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CONNIE: Happy New Year! The words roll glibly off our tongues every January. But what's the secret to not just wishing for happiness but finding it? Join us as we look for Jesus' answer today.
Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 70 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery.

LONNIE: And I’m Lonnie Melashenko. Welcome to our first program of "aught-two"--the year 2002. How are you doing on your "ought to's"--your New Years resolutions?

CONNIE: Well, that's a little play on words. It sounds almost British to say ought to, but about New Year's resolutions, I'm not sure if I'm making any this year. Every time I try to lose ten pounds, or I make all these resolutions, I don't ever kind of meet up with those goals. So I'm just going to have the big broad ones this year.

LONNIE: That's wise! We don't like to disappoint ourselves of all people, like all those years I tried reading the Bible, and like Reader's Digest I said, "Well, we're up to Chronicles", and how many years I only made it up to there, but thank the Good Lord that I found Jesus, and I could really enjoy reading it, but it is true, resolutions get us in trouble often. Don’t they?
CONNIE: They sure do Lonnie.

LONNIE: Well, one thing I'm convinced we ought to do with this new year is do our best to make it a happy, joyous year for as many people as we can. To reach out and touch them with happiness, as Jesus did while He was here on earth.
CONNIE: That's a good resolution. Jesus really did focus His life on spreading good news--happy news--about the Kingdom of God. In a moment we're going to hear a song called "The Happy Kingdom, but before we do, we have an interview with the lady who sings the song, Cynthia Clawson. Ken Wade spoke with her . . .

KEN: Cynthia Clawson, thank you so much for joining us on our program today.

CYNTHIA: Oh, thank you.

KEN: As I've told you, I enjoy hearing you sing many, many times during the years, at least on my CD player, ha ha. Record player a few years back.

CYNTHIA: We don't even know what record players are anymore do we?

KEN: Yeah, and I've just really been touched by your music, in fact. Some of it gets a little bit on the minor side, sometimes, and some of it is very happy. You were telling me as we were talking, life this particular year, the year that has just past, 2001, has been kind of like going to school for you.

CYNTHIA: Yes, I have a friend who’s a wonderful comedian, that lives over in North Carolina. And we're always trading metaphors of life, and that was one she came up with years ago. She said, "Do you feel like you're just in school, and there's no recess?" And I said, "Ah, yes. I don't even like the subjects I’m taking." You know, a year ago in the latter part of the summer, I found out very unexpectedly that I had a tumor in the base of my brain, so the following Thursday I went to the operation room and they took most of it out, but they couldn't get it all out, and it was not malignant, but it was a kind of tumor that would grow, unless I did something about it, so I had radiation for a little over a month, and then I found myself taking medication, that I had to take for probably eight to ten years because this little growth is just so aggressive. So I've had to come to terms with my body. You know the mortality of my body, and it's been very interesting because I've never really been sick. You know there was nothing ever really wrong with me. I've never broken any bones, and so here I am with this major brain tumor, and then I had to figure a way to work that into my life. So that's why I feel like there's been no let up because of that physical thing I've had to deal with, and it causes me to have aches and pains where I didn't ever think I was going to have aches and pains, but it could be that I'm 53 years old.

KEN: Well it could have something to do with that.

CYNTHIA: And you know at this point maintenance is really important

KEN: Of course the year 2001 was rough on a lot of people.

CYNTHIA: Oh my goodness. We have been through so much as a country, and as a world. You know I remember back in 1983. It was a bad recession, and lots and lots of friends of mine in Texas were losing money, and going bankrupt, and having all kinds of financial problems. But this year it seems like for so many friends, and for us as America you know, physically we have been wounded, and mortally some of us.

KEN: How do you find joy in all of this?

CYNTHIA: Well, you know for me, Cynthia, I've been a Christian for a long time and I've had a relationship with Christ since even before I made my profession of faith, and so there's that hope that is there. In our church we've been putting together our services for hope, and I realize that hope is something in some ways that we're in charge of that part.
KEN: Okay.

CYNTHIA: We have to keep hoping, and so I think we've seen with America, and with our patriotism, and people picking themselves up out of the dust, and out of the flame, and going on, proving that hope is alive.

KEN: Oh, that's great.

CYNTHIA: And you know for me, I've had Jesus whispering in my ear for such a long time.

KEN: That's a wonderful testimony, and I really appreciate that. You know we're going to be playing in just a moment the song that you and your husband wrote together about the happy kingdom, and obviously for Christians that is the ultimate hope, that there will be a wonderful new kingdom when Jesus comes when we won't have all of these problems.

