Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

I recently finished teaching a 6-week study on Habakkuk from Dannah Gresh's book. Here are a few takeaways that I gleaned. Habakkuk was a prophet of God. He seems to start out self-focused but eventually comes around to aim his focus on God instead. This, I believe, is the daily choice we all face throughout our faith walk with Christ. Will we choose to let the cares of this world affect us, have more import in our souls than Christ? Or will we choose to trust in Him no matter what? Habakkuk had a relationship with God. That's where it all starts for each of us. How we respond in and to that relationship is entirely up to us. Pause and think on that! The God of the universe, the One holding everything together, deigns to have a relationship with us! And most are wandering through this life without knowing Him at all. I say wandering, because if they are without Christ, they are lost. No exceptions. Habakkuk learns to cling to God. This means that he took his eyes off

I know this sounds nuts.  How can suffering bring us joy?  I mean, we suffer when we suffer, right? Not as Christians. God even redeems our suffering, so great is His reach. The Bible tells us over and over, in various Scriptures, to rejoice in our suffering and trials.  Why?  Because it brings about character and hope in us, lasting spiritual fruit and maturity. And character and hope bring us the good stuff - the joy that does not disappoint. Some of the most precious times I have felt the Lord's Presence the most were in times of suffering.  Remember, He is near to the brokenhearted, to bind up their wounds. He is near to us in our weaknesses. He comforts us in our sorrows. It's not like we need to seek out pain and suffering!  The Lord knows the perfect dosage of suffering to mete out to each of us to bring us into His joy more deeply, awareness of His Presence, so that we grow into His likeness.  Too little, and we get "flabby" and lazy in our growth.  Too much,

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

A purpose is more than a goal or a 5-year plan.  There is a greater, overarching, life purpose that God has for each and every one of us that needs to take precedence if we are to find any meaning in life at all. To know God. But how? you may ask.  Bible study is definitely one way.  After all, it is God's book and revelation of Himself to us.  We see how He chose the Jews to be His own people in the Old Testament.  What did He choose them for?  To be His own.  That they might know Him. Then, we see God send His only begotten Son, Jesus, in the New Testament.  We see God's endless grace and mercy poured out toward us through Jesus.  Now, we too, along with the Jews, are called to know God.  As we come to know Christ, He grafts us into the true Vine - Himself.  We are now part of His family. He sets a course for our lives once we belong to Him.  It may look nothing like we'd imagined for ourselves in our own, limited minds.  But it is the best possible path because He sets i

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

What do we hope for?  Hope in? We all need lots of hope these days more than ever.  Sure, we are hoping for the end to this awful virus.  Hoping for a vaccine.  Hoping for life to get back to normal. But there is a greater hope we can possess.  It never disappoints.  It will be fulfilled for certain one day.  And if we build our lives on it, we will have a solid foundation forever. I am talking about hoping in Christ. In my Bible reading this morning, I read in the book of Ephesians.  If you ever need to be encouraged about who you are in Christ, please read and reread Ephesians.  The richest of letters about our identity as believers in Christ. Anyway, in Ephesians 2:12, Paul reminds us of what life was like before we came to know Christ, and tells of what life is currently like for the unbeliever, the unsaved: "Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God

I watched the 1953 version of "Titanic" the other day.  As I watched it I was struck by a few things. They were ill-prepared because they wrongfully thought that the ship was unsinkable.  Over 1,000 lives were lost that night before ships were lawfully required to have enough lifeboats for all on board.  This has always baffled me.  The engineers must have known deep down that every boat is sinkable, no matter how large or well-crafted.  But their pride got in the way. The designer was on board.  How he must have rued the day he did not include enough lifeboats in his design. I thought about how millions of people around the world feel "unsinkable" in their pride.  They do not see their need for a "lifeboat," for God's salvation.   I thought about how death is the great equalizer.  The very wealthy and the poor alike both met their doom that evening.  The rich man's wealth couldn't save him.  The poor had nothing to lose. When the orchestra pla

God's plans for us are good.  He promises us this. Christians love to quote this verse from Jeremiah.  We all want to know that our future is a good one. But what does God deem "good?"   I have had so many trials and tribulations in my life.  If I were to freeze-frame each one, they would hardly look like they were part of a "good" plan. We have been mislead to think that the American Dream is God's good plan for our lives.  If that were all there was to it, then how would the world discern between those who belong to Christ from those who are in the world?  If God is there only to "make all our dreams come true," then we're under a false belief.  That is not what God means when He talks about His good plan for our lives. Sometimes, the truly "good life" looks worse than what others have.  For example, did Paul believe in God's "good plan" for him when he was beaten, shipwrecked, going hungry, left for dead, beaten, thro