Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

  You can find anything online!  Here's a manure chart!  What kind to use, on what garden, and in what season(s). God is the Master Gardener.  He knows exactly what it takes for each of His "flowers" need to grow into His likeness. Would Paul have written his letters to the churches if he weren't in a feces-ridden prison cell?  Not sure.  But we have the majority of the New Testament thanks to Paul allowing God to use him in the crappiest (literally) of circumstances. What about us?  We are most likely not in a literal prison cell.  But what parameters is Jesus using in your life to grow you?  Do you want to mature and grow? Paul wasn't being chastised or punished by God!  Paul was not "in sin."  Quite the contraty!  He was imprisoned for  working for God!  For preaching the gospel.   So when our "stinking" situations are not changing, will we let God use it to grow us up?  Will we let ourselves be used...

Did your flesh prick just then?  "Hey!  They are MY desires!  I can want whatever I want!" Are you in the habit of yielding to Jesus on everything?  If not, then yes, the title of this blog will prick your flesh. Am I serious?  You betcha! When you think about it, it's our desires that either lead us into good or bad choices.  Problem is, the bad ones can feel  good in the moment. So what's a girl to do? Run it by Jesus!  Jesus, is this desire of and from You?  Or is it only me? Or worse, the enemy? Desires, wishes, and feelings will come against us from our own deceitful hearts!  Yes, even those of us whose hearts are indwelt by the Holy Spirit can be led astray by our desires. Now to be sure, God can also lead us through our desires.  Most Christians have Psalm 37:4 memorized.   But we're complicated creatures.  We've been programmed by so many sources throughout our lives, not all of which were in our best interest...

I recently came across a book written by Donald Miller.  It is a business and marketing book.  Since Miller is a common last name, I figured it couldn't be the same Donald Miller who wrote, "Blue Like Jazz," which was a best-selling spiritual memoir he wrote years ago.  I read it and remember liking it and thinking of him as more the artsy type.  A true seeker of Christ. So when I discovered that the marketing book was written by the same Donald Miller, I coudn't wrap my brain around it. I simply could not see him in that light.   He was a spiritual writer, and now he's writing business/marketing plans?!  The two just don't coincide in my thinking. Even if he has chosen to "reinvent" himself, which is very popular these days, that is quite a switch. So it should come as no surprise that those who know me in my "day job" as an administrative professional cannot see me as the artist that I also am. Hats. Some of us wear very disparate ones ou...

Jesus is a writer. He is the Author of our faith.  He is writing it, we're just living it out. Faith is built in the dirt, muck, and mire of life. So what is God writing anyway? Do you want your "happy ever after" more than you want a perfected faith?  And do the two have to be mutually exclusive? Do you get more excited about acquiring earthly transient stuff than you do about spiritual growth and strengthening your faith? I believe God is writing a very different story than we would have written for ourselves. God's story for our faith is much grittier.  How do I know? Because holy heart work is painstaking.  God has something much more precious for our lives. He is grinding at the mill.  And the grist is our faith. That's His greatest desire for us - that we let Him finish our faith story.  Do we believe Him?  Do we trust Him?  Do we want Him more than our earthly pursuits?  When you think about how a self-sufficient God - the Creator of e...

I asked the Lord why I don't always stay in His Presence, feel it.  He spoke clearly.  "You don't practice it." Right. He went on to tell me that it is not a given.  We don't naturally feel or seek God's Presence - even as Christians.  Because we're still in this flesh! It is a supernatural quest.  It is something we practice. And like anything that I practice, it should become more naturally supernatural(!) with time. I am a classically trained pianist with my Master's Degree in accompanying.  Before completing my degree, I'm guessing I logged in tens of thousands of hours of practice, if you count all the years I'd been at it, since age six.   Yes, I am a natural. It is a gift from God and therefore comes easy to me.  However, I still had to practice  the piano if I wanted to become the best pianist I could be. But I never practiced more than four hours at a time.  Maybe that sounds like a lot to you, maybe not.   I was ...

Perhaps you've heard it before.  "Rise above" your circumstances.  But what exactly does that mean and how do we do it? I believe it is both a mental and a spiritual feat.  We need to  think  differently about our situation or problem that seems insurmountable.  Are we focusing on the problem too much?  We will never rise above, if that is the case. But how do you  not  look at what is "in your face," so to speak? Some spiritual battles are fiercer than others.  Sometimes, the enemy comes in like a flood. When we feel like we're drowning in a sudden influx of "water," and we cry out to the Lord for help but we are still drowning, then what?   I use the drowning analogy perhaps because I just watched "The Perfect Storm" the other night.  I'd seen it years ago but watched it again.  A spiritual attack can be like the "perfect storm."  All forces come together and hit us at once, and we feel out of control.  We...

As I prayed on my knees the other day out of sense of longing to feel more of God's love, He spoke to my heart, "Make peace with your past." I wasn't sure what that had to do with me feeling His love for me, but I trust that He always knows what I need and what I need to do. How could making peace with my past help me feel God's personal love for me? Then it dawned on me.  I still had resentment in my heart about certain things that He allowed to happen to me.  Traumatic stuff.  Painful stuff.  Stuff that I have let form me instead of letting His love form me. But the worst of it is when I let the enemy darken my memories that were good ones!  Memories of how I obeyed God.  Like all of the times that I chose to obey Him when it didn't make sense.  But then, the enemy twists it and I remember some of the aftermath. It's not a new thing.  Throughout the Bible we see God's people obeying God, stepping out in faith, and then reaping all kinds of bad s...