Month: December 2022

P 2114 Learn to govern your own thoughts.

/ DVH

“So I say to my soul, “Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be disturbed. For I know my God will break through for me.” Then I’ll have plenty of reasons to praise Him all over again. Yes, He is my saving grace!” Psalms 42:11 TPT

So, talking to yourself out loud, in public places may not be a good thing – nice large men in white coats might come and get you. 🚑 Fortunately, nowadays, many people have phones in their ears so it may not be quite so obvious when we talk out loud into thin air on a busy street! 😆 However, this Psalmist is not talking about saying stuff out loud – he is talking about internally speaking to his soul. Which is his mind, will and emotions. I talk to my soul a lot – it needs it. However, I don’t talk to my soul out loud in public, be-cau-se those nice men in white coats kinda put me off that!

Most of the time I have to tell my mind to ‘shut up please,’ because it has a habit of reminding me of my own failures, fears and inadequacies, as well as lists of any dumb hurtful things other people have done to me! The bible, however, teaches me to rest, relax and sit down with happier thoughts about the God of all the Universe Who loves me dearly. So, I take this verse: “Whatsoever is good, whatsoever is right, whatsoever is profitable let your mind dwell on these things…” LITERALLY.

BTW, dwell on means live like that, think like this. I have to be honest with you, and say that a lot of the time, I find this scripture very challenging!  My mind wanders off along some well-worn tracks when it comes to some if the people I know, and … not all of those tracks are things that are good, right and excellent. 😶 However, what I have learnt by applying this scripture is this – every time we embrace what the bible says and intentionally apply it into our lives by doing it – what He says becomes stronger than the turmoil.

The Lord calls that in His book … “renewing our mind.” It works like this: I look at what I think, and then I intentionally go and look up what He thinks. It is wise to not get stuck on what I think – that sends me down the path of fear, anger, worry, disappointment and discouragement. I start reminding myself about what the Lord says instead. I see this process like a coin – I can stick with the side of that coin I know very well, or I can become acquainted with the other side and try to find the good in whatever uncomfortable, nasty situation I’ve ended up in! And then I go on from there and pray about something I can do, then I CHOOSE to obey what HE says, and ignore that old record playing in my head. This is a hard thing, but if you can conquer the battle of your thoughts – you can kill a giant! I wonder if that’s why David ran at Goliath shouting??!!

I have learnt, from experience, that our God is extremely generous. Whenever I make even a teen tiny effort to be obedient, I’ve found that He is already running toward me to help me. The thing is, that other guy will try to fool us with remarks that go like this: a/ you are thinking bad thoughts about someone who hurt you because they have been so mean and you are a truly awful person. How could God love me? And:  b/ it is my own fault that I got into this mess in the first place! 😱 Reasons pop up in my mind like daisies on a lawn. 

The Lord has provided us with a better way in His book. This Psalm teaches us that we can talk to our soul and learn to stop embracing the ugly thoughts. Here’s a helpful tip I’ve needed many MANY times! Not every thought in your dear little head is YOURS. The other guy chucks in his evil contribution and because he is so incredibly sneaky so we think it is us. So then we beat ourselves up for being a bad Christian or we agree with him that our life is terrible and it is never going to get better. Agreeing with the other guy is a really bad plan. It is like watching water go down the drain – you can’t get it back. Time is valuable, it is all we have. However, we always need to remember, Jesus can redeem anything.

If we choose to obey what the Lord says in the book and act on it – that produces His strength in our weakness. Meanwhile, the next time we choose to obey, it is easier. It’s like a muscle being strengthened. the more we use it the stronger it gets. So here’s another helpful hint: I’ve found that I cannot build a case against someone else and, at the same time, build one for what the Lord wants. I have to choose to govern my own thoughts, and select which kind of thinking I want to facilitate. That can involve a whole lot of deep breathing! Otherwise I know I will get anxious and start worrying about a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t really matter.

And here is a fantastic scripture to end with: “I hear the Lord saying, “I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with My eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn when I take you where you’ve not been before. Don’t make Me tug you and pull you along. Just come with Me!”” Psalms 32:8-9. There’s good advice for all of us!

I encourage everyone reading this blog today to start speaking to your soul about any immediate chaos or trouble that has being dogging your heels – because our thoughts and choices are powerful. They change us and they will, over time, change the environment around us. Bye. 👋🏻 

P 2113 Perspective is extremely important.

/ DVH

“It’s urgent that you get this right: The time has arrived—I mean right now!—when dead men and women will hear the voice of the Son of God and, hearing, will come alive. Just as the Father has life in Himself, He has conferred on the Son life in Himself…” John 5:25a. Lazarus heard Jesus’ voice in his tomb, and although he was throughly dead, he came alive. That’s the kind of God we serve, when HE speaks – everything changes, even if it is impossible – we need to learn how to hold fast to what He says to us.

We also need to think about Who He IS – particularly when things in our lives are going badly. Sometimes the Lord allows things in our lives to bring out certain qualities, and to nudge us deeper into Him. Human beings like to live their lives superficially, but the safest place is right next to Him. Otherwise we can fall into the same sin that tempted Adam and Eve. Perspective is about knowing who we are, and to do that we must first know Who HE is, otherwise we can end up in presumption. And presumption will put us onto thin ice, remember, they fell in! If we are to be like Him, we will need His perspective – His way of looking at things.

