Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

I have learned over these many years how our Heavenly Father sometimes treats His children.  It may surprise you. Our Heavenly Father is the only perfect Father there is. He knows each of us more intimately than any earthly parent ever could.  He is equal parts mercy and discipline, and both are done in the purest love imaginable.   Everything He does, He does in love. Everything. Now that we have established that, let's talk! I recently looked back at some of my blog entries and I noticed a pattern.  I write a lot about suffering.  Lots of referrals to Job.  Lots of lessons being learned, spiritual growth, and such.   But lately, I've started to wonder if all  of my life is supposed to tip heavier on the suffering side of the scale.  And if there is no seeming let-up, what’s a girl to do? We’ve heard all of the grape analogies. The crushing, the pruning, the tilling, the waiting for ripening, etc., etc. But when you are the grape (!), you may start to think, ok, when do we get

Spring has sprung and it is gorgeous. We've been in our current neighborhood for seven years.  There are two trees down the street that bloomed with gorgeous white flowering blooms the year we moved in. Since then, when I go for a walk around the neighborhood, I have looked for the same trees to bloom every spring. They haven't.  Until this year. And they are as beautiful as the first time I saw them bloom seven years ago. But I waited seven years to see them bloom again!  The other similar trees bloom faithfully every spring.  But for some reason, these two side-by-side trees only bloom every seven years. It got me thinking.  There are dormant stages in our spiritual life, too.  We don't always see the "bloom" in our own lives.  We give our all, obey the Lord best we can, wait on Him, step out in faith, and still no "flowers." What is happening during those dormant years?  I have no idea, really.  But I do know that God makes every tree for a purpose an

God is Omnipotent.  There is no higher or greater power than Jehovah God. When we are born again, He comes to live in our hearts via the Holy Spirit. We now possess all that He is!  We are not God - nowhere near.  That is for the New Ager's way of thinking. No.  Where once our spirits were dead, darkened, and lost, they are now made alive!  We now worship, love, and obey God only because His Spirit lives inside us.  Up until then, we may choose to be "good" people, and do the right things in life.  But there is a vast difference between a person living a "good" life in the flesh, and the born again Christian who allows the life of Christ in her to rule and live His life through her. There is a power to God's goodness.  His Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  All of these attributes live within us as born again believers in Christ. Our job now is to allow  the Holy Spirit full reign in ou