Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

The peace that passes understanding guards your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Peace.  Peace of mind.  Inner peace.  These are ours in Christ.  Not in and of ourselves, mind you.  I cannot manufacture that sort of peace.   There is a true, deep, and lasting peace that we can claim when Christ lives in us via the Holy Spirit.  It does not make sense in the natural.  At all. While anything but peace rages around us, around the world, in our homes, perhaps, and in our hearts, Christ stands there offering us His peace. How is this possible?!  Because He is the Prince of Peace.  He is peace itself. This means, for me (and for you, if you are in Christ), that when circumstances and people around me offer me nothing but turmoil, I can still possess the peace of Christ within me.   When I love a family remember - go out of my way to show love and kindness - and the love is not returned, and it hurts, I can still live in peace.   This is not escapism or denial.  This is the real deal. A

The church is not an organization. At least it is not supposed to be.  Yet when it starts using the ways of the world to "operate," it loses its power, its true intention and purpose.   The church is simply the people of God.  And the people of God, born again through Christ Jesus, are not a physical building but the Body of Christ.  Living.  Moving.  Having our being in Him. The physical church is simply a gathering place to meet and worship Christ.  It is a building.  Yes, it should be holy, different from other buildings.  But if the building went missing, the church would still be alive and well because we are  the church. We are God's temple, the place where His glory dwells. Yes, the church is important - people need a place to go where they can learn about and, hopefully, meet the one, true, living God. But when the church becomes more of an organization, a company, if you will, then God is not pleased with that. Do we serve Christ only within the walls of our chur

  All grace.  What a lovely thought!  2 Corinthians 9:8, the verse on which I wrote this song, says that God is able to make all grace abound to us.  Abounding in grace.  Who wouldn't want that?! God is able.  But are we willing to receive His grace?  If we have tasted His grace at all, then we know that we want more of it.  Why?  Because it is wonderful.  It feels good.  We need it. His grace is rich, deep, and reaches where we need it most - in our hearts. Dear Lord, oh how we need more of Your grace, more of You.  We release whatever is blocking Your grace from reaching us, Lord.  May we abound in Your grace more and more, as Your Word promises we can do.  Help us extend that grace to others, O God. Thank You, Lord, for the wonder of You grace and mercy.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

Here's how it happens, pretty much step by step: We get hurt. Instead of turning to Christ, we let the hurt turn into anger. We become apathetic towards God because we are caught up in our own pain (by the way, you can choose to turn to Him instead). Christ can no longer live fully in our hearts because our hearts are full of sin (pride, anger, rebellion, bad attitudes, etc.). Our love for Christ and others grows cold. We build walls around our heart so we won't be hurt again. This is a sad list, indeed.  But there is a way out! There is a way back to God, to sanity, to health,, to the good  life.   Repent.   It's that simple. Admit to God that you messed up, that you're hurting, and that you want to feel His love again and be at peace. When He knows your heart wants to do the right thing, He will meet you right there where you're at. What a wonderful, awesome privilege we have in Christ!  He takes us back!  Every.  Time. Dear Lord, I pray that You keep me close to

  This is my "best seller" poem in my etsy shop.  I believe it sells the most because we all have a need to forgive, but we don't always act on it right away.  We all want to let go of hurt and pain, so why don't we? Letting go of excess baggage feels good.  Feeling lighter feels good.  All of us who have ever lost weight know this to be true!   Just like in the physical realm of losing weight, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally lightening up feels good, too.  Things are as they should be. You holding onto a hurt, grudge, and the like, is hurting you and those around you.  I include those around you because they sense your discomfort.  It shows in a sarcastic barb that comes out of your mouth, in being short-tempered, in an overall vibe of dis-ease. We are at ease in ourselves when we forgive.  We are light. So why don't we do it consistently?  Some of us do, perhaps.  We are the rare ones.  I wish it weren't so rare. Holding a grudge shrinks us.  It is pe

Why do we need faith?  Because life is meaningless without it.  That's the broad, overarching reason for it. We also need a daily, everyday, kind of faith - for days add up to weeks, months, years, and a lifetime. Faith is a substance.  This is a hard truth to conceptualize.  It is also evidence.  Now evidence is usually tangible, provable, rock solid in its nature. So faith is proven evidence, it has a substance to it.  It is not some pie in the sky, wishful thinking, or dreamlike state.  It is as real as reality gets! Faith has an end, so to speak.  We believe for something to happen - we pray about it, wait on God for it, trust Him to do what only He can do - and when He does, there you have it: the evidence of things unseen.  "It really happened!"  Yes.  No coincidence.  No reasoning it out or using science to back it up.  It just is.  Our faith made sight. I have seen God answer so many prayers - I have 34 years' worth of prayer journals as my evidence of His fai

Did you ever ask yourself what is behind all of the fear happening inside and around you? Covid.  Just say the word and fear raises up inside us.  But why is that?  No one wants to get sick, feel bad, or have fatigue - a really bad flu and worse.  No one wants to suffer or be in pain.  So there is the fear of getting sick and feeling awful. But the deeper fear underneath all of that is the "elephant in the room."  Death.  That is the mother of all fears that drives all the lesser fears. And why do people fear death?  It doesn't hurt.  When you're gone, you're gone! It's what happens next.  When you have not received or believed in Christ, you are spot on in your fear of death.  You should fear it!  Because it is not the end.  Oh it's the end of your physical life, to be sure.  But not your eternal one. That one is spent either in heaven or hell. There.  I had the guts to say it! Yes, both are eternal realities.  If you don't believe me, then you are no

We all like to feel that we are in control over our lives.  What an illusion!  If we have learned anything at all from this pandemic is that we have very little control over the outer circumstances of our lives. Now self-control, that is the control we can control! How to let go of the stress and worries that beset us? Rest.  Trust.  Faith.  Submission. Confidence in Christ. When we rest in Christ, we have peace.  We are free to let go of our fears, worries, doubts, and lack of control because we trust Him  more than anything or anyone else - including ourselves! Why should we trust Christ?  Because He is in charge!  And not only that, He is thoroughly good.  That is a hard concept to grasp when all we see as human examples are flawed ones.  Even the best human example is still human! To realize His power and authority and that He is also pure goodness is a very comforting truth, and that Reality supersedes all other "realities." He is absolutely trustworthy (sigh, relax, sho

My passion is spiritual growth.  I want to grow not only in the knowledge of the Lord, but in His grace and character.  This is a holy work done by His Holy Spirit in me and through me. Please note the word work  here - for it is work!  It is hard.  Why?  Because it goes against the grain of our culture, for the most part.  We stand out, or at least should, when we truly follow Jesus and His ways. We cling to our hope in Christ.  The world clings to the stock market or whatever else gives them a sense of "security."   We look for a better world to come.  The world fights like crazy to preserve this world, their earthly lives.  Note:  of course we are to be caretakers and take the best care possible of the Lord's world here and now.  But Christians know that this is not the final world. We discern good from evil and are not afraid to say so.  The world has come to call evil good and good evil (never thought I'd live to see the day!). We belong to Christ and therefore l