Despite the many rumours flying about today, we are not equal with God. But Jesus Christ IS and He became a man and stood up in our place. Philippians 2:5-7. “In your relationships with one another, HAVE THE SAME MINDSET as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage;  rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Remember, Almighty God already took the initiative on our behalf – HE CAME HERE.

Jesus Himself said this: John 8:55 “Though you do not know Him, I know Him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know Him and obey His word.” Knowing God’s ways means we obey Him. These are key things in the process of being transformed – Jesus chose to live that way and so should we. Here’s a handy helpful hint: When you read the bible ask yourself – ‘What does this teach me about Almighty God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit? What can I see here, that shows me about Who They are? What I am reading that I can DO?’ .

The way that Christ thought about His Heavenly Father while He was here on earth was remarkable. Jesus knew He was here on assignment from God and yet He acted with the same humility and authority He died to give us. He limited Himself! Human beings are not all that, we’ve been elevated by the One we keep company with. Giving Him glory is not just about singing worship songs passionately – it is about the way we revere and honour what Jesus told us to do. We are only made great by the Company we keep. 

Father God wants the same kind of relationship with each one of us that He had with Christ. I know we are members of a huge family – but the Lord dearly loves each one of us … specifically. This world may never ever know your name, but God knows it, and He is proud of you. Despite who we are and what we have done, and sometimes keep ON doing … He sees you and I through the blood of Jesus. Perspective means I know to my core, what was done for me. I cannot be arrogant because I know who I really am, and who I would be without Christ.

Now, there is no need to be ashamed in His Presence. Personally, I find that shame is a big red flag in my life. It tells me that I have done something that I am not sure about, and now I am making excuses for it. I need to go and get alone with Him and get His perspective, His POV, on what has happened. And I don’t have to be ashamed or afraid when I do it. When we go into His Presence our AIM is to be washed, changed, actively transformed, by what we are reading and what He says to us. Whether we are reading the bible, or simply praying, the Holy Spirit will remind us of what Christ did, and why He did it. Then gratitude takes over. Gratitude is a great perspective, and true generosity is another one. God has been incredibly generous to us, so, with His help, we need to be incredibly generous to others, no matter what they have done. 

Perspective highlights the way He thinks, as well as showing us how to think. I need to know what He thinks, so I can be transformed by looking at Who He is. That’s what the bible is for, to show us who Father God is, and what He has deliberately planned and done on our behalf before we ever came into this world. Biblical perspective changes our POV. I don’t give two cents about what I think anymore, I want to know what He thinks about it!  And I probably won’t value whatever someone else thinks either, no matter how important it seems, unless they are saying something that is in His book!

The things of this world fade into insignificance when we have His perspective. We need to take on His perspective desperately, because HE HAS THE WORDS THAT LEAD TO ETERNAL LIFE. That starts right here, right now. Christians live their lives eternity minded – that is true perspective. 👋🏻

P 2112 Humility positions us for transformation.

/ DVH

The bible says:  “Humble yourselves…”(1 Peter 5:6)  Well, that was easy, the Lord clearly tells us to humble ourselves. But, to be honest with you, it can be hard to see things like pride and control. However, it is clear that He wants us to act like Christ did. Christ humbled HIMSELF – He always took the lowest seat. (Philippians 2:8.) Sometimes we are so busy trying to feel good about ourselves, we forget about other people. One of the hardest things I have had to learn is that other people in this world do not OWE me anything, simply because my life was hard at the beginning.

Pride can easily remain hidden, perhaps we don’t always know we have it! Ask someone close to you, what they think about you on this subject. Hmmm… if that solution seems like a VERY bad idea, then there could definitely be pride somewhere. Pride often has to be right. I have observed that sometimes behind pride is the desire for a certain outcome – the feeling that I know more than you do, so I should be in charge. And that sometimes comes from a fear of everything being out of control. 

One of the biggest dangers we face in Christianity is that we find fault in others very quickly. Other people might call that good judgment, but I call it distraction. EG: “If you are to blame then I am OK.” True humility looks at itself first. Most Christians know enough to have the appearance of humility, but the Lord looks at our hearts. Unfortunately we can also easily rationalise things instead of acknowledging them and dealing with them, together with any underlying causes. Here’s a neat trick I’ve learnt, if I can see it in others, then I am probably doing the same thing myself. I’ve learnt to deal with myself first. Logs and specks!

I exhort everyone reading here to learn to be utterly truthful about who they are and where they are spiritually. Because of what Jesus did for us, we don’t have to be afraid of our faults. Our real problem might easily be our lack in faith in what He already did. However, His punishment on our behalf does not give us permission to stay that way. Fudging the truth is fooling yourself. First we need to own up, and then we must make it clear to the Lord that even though we really don’t want to do what He wants us to do about that stinky stuff in the corners of our minds… we will do it anyway… just because HE asked us to.  (Matthew 21:29-31) Ask Him for His help – He knows the way through anything. 

