Joy
What is Joy?
It is an emotional feeling of great pleasure and happiness.
What is Contentment?
A state of happiness, thankfulness, and satisfaction
What is happiness
The state of being happy.
What is one way to apply the points we talked about to life? (I will take any answer but there is one that I think fits the most for this question)
Attending more church services more often
Let's say one day I kept my fast all day and I am proud of my self and God is proud of me. Is this Earthly Joy or Heavenly Joy and why?
Heavenly Joy because fasting is a way of self-control that God wants us to develop.
True or False: Joy is different from happiness and contentment
True
Where does most of our Earthly Contentment come from?
Most of our earthly contentment comes from emotions.
What is one way to find Heavenly Happiness?
Reading the Bible or Praying to God
Can reading the bible and praying help me with Heavenly Happiness?
Yes it can; it will help you feel happy (in the right way) because praying will help you get answer from God and this is from reading the bible and praying; that can help you in every day life.
True or False: An example of Earthly Contentment would be; I just got the iPhone 16 Pro and I am so happy and thankful for it. But comes September 2025 the iPhone 17 Pro comes out and I want it so bad.
Explain how this might be true or false.
True: This exactly what earthly contentment is; it is always based off our emotions and being thankful for a short period of time and then being completely fixated on wanting the next thing.
If I didn't go church on Sunday, and slept in, is this earthly joy; the joyfulness of doing things I want? Or, is this heavenly joy; focused on my spiritual and eternal life and joyful about it? Answer earthly or heavenly and explain why.
Earthly: Sleeping in just to not go to church is showing that you prioritize sleeping over god. If you are sick that is different, but waking up in the morning and going to liturgy is showing that you have heavenly joy in your life meaning that you care about your spiritual life for god and prioritizing it over anything else.
Name the Bible verse that I mentioned in the slide show (you don't have to write the verse, I just want the Book, Chapter, and Verse Number; Ex: Psalm 150:4)
Matthew 7:7
True or False: This is an example of Heavenly Happiness; You have a bunch of games and toys and your family is rich and you glorify everything you have and you expect to take all of it to heaven with you.
Explain why this is true or false.
False: Glorifying everything you have on earth is not heavenly happiness and you are not taking anything you have on this earth to heaven.
True or False: We cannot have Heavenly Joy if we don't see God and have him in our lives
True
Let's say James is a kid who very rarely coming to church. His parents always want him to come and he refuses to ever go because he doesn't want to wake up early. And the only times he goes to liturgy he sits down the whole liturgy on his phone. Is this demonstrating Earthly Happiness, Earthly Joy, or Earthly Contentment. (There is 2 answers to this)
Earthly Happiness because he is happy with his phone and refuses to pay attention to liturgy and Earthly Joy because he almost never has to wake up early on the weekends to go to church.
If we are fasting, and at school they cater Chick-Fil-A for everyone, even your favorite thing. You have self-control not to eat it and you decide to keep your fast and not eat it. Is this heavenly joy or earthly joy? Explain.
Heavenly Joy: If you keep your fast and have self-control you are showing God that you are prioritizing him over food. Yeah, I can have the earthly joy to take just one bite and confess to Abouna. But someone once told me "If you can't say no to not fasting stuff, then how can you say no to sin in general."
If I go to liturgy every week but I sit in the stairs and side altar with my friends and talk all of liturgy is this heavenly or earthly contentment?
Earthly: You are showing God that talking with your friends is more important than standing up in the liturgy on the chorus and praying with the deacons. You are prioritizing your friends over God showing him that you don't care about praying you only care about talking with your friend and you are happy about it.
I just came up with the saying "The bible is like a directions book or like an instruction manual." Explain how this saying can make sense.
The saying can make sense because the Bible is the key way to finding Spiritual help and directions or even advise you might need for every day problems.
How can applying all the points we talked about help you?
Give me any opinion-based answers!
Let's say Jeremiah is a student at school and he every single day brings his Bible and Agbeya to school. At lunch he sits by himself eats his food and reads the Bible and Agbeya every day. Is he demonstrating Heavenly Contentment, Joy, and Happiness? Or is he demonstrating Earthly Contentment, Joy, and Happiness?
Heavenly Contentment, Joy, and Happiness
Why is heavenly joy so important to have in our lives?
(I'm looking for one specific answer)
Hint: This is from the quote from St. Cyprian
Because we cannot have joy unless we see God.
Define Heavenly Contentment
Heavenly Contentment- When we are happy, satisfied, and focused on our eternal life. We also are happy when we go to church and take communion.
How can Earthly Happiness take you away from God?
(This was not in the slide show I just want you to use context clues and give an answer.)
You might get to caught up with your possessions and glorify them over God. Earthly possessions can easily steal your heart from God. Example: Phones, they constantly take your attention away from what is important. Even in liturgy, sometimes in liturgy we pull out our phones and get distracted from the main goal God.
What is the most important thing we learned about? Can be more then 1!
(I'm looking for Heavenly________)
All 3; Heavenly Happiness, Heavenly Joy, and Heavenly Contentment because these are basically the most direct ways of talking to God and being able to hear what he has to say!
Let's say on Friday night after Bible Study and Hymns, you get in a fight with your friend and don't talk to each other even until Sunday. But during liturgy you realize that you can't take communion until you reconcile with your friend. What should you do to make this situation heavenly joy, contentment, or happiness.
Ask your friend to come sit with you for 5 minutes during the sermon to talk and reconcile so you both are allowed to take communion. But, don't take this time after you reconcile to mess around and do goofy things. Go back to church and listen to the rest of the sermon.