Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

The peace that passes understanding guards your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Peace.  Peace of mind.  Inner peace.  These are ours in Christ.  Not in and of ourselves, mind you.  I cannot manufacture that sort of peace.   There is a true, deep, and lasting peace that we can claim when Christ lives in us via the Holy Spirit.  It does not make sense in the natural.  At all. While anything but peace rages around us, around the world, in our homes, perhaps, and in our hearts, Christ stands there offering us His peace. How is this possible?!  Because He is the Prince of Peace.  He is peace itself. This means, for me (and for you, if you are in Christ), that when circumstances and people around me offer me nothing but turmoil, I can still possess the peace of Christ within me.   When I love a family remember - go out of my way to show love and kindness - and the love is not returned, and it hurts, I can still live in pe...

The church is not an organization. At least it is not supposed to be.  Yet when it starts using the ways of the world to "operate," it loses its power, its true intention and purpose.   The church is simply the people of God.  And the people of God, born again through Christ Jesus, are not a physical building but the Body of Christ.  Living.  Moving.  Having our being in Him. The physical church is simply a gathering place to meet and worship Christ.  It is a building.  Yes, it should be holy, different from other buildings.  But if the building went missing, the church would still be alive and well because we are  the church. We are God's temple, the place where His glory dwells. Yes, the church is important - people need a place to go where they can learn about and, hopefully, meet the one, true, living God. But when the church becomes more of an organization, a company, if you will, then God is not pleased with that. Do we serve ...

  All grace.  What a lovely thought!  2 Corinthians 9:8, the verse on which I wrote this song, says that God is able to make all grace abound to us.  Abounding in grace.  Who wouldn't want that?! God is able.  But are we willing to receive His grace?  If we have tasted His grace at all, then we know that we want more of it.  Why?  Because it is wonderful.  It feels good.  We need it. His grace is rich, deep, and reaches where we need it most - in our hearts. Dear Lord, oh how we need more of Your grace, more of You.  We release whatever is blocking Your grace from reaching us, Lord.  May we abound in Your grace more and more, as Your Word promises we can do.  Help us extend that grace to others, O God. Thank You, Lord, for the wonder of You grace and mercy.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

Here's how it happens, pretty much step by step: We get hurt. Instead of turning to Christ, we let the hurt turn into anger. We become apathetic towards God because we are caught up in our own pain (by the way, you can choose to turn to Him instead). Christ can no longer live fully in our hearts because our hearts are full of sin (pride, anger, rebellion, bad attitudes, etc.). Our love for Christ and others grows cold. We build walls around our heart so we won't be hurt again. This is a sad list, indeed.  But there is a way out! There is a way back to God, to sanity, to health,, to the good  life.   Repent.   It's that simple. Admit to God that you messed up, that you're hurting, and that you want to feel His love again and be at peace. When He knows your heart wants to do the right thing, He will meet you right there where you're at. What a wonderful, awesome privilege we have in Christ!  He takes us back!  Every.  Time. Dear Lord, I pray th...

  This is my "best seller" poem in my etsy shop.  I believe it sells the most because we all have a need to forgive, but we don't always act on it right away.  We all want to let go of hurt and pain, so why don't we? Letting go of excess baggage feels good.  Feeling lighter feels good.  All of us who have ever lost weight know this to be true!   Just like in the physical realm of losing weight, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally lightening up feels good, too.  Things are as they should be. You holding onto a hurt, grudge, and the like, is hurting you and those around you.  I include those around you because they sense your discomfort.  It shows in a sarcastic barb that comes out of your mouth, in being short-tempered, in an overall vibe of dis-ease. We are at ease in ourselves when we forgive.  We are light. So why don't we do it consistently?  Some of us do, perhaps.  We are the rare ones.  I wish it weren't so r...

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'...

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....