Month: April 2025

P 2964 Offence.

/ DVH

Offence puts a fence between us, other people, and the Lord. That fence often means that we’ve gone back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and taken a bite out of that life-killing fruit again. Someone has hurt us, and now we are pushing them away so we don’t have to deal with how we feel. Offence is about indulging and expressing the old self, our flesh.

Bless the Lord, because of Jesus, we don’t have to live like that now. You and I have access to the tree of life! ALL THE TIME. The fruit on that tree nourishes us, and our spiritual lives. This means as we talk to the Lord, (in prayer), and read and apply His book (the bible) into our lives, we major on what is really important. Things like: Doing what it says! … Offence can also rear its ugly head because someone has pointed out something we were hoping nobody else saw, and we feel our mistakes have been uncovered. Actually, this means we’ve lost or not valued our LOVE covering. Jesus loves us and that love covers our lives. His Love is our all purpose, everyday garment.

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8.“He has brought me to His banqueting place, And His banner over me is love [waving overhead to protect and comfort me].” Song of songs 2:4. 

“Beyond all these things put on and wrap yourselves in [unselfish] love, which is the perfect bond of unity [for everything is bound together in agreement when each one seeks the best for others].”Colossians 3:14.

Without living under, and releasing His love to others, we will quickly go back to eating the wrong fruit from the wrong tree, resulting in judging others and their actions. We can call it discernment, to make it sound better – but that is actually a lie. Real insight stands between the accused and the accuser – Jesus showed us that..We can’t possibly know why someone else did what they did – only God knows their hearts. Meanwhile, I must say from my own experience, that at least some of the time WE don’t even know why we do what we do and say what we say!

Remember, that human judgment began with Eve’s bad decision, she made a terrible judgment call. She trusted her own eyes and her understanding. And let’s not leave out that snake! She deliberately defied the Lord’s specific instructions.We can easily do this ourselves, when we can’t be bothered to ask the Lord about something. Maybe we don’t have time to pray. (How hard is it to say: ‘help?!’) Maybe we excuse ourselves because this decision is not all that important — after all God gave us a brain and He means for us to use it! Actually, He means for us to be obedient to the Holy Spirit because Jesus sent HIM back to help us – right here, right now! 

At the same time human beings can get offended with God. This can happen when He doesn’t answer our prayers the way we thought He should. We quote this verse and that situation and demand that the Lord meet our expectations. Prayer can be bold, but it also needs to be humble. Almighty God is the Greater One, and He deserves our reverent respect. Otherwise we can get offended with Him when we think we know the answer better than He does. There are times when things get difficult, because He is doing something else.

Sadly there are also times that we analyse the advantages for us in a situation, and decide ‘this will be good for me,’ OR even: ‘this is NOT good for me.’ Often we do that from our own unrenewed mind. That’s called ‘leaning on our own understanding.’ The way to lean on His understanding is to read the book, and then OBEY what we read, whether it is convenient, expedient or not!

I ask Him while I’m reading the bible: ‘Do I do this?’ I don’t want to excuse myself, because I value my relationship with Him over everything else. Plus I don’t trust my own understanding – my understanding can be my flesh protecting itself. Sometimes my mind is guaranteed to try to find some loop-hole or other, so I can continue to distance myself from difficult situations and stay comfortable. 

At the same time, I’ve learnt that it does not profit any of my relationships when I offer conditional apologies, and say things like “IF I have offended you then I am so sorry, please forgive me”- “IF” implies doubt. Um …if the person in front of you is angry, then there is no doubt at all that you have offended them! Duh! Whether it is a misunderstanding or not, it needs to be sweetly and gently sorted out, with the other person – with His wisdom and humility as our guide. Who knows? You might learn something, about yourself and each other.

Offence separates people – sometimes whole families. It breaks friendships, and it can destroy churches and start wars. It can mean we are not prepared to let the other person tell their story, because we have hurt feelings or we have been physically hurt. So now we want to stay mad as some sort of protection against that person hurting us again. Offence is always a stumbling block to learning love the offender. Bye 👋

P 2963 Quick sand.

/ DVH

One of the quick sand traps we can fall into as we learn to walk with the Lord, is that we can get stuck regarding sin. We try to explain things away. When we focus on what we think happened and why — that’s when a ‘sin’ focus takes over and we stop thinking like we are children of the King. My advice is in all situations, focus on the Lord. Dismissing our sin is like stepping into quick sand.

What we intently look at, has a tendency to grow larger, and we need the Lord to be larger than the dumb stuff  other people do. Focussing on the cross and everything He chose to do for us, produces clear focus and gratitude. I’ve found that ‘self’ will lie to you. It is not interested in dying … because it is afraid it will cease to exist if it dies. But death to the ‘old’ self is always the desired outcome. We can only LIVE for Jesus to the extent that we are prepared to DIE to self.

Otherwise we will start explaining why we did this or that, trying to justify ourselves. Let’s just level the playing field shall we? “ALL have sinned!” This means we can’t possibly justify ourselves – all means all!  Don’t fight humility or give self any credence, confession is the answer to sin. Renewing – or changing your mind – means our focus will change as we focus on His thoughts not ours. Otherwise we are trapped, but the minute we confess our faults – that trap flies open. Sin is a deceiver. It wants us to identify with it instead of leaning on and relying upon what Jesus did for us. The reality is, sin can no longer hold us, it can only take hold when we believe its lies.