Then, confess your fault to someone else. BTW, I am not talking about telling someone else that we’ve always hated Brother Bob or our mother, brother auntie etc because they drive us crazy. How can info like that “be good, right and profitable?” That kind of sin is ours not theirs. When people annoy us or step on our feet on way or another, that means that we have been given an opportunity to pray and ask the Lord to show us what is going on. Perhaps we need to go to someone we trust and tell them about our issues – and confess our fault that way. At the same time we need to start blessing the person that we don’t like … Yeah! … I know! YOU don’t hate anyone!!  Me neither. 😂 We just use words like ‘irritate, and annoy’ instead … it sounds soooo much nicer. 

Serving others is a way to humble yourself. Especially if you serve the person who is provoking you. Some people are a gift. There is nothing that will show us more plainly what is actually in our heart, than blessing someone we don’t like! It sorts out dislike from just plain hatred and spite, plus it throws all the excuses in the bin … where they belong. We all sin and there are no bigger sins or smaller ones. Anything that offends the holiness of our God is sin. We need to remind ourselves that pride will keep us from humility and transformation.

“Why, the very fact of your having lawsuits with one another at all is a defect (a defeat, an evidence of positive moral loss for you). Why not rather let yourselves suffer wrong and be deprived of what is your due? Why not rather be cheated (defrauded and robbed)?” 1 Corinthians 6:7. This verse, and many MANY others clearly show us what the Lord wants. He suffered wrong and He was totally perfect in all His ways, so why should we be an exception? If you find that you are making excuses for yourself and the way you relate to other people, especially those close to you – all the time – then you’ve misplaced humility and probably have a deeper issue. We follow the Lord Jesus now, and we all know that His road leads to the cross … That means when we follow Him we destined to end up dead!

It is extremely humbling to stand still in the light of Who He is, and see who you really are, and question your own thoughts about yourself. “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” John 3:21 NIV. He knows our hearts. We can pray: “Wash me, cleanse me, make me new” until we are purple. However, unless we personally do something about it – like humbling ourselves, admitting our faults, confessing our inadequacies to others, we are fooling ourselves.

The only person who is responsible for the way I think and act is ME. Pride prevents us from growing, BUT, Humility positions us for transformation. 👋🏻

P 2111 Yes YOU!

/ DVH


I read a lot, and listen to stuff on YouTube, so I’ve heard a number of people over the past few years talking about the fact that Christianity needs another big revival. I agree! We sure do. We’ve lost way too many precious people, plus there are some of His sheep that have wandered off, and now they are stuck in thorn bushes etc. Not to mention the great people out there in our world who have no idea at all about who Jesus actually is!

I love that people faithfully pray for revival, but today I have a challenge for everyone reading this blog. Do more than pray!! Put feet on your prayers. The way to grow, is to use and str-e-tch our faith, and we all need bigger stronger faith. It’s nearly 2023, so it seems to me that this is the time to grow and look for bigger challenges. 😳 I also want to say that we need to stick our hand up and volunteer, remember, the Lord gives us a choice. The next step to that is to watch out for His opportunities. People who need approval can find witnessing hard … self-consciousness gets in the way. That stuff is normal. It takes a lot of practice in this area to conquer fear. Covid carried off so many people who did not know that Jesus saved us from ourselves and nobody told them that this life is not all there is!  Right now this world seems to have no hope – Christ is the hope of the world!

You will have guessed by now, what my heart beats for, I want to see the Lord Jesus get the reward of His suffering in my own generation. However, the more I thought about this, inside my heart I could hear Him whispering to me: “YOU be the revival.” My first thought when He said that to me was: “Me?? I don’t have some super fantastic gift of teaching, or preaching, or healing or miracles. I’m older and disabled. I sit on a chair all day! What can I do?”

I have some really really good advice for you, never EVER tell Almighty God what He can or can’t do with you.NE-V-ER. Don’t eliminate yourself from the Great Commission on the grounds that you are busy working, or at school, maybe you have an office job, or you are a farmer, or you have to look after your babies etc. etc. After my conversation with Him, the Holy Spirit immediately reminded me that He once made two people out of dirt, and a donkey spoke for Him – so He laughs at our perceived limitations – remember, He is limit-less. Was MY face red! 😡 A whole lotta people in the Old Testament underestimated Him, read the book – see where that got them!

Feel free to underestimate yourself, but never ever underestimate what God can do with one single person.Think about Billy Graham or Reinhard Bonnke before you go down that plug hole. 😂 Meanwhile, don’t ask me what you can do – ask HIM! I asked that question once, fifteen years ago, and I’ve been making bookmarks, pocket calendars, coffee table books, DVDs ever since… a-n-d … loving it! I have never ever had this much fun in my whole life before. I highly recommend following the Holy Spirit, He is so fantastic to be with, and He has the best ideas.

