Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

I have my PhD in Spiritual warfare.  This is not Christianity 101.  This is for the warriors who have been in this for decades with the Lord.   Your wounded-ness - the devil knows your Achilles heel.  He is not going after your strengths  He's going to where you've been hurt before, to reopen that wound to get you in a state of fear, anxiety, doubting God, anger - whatever it is - he only has a few tools in his toolbox that he uses over and over again, each one lousy! Recently, one Friday morning, all of these awful thoughts came at me.  I knew they were not my own thoughts, that it was a spiritual attack.  I was at work so I couldn't pray or speak the Word out loud. But in my heart I was praying, worshiping the Lord, knowing that the victory was coming. How did I know the victory was coming?  Because Christ promises to always lead us in triumph.  That doesn't mean there won't be battles; there will.  But it's a done deal.  Not...

I have stayed on in unbearable circumstances out of obedience to Christ.  But in all honesty, I am not always 100% sure if He wants me to stay or not when I am in those situations.  You see, I see all of life, as a Christian, as Jesus forming me into His image.  And it is never the happy times that do such a thing, but always the hard times, the trials.   This is more than mere "character-building."  This is Christ forming His very nature in me. If you don't think this forming is hard work, think again!  Yes, we are to rest and abide in Him while He does the work in us.  But we must cooperate.  We are to obey.  That is where the rubber meets the road in our lives as Christians. Most will simply walk away from an unpleasant situation before the Lord has fully done the work He wants to do in them there, in the muck and the mire. Especially these days where "boundaries" and "rights" are all the rage.   But many times, our most fru...

Every good story has a protagonist (the hero) and an antagonist (the bad guy).  Sometimes, there are several "bad guys," many different groups of people that come against the hero or heroine.   As we read on in Nehemiah, we don't have to read too far into it to come upon Nehemiah's opposition.   Chapter three lists all of the workers and their various jobs in simply repairing the wall.  They haven't even started the rebuilding process yet. Then, in chapter four, the fun begins!  We read about all the ways the Jews' enemies try to thwart their work.   4:2 The opposition belittled the Jews' work. 4:3 They were sarcastic toward them. 4:5 They demoralized them. But then, after Nehemiah cried out to the Lord to save them from their enemies, for the Lord to bring them down instead of letting their enemies bring them down, we see... 4:6 The Jews continued their work and started rebuilding the wall, after repairing it. 4:6  This angered their en...

In a word, slowly. Nothing in nature grows instantly or overnight.  No flower blooms in a day.  There is no kind of fruit that reaches ripeness in one second.  And an acorn takes many years before it becomes the mighty oak. So when we don't see miraculous, overnight results in our spiritual growth, we should not be surprised one bit.  Growth of any kind takes time. Now these may seem obvious statements that I make, but how many of us want to grow up and mature in our faith more quickly?  How impatient are we with ourselves in this area? The pace of our modern age has ruined us in some ways.  We've come to expect instant this and instant that. Instant success.  Instant income.  Instant fame.  The younger generations know how to "grow a brand" in a matter of weeks, or even days.  They can release a new app and see overnight results in its sales or downloads.  And we call this progress.  We call these "advances" good.  But wh...

God is building us.  God is after our hearts.  God is chipping away at us until He is formed in us fully. This is no instant endeavor!  I always marvel at how everything in life takes time to build.  Nowhere else in the world are there "instant" results.  And yet sometimes, we Christians want the easy way through difficulties.  We want that miraculous, instant deliverance from the Lord. Yes, He is more than able to deliver and heal instantly.  But these cases are the rare ones.   It's not that the Lord wants to see us suffer.  But He is the Master Technician knowing exactly which tools to use to bring us to our knees.  He wants us humbly at His feet because that is where the power is!  When we are weak, He is strong.  Even the children's Sunday school song reminds us of that.  The paradox is that He wants us strong!  Over and over again in Scripture, He tells us to be strong and courageous.  He tells us not ...