Trying to justify ourselves means that we have been tricked into giving away the ground that Jesus died to give us. The efficiency of our enemy’s trap depends upon the personality of the individual person. For many people, He can grab them because of an underlying sense of guilt or shame. This means that we haven’t yet totally grasped what we have been given. Jesus Christ gave us His justification, His stature before God. We have it credited to our account. God gave us something that we could never do for ourselves – for free. But it cost Him everything – that’s the kind of wonderful God we serve! 

This what what this incredible exchange was all about – Jesus took our sin and gave us His holiness, His righteousness. To walk in those things we need to treat other people the same way He treated us. We were His enemies! We were against everything He stood for. We need to do this generously. Unselfishly. Not just the people we like, but even our known enemies. Now we are free to choose to follow Him down the road of sacrificial love, compassion, kindness etc.

The Christian life is about choices. It is often about choices that need to be made under pressure. Jesus chose to be a servant. So we choose to follow Him and live the same way He did, with thanksgiving and obedience. Our day-to-day choices provide us with a mirror – they show us how much faith we are living in. When we choose to give into our flesh, ourselves, our old nature, we are empowering our old life. That old life no longer has any power over us – we can only enliven it by giving it our allegiance. It is a mirage, a memory, a shadow of what was. We will find the attitude or actions that seem to imprison us, actually cannot hold onto us when we begin to use our faith to walk away from them.

The more we have indulged our flesh the harder the enemy will fight for us to return to that life. he never stops tempting us, because Jesus Himself said: “… in this world you will have trials…” When we are tried, by self-interest or difficult circumstances, our true self comes to the surface where it can be identified and dealt with. Instead of excusing that behaviour as ‘only human’ or ‘normal under the circumstances’ — we need to own how we’ve reacted so we can walk away from it, back into the freedom Christ has given us.

Then with the Holy Spirit’s help, we begin to take our renewed mind’s faith-steps away from the things that drag us down and step into our new life, our new identity, in Christ. We are now who He says we are. This means instead of giving you a piece of my mind, I give away His PEACE to you instead. Instead of punishing you because you don’t suit me, I choose to love you. Loving you is not giving you permission to continue to hurt me, instead it gives YOU a chance to know what unconditional love looks like!

The reason I can forgive you or you can forgive me is because of what Jesus did for both of us. We are standing on the same ground. Our issues are not people, our issues are attitudes and subsequent actions.“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” Matthew 5:21-22a. See? Attitudes matter!! Anger is clearly out of God’s order. It’s not just a bad day, or a stinky attitude, or a suitable response to someone else’s sin, to warn them off.

We know something that the other person may not know – He died for their sin too. Sin, or holding onto resentment or bitterness, or shame or guilt, is like stepping into quick sand. We will drown and smother our burgeoning faith. Our best combat attitude is to continue to renew our mind, and act on what we read. Then we begin to think about this life like Jesus did. We ask for His help – and use our faith to be obedient. Bye 👋

P 2962 What ARE you wearing?

/ DVH

When my kids were little I can remember uttering the above words to them many times. One of them insisted on going out with a jumper inside out and backwards. 🙄

We’ve all heard these words from Colossians 3:12, but applying them has become a priority. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” I think it is appropriate for us to ask ourselves daily — what does compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience look like? Personally I do that with prayer and a whole lot of help from the Holy Spirit, with great truckloads of His Grace. Unfortunately, I have an awful feeling that these things that we are meant to wear, every single day, are the absolute antithesis of what the world all around us says we should wear daily to survive.

So let’s remember first of all, that survival by this world’s standard, is no longer our aim. Our Saviour set the example for us. Jesus led the way. He had so little personal stuff that the soldiers played ‘two up’ underneath His cross to own it!  At the same time, no matter what kind of a fancy slant we put on the way we live, we cannot disguise a lack of compassion, or kindness, humility etc. This means we will go out into this world naked unless we choose to wear the clothes that Jesus Christ bought for us. Ya might want to pause and think on that one. 🤔

Romans 13:14 talks about the origin of our brand new faith clothes. “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” The secret to wearing His clothes is stop worrying about what we wear, or how our life will go – or even what we can do to cheer ourselves up, because we’ve had a bad day. We just leave everything with Him.“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? … Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”Matthew 6:25-27… well, sort of … I left bits out OK?

Worry steals our God-given clothing. So does anxiety, or anything else you care to call that stuff we all do at 3.00am — when we can’t sleep and we are trying to figure out what to do about something that seems insurmountable! We are exhorted by Paul to put on Christ. Put on His attitude to this life. That’s the answer! After all, Jesus never worried about anything. By the way, let’s remember that the Lord Himself had a great deal on His shoulders – He only came to save the world! Plus there’s Isaiah 9:6 … Talk about expectations!! 

You can check what He did out for yourself in the Gospels. Jesus knew the value in trusting God in all things. He walked on the same dirt you and I walk on, probably a great deal further every single day than we do! He needed to eat etc, just like us, but He did not worry about those things – not even about where His next meal was coming from – He quite simply gave thanks for the meal in front of Him!