Let’s look at this biblically. Andrew, Peter, James and John, they were simple fishermen. The Lord Jesus simply changed what they fished for! Maybe some of the other disciples were fishermen too, we are not told. But Matthew was a wealthy business man. Simon was a man of politics. Judas was a thief – however, he still went on the road with Jesus and saw all those miracles. Paul was a Pharisee, as well as a politician. Zacchaeus collected taxes. These were all ordinary working men who already had jobs before they met Him. BTW, ladies, don’t feel left out, there were women who supported what Jesus did, financially. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, whose husband was a politician, and Susanna are specifically mentioned in the bible.. Our God needs witnesses to His loving kindness. We are all called to be witnesses of what we’ve seen and what we know about the Lord personally.

Some people have a very specific, wonderful God-given gift, however – many of us don’t. But stop and think for a moment, what would happen if we were an ARMY of volunteers? Now that’s a whole other ballgame. What if we began to think like a functioning army of foot soldiers? Ordinary people who don’t think that all the work belongs to the generals! We’ve had enough great teaching to change our hearts over several life-times! We are ALL sent ones, so now is the time to rethink our lives and ask Him to help us find our place in the ranks. Ask Him: “What can I do to further Your kingdom here in my own little bit of this world, Lord?” 

Passion for Jesus simply comes from obeying what He told us: “Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority (all power of absolute rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance,and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20. 👋🏻

P 2110 We work with Jesus when we feed people.

/ DVH

Mark 8:1-8 “During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.” His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. Seven,” they replied.

He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When He had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; He gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.”

The first thing I noticed about this scripture today was this – if this had been one of our church meetings, I wonder if we would have noticed that these people needed feeding? To be totally honest with you, maybe we would have been too busy examining the size of the crowd! Jesus was concerned for these faithful people because they had to walk home and some of them had walked a long way. We need to watch out for opportunities to minister to, and help people in practical ways.

Meanwhile, my first honest question to myself, was whether I would have even stayed at a meeting that went for so long?! That was some sermon, they had been together for three days of non-stop teaching. Most of us would call that an extraordinary meeting! However, the Lord Jesus saw it as His responsibility to physically feed these sheep. It is a good thing to appreciate people who care about practical things – they are vindicated right here in this scripture. Meanwhile, it doesn’t say these people were followers of Jesus but He fed them anyway!

My next thought was, it can be very easy to get stuck on the question about how the bread and fish were multiplied? Did it multiply in the disciple’s hands, or the Lord’s hands? Some times we can get so busy trying to figure out how things happened … instead of looking at the fact that the natural world obeyed the spiritual one! Maybe we can get so tied up in who did, or said what – hoping to figure out the circumstances and duplicate them – that we can miss what GOD actually did. He revealed His heart toward ordinary people and provided for them. When you read the bible carefully, you will see that Jesus did that all the time!

Almighty God saw the people’s need of nourishment and He provided for them, practically. Remember, Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing. This shows us that our God takes care of His kids. He does not sleep. There are not big needs and little needs, our God cares about all our needs. He knows the pain you’ve been going through, and He cares for you. Don’t believe the lies the enemy keeps telling you – just because nothing has changed that does not mean Father God doesn’t care. The Holy Spirit is already working on your behalf to change everything together for your good. 

Our God doesn’t PATCH things! HE MAKES THEM NEW. Patches tear – but the Lord makes things new. That’s because the new … stretches. Trust me, we are going to all need to be pliable in His hands in the days ahead of us. The Lord Jesus kept getting cranky at His disciples, because they continually looked at the natural situation, and they didn’t see the stuff that was going on around them through the eyes of faith. The eyes of faith know that God is doing something – maybe we dunno what it is – but we know He IS doing something. 

Our faith is exceedingly precious to Him. One of the ways we nurture it, is by believing He is good, when everything around us looks terrible. Another way to nurture faith is to use it. I’m guessing most of that crowd present that day had no idea they were eating a miracle! I’ve thought a lot about this. So many times in my life, I thought what was happening at that time would be the end of me – but it wasn’t… God was doing something else. He was working those things together for my good. 💕

We must not dismiss the miracles in the Gospels as simply “stories” because when we do that we miss the greater message. We are not reading some “Boy’s own book of adventures” – we are reading God’s personal history and interaction with mankind – plus man’s response to Him. If God cared that much about Gideon or Jonah don’t you think He cares about what is happening to you? In Hebrews the writer calls the Old Testament men and women, heroes of the faith. Personally I call them examples of how Almighty God deals with individuals! 

The Lord Jesus fed those thousands of men, women and children spiritually, but that did not preclude the fact that physically they also had pressing needs. They were hungry. I think today, He is looking at you and I and saying: “feed them” – just like He told His disciples on the side of that hill. There are plenty of hungry people around us, and it will take lots of faith to reach them, but that’s OK, the precious Holy Spirit is pure faith in action. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2109 Transformation is the way ahead.

/ DVH

I had an interesting thought this morning about – 2 Corinthians 12:9 says: “My Grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Gird up your girdle Gertie, it’s gunna be a bumpy ride! So why don’t we share our weaknesses more? Yeah you might like to think on that for a month or nine!! As HE is strong where I am weak – then where’s the shame in being weak? All I gotta do is ask for help and the Holy Spirit is right there. Instantly. I may not feel Him – but I know that He is close to the broken-hearted … so … He is there!!  Then when I pray for help maybe using my faith means I will believe that He wants to help me even more than I want to be helped.

