Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

I believe now more than ever that Christians need to pray for more astute discernment.  What spirit is this?  Is this a trusted source?  Is this person truly of God? These questions are ones we need to ask ourselves, and God, as the enemy endeavors to deceive even the elect. Are we beyond deception?  I think if we think we are beyond it, that is precisely when we can fall into it! Now I've been studying God's word for over three decades.  I'm no scholar, but I know God's character.  I know His ways.  I believe Him with all my heart.  I know that He is true and that He is the one, true, living God. Does this make me impervious to deception?  I must stay in His Word, seek Him daily, in order to not fall into any sort of deception. Deception is deceitful!  Yes, I am aware I am being redundant!  But because it can be subtle, and sound even good, we really must be ever vigilant. We may even need to give ourselves a good ol' dose of some of the older, tried and true, stai

This is one of my all-time favorite, wonderful promises from God's Word. I even wrote a song on it. Proverbs 3:5-6. But do I always live it out?  It's easy to sing a song.  It's much harder to live out the words in the nitty gritty details of life. Oh we can usually muster up some amount of trust.  But do we trust with all  our hearts? How exactly do we do this?  How do we know when we're doing this? I believe there is a freedom in it.  When we truly trust in our Omnipotent Lord with all of our hearts, we can let go and relax already.  We are not responsible for the rotation of the earth, He is!  The same God who holds it all together from the farthest galaxies to right here in front of me, is the same God Who is worthy of all of our hearts!   I wonder what would happen if we truly did this in practice - as an everyday practice, I mean - what miracles we would see! How do we trust wholeheartedly throughout the day?  I guess when are feathers get ruffled, something happe

This is a wonderful promise from God to us.  Most Christians are familiar with this verse.  But how many of us actually do it? I confess that I am not always a great caster.  I cling, complain, doubt, and worry - but cast?  Not so much. To cast our cares on Jesus means to leave them there.  So I can give my worries and cares to Jesus, but in the next 10 minutes, be worrying again!  Sound familiar? So how do we not "go back" to our worries, doubts, and fears, both little and large? Trust. Do I really trust God to handle and alleviate my cares and worries?  I have felt His beautiful peace when I truly leave all my cares with Him.  So why do I go back to anxiety?   Lack of trust. Now I must tell you, realizing that I may not trust the Lord as much as I think I do hurts.  A lot.  I have built my adult life on placing my trust in the Lord.  So when I am still capable of distrusting, I get upset with myself.  I know better. I should be beyond that. I believe this comes from not lik

  My Scripture song based on 2 Corinthians 9:8.

Is this even possible?  Our world has literally been turned upside down.  And none of us have ever lived through such a worldwide event.  It is sort of like what those who lived through WWII must have felt like - lives being lost, uncertainty as to the end of it, feeling out of control. Yet if we look at the art that was produced during the 40's, it is some of the richest we have ever produced!  I half jokingly always say that no good movies have been made since 1949, because so many of the outstanding ones were produced back in the day. People went on with their lives and were able to bounce back after all. But, you may say, they didn't have to wear masks wherever they went and were able to gather in the same space without fear!  True. But there also seemed to be a core to people back then - a spiritual, deeply rooted core that seems lacking today.  The world has never been so divided and it hurts. So on top of the concerns for our physical well-being and our mental health, we

Our power and strength have limits.  Our strength is no match for an Omnipotent God.  So why do we continue on as if we have it all together?   God brings us to situations where we realize our utter dependence on Him.  Not to humiliate us, but to strengthen us! Once we realize just how weak we are - powerless to change certain parameters of our lives - that is when, if we have any sense at all, we turn to Christ for help. They say there are no atheists in a nose-diving plane! But we don't even have to wait for such a dire circumstance to come to our senses.  We can choose Christ here and now. The apostle Paul was a brilliant man.  Yet once he met Christ, he was forever "ruined," if you will, to ever believe in himself to any extent again. That's what happens when we encounter the living God for ourselves.  We are undone. Who can stand against Omnipotence?  No one! So what does this type of all out surrender look like?  Well, in Paul's life, he became an unstoppabl

We're so capable.  We like doing things ourselves.   But this is no longer a good thing when we elbow out God from the equation. We can only do so much.  God can do anything!  Even the impossible! In Matthew chapter 14, Jesus feeds thousands upon thousands of people from only five loaves of bread and two fish.  It was a true miracle!   His disciples saw things as they supposedly were - their measly amount of food was not enough to even feed themselves, let alone thousands.  So they wanted Jesus to send the people away - let them go get their own food! Jesus saw otherwise. Jesus always sees more than we do (understatement of all time).  He not only sees possibilities but how to do the impossible where there are seemingly no possibilities.   I have no idea how He did it, but He did it!  He took the five loaves and two fish and multiplied them - so much so that not only did He feed the 5,000 (but it was really more, counting women and children - more like 20,000), but there were lefto