“… put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbour, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,…”Ephesians 4:22-26. There are a whole lot of clues about our new clothing in these verses, and nodding our heads and agreeing with it will not make it happen! Restraint is invaluable. These things aren’t suggestions, they’ve been given to us to help us become an overcomer. Please note the big clue that we can be corrupted by our own lusts.

The thing is, we can’t fit into our new clothes, if we feel we must lie to protect ourselves, or make ourselves look good. Plus there are no good reasons why we should be angry with others. God turned His anger away from us and now it is our turn to do that for those people who live around us! Instead we are to live our lives grateful for the gifts of His righteousness and holiness  – these are the clothes Jesus personally paid for us to have. And we use our faith in what He said, to choose to live like that.

At the same time we must deliberately choose to stop revising and reviewing someone else’s faults and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. We don’t give up until it comes. It’s called perseverance, and it’s in the book! When somebody or something annoys us — we choose to see that as an opportunity to cultivate the spirit of self-control by remaining silent in the face of provocation.That takes practice. In the meantime we can be grateful to God that the perpetrator has given us an opportunity to practice a skill we don’t have… yet. 

Maybe we think it is too hard to change. Here’s a verse: “You have not yet struggled to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;..” Hebrews 12:4. So … I look around me and at my clothes and say to myself —If the answer is negative then I conclude that someone has hurt my feelings but … I’ll live! Ask yourself, what are YOU wearing? Bye 👋

P 2961 God is not angry with you.

/ DVH

Isaiah 12:1-6:“And you will say in that day, “I thank You, God. You were angry but Your anger wasn’t forever. You withdrew Your anger and moved in and comforted me. “Yes, indeed—God is my salvation. I trust, I won’t be afraid. God—yes God!—is my strength and song, best of all, my salvation! He’s done it all! Let the whole earth know what He’s done! Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion! The Greatest lives among you: The Holy of Israel.” 

Instead of thinking we know what verses like these mean – perhaps we need to pray about them …as well as praying them over ourselves! You and I have greatly benefited from what Isaiah saw and understood. Did you get the prophet’s response? As he saw these things he’s comforted and strengthened – plus he found trust, and he let go of fear! Isaiah also saw that God Himself would move in to live inside us.Because of what the entire New Testament says, we know the truth of what this great prophet saw! Isaiah saw God withdraw His anger toward mankind and he saw all of us being sooo happy about it. If you’re happy and you know it tell your face!

I think that in the Presence of God’s greatness and goodness, Isaiah was given the capacity to comprehend that God was going to withdraw His anger from all of mankind, and he saw it as if it was happening at that moment. This man of God was in heaven at that time, in the eternal NOW – where there is no past, present or future. In subsequent chapters he also saw that God’s own Son would come here and pay the price for our sin, and that one incredible action means God withdrew His anger — because the Lord Jesus voluntarily took the punishment that belongs to every man, woman and child.

You and I are living our everyday humdrum lives inside these verses. We are living in the bit that says He comforts us so we can be joyful. My question today is this: have you comprehended what God did for you, is for today, it is for now? You could be living in a pig pen or a penthouse, a war zone or a peaceful place but because of Jesus, and everything He did, you now have God’s favour. We have a book that testifies to that. Salvation is not ‘pie in the sky when we die’ He wants us to be happy with what He did for us right now. Almighty God took all His anger out on Christ. Isn’t that astonishing!  Boy do those thoughts blow my tiny mind! 

I cannot comprehend how our Heavenly Father God could hurt SomeOne He loves  … but He did — and He did it for our sake. “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.”We know that these verses are prophetic, because in Isaiah the Lord is talking about “in that day.” I believe THAT day is THIS day to us … it has been THIS day for the last 2,000 years. I think this day lasts until the Lord Jesus comes back. We hurt His heart when we choose to sin and live outside of His enormous provision of Grace.

You know, I cannot imagine letting evil men do evil things to my son… e-v-e-r. Even if I knew there was an incredible greater good involved. But that’s what God’s love looks like. He counted the cost and decided we were worth it – how astonishing.  At Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, He made those people who were waiting in that upper room — NEW. The One Who created the world …recreated them! Our job is to trust what He did then, is totally true today. Now day by day we can be recreated in Christ’s image, and glorify God. 

Isaiah was given an expanded view of the wisdom, long-suffering and deep deep love God Himself has for all of us. Even if we erroneously believe that the Lord is angry with us, here is something concrete. We learn it from this passage – God’s anger did not last – His goodness won. And all that happened before we were born! Not only that, He wants to comfort us when we are suffering, that is also why Christ came. We see this in the way Jesus treated people. Changed circumstances are not our strength and song … HE IS. God illustrated personally, and publicly, for all time, and for all mankind to see — that Love is prepared to wait for the best outcome, no matter what it costs and how hard it is to bear.

Sometimes we cannot embrace these concepts because the world has taught us that we need to feel good, in order for things to be good. We think trouble should be far far away from us. But God’s Ways are not our ways, they are higher than ours. There is a greater good! The only way we can see this life, things like terrible situations around us, is through His eyes. We don’t know LOVE well enough yet. After all He might joyfully pardon someone we might want to punish! WE desperately NEED HIS EYES to view the people and situations around us. 

