Joy or Pleasure

Fire has been a great tool for man since it was first harnessed.  It can do so much: cook food, bring warmth, protection, and can be beautiful.  It is a great tool.  This great tool can also be very destructive.  The same tool that can be used to bring joy and warmth into a home when contained inside of the fireplace, if allowed outside, can burn and destroy the whole house, and everything inside of it. 

There is a difference between joy and pleasure.  Joy can be like the great fire used properly inside of the fireplace.  It is warm, light, and happy.  Pleasure is like fire improperly used.  It seems inviting and nice, but it quickly gets out of control.  If not taken care of, it will destroy.  We must not confuse pleasure with joy!

The advisary is great with tempting us.  A lot of the time he tempts us with things that really aren't bad; actually things that are good.  The problem is: he tempts us to use them improperly and not at the right time.  For example, we can look at when Satan tempted Christ.  Before His ministry, Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness.  Matthew 4:2 reads, "And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred."  He was hungry, I would be too.  Then in verse 3 it reads, "And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."  Eating isn't a bad thing, in fact I really enjoy it.  Christ was going to end His fast soon anyway, so what was the problem with this?  Jeffery R. Holland tells a good explanation why it is wrong in his talk "The Inconvenient Messiah,"

"Whatever else Satan may do, he will certainly appeal to our appetites. Far better for him to try to use our natural needs than struggle to create artificial ones in us. Jesus experienced the real and very understandable hunger for food by which he would sustain his mortal life. He has fasted for forty days and forty nights. Why not eat? He seems ready to break his fast, or surely must soon. Why not simply turn the stones to bread and eat?

The temptation is not in the eating. He has eaten before, he will soon eat again, he must eat for the rest of his mortal life. The temptation comes in Satan’s suggestion to do it this way—to get relief the easy way, by abuse of power and without a willingness to wait for the right time and the right way. It is the temptation to be the convenient Messiah. Why do things the hard way? Why deny yourself satisfaction when with only a slight compromise you might enjoy this much-needed nourishment? But Christ will not ask selfishly for unearned bread. He will postpone gratification indefinitely if necessary, rather than satisfy appetite with what is not his."

This is one way how Satan tempts us.  We must not give in!  A modern example can be sexual expression.  This isn't a bad thing, in fact it is a good thing.  The problem is that the Satan wants us to use it in the wrong way and in the wrong time.  Like the fire, it is great and joyous; but if not controlled and used right, it will destroy!  We must beware.  There is a big difference between joy and pleasure!

I know that to be happy and have joy we must follow Christ.  Pleasure will bring pain and can destroy everything!  If we follow the commandments and do things the way the Lord has established, with his timing in mind, I know we will find true joy!

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http://www.sugardoodle.net/sdclipart/?category_name=camping
pictures taken from wixom family