Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

I believe now more than ever that Christians need to pray for more astute discernment.  What spirit is this?  Is this a trusted source?  Is this person truly of God? These questions are ones we need to ask ourselves, and God, as the enemy endeavors to deceive even the elect. Are we beyond deception?  I think if we think we are beyond it, that is precisely when we can fall into it! Now I've been studying God's word for over three decades.  I'm no scholar, but I know God's character.  I know His ways.  I believe Him with all my heart.  I know that He is true and that He is the one, true, living God. Does this make me impervious to deception?  I must stay in His Word, seek Him daily, in order to not fall into any sort of deception. Deception is deceitful!  Yes, I am aware I am being redundant!  But because it can be subtle, and sound even good, we really must be ever vigilant. We may even need to give ourselves a good ol' dose of some ...

This is one of my all-time favorite, wonderful promises from God's Word. I even wrote a song on it. Proverbs 3:5-6. But do I always live it out?  It's easy to sing a song.  It's much harder to live out the words in the nitty gritty details of life. Oh we can usually muster up some amount of trust.  But do we trust with all  our hearts? How exactly do we do this?  How do we know when we're doing this? I believe there is a freedom in it.  When we truly trust in our Omnipotent Lord with all of our hearts, we can let go and relax already.  We are not responsible for the rotation of the earth, He is!  The same God who holds it all together from the farthest galaxies to right here in front of me, is the same God Who is worthy of all of our hearts!   I wonder what would happen if we truly did this in practice - as an everyday practice, I mean - what miracles we would see! How do we trust wholeheartedly throughout the day?  I guess when are...

This is a wonderful promise from God to us.  Most Christians are familiar with this verse.  But how many of us actually do it? I confess that I am not always a great caster.  I cling, complain, doubt, and worry - but cast?  Not so much. To cast our cares on Jesus means to leave them there.  So I can give my worries and cares to Jesus, but in the next 10 minutes, be worrying again!  Sound familiar? So how do we not "go back" to our worries, doubts, and fears, both little and large? Trust. Do I really trust God to handle and alleviate my cares and worries?  I have felt His beautiful peace when I truly leave all my cares with Him.  So why do I go back to anxiety?   Lack of trust. Now I must tell you, realizing that I may not trust the Lord as much as I think I do hurts.  A lot.  I have built my adult life on placing my trust in the Lord.  So when I am still capable of distrusting, I get upset with myself.  I know better....

  My Scripture song based on 2 Corinthians 9:8.

Is this even possible?  Our world has literally been turned upside down.  And none of us have ever lived through such a worldwide event.  It is sort of like what those who lived through WWII must have felt like - lives being lost, uncertainty as to the end of it, feeling out of control. Yet if we look at the art that was produced during the 40's, it is some of the richest we have ever produced!  I half jokingly always say that no good movies have been made since 1949, because so many of the outstanding ones were produced back in the day. People went on with their lives and were able to bounce back after all. But, you may say, they didn't have to wear masks wherever they went and were able to gather in the same space without fear!  True. But there also seemed to be a core to people back then - a spiritual, deeply rooted core that seems lacking today.  The world has never been so divided and it hurts. So on top of the concerns for our physical well-being and ...

Our power and strength have limits.  Our strength is no match for an Omnipotent God.  So why do we continue on as if we have it all together?   God brings us to situations where we realize our utter dependence on Him.  Not to humiliate us, but to strengthen us! Once we realize just how weak we are - powerless to change certain parameters of our lives - that is when, if we have any sense at all, we turn to Christ for help. They say there are no atheists in a nose-diving plane! But we don't even have to wait for such a dire circumstance to come to our senses.  We can choose Christ here and now. The apostle Paul was a brilliant man.  Yet once he met Christ, he was forever "ruined," if you will, to ever believe in himself to any extent again. That's what happens when we encounter the living God for ourselves.  We are undone. Who can stand against Omnipotence?  No one! So what does this type of all out surrender look like?  Well, in Paul's li...

We're so capable.  We like doing things ourselves.   But this is no longer a good thing when we elbow out God from the equation. We can only do so much.  God can do anything!  Even the impossible! In Matthew chapter 14, Jesus feeds thousands upon thousands of people from only five loaves of bread and two fish.  It was a true miracle!   His disciples saw things as they supposedly were - their measly amount of food was not enough to even feed themselves, let alone thousands.  So they wanted Jesus to send the people away - let them go get their own food! Jesus saw otherwise. Jesus always sees more than we do (understatement of all time).  He not only sees possibilities but how to do the impossible where there are seemingly no possibilities.   I have no idea how He did it, but He did it!  He took the five loaves and two fish and multiplied them - so much so that not only did He feed the 5,000 (but it was really more, counting ...