It seems to me that we avoid displaying the very thing that the bible says will empower us with HIS power! We try so hard day after day, to keep the wheels turning, hiding our weaknesses, as well as trying to maintain a sense of normal? When the reality is, we can’t do anything eternal and lasting without Him. Christians all around the world climb out of bed daily and try to present a good picture of the benefits of what we believe, everywhere they go. JESUS IS THE BENEFIT FOLKS. He didn’t come to earth so we could try harder – He came to save us from sin and ourselves! So why are we so scared to death to admit that we can’t hack it on our own? Do we really need to have other people admire us so badly? Does envy lead to saving faith?

Perhaps somebody asks us: “how are you today?” And we paste on a fake smile and reply: “fine thank you, and how are you?”  Christians constantly do their best to present themselves as perfectly adequate people who are coping…. WHY? Why do we lie to ourselves and others? Here’s my little theory. We feel if we don’t present a good picture we will be letting the Lord down. You know, FYI, being officially sick can almost be a relief in one way – because you don’t have to pretend anymore.

Back to my point, are we so scared of judgment? Or feeling inadequate, because we are supposed to be bright shining stars for the Lord? Maybe we are protecting His reputation? Except He made Himself of no reputation for our sake – so that’s kind of a waste of time and energy. I just want to say to anyone reading this today – ‘It really is OK not to cope all the time!  It’s OK to struggle with difficult people and situations. It’s not just OK … it’s actually normal.’ Because ‘without HIM we can do nothing’  We were not designed to be the all-singing all-dancing Jesus ad. He does perfectly well by Himself – He has the Holy Spirit at work all over this earth! We are here to point to the Answer and WE are not the Answer – HE IS.

So here are some quick thoughts I came up with to explain why we hide our faults from each other: a/ we don’t know how to access Grace. b/ We don’t know how to give Grace away! Jesus said in the verse in 2 Corinthians HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. because that is where HIS power is. I think the reason we pretend so much is because we know very little about living by faith. We get Grace by using our faith not trying harder.

Speaking for myself I always thought of people living by faith as missionaries, or really holy special people who chose that lifestyle. Boy was I wrong!  People rarely choose this lifestyle – it usually lands on them – often from a great height! The way you learn to live by faith is to be needy, and if you’ve got no money in a world that uses money – guess what?? You’ve just become needy!! I know people who live this way but they didn’t choose it – it chose them. 

Here’s the true secret to living a happy Christian life.: transformation is not an optional extra – it’s a survival skill! Ya might want to Selah that thought. 

If by any chance, anybody else out there has become tired of pretending to be ‘fine thank you’ – then we are all going to have to let Him use our ugly, difficult circumstances to expose all our inadequacies. Those nasty little things we don’t ever want anybody else to know because then they won’t like us, or – we won’t like us. Or – maybe the Lord won’t like us!  How about instead of hiding them- we admit them. The bible says: “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed….” James 5:16. It doesn’t say hide them under a rock and hope nobody notices. Unconfessed sin leaves us open to enemy attack.

God was good to Jonah and he had his problems. That man was prejudiced and opinionated, not to mention a racist. The Lord was good to Gideon and he needed more proof than a prosecuting attorney. He was good to Job who thought he had it made and didn’t know that everything he had came from the Lord in the first place! He was good to Moses and David who murdered someone. God was good to Elijah who was the super spiritual guy of his day – Elijah ran away and hid. The list goes on. And now …here’s the GREAT NEWS. We can read all about the men and women of God and what He saw as faith, in a wonderful faith chapter in Hebrews 11.  

The Lord praises every single one of these people, and some of them were definitely not perfect – they made huge mistakes. BUT! The Holy Spirit speaks about each of these men and women of faith with great love. Our faults, when they are transformed by living in His Grace, are testimonies to His loving kindness and glory.  We all might want to think on that with the New Year coming up. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2108 My testimony

/ DVH

I felt that the Lord wanted me to talk about my conversion experience, even though it was over 50 years ago! 😊 I had some sort of squirrelled up faith/fear of God, for most of my life, up until I was 25. But there was no real life in it. It was more of a “pray, do my best, and hope like mad God wasn’t watching me when I did the wrong thing” faith! I prayed to be good an awful lot, that bit I remember clearly. Actually I wasn’t really sure if God even liked me. 

Then my sole parent decided maybe I needed some religion after all, so I was dragged hither, thither and yon through this whacky idea and that one. I can only say some of those places were more out there than was probably good for me. Eventually I got married in a Catholic church and we went overseas for a year. My faith was totally non-existent by that stage. We had two little girls, two years apart. And I can honestly say I lived my life back then feeling unloved and unwanted. Along the way, I discovered having a family, wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

One day, somebody took an exception to our very loving dog, and poisoned her – they threw a bait over the back fence. My two tiny little girls were distraught. At that time I had a lovely Greek neighbour who also believed in different weird and whacky things and during my tearful discussion about our dead dog with this person – they announced that Jesus Christ was also dead. There was no resurrection. I have no idea why, but I was utterly shattered by that thought. I knew it was a lie – but I couldn’t prove it. I ran back to my house and tore it apart looking for a bible. We didn’t have one. 

