You Can Be Grateful to God Even in the Dark

“When I arrived at the hospital Monday afternoon, Beth was not in the room. A few minutes later she returned from one of her therapy sessions. After a little while, she started a song (I had always started the songs). It was one I had never heard before.
She sang: ‘I am so grateful – I am so grateful – I am so grateful – that He will walk with me’”

The message above is an excerpt of an update from one of our college professors regarding his wife. What you don’t know is the rest of the story. She recently had a stroke and could not talk or sing or walk. And she has a beautiful voice. We heard an angelic singer in the crowd at a worship seminar a few years ago and discovered it was her! I’ve seen her in town for years and she’s been in my office many times. But I didn’t know she had the voice of an angel until that night. It was dark in the sanctuary so that we could see the event on the big screen so we could barely see each other. Nobody else in the room was really singing but her. Yet her voice was clear and perfect. 

God speaks to my heart: What do you do when you cannot speak? When the words don’t come and your heart is in your throat? Do you sing? Can you sing? Do you know the words to the song that is sung strictly from the spirit? When you’re in the dark do you lose heart? Are you faint for fear? I AM with you always. Because of My Presence you can be grateful no matter what. Grateful in the unspeakable moments of dread. Grateful in the darkest hours of your life. Grateful enough to sing and praise Me. Grateful enough to remember even in those times of fear and dread and sorrow: “I will walk with you.”

Oh beloved, are you in a dark and speechless time? You may have been there a while and you see no improvement at all. God wants you to know that even there, He is with you always. Even when you do not know how to pray or praise, He is with you. If you will just praise Him in the storm right now, you will find that He will come in like a flood of light to bless your heart. You will also find that as you praise the Lord for His wonderful care, the enemy of your heart will have to flee. He cannot stand in the presence of the Word, or of praise and especially not of worship. Each step you make with God will help you find your voice again. Each grateful acknowledgement that He alone is your God will cause the light to dawn in your heart and mind and soul. I cannot promise when things will change or how God will bring about the change, but I know He is with you all the way. You are born again to be a singing emissary of praise and a worshiping messenger of mercy and grace. 

Trust Him right now, no matter what, simply because of who He is. He loves you and He’s for you. So you can let Him take you beyond the momentary circumstances of the present into His sanctuary of safety where He will watch over you, protect you and guide you all the days of your life. 

Psalm 16:8 I know the LORD is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me. NLT

Psalm 112:4 Light arises in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.

Psalm 108:1 My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul.

Hebrews 12:28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe…

Psalm 75:1 We thank you, O God! We give thanks because you are near. People everywhere tell of your wonderful deeds.

You CAN Walk in FREEDOM!

We watched a rerun of King Kong the other day. The newest version really shows the gorilla as a fierce creature much more realistic than the 1930’s version. His fierceness was overshadowed only by his strength.  Yet for all his strength, he was finally subdued by his enemies. The captors penned him down with enough ropes and strong medicine to knock him out. Their elaborate plan to capture him finally worked, even though he fought them, even though he was stronger, fiercer and bigger.

The word says that the believer is strong and invincible in the face of trials and troubles. We are referred to as more than conquerors and overcomers by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies. We are instructed to walk in freedom and be valiant warriors for God.     

Yet the enemy of our soul has an elaborate plan to capture us. Regardless of the promise of spiritual strength to overcome we will fall if we’re not careful. The enemy, our would-be captor, has a cunningly devised plan.  This plan is clever, artful, and ingenious and he has worked hard inventing, developing and formulating the plan.   

Unlike King Kong, who was finally captured, we do not have to succumb to the tactics of the enemy. He’s crafty but we have the Holy Spirit residing in us. This gives us great advantage in the fights of our lives, our hearts, our minds.  As we daily surrender ourselves to God, and declare our dependence on Him alone, we are able to overcome whatever is thrown at us.

