Learning to Agalliao

The whole point of this book is to help you understand that a relationship with a being Who is like no other being will be a relationship like no other relationship. He will not drive you home from a party after you have had too much to drink. He will never be the best man at your wedding (or your bridesmaid either). He is God, and you're not. You can either choose to deal with that or not. When He came to earth in human form (Jesus) He showed us both how much we can be and how we should be. He chose a particular time in our history to do that for a reason. Personally, I think it was because there were no cell phones or automobiles then. Can you imagine Jesus at the sermon on the mount and He is interrupted by His cell phone ringing? "Sorry, I really have to take this." It would certainly put a damper on the message. And He was in no hurry to be anywhere, yet He always arrived on time.

As we progress in our relationship with God, we will come to understand that there is no other relationship like the one we are able to have with Him. Personally I am a person filled with exceeding joy. My cup runneth over. And that is only due to the fact that I have learned to see God in everything. Everything! It makes me jump for joy like a little child when I think such a wondrous being has made Himself available to everyone who desires to have a relationship with Him. If that does not affect you in some way, check your pulse. But if it does, even if it makes you angry, then there is still hope, for you can come anytime and join in the joyous celebration that is happening and is yet to happen. I say that because if you're angry enough at God to deny Him, you may be angry enough to attempt to prove Him non-existent and irrelevant. That is exactly how I came to discover Him in 1982. Go ahead, try to disprove Him. It cannot be done because He is visible in all things. You merely have to be looking. Jesus said to "seek" and you will find. That does not mean scanning the television to see what you may find. 

A state of exceeding joy has nothing to do with the moment. In this life there are many trials and difficulties and times of great sadness. I have experienced many of those times myself and because I work so often in the disaster arena, I have watched many others suffer great and tremendous loss. To be jumping around in a state of happiness during those times is not joy, it is failure to deal with reality. (It might even be termed insanity) Joy, and especially the agalliao kind of joy, exceeding joy, is a place, not of unending happiness it is a place of unending hope. Even in front of the firing squad or looking down at your executioners while on a cross. Paul and Silas had that kind of joy while in chains in a prison and it caused them to be freed and share with their jailer that joy, which then caused that jailer to capture that kind of joy as well. He and his entire family soon shared that same joy. Every single Christian, should own that kind of joy, but sadly, many do not. Every single person on the face of the earth has the ability to own that kind of joy. This book is for them.