Our personal opinions have been bent by circumstances and selfishness. People see love as getting what they want. What our God sees as Love is almost a foreign language to most of us. In spite of our inadequacies, our unbelief, our God is not angry with us, His anger was satisfied by what Christ did. We will find our strength in what He has already given you. Bye for today, 👋

P 2960 Are you ‘sanctified and enriched?’

/ DVH

“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified (set apart, made holy) in Christ Jesus, who are selected and called as saints (God’s people), together with all those who in every place call on and honour the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace [inner calm and spiritual well-being] from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, so that in everything you were [exceedingly] enriched in Him, in all speech [empowered by the spiritual gifts] and in all knowledge [with insight into the faith].” 1 Corinthians 1:2-6.

You know, the first night someone eats great spaghetti bolognese it is yummy, everybody enjoys it. But if you leave some for another night, the left-overs will be enriched by time, and the melding together of the various flavours into something new and even more fabulous. Tickling our taste buds into a deeper experience. After we are saved, we learn to love like He did so that the flavour of our life is sweet, rich and good to those around us.

Christians are destined to do more than give mental assent to the truths in the bible – we are destined, right here, and right now, today, to mirror the love and life of Christ to everyone we meet and know. God’s sanctification and richness are meant to flow through us, so He can touch the lives of everyone around us. These holy things, the qualities that are in Christ Jesus, need to soak into our lives and join together to produce a brand  new sanctified, greatly enriched SELF! 

God didn’t just re-vamp us when Jesus saved us, or even update us with some sort of fantastic, whizz-bang upgrade. He totally transformed our lives with His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as we practice yielding and co-operating with Him. We are permanently changed and … wait for it … ENRICHED and made HOLY.  We are destined to become what He planned for us from the very beginning of time.  Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can be bigger and sweeter, and more loving than we can comprehend.

Sadly it is too easy to be the product of this fallen world all around us. We’ve been influenced, battered and blasted by other imperfect people, who are just like us. Living within relationships and situations beyond our control. Those things have shaped us into the kind of people who live to hide to protect ourselves against the ugly things of this world. There is healing in the blood of Jesus. God planned for His kids, to volunteer to exhibit the same qualities that Jesus Himself had from the beginning of time. And this process is not about what we can do by ourselves. Just like the spaghetti gets better from soaking in its own flavours, we get better and richer by soaking in His love for us and spreading that flavour around.

Christ opened something that can never be closed again when He died in our place. He tore open in this world the forces that imprisoned all of mankind to sin, death and destruction. He flung opened the door to the possibility of change! We have been given the power to choose to be transformed under the Holy Spirit’s influence. Now, if you are happy with who you are right now, then perhaps that is not going to seem like such a wonderful gift. BUT! If being like He was, in this world, seems like a dream to you, cheer up! It’s now a reality.

How do we get there? We go through the same door of death Jesus went through, and we choose to die to what we want, like He did, minute by minute. By the way, I don’t mean you literally kill yourself!  We are to die to self, by giving up our right to live this life the way we want to, the way we planned for ourselves. And instead we deliberately choose to lay our lives down for His sake, just like the Lord did for us – using our faith to do it.

Then you and I will come out the other side of those everyday, deliberately made choices transformed. Selfishness, spite, anger, lying, murder – all those things that have held us captive to our own personal circumstances – even the choices we have made so far –  melt away under the power of what Christ did for us. The way to be transformed, is to choose to yield our will to His will. 

And that is not a part-time job, it is a life-time of day-by-day specifically chosen decisions to live this life Christ’s way. Jim Elliot, the modern martyr, said this better than I can: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.” And the bible itself says that like this: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25.

We will all die eventually, but it is how we choose to live from day to day that matters. We can live this life grabbing at all we can, to meet whatever needs we’ve picked up along the way. Constantly angry with others because they are trapped as much as we are … or we can choose to live His Way. Having a servant’s heart and loving those people around us this world pronounces unloveable. BTW, we are ALL unloveable!! And we all have our own nifty little devices to hide that fact from the world around us.

To live like Christ did, we learn from the Holy Spirit Himself, to be the change we want to see. We too can be sanctified and enriched and be like the Lord in every circumstance, as we choose to die to our old way of thinking and start to embrace and act on His ways. He died to give us the power to change and live a brand new life. What are we doing with that power? Bye. 👋

P 2959 Thank God for the brethren!

/ DVH

Our God is always amazing, and so are His kids. However this week has been just plain terrible at our house! My 97 year old Mum was diagnosed with cancer out of the blue. She has been merrily making plans to reach 100, when she had a hiccup and was bundled off to hospital. The tests they did showed that she is actually very ill.

When someone is 97 you really don’t expect they will live forever, down here, but the finality of that diagnosis was completely confronting for me. She’s as cheerful as ever, if not slightly confused, but able to communicate quite well. On the other hand, I’m not at all cheerful about it. Yet at the same time I have been thanking the Lord over and over again for helping us to restore our relationship into something that is much better than it has ever been before. Fortunately, thanks to modern medicine, so far she is not suffering.

