1 Peter 2:9

P 3517 Love Himself will stand with us.

/ DVH

(TPT)“God, I invite Your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting way— the path that brings me back to you.” Psalm 139:23-24. (NIV)“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

If I choose to evaluate what is good and what is bad in me — or my circumstances, or this world, or even … dare I say it, Almighty God Himself — this means I am defining things using my own reasoning, standards, thoughts and hopes. At some point I will need to remember that I am limited, which means my conclusions will be faulty. I need the Lord’s searching gaze all over my life because I can be self-deceived. That can happen so easily when what you hear the Lord say, disagrees with what you want to hear.

I have observed that there are some things in my own nature I simply do not want to see, so I will most likely hide them from myself, or worse … I will blame you for them! EG: “If you didn’t do this, then I wouldn’t have done that.” Some people call that passing the buck. The thing is in the middle of all that evasion we are missing the most incredibly important thing … we no longer have to hide from our sin! It was bought and paid for.

However, let’s not sit about planning our next nasty plot either! And we no longer have to hide. Hiding is a genetic trait we inherited from Adam and Eve. This is what the Lord, Himself says! “BUT … YOU are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a [special] people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies [the wonderful deeds and virtues and perfections] of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.” 1 Peter 2:9.

Hiding implies we have something or someone to hide from – we don’t. We don’t have to live in that sinful unproductive place anymore. God Himself has seated us in heavenly places – and He bought and paid for our seats! If only we would stop thinking about this statement as some sort of elevated, coveted, arrogant place;  and start thinking about it simply as our God-given God-planned home. It’s the place we serve others from. So we can be transformed as we go about our daily living, loving others the same way He loves us.

Asking God to search our hearts is wisdom. Otherwise we will continue to move aimlessly on, hoping against hope, some how, in some way, we are pleasing God. But John 6:40 – “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life.” Looking at Jesus intently and reverently, changes us. Let’s put that another way, what we behold we become. We please God when we believe in Him, and we read what He has said, and act on it. Then we are adding our yes to His Amen. Who would knowingly look at our suffering Saviour and be presumptuous?

We don’t have to be afraid to ask the Lord to search and try us, because He already gave His life for whatever is IN there. We no longer have to be ashamed of our malformed characters: Jesus knows it all and He loves us – because His love is not based on feelings it is based on His choice! He chose to come here and He chose to die for you and me. He took our shame on Himself, and set us free to be obedient children of Almighty God.

Paul said this to Timothy:“This is why I suffer as I do. Still, I am not ashamed; for I know Him [and I am personally acquainted with Him] Whom I have believed [with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in the truth of His deity], and I am persuaded [beyond any doubt] that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him until that day [when I stand before Him].” 2 Timothy 1:12.

I don’t have to be afraid or ashamed anymore than Paul was, because I’m choosing to live persuaded! I read His Word, I trust what He says. Jesus is far greater than the ugly things I have done in my life, to myself or others. The only reason to hide from God is fear and shame. And our precious Saviour took them to the cross. When we go to the Lord and ask Him to search us, and look for any wicked way in us, we don’t have to be ashamed of our past sins. That sin was put on Christ. He hung there naked … that means nothing was hidden. Oh, if we would only understand what He did for us! Not just with our minds, but with our whole lives.

There is no fear in love … because Jesus’ love is so perfect. It minimises all the other kinds of love we cling to that are imperfect! Let’s stop expecting other people to supply what only God can give us — simply because it is more convenient to demand it from the people we can see. We are burdening each other by expecting perfection, but the Perfect One already did all the work. We can’t do anything to make Him accept us, because He did everything that was necessary in our place! Now we work out of love for Him and others.

I invite us all to regularly pray this prayer from Psalm 139 – because Love Himself will stand with us. And Love Himself will lead us on from the place where our hopes and dreams died, into a new place of His total love and acceptance. It is easy to forgive others when you realise what you have been freely given. Bye. 👋.

