Jeremy R. Geerdes Posts

Zechariah 8 is the next stop in my word study of joy. Here, it occurs in verse 19, when the prophet declares, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth months will become joy, gladness, and […]

If you’re anything like me, then you often get confused between the books of Zephaniah and Zechariah. Maybe I’m just intellectually challenged (okay, so strike the “maybe”), but I frequently find myself forgetting which comes first in the Bible and which is the last book of the OT, let alone what they say. Yesterday, though, […]

Continuing on the trend set by Habakkuk yesterday, I have come to Zephaniah 3 and a rather compelling chunk of Scripture in which the word “joy” or “rejoice” appears no less than 5 times in rapid succession. You would expect such a concentration of occurrences in the recollection of a birth or conquest or tremendous […]

Habakkuk 3 is the end of a rather troubling book. After prophesying unprecedented defeat and disaster for Israel, the prophet prays that, eventually, God would come and restore His people. But there is no hint given about the timeframe for that. And to be quite honest, if I were in his shoes, I think I […]

Today, I am struck by something. From Jeremiah through Joel, virtually every reference to joy in the Bible is a bad deal. On several occasions, I find God telling people to rejoice because they’re about to be wiped out by divine judgment. I find Him promising to wipe the smiles from their faces. And I […]

The book of Joel has long been one of my favorites. I really can’t explain why. I guess there’s just something about a book that talks about hordes of locusts infesting the land, legions of soldiers overrunning the place, and then God coming and putting an end to it all when the people repent. In […]

In my study of joy over the last year, I readily acknowledge that I have focused primarily on what will bring me joy. What will destroy my joy. What will maximize my joy. It’s been, for the most part, about me. But a couple of times now, I have been confronted with the reality that […]

Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. He earned that nickname because of the persecution and hardship which he was compelled to endure in the pursuit of his calling as a prophet. In fact, this persecution grew even to the point that the people – the priests, even – of his own hometown sought to […]

Ecclesiastes is an enigmatic book on many fronts. It’s something of a mystery who wrote the thing: tradition claims it was Solomon, but there is evidence that it was someone else. It’s something of a question how to interpret it: there are more than a few passages within its pages that would seem fatalistic at […]

Jell-O is an interesting thing. Half solid, half liquid, this gelatinous delicacy seems to defy description. You can’t really drink it. And you don’t really eat it, either. Joy is kind of like that, too. I mean, you know it when you experience it, but trying to figure out what it is and how to […]