Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

Perhaps you think I am going to say that the #1 thing that changes people is God.  And that is true.  Only God can change a human heart. However, there is something that we can do to help others along the way, and it is this: Accept them as they are. It is that simple. People can sense when we are judging them.  No matter what we say on the outside, our thoughts and demeanor carry an intangible weight. Are we placing ourselves in God's position by acting as judge and jury?  "I would never do that," you may claim.   Yet we do it all the time when we make judgments about others.  Is it possible to see only the good, and is that what God requires of us? Well, let's go to the Source and see what He has to say about the matter.  As always, He is very straightforward about it, if only we would listen and obey! “ Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. 3 Why do

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

Poor Job.  That is typically the first thought we have when we think of Old Testament Job. Even those most ignorant of the Bible have most likely heard of Job somewhere along the way.  They say things like, "She has the patience of Job." When we say patience, we think that we are waiting a long time for something. Patience actually means long-suffering.  And Job, above all, is the poster child for suffering. But if you know the whole story, you know that patience and suffering are not Job's entire story. And neither is suffering the whole picture for you, for me. No matter what we have been through or are going through, suffering does not have the final word.   Like Job, God can restore anything and anyone to us at His command.  God can change our story for the better.  How?  Because He is God. There was nothing Job could do to stop the calamities and tragedies that came upon him. He was helpless in that regard. Yet he continued to praise God.  That  is what the takeaway

Do you know what it feels like to be misunderstood?  Do you have people in your life who truly "get" you? If no two people are really like, including identical twins, then how can there be "kindred" spirits?  Can we be like anyone else if we're not like anyone else?! When we feel misunderstood, like others just don't "get" us, it can be frustrating.  We all want to be accepted as we are.  But what if "as we are" is not at all how others perceive us? Remember, people look at us through their, mostly distorted, lens.  We don't truly see others, either, most of the time. But the comfort lies in this:  there is one - the only one, really - who knows us through and through.  He "gets" us because He made us!  No one else on earth can claim this place in our lives.  Though our mothers birthed us and probably know us better than anyone, there is still one who sits far and above even our mothers when it comes to being understood:  th