P3507 Surprise!! It’s Jesus in YOU!

/ DVH

“There is a divine mystery—a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now it’s being revealed, unfolded and manifested for every holy believer to experience. Living within you is the Christ Who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for His people, and God wants everyone to know it!” Colossians 1:26-27 TPT. Just stop for a moment and think about it.

The way to be closer to Jesus, know more about Him, is to participate in His Ways. Read the book, and do what you already know, using your faith.. Life presents us all with so many opportunities to utilise our faith. Ordinary everyday things happen, you are running late, and you need a carpark – hands up those who ask the Lord to help them park? ✋ I’m disabled, I always need one!

We pray before we go to the shops. We ask Him to help us only buy the things He wants us to have. Many times we buy nothing but we still have fun! Perhaps some driver does something stupid on the road in front of you, do you ask the Lord for help? I am learning to bless that person with better driving skills and an encounter with Jesus, and I thank God that we were all kept safe… including the other driver.

That’s the secret BTW, remember to thank Him. Don’t just treat the Lord like the drive-through at MacDonalds … acknowledge whatever He does. Ask Him for eyes to see Him at work in your life. “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:6. The more we acknowledge Him the more He becomes part of our lives — and that’s how we end up with more of Jesus in our lives. We simply refuse to leave Him out!  We are living-for-Jesus spiritual beings. We live this life with heaven on our minds. All of us can have as much of Jesus as we want – just don’t leave Him out! Live a life of love, daily. (1 Corinthians 13, clearly tells us what that looks like!)

He promised to be with us always — always means always! Duh! As we live this new life Jesus bought and paid for, we seek the things of His kingdom first. Acknowledge your King in everything you do. Don’t walk away from your new life In Christ by acting like everyone else around you, but we gave up those options. Now we ask the Lord to come with us, and He will go anywhere — He went to HELL, so nothing surprises Him! If you do go to play in the devil’s backyard, and you know exactly what I mean … then the Lord’s voice inside will warn you, but then He will quietly fade away. It is as if He says: “Have at it!” Repent!

We have all been given faith — the book says so. (Romans 12:3) However, I rarely feel like I have faith … I have to use my faith to find it; but that verse from Colossians above is not just a happy thought! You have Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God inside you! Let Him out!! Faith cannot develop in a vacuum, so we must actively participate in the Lord’s work – whether we feel like we can, or not. Just take one step, then take another … and pretty soon it will become a lifestyle, not a place you visit when the ceiling falls in.

Here’s some more good news about having Jesus IN us! “But you are God’s chosen treasure —priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience His marvellous light, and now He claims you as His very own. He did this so that you would broadcast His glorious wonders throughout the world.” 1 Peter 2:9 TPT.

So if people ask the Lord: ‘who is that old lady?’ The Lord smiles and says: “She’s with Me.” What an honour, to live a life in service to the King! He picked us. Did you realise that we can ruin HIS reputation by the way we act when we think no-one is looking? Meanwhile someone is always looking, it’s inevitable in this world’s obsessive atmosphere. But as we fall in love with Jesus, the Jesus portrayed in the bible, we begin to see that correction, and discipline, are not bad things – they are His love in action in our lives.

Christ lives in us and our job is to let Him out by acting like He would. My advice is to get to know your bible, read it, then do it. All the time. The Lord quotes the bible to me often! Half the time I don’t even remember where the verses are, I have to go away and look them up. That’s all good! Having our noses inside what Jesus says and does, has to be good for us! Surprise! It’s Jesus! And He wants to walk with YOU. “Christ IN us, the hope of glory!” (Colossians 1:27). Bye. 🥳.

👋 C.C.

P 3360 Keep looking at Jesus.

/ DVH

“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, He organises and holds it together, like a head does a body.                                                                                                      He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—He is supreme in the end. From beginning to end He’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is He, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in Him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of His death, His blood that poured down from the cross.”                                 You yourselves are a case study of what He does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of Him, giving Him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving Himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in His Presence. You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.” Colossians 1:15-23 MSG.

