Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

Jesus deserves our wholehearted devotion because He is Lord.   When we follow and obey Jesus wholeheartedly, we may stand out from the rest, seem odd, or even fanatical to some.  But to please man before we please God leads to disaster.  If we regard our reputation more than the Lord, we are not wholehearted toward Him.  God looks at our hearts.  We may lose some friends along the way, maybe even some family.  But God is worthy of our absolute devotion, wholeheartedly, no matter what the outer circumstances. There is always a cost to following Jesus wholeheartedly, whether it be giving up something or someone that we want.  Or it could mean the death of our idea of what our life "should" look like.  But I don't think our outer, short-term reality matters as much to Jesus as our hearts do. We may think we are giving up too much, at a loss, if we give Jesus our absolute all.  But what we gain is so much more valuable, and it is eternal. We...

Did you ever wonder why certain thoughts pop into your mind?  Are you aware of the enemy's tactics in this realm? You may have heard that the battlefield is in the mind.  Our thoughts steer our actions, our lives. So as a Christian, it is crucial to know when a thought is a spiritual attack.  The enemy wants us to believe thoughts that mess with our identity.  But remember, he is crafty!  So it's not always so easy to discern.  He may even disguise himself as an angel of light (one of his guises) so that your thought may even seem "good." He takes God-given desires and needs and twists them so that we want to get them met outside of God's will.  That road leads to disaster and our destruction and the devil knows it! Now I much prefer focusing on the beauty of the Lord, and wish I could just ignore that the devil even exists.  But exist he does!  And once we are in Christ, he is truly our total enemy.   He wants to get us so caught u...

Is it easy for you to receive God's personal love for you?  Maybe you see Him as far off, or His love as all-encompassing but not for you personally. Yet Jesus suffered unimaginable pain and agony on the cross not only to make a way to heaven for all of us, but so that we can enter His Presence here and now, in this broken, on-its-way-out world! I admit I have struggled with accepting how much God loves me personally.  Why?  Because I know how unworthy I am of such a vast, deep, permanent, and unconditional love.  When we are honest with ourselves, we know that we can never earn God's love in and of ourselves.  We are all way too sinful for that!  This holds true for even the "best" of us.  We have all  sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, from Mother Theresa to Hitler!  All we like sheep have gond astray, every one to his own way.  I don't make this stuff up!  This is the Word of God. But in His great love for us, God sent ...

Dear friends, Thank you for reading my blog.  I hope that it is an encouragement to you! The Lord is leading me in new directions lately.  I am opening my Virtual Piano Studio to give piano lessons!  I also coach vocal students. I wanted to bless you in this way, in case you, or someone you know, is interested in studying piano with me. Here is the link to sign up:   https://takelessons.com/profile/elizabeth-v16?bookwithme=yes I am running a special offer if you sign up by August 10th! Blessings, Elizabeth

Hot off the press!  My new e-book devotional, "Knowing God's Presence," is available on amazom for only $2.99.  Click here to download:   Knowing God's Presence I promise it will be a blessing to you! Love, Elizabeth

Feeding your heart and mind with God's truths is the best way I know to delight in Him. Lately, I have been wrestling with anxiety over certain issues surrounding my life.  Although my morning routine of spending at least an hour with the Lord in my quiet time has not changed, it's not long after my hour of bliss that worries, fears, and anxiety start to chase me down. I prayed and asked the Lord what I should read or listen to.  That's when I happened upon a Charles Spurgeon teaching on YouTube. I am a big Spurgeon lover and knew that he would give it to me straight.  And it was just what Dr. Jesus ordered! As I was listening to Charles Spurgeon's sermon, read by a very calming voice with a British accent, I began to feel God's Presence and peace in me.  I was letting go.  I was being enveloped by the Holy Spirit. This was not some super spiritual phenomena, but I believe that this is how the Christian life is to always be lived, ideally!  I want to live i...

Part of Jesus' purpose on earth was to set the captives free.  He is still about the same business through His followers. True freedom can be a scary thing for those who think  they are living in freedom but are not truly. Apart from the saving grace of the Lord in our lives, we are all captives to sin.  We are each of us born with a sin nature.  No exceptions.  From Hitler to Mother Theresa, we are all born into sin. God, in His loving compassion, sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to set us free from sin!  He saw firsthand the devastation of the bondage of sin.  And because He loves us, He does not want to see us enslaved or in bondage to anything! The sad fact is that this truth is not what most people think of when they think of Christianity.  They think of it as a bunch of rules and regulations to follow and that is not what it's about at all! When we are born again, the blameless, perfect, and holy God comes to live inside of us via the Holy Spir...