Rules and regulations leave me cold.  They are there for our good, as boundaries to protect us.  But they are lifeless.  Jesus is alive.  God walked this earth.  Jesus conquered death once and for all by rising from the dead.  He never died and neither will we.  We will live forever in either heaven or hell.  This is God's design. We can know God here and now!  We don't have to wait until heaven! He has given us His Word, the Scriptures, wherein He reveals Himself to us.  He has blessed us with His Holy Spirit so that we may understand the Scriptures.   God wants us!   God wants an intimate, personal relationship with each and every one of us. We were born to be in relationship with Him.  This is our highest and truest purpose. We were born for relationships with people, yes.  But our ultimate relationship is with the Lord Jesus Christ. Why would anyone deify rules and regulations - get their identity or satisfaction in them - when we can have a living, vital relationship with

  To encourage you in your faith! Here is a snippet from my song, “Live a Life Worthy.”

Designing a life.  Building a better life.  In the New Year, we are always trying to reinvent ourselves, or so we are told we should. So I recently picked up a book called,  Design Your Life  (affiliate).  I'm a few chapters in and keep saying to myself, I could have written this!  This is so much like my story!  It is not so much about "forging a path" as it is about waiting on God, listeneing to and obeying God, and letting Him lead the way. People hate change.  People like change. People avoid change.  There are varied responses regarding how we view change in our lives.  Some welcome it, others not so much.  Some changes are beyond our control - i.e. a pandemic. Yet all of these New Year's resolutions we're encouraged to make - each one is about change!  As if the lives we are already living are somehow not enough. Now there is always room for improvement, right? But the pressure of needing to change every New Year is a bit much.  Hence, I no longer make New Y

If you travel in Christian circles at all, you have undoubtedly heard somewhere along the line that God has a plan for your life. You may have even heard that God has a wonderful plan for your life. Only problem is, our definition of wonderful is not the same as God's. How do I know?  Experience. We're American.  So our idea of "wonderful" has been molded by idealistic dreaming - as long as you are living the American  dream, you are doing well. But is that God's idea of wonderful?  What exactly is God getting at with His plans for our lives? Our hearts. Pure and simple. He wants our hearts. The seat of life, emotions, dreams, hopes, affections, desires - these are what our hearts hold. Once our hearts belong to Christ, His plans are able to fully work in and through and for us. He has and wants good things for us because He is a good God. But if we've lived any length of time, somewhere along the way - either frequently or not - our hearts have been broken, b

Will you answer Him? He calls you through a myriad of means.  He wants you to find and know Him, for therein lies true life. So what are you doing to push Him away?  Ignore Him?  And why? Don't fall for the lie that you can "do life" on your own.  We none of us were created that way.  We need God. Not only to save us from hell, though that is surely reason enough!  But so that we can know our true purpose in life, why we were created, where we are going. A branch that is cut off the tree withers and dies.  Once it is no longer attached to its source of life, that's it - there is now other possibility for it but death. Like that branch, if we are cut off from God - when we do not receive Him as Lord and Savior - then we are dead, though we live. We are a spirit.  We have a soul.  We live in a body. We are all born spiritually dead.  We cannot fix this in and of ourselves.  The only animating life force that brings our spirits to life is the Living God via His Holy Spir

Pleasing others will not make them truly love or even like you.  Pleasing others is a trap that you yourself fall into.  It only seems to work, but it never does. The trap is the lack of freedom to be yourself no matter what.  Jesus was never a people pleaser - one of the many wonderful traits I love about Him.   Some couldn't handle Jesus and His truth-telling.  Some people will not be able to handle you, either. They don't get you and they don't want to get you.  But that is no reason that you should try and please them. God can handle you. Thank God for God. He comes alongside us and never leaves our side. He accepts the real us even when others can't or won't.  And though we are to live our lives to please Him and Him only, we will fail Him.  But, unlike some people, Jesus continues to love and accept us. There was nothing fake or false about Jesus.  I believe that is why He was such a threat to some.  They couldn't stand Him showing up their false selves -

