Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

God humbles us.  He brings us to the point where we realize our need for Him, our dependence upon Him, and how we cannot do anything apart from Him. Only God knows the heart of the person who may say aloud, "God gets all the glory!"  We can say the words and not really mean them, or we can never say them and simply go about doing everything we do to please Him.  That is what gives God the glory. God is glorious!  His glory fills the temple!  We cannot even imagine just how glorious He is! When Jesus performed miracles - acts which are impossible for humans to do in and of themselves - God received the glory.   But we do not have to do miracles in order for God to get the glory in our lives. I've seen it all too often.  The Christian leader whose "charisma" and "personality" get in the way of Christ being seen in them.  I see more of who they are than I see Jesus. But when I see or hear a Christian who is not constantly talking about him or herself, whe

I was wondering the other day…When the disciples learned that Jesus was going to be unjustly crucified, did they pray against it?  Did the disciples pray that Jesus would not be crucified?  Did they think that it could not possibly be the will of God because in their limited thinking, all they saw was that they were losing their Rabbi, their Master, their Friend - the Messiah. Why would God want their Messiah to be crucified?  That didn't make sense.  Even though Jesus told them over and over about His mission, His purpose - that He was to be sacrificed for the sins of the world, that He would die but be raised up again in three days - they still didn’t seem to fully accept or understand it. The disciples were privy to these glorious truths, told to them directly by Jesus Himself. Nonetheless, when Jesus actually fulfilled the Scriptures’ prophecy by His death, the disciples were heartbroken.  They were confused.  Perhaps they thought in terms of "good" and "bad"

So I told the Lord yesterday that I surrender my life to Him. I have done this before.  I don't recall the earth shaking, or any lightning bolts or fireworks when I surrendered before.  I don't remember anything changing outwardly much at all.   We are to live in daily surrender to the Lord.  This means giving up our will, plans, agendas for His. If we truly believe, "Your will be done," then how does this play out in daily life for us? Are you strong-willed?  This seems to be an admirable trait according to some.  People are wowed by the most idiotic things, aren't they?   Jesus is not wowed one iota by your strong will   Jesus not once exerted His own will when He walked this earth.  Do you respect Jesus for that?  Do you? Why exactly was Jesus so powerful in His earthly ministry?  Precisely because He was surrendered to His Heavenly Father.   Jesus had no agenda of His own.  Jesus was perfectly obedient to God and His ministry was the most powerful ever.  Power

Will you answer Him? He calls you through a myriad of means.  He wants you to find and know Him, for therein lies true life. So what are you doing to push Him away?  Ignore Him?  And why? Don't fall for the lie that you can "do life" on your own.  We none of us were created that way.  We need God. Not only to save us from hell, though that is surely reason enough!  But so that we can know our true purpose in life, why we were created, where we are going. A branch that is cut off the tree withers and dies.  Once it is no longer attached to its source of life, that's it - there is now other possibility for it but death. Like that branch, if we are cut off from God - when we do not receive Him as Lord and Savior - then we are dead, though we live. We are a spirit.  We have a soul.  We live in a body. We are all born spiritually dead.  We cannot fix this in and of ourselves.  The only animating life force that brings our spirits to life is the Living God via His Holy Spir

This morning, during my quiet time, I was thinking about how I put the Lord first.  My internal dialogue went something like this. Lord, I put You before my husband.  I felt the Spirit in agreement. Lord, I put You before family.  I felt the Spirit's approval in this, too. Lord, I put You before self.  Crickets. That is where the Spirit stopped me short.  Not so much agreement there. Oh, Lord.  How do I do this?  I do not want to put myself before You!  Help! I felt the Spirit speaking to my heart: You do this every time you don't trust Me about something or someone.  You put your human reasoning first instead of My Omniscience about a person or situation.  This, My beloved is nothing but pride. Ouch.  The deadliest of all sins.  And yet I know the Lord has humbled me through the many years I have known Him - and I let Him humble me. So is pride something we wrestle with as long as we're in this body?  And how do we even know we still wrestle with it?  I didn't have a c

So if you are a Christian, this topic should interest you.  How much?  More than your "dreams."  More than raising your family.  More than your career.  More than anything and anyone in your life - this should be your main purpose in life. Oh to be sure, He uses  all of the above-mentioned parts of life.  But how? It is a process.  There are no "three easy steps" that I know of to get this done.  But there are ways of being - attitudes - that help the process along. Christ does the work in us.  But if we don't let Him or cooperate with Him or obey Him in everything - yes, everything - then we will not be conformed into His image the way He has in mind for us. For me, it's always in the hard times.  The trials and tests of life have a way of whittling away the sharp edges in our souls.  This hurts.  I mean if a slab of marble could feel when the sculptor chisels away at it, I don't think it would be enjoying it! I believe it is such a painful process for

The other day, I was listening to Carrie Underwood’s rendition of “I   Surrender All” from her new album.  The entire album is glorious. While the song played, I felt led to write down all of the things  that I surrender to the Lord.  I wanted to see what my “all” looked   like – what items specifically I am surrendering. It’s easier to say, “I surrender all” than to be specific about it. Turns out, when I started typing a numbered list of what I am   surrendering to the Lord, I kept typing and ended up with 100 items! I felt so free!  With each new person, place, or thing I surrendered,  I just kept feeling freer and freer. This is helpful because now, when I’m tempted to revert back to   “owning” those items on my list, I remind myself, “Oh yeah.  I   surrendered that to the Lord.”  Then I’m free again. I highly recommend this exercise.  You will quickly discern just how   much you are holding on to, what is holding you back or down, or  disturbing your connection to Christ. Then, w

If I gave you a list of all the things that you are to entrust to the Lord, it would go on forever.  Now I could easily sum it up in one overarching way - trust Him with yourself.  But what does yourself include? Here is a list to get you started.  It is not exhaustive, but it gives you an idea of just how much you can trust Christ. Trust God with or for your: Health Finances Future Past Present Circumstances Whole heart Job security Provision Safety Security Identity Eternal place Salvation Redemption Heartache Healing Restitution Recompense Reward Justice Peace Friends Family Debt Self-image How you see others Relationships Age Output Purpose Mistakes To be fearless Faults Temper Self-control Resources Network Lack Abundance Possessions Broken relationships Fears Doubts Hurts Regrets Trauma Resolving what bothers you Impossible people and situations Wealth Talents Issues Make up for lost time Insight Wisdom Guidance To lead you Help you let go Surrender Doctor's report Wayward ch

To be found in Christ is to be known.  Fully.  But how many of us can stand being fully known?  We know all of our dark sides, our worst moments, our deepest insecurities and longings.  We know the seemingly unlovable parts of ourselves. No matter how much, if any, unconditional love we have received from others, the fact of the matter is, no one knows and loves us as Christ does.  Fully. Intimately. Truly. Christ knows everything we've ever been through, everything we've endured, all the ways we've been treated and mistreated.  No one else on the face of the earth knows us as well - not even we ourselves. He knows why we react the way we do - our conditioned responses.  He knows how much and when we hurt inside.  He knows that He alone can fill our hearts, love us, and fulfill us.   When we realize this - that only in Christ we are truly found and known, it does several things. First of all, we are relieved!  Finally, we can be ourselves with the One Who knows everything a