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Second, I think we are joyfully deficient in the Reformed church because we are perpetually circling the theological wagons. The Reformed church seems continually occupied with the task of theological preservation, a struggle that resembles Tolkien's battle at Helm's Deep. We are simply forever consumed with survival and we don't have time to focus on neglected, but seemingly less vital, topics like joy. For example, when it comes to the topic of worship we don't spend our time pontificating on the joy of worship, but rather we exhaust ourselves, appropriately so, with topics like the regulative principle. When it comes to the topic of justification, we expend our resources, again appropriately so, in defending its forensic nature rather than on the joy which flows from it. The end result is often joyfully deficient theological precision

In our experience, this seems to be the primary reason for the lack of joy we've seen amongst good brothers and sisters who embrace these wonderful doctrines. Maybe it's a reaction (or overreaction) to the carelessness and irreverent approach of many in Christendom. What has always interested me is not only what a person believes and ascribes to, but just as equally important and vital is how what he believes affects his daily life. How some can truly see the doctrines of grace and not have deep, bubbling over joy along with humility and genuine gratitude to God is beyond me.

Funny, part of this article was quoted in the sermon we heard tonight at church.

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I still fight the tendency to look to my feelings rather than looking to God for my strength.

Don't we all? When I look back over my Christian life, though, I am so joyful and grateful to see how much God has delivered me from depending on my feelings as I once did. I'm sure you've made much progress in this area too.