CYNTHIA: And helping his kingdom come here on earth with our acts of peace, and acts of kindness, and you know at this time we need to be peacemakers. We can't just let someone else do that. So you know by acting as peacemakers, and as lovers of God here on earth, we bring that hope to people that they think, "Oh you know, things might change for me, or things might get better." You know, we need to let people know that.

KEN: That the happy kingdom doesn't have to all be pie in the sky by and by, it can be here and now, too.

CYNTHIA: That's right it can be here and now, and the living Son has come. The word has been made flesh among us, and that sun came out even in the midst of all that falling out, and that dust, and that gray.

KEN: Yeah. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your insight Cynthia, and keep up the good work there.

CYNTHIA: Thank you Ken.

KEN: Thank you

MUSIC: “The Happy Kingdom”, Cynthia Clawson, from The Way I Feel CD,

CONNIE: What a neat song! Thanks so much to Cynthia Clawson for that song, and for her thoughts.

LONNIE: There are some great thoughts in that song. I especially like the line about "The children prayed 'Thy kingdom come,' and the answer to that prayer "Their faith brought out the living Son, who gently warmed them all." And in the lyrics that come with the CD the word Son is spelled S-o-n--referring to Jesus, of course.
CONNIE: Well, the gift of Jesus to the world is a real, meaningful, lasting source of happiness for all who come to believe in Him.

LONNIE: Say, friend, does the light of the Son of God warm your life on a regular basis? Does His joy live in your heart, even when other things might make you sad? If you could use a little pick-me-up as we begin a new year, a new source of joy to help you keep on keeping on in life, we've got something very special we'd like to share with you, as our "happy new year" gift. It's a little book called The Joy of Jesus.

CONNIE: A free copy of this book is waiting for you, and the good news is, all you have to do to claim it is give us a call at our toll-free number 1-800-872-0055, and ask for The Joy of Jesus. We'd love to send one your way.

LONNIE: The book is The Joy of Jesus. We'd really like for you to have a copy, if you don't already, so give us a call. The number is 1-800-872-0055, and we'll give our mailing address in a few moments, in case you'd like to write in and ask for it.

CONNIE: Right now it's time for Lonnie's message for today, "Happy New You--Part 2."

Happy New You--2

Two and a quarter centuries ago, a group of Americans meeting in Philadelphia put their signatures to a document that proclaimed the fundamental rights of human beings. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," they wrote, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Belief in a beneficent Creator led them to the conviction that human beings were placed on this planet for some reason other than unending, unsatisfying toil. We ought to be able to seek happiness--more than that, they wrote, we ought to be able to actually set out in pursuit of it, in hopes of achieving joy in life.

What a difference from the philosophy we hear was enforced under the strict rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where laughing out loud was a punishable crime!

Religion, through the years, has been used to promote many ideas, many different philosophies of life. Even in America, under the rule of the Puritans, too much joy or levity was considered evil. Life, after all, is a serious matter, they taught. And we ought to exercise our energies in pursuing eternal life, not looking for happiness in this world.

And so, you might ask, are we doing the right thing in this program in wishing you not only a happy new year, but a happy new you? Is Christianity really supposed to make us happy? Or is that just some vain new philosophy?
Where did the founding fathers of America get the idea that the Creator endowed us from the beginning with the right to pursue a happy life?
No doubt they got the idea from the teachings and ministry of Jesus, who devoted His ministry to healing, teaching, and bringing joy to people. Jesus, who sat down on a hill one day and began His famous Sermon on the Mount with nine instructions on how to be "blessed" or "happy."

Last week we looked at two of these instructions--we call them Beatitudes--and this week we'll look at four more. We've chosen these six because each of them deals with a part of life we can do something about--an attitude we can adopt, or an action we can take to "put ourselves in the path of blessing" so to speak. Something we can do that Jesus assures us will lead to greater happiness in our lives.

Let's take a look at four more of the ingredients in Jesus' prescription for a blessed--happy--life.

In Matthew 5:5 we read that Jesus said,

" 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth' "
(NKJ). It's a thought that flies right in the face of conventional wisdom. And in Jesus' day it stood out in stark contrast to the way the world ran. In His day the iron hand of Rome was reaching out and grabbing more and more of the earth--not through policies of meekness. Far from it! The empire was held together by force. Anyone who rebelled could count on a visit from the Roman army. The earth was being taken by violent men, not by the meek.

How could Jesus expect anyone to take His words seriously?

Perhaps here is a good place to mention the thoughts of the modern philosopher Michael Oakeshott, who wrote that "Our predicament is not the difficulty of attaining happiness, but the difficulty of avoiding the misery to which the pursuit of happiness exposes us."

