Finding Joy

By Jim Bender

Life is a journey and sometimes that journey can be rough. The devastation's of life can throw you into a deep valley that you can't get out of. "Finding Joy" will help you find your way out of the valley and help you find joy along the way. "Finding Joy" also shares the personal story of a premature baby who's fight to survive will inspire you and lift your spirits high as you read each page. I also share a few of my deepest valleys throughout my life and how I found joy even in the midst of my deepest valleys. The valleys of life are never fun and nobody wants to go through them, but we all do and it's nice to be encouraged as we go through them. "Finding Joy" will encourage, uplift and guide you through your deepest valleys of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jim Bender
• Release date: Apr 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301595358

Jim Bender

I am a Pastor in Pennsylvania and I'm dedicated to helping people walk through life in victory. "Finding Joy" is my first book. I have been married for 27 years to my wife Heidi and we have two wonderful children, Sara and Phillip.

Book preview

Finding Joy

Overcoming Your Deep Valleys of Life

Jim Bender

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Jim Bender

License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

Table of Contents

Chapter One - Psalm 84

Chapter Two - Stuck or Lost in the Valley

Chapter Three - What Joy?

Chapter Four - Valleys with Purpose

Chapter Five - Keep Walking

Chapter Six - Refreshing Springs

Chapter Seven - Stronger

Chapter Eight - Rescued

Chapter Nine - Wounded Sheep

Chapter Ten - Man of Sorrows

Chapter Eleven - Victory

Epilogue - Today

Chapter One

Psalm 84

I'll never forget that cold night in January when my comfortable world collapsed.

My wife, Heidi, and I had gone to bed at our usual time and I was sound asleep. Suddenly, Heidi was shaking me awake. The bed was soaked on her side, she said. I glanced at the alarm clock on my nightstand. It was 2 AM.

Great! I moaned to myself. Waterbed must have sprung a leak! Reaching over, I felt the slick wetness on the sheets as Heidi, pregnant with our first child, made her way to the bathroom. I was trying to wake up and process what steps needed to be taken to find the leak and somehow patch it when I heard Heidi scream and call my name in the most sorrowful, frightened voice I had ever heard.

My heart sank, and instantly I was wide awake. Something was dreadfully wrong.

Our bathroom was maybe ten steps away from our bed. We had to walk past a sitting area and our closet to get there. I slipped out of bed and slowly made my way to the bathroom, my eyes straining to see in the darkness. Those ten steps became the most painful steps I had ever taken.

My stomach twisted as I began to notice blood smeared on the walls, on the floor and on the doorknob of the bathroom. Pushing open the door, I saw Heidi sitting there bleeding and heartbroken. We could hardly breathe as tears began to run down our face. How could this happen? Where do we go from here?

Lost, confused and broken we hung on to one another as we experienced a pain so deep, one that we had never felt before. Heidi was twenty weeks pregnant and everything was fine up to this point. But in that instant we knew. Our lives would never be the same. We both had just fallen into a Valley of Weeping that we weren't expecting, and it was a deep one.

Our Journey Begins

Heidi was barely 21, and we had been married just a few years. She was working for a small business in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and I was serving as worship leader at our church.

At the time of this event I was unaware of a beautiful scripture in Psalms that teaches us about the Valley of Weeping and how to walk through it. Fortunately, both Heidi and I were deeply in love with the Lord and knew that we needed him to step in and fill us with his comfort, strength and power for us to make it through the journey we were about to take. God was there with us and he gave us the strength we needed to get through this devastating chapter in our lives.

Now let me share the passage in Psalms 84 that is at the heart of this book and I believe it will help you as you walk through your Valley of Weeping.

Verse 5. What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Zion). 6. When they walk through the Valley of Weeping (Baca) it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings. 7. They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem. This translation is the New Living Translation (NLT) and I will use this translation throughout the book.

God led me to this scripture many times while I was the Visitation and Benevolence Pastor at a local church. Most of the people to whom I ministered, were in their Valley of Weeping. This passage brought life and encouragement to many of those who were going through health issues, financial problems or just suffering through life. Some people had just found out they had cancer or another terminal sickness that robbed them of their hope. How do you walk through that valley? Some people just got laid off work and suddenly had no income or insurance. How do you walk through that valley? Others were devastated by the loss of a loved one. How do you walk through that valley? Ps. 84:5-7 was one of the places God led me to help them begin their healing journey.

I spent many hours studying the heart and intent of this passage; what the writer really wanted to say to his generation and also what God wants us to learn from this passage today. I wanted to find out the meat of this scripture and how it can help people walk through their valleys. God knows we're going to have valleys in this life and he gave such a beautiful revelation to the sons of Korah on how we can walk through those valleys with our heads held high, walking in victory.