While the enemy doesn’t cause every problem in our lives, he certainly wants to take credit for it and use it to his advantage.  If we are angry and we let that anger rule our lives we are submitting to a rope across our back. If we are discouraged and we don’t allow God to replace it with His courage we’ll find another rope has been slung across us.  I would dare say that fear is probably three ropes – fear will tie you down all by itself. Fear of man, fear of failure, fear of the future – none of these are meant to live in our minds, yet without God’s touch we all have fear. The list of ropes goes on and on: disappointment, tragedy, trials, turmoil, sorrow, unbelief…

Thanks be to God the lover of our soul has a plan as well! His plan includes praise, worship and freedom. His plan keeps us safe, keeps us free of terrors and lets us live without concern of the enemy. We don’t have to be taken captive as we learn to apply God’s Word to every situation that comes our way. Ropes are designed to capture us, but we can use them as walkways to greater living.    God’s plan of living even includes rescue when we’ve let ourselves be captured!  He will not allow us to remain captive unless we choose to. He is our Redeemer, Savior and Friend and His Spirit is strong on our behalf to break every chain and loose every bondage we’ve ever had. Brute force, natural strength won’t relieve you, redeem you or set you free. But God’s power is the overcoming victory for every believer.

Oh beloved, God has a wonderful plan for your life! That plan includes walking in freedom no matter what road you are on. It includes walking in strength and power of the Holy Spirit even in the jungles of life.  God is wooing you with His Word this morning to listen and live free. He will lovingly untie every fetter that seeks to control you and keep you down as you give each one to Him.  He’ll even take away the fear of the only natural enemy you have – satan – and replace it with His assurance. You never have to walk in dread of capture as long as you walk in the light of His Word.

God loves you and He’s for you and He provided your ultimate freedom on the Cross so that you can live free and in the power of His might all the days of your life!

Isaiah 43:1-3 Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.   When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.  When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.  When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.  For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Psalm 119:45 I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments.

Psalm 59:17 O my Strength, to you I sing praises, for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love.

Psalm 18:1 I love You, Lord; You are my strength.

Psalm 18:39 You have armed me with strength for the battle; You have subdued my enemies under my feet.

Psalm 89:15 Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of Your presence, Lord.

Mother's Day is the Lord's Day!

My mother was born in an age when most folks still had a horse and buggy for transportation. When she was about 2, her parents left her and her older brother on the farm to fend for themselves while they traveled with the baby brother to town for supplies.  Her older brother was maybe 4. She shared how they would gather buffalo chips to burn in the fireplace to keep warm.  She recalled her mother asking her father to please take all the children with them. That was the beginning of a lifetime of hardship and hard places to be in.

But they survived. My mother survived. She went on to survive many many things in her lifetime. From peritonitis to cancer to miscarriages to tuberculosis and more. She survived abandonment, horrible work conditions and bad marriages.

My mother more than survived. She thrived. While most folks would knuckle under any one of the many tales she had of adversities to live a life of anger, fear and turmoil in return, not my mother.  She just got stronger with each thing that came along.  She laughed often, forgave a lot and lived free. She worked hard, had fun and helped others. People drew from her strength – from her siblings to her children to her friends.

One time I asked the Lord to have the spirit and strength of my mother. He spoke to my heart. It seems my mother’s strength of character came from adversity.   Now everyone wants to have strength, but who wants to develop that strength?  Dough gets tougher the more you knead it. Polished rocks come out of a tumbler after days in the machine. Tarnished silver requires cleaning compound and rubbing, rubbing, rubbing.   Get the picture?

I know that Mother’s Day is not a huge blessing for everyone. Some of you are living under the rejection of a beloved child. Some of you have been dumped by a husband, forgotten about by a parent and you’ve been through the mill. The heartache of life in general, has left you dreading the day, wanting to forget all about it.  The Hallmark version of this holiday just doesn’t fit you and you may wonder how to ignore it altogether.

Others of you want to have that inner strength, but going through hard things just isn’t what anybody asks for. Yet, God in His incredible, redemptive mercy can make every single hard time, every mountain, every valley, every heartache, every mistake you’ve made or others made against you, and the hurt and pain work together for YOUR good.  

