{"id":1317,"date":"2026-01-02T04:26:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/?p=1317"},"modified":"2026-01-02T04:26:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:26:32","slug":"twice-the-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/?p=1317","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTwice The Joy\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Absorbing God\u2019s Word<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister\u00a0is a liar.\u00a0For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen,\u00a0cannot love God, whom they have not seen.\u201d 1 John 4:20<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Applying God\u2019s Word<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few days after Christmas, Louise and I went to lunch with our neighbors, Hector and Dora. While driving, Hector suddenly pulled over, jumped out of the car, and said, \u201cJack. Quick. Come with me.\u201d We entered a bakery where he purchased a half dozen bakery items and separated them into three bags. Hector had spotted a few people on the street who needed a hug from Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We approached Peter, first. Hector handed him one of the bags of bakery items. I handed Peter some money and together we prayed with him. We walked about 20 feet further and did the same with a woman named Lucera and then with a man named Kevin. Peter and Kevin both smiled from ear to ear. Lucera sobbed tears of appreciation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hector\u2019s spiritual antenna was fully extended. It allowed God\u2019s incredible love to touch three strangers. His actions reminded me of a quote from Boniface Hicks. \u201cSorrow shared is half the sorrow and joy shared is twice the joy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s so easy for us to boast about loving God. It\u2019s not that easy when God asks us to love a total stranger who is often prejudged by others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Accounting of God\u2019s Word<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cChallenge\u201d Do I only love God in the easy things He asks of me, or do I also love God in the more difficult things He asks of me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Absorbing God\u2019s Word \u201cWhoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister\u00a0is a liar.\u00a0For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen,\u00a0cannot love God, whom they have not seen.\u201d 1 John 4:20 Applying God\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/?p=1317\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-of-the-bible"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.act-ministries.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}