Around that same time, I had our two little girls baptised in a local Anglican church. My ex was a nominal Anglican. Anyway, an older lady from that church visited people like me regularly, and she brought the Parish newsletter weekly. I would open the door – just a crack, stick my hand out to grab the newsletter and close the door quickly again!

When my lack of real faith crisis hit, I realised I had her phone number – so I called her. She came over immediately – God Bless her. She comforted me, because I was sobbing my heart out, and she told me that the Lord Jesus IS alive and He loved me dearly. Then she said: ‘Jesus would like to live in your heart, would you like to ask Him in?’  My answer was a resounding yes. She offered to pray with me but I told her I would prefer to pray by myself. So I went out to the clothes-line, sat down, and prayed this made-up prayer:

“God if You are real, I am talking to You, and if You are not, then I am talking to the clothes line.” Great prayer huh? 😳 And YES those are the exact words! The results of that prayer were instant and astonishing. It was as if someone switched a light on. One minute God was a theory that I hoped existed, and the next He was real-er than anything else in this world! I was instantly converted. I had no clue about anything spiritually real before that time.

Suddenly, the person who never ever went to church was there every time the doors were open. Jesus was so real and I was so passionate about Him – still AM!  At this time, I told everybody I knew that would stand still to hear it – He is real. They, of course, thought I’d lost my marbles. I joined that local Anglican church and was blessed with good solid teaching. I started to devour the bible – I’d never read it before. I began with the Gospel of John which is still, to this day, my favourite Gospel.

Now, don’t give up on me, you’ve made it this far OK?? Mo-oving on … I constantly wanted more of Jesus. Three years after that I still wanted more.  My best friend at church went overseas and she kept sending me back info about “the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.” Long story short, I was desperate for more, I asked the Lord for it. I immediately got some funny words rattling about in my head. I didn’t know what they were so I wrote them down so I wouldn’t forget them, and prayed them every single day in case I forgot them! You know, God doesn’t want to just sprinkle us with water, so our face is kinda sorta moist,  He wants us completely drenched and dunked in the middle of a very deep river.

In my country about a year after getting my three funny words, there was a train disaster, and when the news of it played out live on the TV, God unlocked my heart, and torrents of Holy Spirit’s language came pouring out of my mouth. I am aware that many people will tell you that it is a bad thing when you don’t know what you are praying. I disagree. The Holy Spirit knows what we need more than we do – He prays for US perfectly. Over the course of my life I have learnt that I don’t really know what is good for me, so I am more than happy to trust His wisdom. I recommend it!  From the moment I gave my life to Jesus, to this day, I have never doubted the Lord is real. I know Him. He talks to me.  😂 👋🏻 

ps I am proof that you don’t need a special prayer to meet the Lord Jesus personally. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to cry out from your heart if you don’t know Him. Ask Him to make Himself real to you.“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved..” Romans 10:9-10.

P 2107 …and to all a good night!

/ DVH

I really wanted a Christmas-type emoji for something I was writing for this happy Christmas season, and all I could find was the face of santa, a fir tree, and two dudes in santa hats! 🤶🧑🏻‍🎄 Yeah. That says it all doesn’t it? Sigh. In our local mega-shopping centre we still actually do still have a nativity scene – it is safely tucked away, mostly hidden, behind the escalators. 🙄 In one place in Scotland they have banned nativity scenes, in case they offend someone. Score a sad and sorry point for the fat guy in the red suit!  That darn frog has been in the water far too long – we dun boiled the life out of it.

Sigh again.🙄 Maybe the retail sales people are scared of sales dropping off if the ACTUAL nativity – the reason for this season (!) was featured. Perhaps it would overwhelm those billions of baubles, twinkly lights, tinsel and so-called Christmas spirit – some of which comes gift wrapped, or even in handy containers! 🍺 Recently I went looking for Christmas cards and couldn’t find any that had a Christian scene on it in my local shops. I found holly, various snowy scenes somewhere or other – who knows where (!), gum leaves, koalas, kangaroos, beach scenes, flowers (!!??) 😳 … Um … since when is Christmas about native flora and fauna? I think it is – outside of our churches – Christmas is not about Jesus anymore. 

It seems the Western world has become obsessed with the idea of Christmas … but the reality has disappeared into the mists of time. Along with dodos, unicorns, personal responsibility and gobs of money! We’ve stopped marvelling at the fact that God Himself did something so incredible it almost burst our educated-idiot boxes, a-n-d … we’ve gone for immediate personal self-gratification instead! Yay US!! BTW, here’s a thought. Since when would you let your mum or dad drag out your baby photos on your birthday? Well HE’S not a BABY either. We sure have let stuff slide haven’t we?

I think I might be up for the the Grinch award. Hilariously, according to his wife, the real Grinch lives next door! For years our dear helpful and loving Buddhist neighbour was against putting up Christmas lights at all, and then we moved in. Boy did we rain on his parade. Oh my. Funny thing that, he constantly tells us how much he loves our lights! People don’t know what they do or don’t want. We need to pray like mad that the Holy Spirit comes with us to Aunt Marigold and Uncle Harold’s house – so the right spirit will prevail.