This is one of those situations that you don’t know how you will feel until you get there. Yet I keep giving the whole thing to the Lord, over and over again. The result has been that everything seems OK — and then it isn’t — and I never know when “it isn’t” is going to turn up!  I’ve been struggling with the seriousness of the situation, and how to help her and do whatever is necessary. So I take it back, worry over it, try to figure it out — then I give it back to the Lord again. Only to take it back ten minutes later. Double mindedness is appalling, it has a high cost in mental health!

I really do credit any semblance of sanity I have right now to my family’s prayers, and I include my brothers and sisters in Christ in that statement – they are definitely my family too. We cannot ever underestimate the power of intercessory prayer on our behalf. Yesterday, I saw it powerfully in action, again, regarding ongoing damage to our home. Cyclone Alfred messed up a lot of people’s homes, there was flooding and major damage all over the place. If that happens to be you, you have my prayers and deep sympathy. At our house that extremely unfriendly weather system caused a floor in one room a whole lot of damage. The problem is not the damage, which will be fixed … eventually… 

…the problem is getting it fixed! Plus the 4,000 proposed ways to do it. Then comes paying for it! Our insurance company trotted out the whole ‘existing problem’ clause, so that was that. Picking one of the many ways to go ahead seems to have overloaded my brain, which keeps skiving off into grief. Fortunately my dearest hubby is brilliant and steadfast, and he has prayed extensively about this situation. Under any circumstances, two really are better than one! I don’t usually write much about stuff like this, but I fell headfirst down a figurative mine-hole and I have quite simply needed other people’s prayers to deal with my mental and emotional responses, because I just can’t manage this stuff without Jesus.

I decided to share these things here, because this is the kind of scenario that can derail us. Simply because it is unexpected. And to be perfectly honest with you, I’m so sick of the whole “I’m fine” Christian-ese stuff we all feel obligated to cough up. So I decided to drop the positive attitude facade, and just be honest with you. I’m NOT fine … but I know He will get me through this. One of the things I wanted to say today was, when bad stuff happens – don’t be too proud to ask for help.

Today I have a bit more clarity, and I’ve been able to surrender everything that is going on to the Lord … and leave it there. Hubby has come up with a great plan, and he has been just marvellous with my mother. You know, sometimes it is not what has happened that gets you, its the overwhelming varied endless advice, and never-ending meetings and discussions. 

I can’t imagine what I would do if my mother had not made her own wishes clear. Nobody wants to hear “not to be resuscitated’ over their parent, no matter how long they’ve been alive. My brain gets it, but my emotions have been screaming: “You’ve got to save her.”  Plus even though a flooded floor is minor in comparison, it seems major right now because of the endless conjecture on how it can be fixed. I have been reduced to taking one minute at a time, because my thoughts and emotions have decided they do not have to consult me about anything!

Two days ago I was crying in the dentist chair. It hurt, but it wasn’t that bad! When you are already physically depleted by ongoing health issues, these kinds of battles batter at your faith, and planning a funeral was not on my agenda! So here I am, with His strength as the ONLY source in my weakness. Plus I am very grateful to the people who are currently holding my arms up.

Lastly I would like to ask for forgiveness if I have hurt anyone while they were going through something that overwhelmed them to the point of despair. I honestly didn’t completely understand how quickly the ground can go from under your feet. “Even when bad things happen to the good and Godly ones, the Lord will save them and not let them be defeated by what they face.” Psalm 34:19. Bless you guys, you know who you are! 🙏

P 2958 When the Master is away …!

/ DVH

… That’s when the bad servants beat up the good ones and started stealing, plus they cheat others, and complain about some people getting more than them.  Once they even killed off the heir so they could have the lot! There’s my potted version of at least 3 of those parables. 

The Lord told over 30 stories about servants and masters … do you think maybe He had a point for us?? My thought for today is this: those stories, parables, illustrations of what NOT to do are written to warn us. We’re His servants —remember? Those things were written to alert us about the kind of stuff we can fall into when the Holy Spirit is not welcome. You think that’s an exaggeration right? Yeah, so did I until the Lord put His great big exclamation point right next to the title of this blog! 

Years ago, there was this hair product called Brylcreem. It fixed a guy’s hair in place like glue!! Forget gels … this stuff was shiny and it stuck your hair together into the kind of a shiny helmet that wouldn’t move in a Force 4 gale! Men loved it. Meanwhile, at the same time, the ladies were also supergluing their hair into teased up balls that stood about 6-10cms away from their heads. We did this stuff … be-ca-us-e…it was the fashion. How dumb can you get and still breathe? Actually you couldn’t breathe much at all – that hair spray left you coughing and spluttering for ages.

What has hairspray and Brylcreem got to do with the church? Any church can get stuck in a shape that comes from the past by doing what we have always done, simply because it worked in the past! That’s what. OR we can end up following the fashions of the mega churches around us – instead of finding our own place. Maybe we’ve stopped thinking about what the Master of HIS vineyard told us to do, and started to think that our church is ours… OR … we want to do everything the way our great granddaddy did it because ‘he founded this church and they had wonderful ‘praise the Lord’ meetings way back then. This church has great roots.’ 