Anyone who has read the history of the various emperors of Rome knows that there were very few truly happy or "blessed" men among them. Their lives for the most part consisted of ceaseless striving for new conquests and unending vigilance to assure that no one would take away what they already had--misery gained in the pursuit of happiness Jesus' words do, in reality, provide a better course toward happiness. When He speaks of the meek, He means those who have given their lives into God's care, and accept each day as a gift from the hand of a beneficent Creator. That's the root of true happiness. And in the end--when Jesus comes in His kingdom--the gift He'll have for the meek is much better than anything a person can grasp in all their striving and "unmeekness" today. The earth they will inherit will not be this tired, polluted, old planet, but a glorious New Earth, restored to its Edenic perfection by the original manufacturer--God.

Two other Beatitudes follow right along with these words about the meek. In Matthew 5:7 and 9 we read:

" 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. . . . Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God' " (NKJ).

In a world filled with vengeance, iron-fisted justice, and wars of conquest, Jesus once again spoke words that flew in the face of conventional wisdom. It is the merciful who will be shown mercy, it is the peacemakers who will be adopted as sons of God. This last stood in stark contrast to the current events of Jesus' lifetime. Augustus, the first Roman emperor, had indeed been adopted by a god of sorts--Julius Caesar. But Augustus didn't become emperor by making peace with his enemies, but by making war and destroying whole armies and their powerful leaders.

Still, Jesus says, the route to true happiness, true blessedness, is not through vengeance and war, but through forgiving and striving for peace. These bring lasting blessing instead of the temporary peace of the "Pax Romana"--the peace of Rome--that had to be defended by marching legionnaires.

If you want true, lasting joy, try a little kindness. Show some mercy to that person who has offended you. Stop planning how you're going to get even with others, and extend the olive branch of peace. Not only will you find people beginning to be more merciful to you, but you'll begin to be known as a son or daughter of God instead of one who's just out for self. Your life can become a testimony to the kindness and mercy of God. The world will begin to see God in you.

And that brings me to the last of the Beatitudes we'll have time to look at today. But I think it's one of the most important. Here it is, found in Matthew 5:8
" 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' " (NKJV).

It was said of the great 17th-century scientist Sir Isaac Newton that he saw things that no one else could see. Gravity, the force that holds the universe together, had been operating, making apples fall from trees and sticking things to this planet like glue since the day Adam first opened his eyes. But no one understood it until young Isaac Newton focused his mind on the question of what kept the planets spinning around the sun. Someone once asked him how he discovered the law of gravity, and he replied, "By thinking about it all the time."

One of his biographers wrote that "Plainly, the young man had an almost terrifying power of concentration, which he could bring to bear on the most complex problems for hours on end."
The key to his success was his focus. And that, my friend, is what Jesus calls us to here in one of the key Beatitudes. How can one have the privilege of seeing God?

Maybe you remember the day in the 1960s when a Soviet cosmonaut returned from orbiting the earth and announced that he had been to outer space, and had looked around for God but not found Him there.

Well, apart from the fact that the man was looking in the wrong place, I doubt that he had really made an honest and earnest attempt at finding God. His search was the search of the doubter, looking skeptically about for something that might force him to recognize the existence of God. Jesus says that's not the way to go about finding God.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,"

He says.
Friend, there are many things in this world we can focus our attention and energies on. Many distractions that would keep us from ever seeking after God--ever looking for Him at all. But God has promised to make Himself known to those who honestly seek Him--with their whole heart:

" 'And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart' " (Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV).

As we begin another new year, Jesus lays this challenge before us. If you want it to truly be a happy new year, then get your priorities straight. A pure heart will find God--not just because it seeks after Him with great diligence, but because it puts aside impure thoughts and distractions that would cloud the picture or sidetrack us. The true key to happiness means not only focusing on the right things, but leaving no space for the wrong things in your heart--the impure thoughts, the lust, the greed, the vengeance that would cloud your vision of God.

Want happiness this year? It can be yours. It can be a happy, blessed new year, and a happy, blessed new YOU. The key is there in that passage we call the Beatitudes, in Matthew 5:3-12. We've had time to touch just lightly on only six of the blessings proffered. There's much more there. Why not devote a few moments--or a few hours now, at the beginning of the year, to considering what blessings lie in store for you in the Beatitudes. Find the key to a happy new you in the words of Jesus!

MUSIC “Medley: Finally Home/When We See Christ”, Ponder Harp & Jennings, from The Best of Ponder, Harp and Jennings CD.