Meanwhile, I can reassure you that I am not against celebrating Christmas one bit – fa-lah lah lah lah 🎶 and all that. It’s just that I think we’ve moved wa-ay too far past singing carols outside other people’s houses, to remind them of the true meaning of Christmas, and ended up buying out the shops and maxing out our credit cards for the next couple of generations. Since when did Jesus … Who is called our consolation, become “stuff?” What are we teaching our kids? How to live beyond their means??? Hmmm. That did sound kind of Grinch-like …maybe some Grinch atmosphere has oozed over the neighbour’s mutual fence. Good!

Well, at our house we’ve decided to see Christmas as an opportunity to bless people. So we buy boxes of chocolates, tracts, pass-it-on cards and soft drinks on special, and then give them away to the people who do the grunt work to make all our homes function. EG: the garbage men, the guys at our local chemist, the meter man, people who bang on your door to sell you things, including alternative religions, delivery men, and the postie. That’s quite a few people we can bless, and talk to about the Lord. We don’t push anyone, but if they happen to ask a question – serves ‘em right! 🤣

The thing is, as Christians we need to deliberately and intentionally switch our POV away from any so-called inconvenience that requires effort ...over to God-given opportunities. We’ve been caught up in the buy buy buy Christmas rush too. I want to weep when I hear little ones talking about how santa is so cool, he’s going to bring them this and that. We’ve let our enemy over-run us and now the enemy IS US. Only God Himself can help us regain the ground we have lost. It seems it is time to repent, yet again. Hallelujah! Isn’t it wonderful, that our God can do anything. 👋🏻  

PS Handy hint for Christmas difficulties. When confronted by a disgruntled, contentious, difficult, grumpy person I am learning to tell myself: “I’m hanging on to my peace, you can’t have it, my GOD gave it to me, and  it is too valuable to give away to someone who wants to rob me of it.”

P 2106 I have a gift for you…and it’s a big one!

/ DVH

It’s 4.02am at my house – and I was awake, thinking about YOU and praying for you. I thought about a gift that I would like to send to you, with love, for Christmas. 🤗 So here it is 🎁  …”Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him : do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;  do not fret—it leads only to evil  For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.” Psalm 37:7-9 Presents often look pretty on the outside, but it’s actually what’s inside that counts. Let’s ‘unwrap’ this one.

So, the above scripture is my gift to you for today. What does it mean to: ‘be still before the Lord?’ For me it means give up. Give up whatever it is that is bugging me, making me cry, or causing me awful pain – LET. IT.GO. I know I sound like a Disney movie (!!) ❄️ But doing this works. And after that, every single time I start churning away about whatever it is that is bothering me – I let it go again. I’ve learnt that I need to give myself breathing space when it comes to difficult situations – being hurt or angry uses up a whole lot of energy! 

Meanwhile can I suggest you take tissues, tea, coffee, or water with you when you go and sit somewhere where you won’t be disturbed?  And please try to refrain from punching walls! 💥 Sadly you will only hurt yourself and then you will have physical pain as well as mental and emotional anguish. 🙄 Now, sit down and mentally, prayerfully, push the problem away from you. I usually tell the Lord … and yes, this happens to me quite often! … “I can’t do this anymore, and I’m absolutely sure I’m stuck. I need a new plan. I can’t fix … (insert whatever it is) … so I’m giving it to You, I don’t want it anymore.”

‘This thing’ – the current problem, could be a difficult situation, or a person who acts like your enemy, or even unanswered prayer. The first thing that needs to be realised is that when we give something to Jesus – it isn’t lost. I haven’t thrown it away, I SIMPLY GAVE IT TO SOMEONE WAY BETTER AT FIXING THINGS THAN I AM. I can still see the problem, but now I’ve taken my hands off it.  BTW, don’t make excuses for the other person. That is a dead end street, unless the Lord gives you something that you know to be true, and then you can pray FOR them. But excusing other people’s behaviour eventually leads to compounding your own frustration. Plus I’ve found that you can get very tired very quickly when the other person stays where they are – and you appear to be doing all the work! 

Next, I talk to Him about how I feel about whatever it is. This bit is extremely important, but please don’t get stuck there! We can end up building hatred and anger inside us if we revise who did what and start surmising why they did it or how it happened. (This is the “refraining from anger and turning away from wrath” bit.) The important thing is to get YOU out of the way and get whatever it is into the Lord’s hands. Then I simply repent. I remind myself that I am talking to Jesus and if I cannot be honest with Him, then He and I have a problem! Maybe I have tipped over into bitterness – which is another good place to humble myself and repent. 

I don’t have to feel bad about being honest with the Lord, He personally took my sin and nailed it to the cross. He already knows what I did. I usually spend a while doing this, mulling over my own responses and how I contributed to what happened. Then I admit that I wanted to thump whoever it was, but now I am over it … or not … as the case may be. “Help help” works here. Then I ask Him to heal my heart from the awful pain of betrayal and grief inside. I tell Him I want to change and I am prepared to fight my own natural responses so I can give Him room to change them.