Fabulous. So how is the fruit production going? Good roots mean good fruit right? 😳 Are we still excited about the faith we first had when we met the Lord? We were over-the-moon-passionate about those things He is passionate about. IE: PEOPLE! We have been exhorted, in the book, not to leave our first love behind… plus our faith is meant to grow and expand and affect everyone around us … until we leave here. 

To me that means we should be trusting God with more today than we did last year … because, to begin with, more stuff keeps happening in this world each year! Things change, our kids grow, and our problems are no longer how long will they sleep? They are: what time did they come home last night? Who are they hanging around with? Unless we listen to Him and He starts blessing our meetings in such a way that others come to believe, we can easily lose our way. – like the servants in those parables.  

They had meetings in the bible that were so incredible people got saved just standing near the participants. I know that some churches have over 4,000 people attending and bible studies and programs up to the ceiling and back – but how many laid-down lovers of Jesus do you have? How many people can you call at four in the morning to help you with an unruly drunk or druggie who needs help? The kind of people who will open their homes and take that severely disheveled, smelly person in. 

The thing that corrupted the workers in those vineyards etc. was this – time passed and the master did not come back. So people starting improvising how they thought things would work better for them. In the absence of the Holy Spirit’s convicting Presence we will simply go through the motions …and then one day we’ll wonder why our kids don’t want to come to church anymore! Would we even notice that we are just going through the motions, Sunday by Sunday? There is a way to reach into our neighbourhoods … He knows it and we need what HE KNOWS. Let’s ask HIM! Let’s ‘ask, and keep on asking’ about that!

I don’t have answers, I just have questions. I’m not even talking about miracles, signs and wonders, although those things are great! I’m talking about healthy, happy, growing, spiritual babies who have a testimony to the goodness of God every single time you speak to them. People who are devoted to glorifying Jesus in every situation. Plus mature people who happily spend their lives for His sake, even if life takes a bite out of them – and it will – their fruit just gets sweeter and sweeter.

So what can you do about this? Pray. Raise your level of expectation – expect to meet with Him and have your mindsets challenged and changed, every single Sunday. It is not the preacher’s skill that will change you, it is the attitude of your heart toward God fulfilling His purposes in your life. Big duh! here … don’t stay mad at anyone! Let’s not be the kind of servants who mess around and mess up! Even if we feel nothing, HE will always deserve all the glory. Amen! When the Master is away …let’s do what HE would do. Bye 👋

P 2957 Be fruitful not just productive.

/ DVH

After all, Jesus Christ Himself answered to SomeOne else – His Father! John 9:1-4: “While He was passing by, He noticed a man [who had been] blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi (Teacher), who   sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him. We must work the works of Him Who sent Me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”

Sin is common to man, the bible tells us that, but isn’t it astonishing how quickly human beings go into blame, even right in front of Jesus? They say things like: ‘Whose fault is this, Jesus – him or his parents?’ Religion always wants a reason to blame, and sometimes it wants to excuse itself. ‘It’s not my fault my parents beat me, neglected me, spoiled me as a child I can’t help it.’ Right. So it seems to me that you are having trouble putting childish things away?? Read I Corinthians 13:11. How about you study the power of CHOICE?

I love 💕the way that Jesus sorts these things out… because this stuff really IS a waste of time! His disciples noticed that blind man and they wanted a religious reason for his ailment, but …  but… Jesus just healed him!  I mean I’m on the Lord’s team about that … just do something about whatever is wrong!  Love on the guy, restore his life, and throw blame out of the window. Don’t analyse it. Deal with it. Pray over it. After all we’ve been given His authority!

Not only that, then the Lord says something here we don’t even dare to discuss ……this incredible Being, Almighty God, Who ‘wraps Himself in unapproachable light and has no darkness in Him at all’ ALLOWED that blind man to be born blind so He could illustrate His glory! Ya might want to think about that for 3 months or so, ‘cos it kind of stomps all over all kinds of theology … like right … there. Our God is not the ‘when you wish upon a star, pretty blue fairy.’  When He came down upon the mountain in front of the Israelites they shoved Moses up the front and said “We are too scared of Him, YOU GO!” Let’s always remember that He’s the Mighty God Who rules heaven and earth, and — you’d better believe it buddy!

When Jesus took off His earthly human form, and He was revealed as God’s Son before 3 of His disciples – nobody had anything to say except Peter  — and that poor guy made an ass of himself… again. I always feel sorry for Peter, he says dumb stuff right out loud. Those things we might kind of whisper in corners to each other but we wouldn’t dare say any of it out loud at church. People might stop thinking we are holy if we did that. 

John 9:39: “Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment [to separate those who believe in Me from those who reject Me—to declare judgment on those who choose to be separated from God], so that the sightless would see, and those who see would become blind.”That sounds pretty clear and ‘user friendly’ to me. When the Lord was confronted with a blind man — He healed him. He didn’t form a committee to discuss what they should do next  didn’t care about the guy’s theology – or anyone else’s theology for that matter! He was simply fulfilling His God-given mandate. Is this a good time to mention that we have that mandate too?? Too soon??? Not ready??? Hmmm… I seem to recall the Lord said: “Live ready.” Matthew 24:42-51.

