Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

Did you ever wonder why certain thoughts pop into your mind?  Are you aware of the enemy's tactics in this realm? You may have heard that the battlefield is in the mind.  Our thoughts steer our actions, our lives. So as a Christian, it is crucial to know when a thought is a spiritual attack.  The enemy wants us to believe thoughts that mess with our identity.  But remember, he is crafty!  So it's not always so easy to discern.  He may even disguise himself as an angel of light (one of his guises) so that your thought may even seem "good." He takes God-given desires and needs and twists them so that we want to get them met outside of God's will.  That road leads to disaster and our destruction and the devil knows it! Now I much prefer focusing on the beauty of the Lord, and wish I could just ignore that the devil even exists.  But exist he does!  And once we are in Christ, he is truly our total enemy.   He wants to get us so caught up in the attack that we are alwa

Can you feel blessed and favored by God and also cursed by man?   Things are getting weird out there, folks.  Really weird. The more we shine our light for Jesus, share the Truth - not your truth or my truth, but the Truth - the more we experience hatred and disdain from others. Get used to it. Or as Bette Davis famously said in All About Eve, " Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy night."  The confusion happens when we mistake being mistreated by others as mistreatment from God.  After all, God is Sovereign.  So He could stop others' persecution of us, right? Yes, of couse He could. Yet stuff happens. There is a huge spiritual battle raging around us 24/7. Those who oppose Christ - many, ignorantly - they don't even know why  they're opposed, but they just are - are rampant.  Haven't run into many?  I'd say you are in the Holy Huddle, then.  This is not how Jesus lived His life. Jesus was "out there" among the people - many of who

When we truly know that our struggle is not  against flesh and blood - people - but against principalities in the spiritual world, then we know how to properly battle. We are not fighting against people. I repeat, we do not fight against people. People are either captives of the devil (knowingly or not) or children of God. Now the trick is to discern who is who and what is really going on. When you feel strife in your spirit because of how someone is treating you, or how they are trying to get at you, that is never, no never, from the Lord. The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 14:17) So where there is no righteousness, peace, or joy, as a child of God, you have no business there! You do NOT have to receive everything thrown at you! When you are committed to pleasing the Lord, obeying Him, walking in the Spirit, and serving Him, you will  come under attack from the devil!  Make no mistake about it.   If you are lukewarm, a "sort of" Ch

Here is my latest song.  Warning: you will not be able to get the hook out of your mind!  Sing on! "Be on your guard; stand firm  in the faith; be courageous; be strong." I Corinthians 16:13

The minute you were born again into Christ, the devil became your enemy.  Before that, you were no threat to him.  But once you have the power of God living inside of you through the Holy Spirit living in you, he wants to destroy you.   I hate to even talk about him!  But as Christians, we must be hyper-alert to his ways in these last days so we can stand our ground, hold fast to our faith, love others, and be bolder than ever in our witness for Christ.   The devil is a liar.  The devil is a destroyer.  The devil hates.  But his tactics are usually more subtle than obvious.  He is crafty and sneaky.  He works through people and situations.  He is trying to: wear you out discourage you discredit you get you to sin get you to doubt get you upset get you to walk in the flesh get you to lose heart tempt you to give up altogether show you a supposed easy way out get you to hurry and rush God's timing get you to settle for less than God's best for your life get and keep you angry abo