When we look at Jesus Christ we see God’s original purpose for mankind … minus sin and its effects. Sin couldn’t make Christ do anything because His love and devotion for His Father was greater than anything else. Instead He set us a perfect example. Our sin has a habit of colouring in everything around it. So when we focus on our sin, or their sin, or the government’s sin, we cannot effectively keep our eyes on the Lord!

Personally I think that judgment is a terrible stumbling block for everyone, but the Lord Jesus died to remove that and all other stumbling blocks way… once and for all! We can find our place in this broken world when we drag our gaze away from other people’s sin and look steadily at the One Who gave us His place. Looking at sin skews our focus.

This is a great passage of scripture above, because it encapsulates the things that Jesus has willingly done for us. People rattle on and on about recycling, and saving the planet, but one day everything broken and dislocated will come together in Christ! His greatest achievement is the total restoration of mankind with its Creator— not just to where Adam and Eve were—we have been restored to be like Him in this world, and that starts right here, right now.

Boy if that doesn’t make anyone happy then I don’t know what will!! We don’t have to be qualified to live this way, we simply need to yield to Him no matter what is going on around us. The good, the bad and the … oh! my goodness! Our first step is total surrender – the next is to choose to live under His guidance, His Way. Don’t hold anything back, whatever we hold back can still be influenced by sin … that’s why we must give it all to Him. He is the Restorer, the Redeemer of everything. 

Jesus has already taken us out of the kingdom of darkness that surrounds us and we are now a part of the kingdom of His marvellous light. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a [special] people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies [the wonderful deeds and virtues and perfections] of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.” 1 Peter 2:9. I don’t care what you do for a living, this is our real job now. To live in, and reflect the light He died to give us into this world around us. The darker it gets, the brighter that light shines.

Our dedication to living in His light (described in the book) causes darkness to run away … This is the real Good News – not some other form of religion! Religion has rules and regulations, but our Saviour’s Good News just helps us to live this life, with all its positive and negative experiences, well. And the source of our happiness never changes, because Jesus never changes! 

As Christians we cannot afford to focus on what this world thinks, we need our focus to be singular, on what He said. Day by day we get to know Perfect Love in an ever increasing measure. Jesus demonstrated His perfect love by what He did. We demonstrate our love for Him and others by what we do and say. However, perfect love is hardly ever a feeling. Perfect Love is a series of ongoing chosen actions that will cost us something to participate in them. God hasn’t taken away our freedom to choose – instead He has given us something better, something worth choosing! 

We can’t afford to rely upon feelings, because they will slowly sink our little lives into the mire that surrounds us. Instead we need to make what happens to us less important than what Jesus Christ did for us. Our focus is not on some pie in the sky when we die theology – because Jesus already did everything for us. It’s done! He said it way better than I ever could: “IT. IS. FINISHED.” Done and dusted. The Lord Jesus Himself purchased our freedom,- He paid with His own blood. It cost Him His life. Now we have been given the freedom to choose to live His Way. Don’t misuse the freedom He gave you. Meanwhile, there is no need for us to work hard for something that is already paid for. 

We choose to live with His pure focus in this life – right here, right now. Let’s shift our focus off the immediate stuff around us and lift our focus up to the eternal. Then we will progressively exchange every bit of the darkness that assails us, for what He has already given us. This new life is a life of forgiveness and love. Right now… right here … we are learning to cherish His light. Every single day. I urge us all to keep looking at Jesus, He started our faith and He will finish it. Bye. 👋

P 3179 What does love look like?

/ DVH

If you have been reading this blog on and off for a while you will already know my answer to that question. Real love looks like an innocent man hanging from a cross – suffering willingly and terribly, for every rotten, evil thought and deed humanity has accidentally and purposefully perpetrated against themselves and others.