Wouldn't you like to walk with your head held high standing in victory? You may not think this is possible, but you can! As you read through this book, you will begin to see that God is with you in the valley and he is helping you every step of the way. He is your way out.

What is the Valley of Baca?

The first portion of the scripture that intrigued me was the reference to the Valley of Baca. Was it a real place? Was it just a saying? What does Baca mean?

I found a couple of answers that are slightly different from one another. Some people believe the Valley of Baca was a literal place through which those making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem had to walk. It was a very dry barren desert land that was very difficult to walk through and in the end could prove to be fatal.

I also found that the Valley of Baca was a literal place in the country of Lebanon. It was recognizable to the people of that day as a horrible place to traverse so the writer used that phrase to show how difficult the pilgrimage would be for anyone who chose to make the trek to Jerusalem (or Zion). Still there are other scholars who believe it is just symbolic of the rough journey we all have to take in order to reach Jerusalem (Zion).

Despite these slightly different interpretations, the heart and truth of this passage remains the same. We must set our minds on the journey ahead of us because it will be rough and potentially deadly. If we place our trust in God we will find joy and blessings even in our deepest valleys which will turn our valley of weeping into a refreshing spring that will give us strength to reach our final destination and enter into the presence of God.

I enjoyed researching this passage and finding out what so many scholars thought about it. The actual word Baca also has a few different meanings. The most common, though, is tears or weeping. Baca also refers to a balsam bush or poplar tree, both of which generate some type of moisture shaped like a tear on their foliage. In either case, the writer is referencing tears or weeping.

We can conclude that the Valley of Baca or Weeping is a place we all have to go through and it's a place of many tears. It is a place none of us wants to go through but all of us will. Keeping that in mind, the Valley of Weeping is part of our journey through life. We need to put our strength in God to find our joy and receive those blessings God has for us in the midst of our valley seasons so we can enter into the presence of God and fulfill our destiny.

This is just a quick synopsis of this short passage and I want to encourage you to do your own word study on Baca. Seek God for yourself and listen to what he has to say to you. Together with God's help and his revelation, you can learn how to walk through your Valleys of Weeping and find those refreshing springs and recognize the autumn rains that clothe you with blessings. Once you do, those valleys will make you stronger and you will enjoy entering into the presence of God.

Another amazing aspect of Psalm 84 is who wrote the chapter. If you are familiar with the story of Korah and what transpired between him and Moses, you know it's not a happy ending story. Understanding what the sons of Korah lived through due to the reputation of their father will help you connect with them and the valleys they had to walk through. They came out of one of the darkest days in Israel's history and continued to honor God despite their father's rebellion.

That night with Heidi and me at 2:00am was one of the darkest nights we had ever experienced. In just one moment all the joys of our pregnancy vanished and were replaced with pain and sorrow. We still trusted in God to step in and rescue us and we were still clinging to a shred of hope, but reality was looming large and the outcome wasn't pretty. We were in a dark, dark valley with no end in sight. Even though our circumstance was totally different than the sons of Korah, we felt the same sense of dread they felt. Our valley, like theirs, was deep and dark, and probably just like yours.

Korah's Rebellion

As you may recall, Korah, a Levite leader among the children of Israel, began to doubt God's ordained calling on Moses' leadership over Israel. One day he approached Moses and questioned his authority. In Num. 16:3 Korah said, ...What right do you have to act as though you are greater than the rest of the Lord's people? Korah joined with two other men, Dathan and Abiram, and began to incite a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. They also convinced 250 other leaders of the community to join them. Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and the other 250 men were all Levites who were chosen by God to serve him in the tabernacle.

What it boiled down to was Korah was jealous that only the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies and be in the presence of God. Korah felt that God was with all of Israel, especially the Levite clan, and anyone of them had just as much right to be in God's presence as Moses and Aaron.

When Moses heard what they were saying, he fell face down to the ground (Num. 16:4,5). Then he said to Korah and his followers, Tomorrow morning the Lord will show us who belongs to him, and who is holy. The Lord will allow only those whom he selects to enter his own presence.

This entire act of rebellion was about being in God's presence. Moses and Aaron had access to God's presence, Korah did not. Moses and Aaron had it because God selected them and they had the right heart. Korah was not selected because he did not have the right heart. Korah wanted access to God because he thought it would bring him more recognition, power and respect. People would look at him as an equal to Moses and he would be just as important. Hopefully, you can see that for Moses entering into the presence of God was all about God. For Korah, entering the presence of God was all about Korah and making himself look important.

Moses then proceeded to tell Korah that there was going to be a showdown at the Tabernacle corral. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday didn't have the first showdown. Well, not quite the same thing, but you'll remember this story now as the incense showdown. Moses tells Korah and his followers to prepare their incense burners because tomorrow they are going to light them and burn incense before the Lord. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to mix