Then I follow the instructions in the scripture and I exercise the power of choice. I may still feel incredibly angry … but, nevertheless, I still have a choice. This is part of relinquishment. We need to understand that we are powerless to change things, or other people, and we can get very stuck with their awful choices. But the point is, we don’t want to let their bad choices ruin our walk with Jesus – or our own lives! The Psalmist says: ‘do not fret when people get their own way. and it hurts you…’ (My translation) Trust me, I too have a long list of people that I know who qualify for that statement – but that does not negate my own responsibility.

Did you get the bit that says: ‘they succeed in their ways.’ Yeah. 😶 They wanted to hurt you and they did, and they meant to do it! But what are you gunna do about it? Are you going to let a person who intends to hurt you, control your life, your thoughts, your actions, your responses? Personally, I want Jesus to be  in charge – He faced a lot of mean people in His time and He knows how to do this stuff and get through it. BTW if I feel overwhelmed with pain, it is OK to let Him comfort me, because He was overwhelmed too. I remind myself that HE has a plan for me – it’s for my good. 

Plus, He is wa-ay smarter than my enemy. He knows how to get through this thing without it taking away my peace. That is why it is good to put Him in charge. He is so brilliant, He can take what was meant to harm me and work it together for my own good. And at the same time, He has a plan for the other person/people too. EVERYBODY BENEFITS WHEN WE PUT JESUS IN CHARGE. People who are deliberately malicious don’t get away with their actions – they will eventually have to face HIM – this Psalm says so! “…and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

At this moment in the process of unwrapping this present, you and I have another choice. The problem, or person, and/or the situation, is now over there, with the Lord. Will we walk away and leave it there? Or will we feel temporarily better from sharing, crying, yelling etc., and talking to Him … and then go and pick it up again as we leave? Or will we walk away free – knowing that the King of the Universe has got our back, and He is going to use this difficult situation to increase our trust in His goodness. Enjoy the present and have a great day. 👋🏻

PS. Hands on – my problem … Hands off – His problem.

P 2105 Merry Christmas – and yeah, I know it’s early!

/ DVH

In the past, I have spoken with some highly intelligent people, who told me that I came from a kind of an amoebic bird-fish that crawled out of some sort of primordial mud. Meanwhile, if you think about it, the scientists who think they have proved their point, actually agree with God Himself! The bible says we came from mud they have just missed seeing God Himself in the process.

Here’s an FYI, Genesis says that man was made from mud, but then God breathed HIS LIFE into that pile of dirt!  (Genesis 2:7) And Adam became a living breathing being – filled with the same life that IS in God Himself! It took 930 years for Adam to die, he had so much eternal life in Him, even though he gave it up when he disobeyed. Some other clever people have devoted their lives trying to create Artificial Intelligence, but the truth is that God put more intelligence and potential inside a little baby’s brain than we can ever duplicate!  Even I can sculpt a passable frog out of clay but I cannot make it LIVE. Jesus Christ has life in HIM – He came to give that life that we threw away, back to us.Here’s a fun thing – Jesus once gave a blind guy a brand new eyeball by spitting into the dirty and He made it from… wait for it … MUD! (John 9:6) Ya might want to read that and think on it! 🤔

Our God came here to earth, in Person – this is what Christmas is about. It is about heaven touching earth in such an incredible way that every single thing changed. And for some people, all around the world, this the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus Christ is our living hope. He came to earth for all of us, but we really do need to remember, that we all inhabit the same planet. However, we can’t possibly share the good news in the way it was written, when we are so utterly determined to keep our lives separate from the other people world-wide who are suffering! Christ identified with us deliberately. Why do you think God chose a cowshed as a shelter to bring His precious Son into this world? He wants everyone to know that they matter to Him. Poverty, sin, and sickness are not some sort of punishment from the Lord, instead this stuff is an opportunity for those who have plenty – to share.

People matter so much to our Heavenly Father – not our own comfort, or even our expensive Christmas gifts. We’ve become so obsessed with our OWN personal happiness, we’ve forgotten Who we are here for! Jesus included everyone – refugees, poor people, smart people, people who didn’t believe in Him  …plus … the people who knew they were sinful and … the ones who didn’t like Him at all. Christ didn’t see any human barriers, because they only exist because we’ve let them be there.Sadly we’ve even managed to take something God did that was so incredible, so profound, and we made it ALL ABOUT US. Yeah. Merry Christmas! 

I can’t help wondering about what the Lord would like for HIS birthday? Any thoughts?? Like maybe we can eat less and use the money to share with those who have NONE? Ask yourself, who did the Lord spend the most time with? If these people are His priority then they should be ours as well. When we tell people that Jesus loves them so much, they may or may not hear us –  but that bit is not our responsibility. Our bit is to demonstrate His word in our actions, prompted by His love, and His power. God is looking for empty vessels to fill. Vessels that will overflow with concern and compassion for those to whom Christmas is just another dreadful day spent looking for food, shelter, and warmth – for them and for their families. There are times when I think the Western world is so FULL we’ve become utterly side-tracked. Riches and comfort are like an opiate, they lull us off to sleep. 

Jesus said: ’GO! And tell them I love them – help them…” Merry Christmas… early.