At the same time love looks like 1 Corinthians 13, 1 John 4:18, 1 Peter 4:8, 1 Corinthians 16:14, Colossians 3:14 just to name after few verses. Every single time I read that chapter in Corinthians, I know I do not have it in me to be that person – I’m going to need truckloads of supernatural help! But God Himself wants to transform my own personal experience into His kingdom experiences, as I learn to walk in His Love. However, I will need to remember that His love is not permission to do whatever I want. It has aims for my life. But the Holy Spirit will always help me.

God’s kind of love does not in any way resemble our modern world, which shouts and jumps up and down at everyone else and says:‘ If you love me you will give me what I want!’ God’s love is founded on, and maintained, through sacrifice. His love is so real, deep and comprehensive it will not rest until it brings out the very best in His beloved. Read the book. Start with the Old Testament and watch our Heavenly Father work with a rebellious, cantankerous, wilful people. The Israelites wanted a god who would smite their enemies, and leave them alone to do absolutely anything they wanted to do, and who cares about the consequences?

Now listen to what the Lord God Almighty says about Himself: “I am the LORD, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed.” Malachi 3:6. Did you get that bit? He does not change – you and I might have wanted to do some smiting and biting because of the Israelites horrible attitudes, but our God does not change – His Holiness is fixed. Self-centredness has nothing in common with God’s pure and holy love. Amazingly, Father God does not want to destroy the man He made, that’s why Jesus came. “But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8.

If God had not sent His Son to die for us then the devil would have destroyed all of us. We were sitting ducks! Jesus thwarted our enemy’s attempt to subvert the ways of God so we can walk with Him ourselves. Jesus not only saved us all from hell – He saved us from our own choices. Then He took us out of satan’s kingdom, paid our debt, so we can live in His Father’s kingdom – LOVE’S KINGDOM. Love’s kingdom has parameters.

“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.”  1 Peter 2:9. It is way too easy to skip over some bits of verses, and just kind of go for the sweet bits we like, that are often in the middle.”The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by EVERY word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4. Let’s go back to the words we often don’t see …1 Peter 2:9 …”As a result you can show others the goodness of God… OR “…you are not like that …” 

If we are not careful we can easily skip right by those few words, to the ones that tell us what we want to hear.… You are ‘a royal priesthood, a chosen people, God’s very own possession’…those bits. But if we are to live this life as the Father’s royal priests. We are not meant to be the Levites or Pharisees – there is a new order of priests – we are priests who live like Jesus did! We cannot afford to live like everyone else around us. Jesus is ultimate royalty and His life and teaching are our example. God’s Love corrects us and disciplines us, to transform us into royalty.

Human beings don’t think of love as correction, however, correction and discipline are definitely a part of His love! God Himself allowed US to punish HIS SON for OUR own ultimate good. That’s how much He loves us and that’s what love looks like to Him! The devil will quibble, question and defer to our so-called right to be indulged, on the basis of “poor me’ until we are DEAD! However, our Father guides and corrects us because He utterly and unreservedly loves us. Our Father does not discipline us because He wants to spoil our fun… He does so because the stuff we wander into is like treacle or quick-sand – we wander in and we can’t get out!

Trapped in sin is a very bad look for human beings! We were made to worship the Lord, and enjoy Him all the days of our lives… and beyond! But sin, when it is embraced, colours everything around it. Colour goes out of this world when we leave God out. However, living for Jesus and others, as He leads us, is the most delightful thing anyone can aim at. It brings out God’s purpose in our lives, and we learn to live aware of Him. Living a life of faith means we know who we are, and why we are here. That changes the way we see everything else around us.

Let’s briefly go back to the Israelites. They could not see LOVE leading them, and so they felt deprived when they couldn’t do what they wanted to do. Love Himself was talking to them and they couldn’t hear a word He said, because all their complaining and whining blocked His words out! But living this life as a totally surrendered lover of Jesus will transform us to look like Him. It isn’t always FUN, but ‘afterward we reap the peaceable fruits of righteousness.’ Hebrews 12:11. Love looks like Jesus. Bye. 👋

P 2699 Nothing happens by chance.