Oh, beloved, it’s time to drop the baggage of poor parenting, poor raising and poor outcomes at the door of worship and enter in to the Lord’s presence. This day can be a magnificent day to give Him every burden you ever carried, to lift every load that someone put on you, to decrease your pain and increase your joy. He says to you this morning that He loves you, He loves you, He loves you. And while you may not understand why you are going through hard things, you can trust Him to get you through, make you stronger in the process and increase your faith in Him. Because He loves you, He will celebrate with you, even if no one else does. He not only hears your cries for mercy and answered prayers, He is the reliever, redeemer and restorer of your life!

God is real and He’s speaking to your heart, no matter how you were raised, how you’ve been treated or what you’ve done wrong.  Let Him love you and let Him take your life and let it be consecrated to Him. For He’s with you forever and that’s all that really matters, as He makes your life a shining example of His love, mercy and strength!

Isaiah 54:5 For your Creator will be your husband; the LORD of Heaven's Armies is His name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth.

Psalm 119:107 I have suffered much, O Lord; restore my life again as you promised.

Colossians 3:10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like Him.

Psalm 59: 17 O my Strength, to you I sing praises, for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love.

Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Ordinary to Extraordinary When God is Worshipped!

“There were shepherds abiding in the fields.” These words from the Scriptures give me such comfort and peace.  Notice that the Scriptures didn’t say that the shepherds were worrying, troubled, downcast, forlorn or troubled. They were out in the elements in the dark and yet they were not afraid. They were abiding. These shepherds knew their jobs well, knew their surroundings completely and knew their sheep as well as their predators. They weren’t looking for somewhere else to be or a better job or to outdo one another. They were abiding.

Now when the Angel of the Lord appeared they became “afraid”. They had been raised, probably by shepherds, to be shepherds. Yet on this particular night the unusual happened. Something out of the ordinary happened and it rocked their world.  But they listened and the angel was joined by a heavenly host and they had a worship service right there in the field! Not only did they worship, they left what they knew and went to experience what they had never known before. They left the safety of their everyday world for the unknown.  Because they were willing to leave behind the status quo they were able to go and worship Christ, the newborn king.  They went from abiding in the fields to abiding in Him.

Oh beloved, are you experiencing the ordinary in your life? Are you abiding and resting in the everyday occurrences that you know so well? Have you been wondering if there could be more than this?  Maybe you’re afraid that if you let go of the well-known you’ll be all alone.  Fear not! For God Himself wants to visit your world! He wants to take what you know and give you revelation knowledge of Him! He wants you to visit the Christ fresh and new and worship Him with your whole heart! You may remain in your same life, but it will be oh so changed as Christ puts His seal on your life. His greatest desire is that your worship will lead to new horizons for He has such wonderful, extraordinary plans for you!

Let Him guide you beyond yourself and into His realm. Let Him love you like you’ve never been loved before and let Him take care of you as you follow Him with all your heart. There’s no safer place than following the Lord of Heaven and Earth! It is beyond your wildest imagination.

Luke 2:20 The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

1 Peter 3:15  Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.

Psalm 29:2  Honor the LORD for the glory of His name. Worship the LORD in the splendor of His holiness.

Colossians 2:6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him.

Psalm 34:7  For the angel of the LORD is a guard; He surrounds and defends all who fear Him.

Psalm 84:1-2,10 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord.  With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God. A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else!

You Are God's Beautiful Treasure!

When we were young, it was fun to pick up coke bottles along the road for extra money.  They were all glass back then and you could redeem them for cash. It didn’t take long to have enough change to buy candy or some treasure at the store. Someone else’s throw away was worth something if you took the time to find it and take it home. Years later we find people collecting the old bottles that others had thrown away. The bottles themselves are now the treasures that people display on shelves in their homes.

The Lord says to you this morning, I know you have been discarded. You feel as empty as an old bottle lying in the ditch. But you are a treasure! And I have come to redeem you! I will not trade you in for gold or silver, for you are worth far more than anything man values. But I will take you and display you as a beautiful treasure for all to see in my Kingdom.  Who is the one who has pronounced you worthless? They do not know My Word. Who is the one who left you chipped and useless on the road of life? They do not count your worth as I do!

Oh beloved, you are a treasure, you are a beautiful picture of God’s redeeming love! Run to the One Who has bought you with a price and let Him bandage your wounds and set you on the mountain top. He loves you, He’s for you and His future for you is full of wonder as you live for Him. Lay aside the hurts and the disappointments and worship the One Who is worthy of all your praise!

