About teens ...

My son just celebrated his 13th birthday over the weekend. I'm so thankful he's my son. He loves the Lord, he's fun to be with and creative and smart -- and I'm not just saying all that because I'm his mom. He also plans to start a Bible study at his school this fall (please keep that in prayer :) ), something that hasn't been done for a long time, and would love to serve on a missions trip. He's a really nice brother in Christ as well as my son.

As I was sharing about his birthday with some people at a church, I was reminded of a very sad habit we have as a culture -- that of degrading teens and speaking badly about them.
One person said they felt sorry for me because I had a teen now, several said "uh-oh" or "look out now." One man even said "the hormones are raging so it's best to just lock him in a box until he's 20 and feed him through a tube."

As believers I think we should be careful of how we speak of people. Our words can have such a powerful effect. I see that when I speak well about people, that their spirits are lifted and I see the opposite when I speak badly, their spirits are crushed. God has given us the ability to bless and curse with our tongues.



James 3:9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.

Somehow it has become acceptable even in Christian culture to speak badly about teens. I can't think of any other people group that people speak so badly about. What if someone said "uh-oh, you're in for trouble you have an Asian in the house" or "oh i feel sorry for you, you have a fat person in the house" or what if someone said "just lock her away until she's 90" if you had an 80-year-old in the house? Of course this would be awful to say such things. And it is equally awful to say such things about teens.

Our teenage brothers and sisters in Christ are part of the same body as us. And there are several passages in the Bible thath show God's value of teens also, and give us hints of what our attitude should be.

1 Timothy 4:12Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

Most of you reading are elder to teens -- maybe not church elders by position, but as their elder brothers and sisters in Christ we are to pray for teens, lay hands on them if we're led, and impart to them the gifts and encouragement that we received from our elders in Christ. Rather than speaking curses or negative things, let's seek the Lord for how we can best encourage teens and our other brothers and sisters in Christ.
And let's not look down on teens because of their youth! Let's allow them to teach us by their example of life lived by faith just as we can be an example to them.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

Samuel was attracted to the mature, strong elder brother of the family, but God had chosen young David, at that time a teen, to be king over His people. God looks at the heart, so let us do the same, not judging with our words or our minds or our hearts as a reaction toward someone's age, but allow God to show us the beautiful work He is doing in someone's heart.



Joel 2:28 "And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions

The Spirit is poured out on ALL people, young men old men, and sons and daughters -- I expect some sons and daughters are teens. Let's not miss the prophecies and wisdom and revelation and fruit that God is pouring out on teens but respect and love them as our precious brothers and sisters in Christ.

I just want to add my experience as a music teacher -- I can think of so many awesome people I got to know and spend time with who happened to be teenagers at the time-- one had a heart to learn guitar to lead worship, several in one family make up most of the worship team at one church i attend, a youth group from another church did a service project in mexico. The youth in my life really encourage me to keep my passion for the Lord, my grief when I see suffering, my intensity in my determination to serve the Lord and my hope for the future and desire to impact it for the Lord. Thank You Lord for the teens in the body of Christ and in our communities. Bless them and let them know how beautiful they are to You and to us as their brothers and sisters in Christ I pray in Jesus name, amen

Nothing Compares...

Today I wanted to pass on the words of a brother(different brother from the last blog )that challenged and encouraged me. Upon reading his email I took some time to pray over my attitudes because I want to share his attitude. Here are his words:

whatever that’s going on in my life, i know for sure, is according to God’s Will. even if His plans are gonna make me suffer, i am ready for it. in the end, all i want is to be with Him in His Kingdom among His people.

This reminded me of these verses..

Philippians 3:7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him…

Psalm 84:10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

Knowing the Lord is the purpose and plan for our lives as believers. Nothing compares to knowing the Lord. So many times it is easy to get distracted by “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But we are created to pursue the Lord, to count everything else a loss compared to knowing Him. Our happiness, our comfort and ease, our wealth, our excitement and self-realization — these are rubbish compared to knowing Jesus, even at the price of suffering for His glory. Many of our brothers and sisters over the years have counted it worth dying to stay true to the Lord. They truly believed it was better to be with the Lord than elsewhere.