When you've been through many trials and tribulations, years of suffering with little let-up, you start to doubt God's goodness toward you. Oh you may still believe that He is good toward others, but you have a hard time experiencing His goodness toward you because of difficult circumstances. That is where I was in my faith for longer than I like to admit.  Oh my faith in the Lord was still strong.  But I struggled with the difficult things He allowed to enter, and continue, in my life. After all, I listened to Him and obeyed Him where most would not.  Why the long, hard season?   I believed in His goodness even when I obeyed and things still turned out awful, or worse than they were.  But I had stopped clinging to His promises for me .  God does not always fix all of our problems, though He does come alongside to comfort us in the midst of our problems. What if those harsh realities never go away this side of heaven?  Can we still believe not only in God's goodness toward

And neither is His salvation. His salvation is a free gift to us.  Totally undeserved.  Totally unmerited. Do you remember that line from the Elton John song Tiny Dancer , "Handing tickets out for God"? That lyric has always bothered me.  There is no ticket to God.  Nothing to "hand out."  I suppose Elton was referring to a gospel tract, not sure. Though tracts are powerful, they are not tickets.   The Gospel message is for everyone.  Since we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God - everyone from Mother Theresa to Hitler - we are all in desperate need of a Savior. Enter Jesus. Many would like to earn their way to heaven by trying to be a "good person."  No dice.  Even the finest human being is not perfect enough for heaven.   Many would like to "buy" their way in (hence, the ticket analogy) with their good works or donations to charities and other worthy causes.  Again, no dice. The only way in is through Jesus.  Finished, finito, en

You may or may not know but I have been fighting a very hard battle on the home front.  If I let it, it would have the power to crush me - like a tidal wave. Not going into details, but suffice it to say that I feel absolutely powerless over this situation.  I have prayed, fasted, asked everyone I know to pray - and still, the waves keep coming. In the past, at times, I let it all get to me.  I caved.  I got discouraged.  I doubted God's love for me.  Yes, me. But you know what?  I'm here to tell you that my faith in God is actually being made stronger in the storm.   I still trust God. I still know that He loves me with an everlasting, deep, abiding love. I still know that in His perfect time, He will  calm the storm around me.  For now, He is training me to find the calm in the storm within  me. These are hard lessons, hard trials. But I know that I know that I know that the Lord knows exactly  what He doing in my life and in all the parameters of my life.  Ha, devil!  You lo

How do we see others?  We rarely see them for who they really are.  Are we even capable of this? It depends.  Do we want  to see others as they really are?  Or do their flaws and faults only serve to remind us of our own, so we'd rather not see them, thank you very much? You may have heard that 80% of what we see in others is true of ourselves.  Ouch.  So depending on how you see someone directly correlates to something in you. It is much easier to make someone into a caricature than acknowledge all of their qualities. A caricature distorts.  It usually highlights whatever feature stands out in the person, usually bad and usually obvious. Why is it important that we try to see the whole person and not just their caricature? Short answer: because that is how we would like to be seen by others. There are those "standout" qualities in each of us, whether good or bad; but that is not the whole story.  Ever. Lucille Ball comes to mind.  If I mention her name, you most likely t

David asked the Lord for one thing: that he may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. Is that your one thing?   What do you desire above all else?  If you had to whittle it down to one thing, what would it be?  Honestly. We live in Distractionville all of us.  And it can ruin us if we let it.   It steals our ability to focus and concentrate for any length of time.  It causes anxiety and stress.   Do we know how to settle down and be still any more? Can we stop worshiping the Busy god and admit that it does not fulfill us as we want? Or maybe your god is keeping up with the latest "trends" and "posts."  This god, too, will fail us. What if, just saying, our one thing were the same as David's?  What if the thing we most valued and treasured were His Presence?  That is what dwelling in the house of the Lord means: intimacy with God.  Valuing His Presence more than anything. When we do this, Distractionville loses its appeal.  It is exposed for wh

Being still and knowing God.  They are tied together.  How do I know?  Because of this Scripture:  "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 So if we quiet ourselves, actually sit still for a bit, we can get to know God. The verse does not say:  Be anxious and know that I am God Be worried and know that I am God Be busy and know that I am God Be reasoning and know that I am God No.   Be still  and know that I am God. Ahhhh.  I relax just writing these word. Is it hard for you to be still?  I get it.  Life happens.   But how much of our doing and busyness can we say no to?  Do we bring it on ourselves? Habits are formed over time.  We actually condition ourselves unknowingly when we repeatedly act a certain way a lot.  This includes busyness. There are those who cannot stand any silence in their lives.  Something is always blaring noise their way - the car radio, music, phone notifications, TV, streaming, talking, etc., etc. Why does silence frighten us?  What demons may