that they are very happy. 3 As happy as they are, they lack joy. Joy, a fruit of the Holy Spirit, (Gal 5:12) seems to be undefinable and illusive. Already, in 1975, Pope Paul VI wrote that the “difficulty in attaining joy seem(s) to us particularly acute today.” Almost fifty years later, social conditions have not changed. “Money, comfort, hygiene, and material security are often not lacking; and yet boredom, depression and sadness unhappily remain the lot of many. These feelings sometimes go as far as anguish and despair, which apparent carefreeness, the frenzies of present good fortune and artificial paradises cannot assuage.” 4
In August 2010, just before the third year of my diaconate studies, God gave me at Medjugorje the goal of my ministry. Medjugorje is a little village in Bosnia-Herzegovina about twenty kilometers from Croatia. In 1981, six youths reported the appearance of the Blessed Mother. Although the Vatican has not yet declared the apparition official, Medjugorje has been hosting over a million pilgrims each year. We were there during the Youth Festival. 50,000 people, 35,000 of whom were youth, attended Mass and adoration daily. During adoration, one could hear a pin drop. Throughout the day, 20 to 50 priests speaking different languages heard confessions from people standing in lines that were 15 to 20 people in length. It is a place of grace.
At the top of Apparition Hill in Medjugorje, God blessed me with the gift of divine peace and told me to write about it. Later in the evening, God gave me the goal of my diaconate ministry: to bring peace and joy to all I meet. I had no idea the sources of either peace or joy. But Holy Spirit has not been idle.
At my diaconate ordination in 2012, God blessed me with the grace to draw closer to Christ via the Holy Spirit. He led me to search for ideas, opening my eyes and ears to His messages coming to me through events and conversations with others, and inspiring me to put words on paper. In 2018, I started to work on joy, even though I was editing and rewriting my book on peace. In 2021, I published the book on divine peace, entitled, “Indescribable, in Your Will is our peace.” Now, we have “Unimaginable, in Your Love is our joy.” Without the Holy Spirit, none of this would be possible. Thank you, God.

Acknowledgement
I praise you, Lord, God Almighty. You are the Light of the World. You come to make our joy complete. You called me to write about joy. You gave me inspirations in a variety of ways. Without your guidance, not a single word would appear. Most of all, you bestowed upon me the grace to listen, to trust and