/ DVH

I read this yesterday, and I thought it might be a blessing for others. It’s an exhortation from the translators of the Passion bible written by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez: It’s a great word, it lifted my spirit and I hope it does you good as well. We’ve been blessing people all week, and today it’s your turn! The Lord says to YOU –

“Come into the secret place and find encouragement that waters your thirsty soul. I have words of life to share with you today and living-understanding to strengthen you. Run into the shelter of My presence and let My love wash over you in a fresh way. I don’t offer stale bread to My hungry lovers. Eat of My now word. Tune your ear to My Voice.

Give Me the heavy weight of the burden of fear you are carrying. There may be uncertainty in your life, but I see everything clearly. There are no mysteries to Me, and I won’t let the tides of confusion sweep you away. See how My hand holds you steady. You cannot escape the grip of My glorious grace, child. 

What wondrous plans I have for you. What a future you have in Me. Let Me guide you further into My goodness as you follow My leading. I promise never to let you go or get too far ahead. I give you eyes to see from My perspective. Look to Me, and nothing will ever shatter your hope.”

Praise God for their gift of exhortation! Moving on to some real life testimonies … … we had a brief break last week and it seemed to us that the Lord is much more ready for us to speak to people than we are to do it! Any time we go anywhere, we find that there are suddenly numerous opportunities to talk to strangers. In the shops, or even to tradesmen in our home.

At our house, we have had some things break down and afterward we realised what happened wasn’t about the broken item … it was about us talking to the person who came to fix it!  We’ve seen this over and over again, Father God will bring people to us. He really is looking for His kids to share the wealth of heart knowledge He has given all of us. We need to freely talk about Him! This past week we have had all kinds of opportunities to encourage strangers..

While we were away, the internet in our rented holiday unit fell over, so a tech guy turned up to fix it. We were chatting away to each other, and we just included this guy in our conversation. After about five minutes, told us he had been very sick recently and he was very scared because he thought he might have had cancer. Now that is definitely God! People rarely go that deep that quickly with strangers!!

This young man went on to say they discovered it was coeliac’s disease. So hubby prayed for him. Meanwhile, the silly internet still kept blanking out…!!  You know, God isn’t interested in our comfort, but He IS always interested in people. Like I’ve said before, knowing His Ways helps a lot!

On Tuesday this week, a carer came to our house to clean the floors for us. To be truthful, I was a bit annoyed because I found out that our usual lady wasn’t coming …again! I never do these spiritual sums until afterward – I guess I’m a slow learner!! It has taken me four weeks to work out that we’ve not had our usual helper each time because the Lord wanted us to talk to other helpers about Him! 🙄 

This particular young woman was delightful and we very much enjoyed her company. She did a great job too. We had a very profitable time talking about her life, our lives, and the Lord. So much so she said; “I could stay here all day!” She also kept saying, over and over again: “There is so much joy in this house, I’ve never been in a home with this much joy before.”  You know, sometimes I’m so dumb I don’t notice things, unless the Holy Spirit sticks a great big “look here, dummy” sign on it! Hmm… you might think I’m joking … I’m NOT!

Hubby decided to call ahead to a place we are going to be staying at next week, as we make our way up north to give away bibles. He spoke about bringing blankets, toiletries and food for the poor. The young lady on the phone nearly came through the phone she was so excited. Apparently most small towns are quite overlooked when it comes to government aid. However the Holy Spirit personally picked that town. Who knew they had a homeless problem there? He did. 

I just want to finish today by saying that the Lord’s plans for us, to bless us, include everyone around us. Nothing happens by chance. It is good to see even inconvenient interruptions as opportunities for His kingdom. Bye 👋

1 Peter 2:9 ESV“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”