CHRIST the JOY-BRINGER: “Enter into the joy of your lord” (Mt 25:21). Look at how the Savior brought not just joy, but GREAT joy, into the world. The wise men, searching arduously for the Child-king, “saw the star” and “rejoiced with exceedingly GREAT joy” (Mt 2:10). The shepherds heard the amazing news when the angel said, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of GREAT joy” (Lk 2:10). Thirty-three years later, it was not a manger but an empty tomb that gave them “GREAT joy,” so they “ran to bring His disciples word” (Mt 28:8). But better than the empty tomb was a sight of the exalted Christ, for as “He was parted from them and carried up into heaven…they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with GREAT joy” (Lk 24:51-52). No wonder “there was GREAT joy” (Acts 8:8) when the gospel was received, and that the apostles “caused GREAT joy” (15:3) when they told of so many turning to the Lord. So the question is: Are we marked by His GREAT joy?