This week, Randy Alcorn joins us on the phone.

He's the author of the new book, Happiness, and we are talking about happiness all week

on the S. Pastor John podcast, and Randy, what is the relationship between spiritual joy

and the joy of God honoring parties and feasts?

How should we think about spiritual joys and the enjoyment of great food and friends?

Well, it's amazing when you look at scripture and you see all of these passages in the Old

Testament about the parties, the feasts, and that's what feasts were. They were parties. They

would involve often, you know, sacrifices, but most of the time was spent eating and drinking

and basically having fun and taking time off. You see in Leviticus 23, God says,

you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees,

boughs of leafy trees, willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God

for seven days. I mean, this is a seven-day party of rejoicing in God and the Old Testament is

full of God-ordained celebrations, the Israelites. In fact, there were seven different holidays built

into Israel's calendar and they added up to about 30 days per year, but when you add the weekly

Sabbaths and then you add the days of feasting and rest and later feasts of Purim and Hanukkah

and weddings and birth celebrations and all of this kind of stuff, the amount of time taken off

exceeded three months annually. And you look at Deuteronomy 14, this is a passage that I just

was so struck with. In verses 24 to 26 in the ASV, it says, if the way is too long for you,

so that you are not able to carry the tide, when the Lord your God blesses you, then you shall turn

it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses

and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink,

whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice.

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