Moving on … Jesus knew that there was going to be a time when He couldn’t work anymore, so He did not waste a minute of the time He had at His disposal. That needs to be our blueprint for this life too. It is also worth noting that praying for the sick is a work that God has told all of us to do. Whether we feel spiritual or not, it’s our job now. I’ve prayed for the sick and they got worse and died, and I’ve prayed for the sick and they got better. And I can’t tell you why either one turned out either way! I simply know He said pray for the sick, so I did.

Whatever Jesus did, praying for the sick, deliverance, personal instruction – He totally did everything He did for the glory of God. He never justified big meetings by saying He had a ministry or some special gift … and yet He had ALL the gifts … better than we ever could. Instead He preached whatever He heard His Father saying to those who came. Whether it was two people or five thousand. He left everything to God and did what His Father told Him, and whatever He saw His Father doing. John 5:19. 

That verse in John 5 has always fascinated me. Jesus was not proud, He was humble, submitted to His Father.  The words “I do nothing by Myself” are pure gold to me. The Lord Jesus had no other agenda. I pray God will remove every one of my agendas and give me HIS! Amen. Now there’s a heart worth asking for! I wanna be with the people who only do what He’s doing and only say what He’s saying. The church has done enough advertising, talking and big mouthing, we need to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and do what He says. It seems to me that sometimes we talk to cover up our lack. Did I say that out loud? Yikes… yes I did!! 

My current theory, (yeah, I freely admit it is a theory,) is that we need the Word of God to work on us, within us. Transformation will follow as we admit our lack and go after the Answer. Then we will freely flow in love, compassion and kindness. Jesus Himself never lacked those qualities, and we need to go after them, not just the gifts. We are meant to be fruit bearing vines, not libraries, or fun fairs. We desperately need the love and devotion that never fails. Sadly, in my personal experience, my human love can fail all over the place! I am especially convicted when I read I Corinthians 13:7. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 

We will gain compassion and kindness by simply walking with the Lord, and seeing others through His eyes. Plus steadfastly walking through difficulties, sorrow and suffering, without losing any of our LOVE for Him, and others. I pray for everyone reading this blog today that they too would aim at Love over everything else because Love is the best glue known to mankind. As we too work the works of Him Who sent US, we must remember that unless we have Love, HIS love, we can end up clanging away like a fire bell.

We need to get our minds renewed to think like His, and “get our head in the game!” Fruitfulness is life-changing, not just productive. Bye 👋

P 2956 A little tiny glimpse into history.

/ DVH

Today I want to briefly talk about what life was like for me as a child. Mainly because there have been huge changes to the world since I was born. As a small child, in an inner city suburb, bread came in a van, and the iceman came in his horse-drawn waggon. NO! Not the one in that awful movie —the actual iceman who brought very real ice for our very real icebox! Milk, by the way, also arrived on our doorstep, every morning, from a little car that chugged up and down the street. 

At my house there were things that were expected from me. I could cook by the time I was 7 or 8, it was my job to get the dinner veggies on. They were always peeled and boiled veggies – even the memory of those still makes me shudder! Plus I had to set and clear the table, make my bed and tidy my own room – I was a total DUD at that last one. For fun I was allowed to listen to the radio, but only if my behaviour was acceptable! My very favourite things were reading, drawing, or knitting. I knitted my mother a whole jumper around the age of 12 or 13. TV eventually arrived on the scene, but we couldn’t afford one.

I walked about a kilometre to school and back home again, by myself, every day from Grade 2. It was obviously much safer for children back then! Kids were very strongly governed, they were to be seen and not heard!  Adults were respected or you got a clip ‘round the ear-hole or the strap. When I listen to kids today having an opinion on everything under the sun, interrupting adults when they are speaking, I feel like Alice walking through the Looking Glass. I can’t help it – it’s culture shock! 

Back in the ark, everybody in my blended family worked, so it was tough luck for me … I had to get myself to school, make my own lunch, and come home to an empty house, the door key was hidden carefully outside the house. I was alone every week day for at least two hours – I had no help with homework that was my responsibility. Note to our dear friends in Canada … I had Vegemite sandwiches for lunch every day, whether I liked it or not – I did not … but Vegemite on a bit of buttered toast is pretty good! There was no cling wrap or foil so it was pretty festy by lunchtime!

I had no morning tea or play-lunch, instead we had a free small bottle of milk. And there wasn’t the incredible variety of food, fruit, vegetable choices that we have today — only people from other countries ate that stuff! The average Aussie worked hard, and drank him or herself under the table for leisure – their kids watched and pinched beer when the adults weren’t looking. I wasn’t one of them by the way.

You were’t anybody if you didn’t barrack for a footie team and follow the cricket. The news came in a newspaper. The only fast food was fish and chips and they were wrapped up in … yesterday’s newspaper. We weren’t very multi-cultural back then. Our home phone was black and it sat on a little shelf in the hallway. I still remember the number. 😆 The changes over those 70 years are totally huge … 

Now I have a phone that I carry on me, and I can use it wherever I am, even in a lift or the loo … ‘nice polite’ girls would never do that in the past. I can find out what is happening all over the world at the press of a button. I can also tell my house what to do! Today, I don’t even have to vacuum. In the ark, we had a carpet sweeper, until electrolux cleaners came on the market. Rich people had those.