 Luke 12:6-7 Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

I Corinthians 7:23a  You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for by Christ];

Isaiah 63:9  In all their suffering He also suffered, and He personally rescued them. In His love and mercy He redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years.

I Peter 2:9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.

Looking for Sweet Fellowship? Break Open the Word with Friends!

We spent the entire week-end fellowshipping with old friends, new friends and family.  It was a very hectic week-end but a very blessed one.  A new friend from another country blessed us with his like-minded presence. Our pastor and his wife joined us and our guest for a meal and more fellowship, praise and worship and camaraderie.  Church was awesome and we topped it all off with a family birthday party for one of our grandsons. 

Yesterday, as we were wrapping up the week-end, words from the Apostle’s Creed came to mind. “The fellowship of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting”.  Truly this is the essence of the Christian life.  We partake of these blessings of God and we dispense them as well.  To enjoy our walk with the Lord should be a given. Fellowship with like-minded believers, sharing the Word, speaking the Word into others’ lives and worshipping together is such a wondrous thing. To walk in forgiveness gives us new life. To look forward to heaven where our earthly bodies will be resurrected to everlasting life is our hope for the future.   Truly the Christian life contains everything we need for our spiritual and physical life.

Oh beloved, I want to encourage you this morning! Seek out like-minded believers and fellowship with them. There is no sweeter fellowship than to break open the Bread of Life together.  Watch out for those who want to speak discouragement, dissention or put you in your place. Your place is at God’s banquet table!  Always remember, that repentance is an act of the heart and it brings closer fellowship to God!  Even when things are hard or you don’t hear anything positive in your life you can hold on to the fact that this life is not our home! All who have turned from their own way and accepted Christ will be resurrected to walk in heaven with our Lord forever!  You are loved, you are provided for and you have Good News to share with others!  And that’s truly all that really matters.

1 John 1:7  But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Romans 4:7 Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight.

Acts 26:18  to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in Me.

1 Peter 1:3 NAS Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Practicing Your Life in Christ

When I first began taking piano lessons, all I wanted to do was practice. I had played by ear as a little girl on the family’s pump organ, but learning to read music and having a piano to practice on was opening a whole new world to me. My piano teacher had taught in Tyler for many, many years. She knew her stuff. She didn’t just let me play music though. I had to learn theory, the nuts and bolts...of music. When I practiced well and came to class prepared she’d put stars on my pages. I also found that playing the piano was a great place of release for me. I could get lost in the songs and find my spirit soaring after playing for a while. I still love to play piano, but I’m not as fond of reading the music as I once was. I find myself reverting back to playing by ear, especially when someone visiting requests a certain song. Nothing is sweeter than time alone at the piano, losing myself in the music. When I completely abandon myself to the keyboard letting the music flow from my heart, I find that God speaks through His gift and worship comes easier. Instead of working to make it flow, as during those early years of practice, it just flows for after years of staying close to the keys and practicing the music it has become second nature.


Life in Christ is meant to be lived in utter abandon. Practicing the faith is not mundane but magnificent when we give ourselves totally to Him. He is our Teacher, He is the Conductor and the music of our live is meant to be played for His audience alone.

Oh beloved, life can get oh so busy. We can find ourselves out of practice and unable to make the music flow. Troubles take over and the keyboard of life can become out of tune. We may find ourselves trying to keep playing and wondering why it’s off key. Run to the Master Musician this morning. Give Him your talents, your time, your desires. Let Him speak words of confidence and comfort into your life so that the music of faith can once again flow into your life. For nothing is more beautiful than a symphony of faith reaching into the heavens as you spend time with the Lord and practice His Word and your faith. He’s waiting for your presence right now. He loves you and He has all the time in the world and together you and He will work out the notes for your good and His glory!


Psalm 98:6 Make a joyful symphony before the LORD, the King!

Psalm 119:147 I rise early, before the sun is up; I cry out for help and put my hope in your words.

Psalm 27:8 My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “LORD, I am coming.”

Psalm 40:8 I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.”