Let us live our lives in pursuit of the Lord, seeking to be found in Him in all we do and think and say, counting all other things rubbish compared to knowing Him. amen

Hope you enjoy this playlist of related songs Nothing Compares Playlist

In Christ Alone

I’d like to share a youtube playlist where I gathered some songs with the theme “In Christ Alone”.
In Christ Alone Playlist

There are some lyrics that encourage me to love the Lord. In the first song (Song of Hope, Rob Seay Band) they sing “Just to know that You are near is enough” and in the second song Shane and Shane sing “I have found the answer is to love You and be loved by You alone.”

Matthew 22:36″Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment.

Jesus here was referring to the first commandment, recorded in Exodus 20:3

Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other Gods before or besides me (Amplified Bible)

The greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all that we are, all that we have, an undivided love for Him. The Lord wants us to love our friends and our enemies and our families and He wants us to be thankful for the blessings He gives, but he must be our first Love and our only Love and our only God.

So many times we can rely on people and place our trust in them or give most of our time to them or to activities, and neglect our time with the Lord worshiping and praising Him and digging deeper into His word and waiting on Him in prayer. Or we can trust in our intelligence or wealth or popularity or other people or things to give us strength and love. But we are to trust and love the Lord with all of our hearts.

The Lord loves each of us so much and longs to have a close relationship with us and pour His love on us and have us worship and love Him too.
Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”

What a beautiful tender love our Lord has for us  Let us love Him in return with our whole and undivided hearts.

I’ll close with a prophetic word a brother had for me a couple of weeks ago.

Let me tell you one truth…. The True Love we will get only from God and not from any human being…. so what we must do is.. we must Love God more than any other brother or sister or friend.. and more than our problems.. Declare to Him …I love You God and Your commandments and Your divine Will more than anyone or anything else…once you started Loving God and spending more time in prayers rather concerning/worrying and thinking…. you see you will receive strength and hope and your conscience will become very clear to make decisions.. so please don’t worry for anything….. Be happy in Lord and keep
praying earnestly without ceasing…

Praise the Lord with the Strings and Flute

This is my first post and my first official day blogging.   So I wanted to start it out with something of first importance.  I have used this ID "stringsandflute" a lot of places online.   On the surface the words apply to my activities of playing stringed instruments like guitar and lute and playing flute.  But even more important than these activities is the verse Psalm 150: 4b  "Praise Him with the strings and flute."  

This Psalm is short, but so meaningful because it  gets to the heart of the meaning and purpose of our lives.  The Lord is powerful and beautiful and great in all ways.  Regardless of our circumstances, He is always worthy of our praise.

I recently travelled to India for the first time ... (I'm sure I'll share more about that later because it was such a blessing to me) ... but everywhere I met believers there, both the greeting and the closing salutation, rather than "hello" or even "God bless you"  was "Praise the Lord."  And so many of my online brothers and sisters also use this greeting.  It is so great to start and end conversations and times together with "praise the Lord."   It is the framework of everything else in our lives.  If we are struggling with something we praise the Lord and glorify Him and know Him better through our suffering.  If things are going happily then we also praise the Lord for that type of blessing.  

In every situation and in every circumstance, everything, everything that has breath and every music on every instrument (including strings and flute)---praise the Lord.  

Lord, You are worthy of our praise at all times and in all circumstances.  You are good and mighty and merciful and powerful and righteous and beautiful and in every way worthy of our praise.  I surrender this blog to You, may it always be glorifying to You and also bring encouragement to all who visit here.  Help me to praise You with this blog stringsandflute and with my stringed instruments and flutes, and with my life.  I surrender to You and praise You in Jesus name, amen

Psalm 150 :)

1 Praise the LORD.
       Praise God in his sanctuary; 
       praise him in his mighty heavens.

 2 Praise him for his acts of power; 
       praise him for his surpassing greatness.

 3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, 
       praise him with the harp and lyre,

 4 praise him with tambourine and dancing, 
       praise him with the strings and flute,

 5 praise him with the clash of cymbals, 
       praise him with resounding cymbals.

 6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. 
       Praise the LORD.