Now we have a little bot that trundles out of its hidey-hole and does all the vacuuming. Plus all our washing, and dishes, go into machines. The refrigerator talks to its owner and tells them what they will run out of in the near future. My bible is on my phone! If I want to take a walk I have a walking machine. If I want to go rowing, I have a rowing machine … I don’t, by the way, have a rowing machine, or one of those groovy bots and my refrigerator is quite silent, I must have I offended it!

Back then, Almighty God was SomeOne Who would not be bothered with the likes of me. I was expected to be a good girl and do what I was told or the wrath of somebody or other, would fall on my head — and probably on my backside as well! God was a silent ever-present threat Who was always watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake, then someone else would punish me on His behalf. I was terrified of Him.

He was good and holy and I knew I was not. I’d heard about Jesus but it seemed He didn’t like little girls much either. My religious life was filled with bells and smells and fear of hell and very little love. If God loved me He sure had a funny way of showing it. Being whacked with something hard and nasty was punctuated with: “This is for your own good.” 

Despite today’s theories about giving our kids a wonderful childhood — most people have a wonky past! Many of them have been treated badly one way or another, and, sadly, they have no idea of Who God is and how much He loves each one of us. That’s why we’ve been called to be witnesses. Today we can go wherever we want to go, to tell others what we have seen, heard and learnt, personally. To let them know that human love may let you down … but God will not.

There is no perfection in this life, because they are no perfect people! Can we please … as the Body of Christ … get over ourselves and get on with fulfilling our very real mission? Nobody needs to go to hell unless they choose to – that’s the message. Bye. 👋

P 2955 Don’t be lost – be found!

/ DVH

John 8:42-47: “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father [but He is not], you would love and recognize Me, for I came from God [out of His very Presence] and have arrived here. For I have not even come on My own initiative [as self-appointed], but He [is the One who] sent Me. Why do you misunderstand what I am saying? It is because [your spiritual ears are deaf and] you are unable to hear [the truth of] My word. 

You are of your father the devil, and it is your will to practice the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar and the father of lies and half-truths. 

But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me [and continue in your unbelief]. Which one of you [has proof and] convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? Whoever is of God and belongs to Him hears [the truth of] God’s words; for this reason you do not hear them: because you are not of God and you are not in fellowship with Him.”

Man, I love the book of John, I’ve been glued to it for weeks! Let’s just quickly revise what Jesus says in the 1st paragraph above. He came here to us, from the Presence of God. There are times, sadly, when we don’t live like we know this …we just think we do, because we’ve heard the words before. The power in those words comes from acting on them. If we really knew this, then whatever He says to us through His Word would not, and could not, come into question.  It is a waste of time to frame what the bible says by our own denominational bents. This book is God speaking to us, and we need to listen. We simply must stop rationalising the power of God to change lives out of His Word!

Coming from the very Presence of God means that Jesus has Almighty God’s authority to say what He says. And everything He says is covered in and by God’s Presence, and it will be interpreted to us by the Holy Spirit, Who was sent here to help us understand. There are no optional extras in the gospels – if ‘every promise in the book is mine’  — then every obedient response to those promises are mine as well! Ya might want to sit and think on that. Lastly, Jesus was sent here by God Himself– the Lord didn’t just decide to pop down here off His own bat!

Because of what Jesus says here, we know what the devil does;  how he sounds;  and what his aim is, so we don’t have to be ignorant of our enemy’s tricks. Did you get that it is natural for our enemy to lie? This means we need to desperately know the truth, because whatever he says will be really convincing! he’s despicably good at lying – it’s not a habit, it is part of his nature. He hates people. I also think that he loves to distract people with his lies … after all half the planet is chasing the good life, money, great circumstances and the dream of happiness, here and now! But that is not what the bible clearly says we should pursue.

The last paragraph tells us that human beings can’t hear the Lord Jesus because He speaks truth, and we like lies better than truth. Think about it – God says “Go and make disciples” and “Love one another” and we say: “That’s someone else’s job!” “That’s too hard!” Our preferences regarding what we choose to hear, can make us deafer than a post! However, listening to lies leaves us room to do whatever we like, whenever we want to, because we think: “God doesn’t mind” …! But God’s truth is destined to lead us into a totally different lifestyle. Sometimes we are happy enough to believe lies because believing lies leaves us undisturbed in our sin! But practising sin has a bad destination… Jesus came here to change our destination.

The questions every single human being has to answer are quite simple… is Jesus Christ Who He says He is?  Did He really come to do what He said He did?  Did He really rise from the dead? Today, I believe that His greatest plan is unfolding — He’s alive IN His people. You and I can easily make up a god in our own image and take a chance that what we think is right, IS actually right. But remember, our intellect and wisdom are limited, so we are making a limited choice. Sooner or later we will have to take someone else’s word. Why not take GOD’S own WORD? It’s been around for 2,000+ years or so. I know people who set out to disprove what God said and they ended up following Him because they found Him in the book!

Anybody can read the bible for themselves, starting with what Jesus said and did, and talk to God like this: “God if you are there, I am talking to you, if not, then I am talking to myself. Please help me to find You in Your book. ”Amen. All kinds of amazing things happen when you take the time to pray like that. Don’t be lost … be found! May God Himself lead you as you search to find Him. Jesus Christ IS truth. Bye 👋