Music Brings Us Together

Two families came together today in Lynchburg, Va. where we were celebrating the college graduation of our beloved daughter. What a combination of cultures: Haiti and Pennsylvania, old and young, English and Creole. Yet we found that our love for Jesus, food, babies, sports and music brought us all together. We sat around and sang with Uncle Jack who played a righteous guitar. Two very different families made one through the love of a man and a woman who reached out to join us into one big, happy family. What a strange thing, when a man and a woman find each other, learn to love each other and then join two families into one new and forever different family. Only Jesus could do that through His amazing grace and mercy. Glory be to the Lord!

Spirits or the Spirit?

People ask me, “Do you drink?”  I usually reply, “No, I’m crazy enough without it.”  But actually I am filled with the Spirit so I don’t need to use alcohol to release me from my inhibitions.  “Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.”  Being filled with the Holy Spirit means that I am full of joy, music, gratefulness and consideration of the feelings of others.  The Holy Spirit controls me in a way similar to how alcohol controls a person who gets drunk.  If I didn’t have the Lord in my life, I probably would need to anesthetize myself somehow with something because I have been through some deep hurts.  But with the Lord I can face my trials with joy.  And there is no hangover!     

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ submitting to one another in the fear of God. (Ephesians 5:18-21 NKJV)