Agenda

P 3252 Letting Go – lets Him IN!

/ DVH

“As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us.” Hebrews 12:1 TPT.

We have a path God has prepared for us to run on. We are not running along aimlessly, bumping into things, we have been chosen to run in the same race our Saviour ran in. Imagine that! A race that will glorify our Heavenly Father! We simply can’t afford to hold onto old wounds, or other people’s sins against us. Instead, let’s ask the Lord for healing, extend forgiveness, and then make a quality decision not to go over these things again … and move on. When you get angry with someone, put the energy produced into something else! I don’t recommend punching out their lights BTW.

Our enemy tries to trick us that if we let go of stuff, we will not get any resolution – those people who hurt us will get away with it. That’s a lie from the pit.  Jesus Himself brings resolution and redemption everywhere He goes! Let Him in, He is a Redeemer, Healer, Comforter, Trusted Advisor. This type of thinking simply brings death with it – it is sent to torment us. It is like running around with one foot nailed to the floor. We go nowhere. These things tie us into the here and now – and we forget our purpose! 

We can’t afford to live like that –  holding onto grudges, or perceived slights from others, or continually probing old wounds to see if they have healed or not. Those things prevent us from running the race God has set before us. Our enemy uses other people’s actions to throw dirt and dust into the air, clouding our God-given ability to see spiritually. These things tie us into somebody else’s agenda. Forgiveness is mandatory, not an optional extra, no matter who did what to whom. My advice is to keep on asking for Grace, Grace and more Grace, daily. 

“Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ.”  Ephesians 4:32. What does that mean? It means that every time somebody hurts us the first thing we need to remember is the fact that we’ve already been forgiven for our own sins. Letting go of grudges —  the past, other people’s unwillingness or inability to change — frees us for better God-inspired things! We simply can’t afford to give our eternal blessings away. It’s too dear!! What we lose is clarity of heart and mind.

The way to be fearless in the face of other people’s sins, is to ask for His help and then act in faith. “Do good to those who despitefully use you…” Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27&28. Praying for these people is essential. And our  obedience is the key that opens up the kingdom, it will usher in the change we want to see.. “If you are willing AND obedient …” it says this in Isaiah 1:19a. It is not enough to just be willing, willingness needs to be followed through with action – obedience. 

Let’s stop merely agreeing with what the bible says, and go out and live this way, every single day. We can’t “afford” to stay angry with other people. We don’t have to go and live at their house! Pray and do what God says to do. Forgiveness ushers in real peace. If we haven’t got some personal instructions from the Holy Spirit — a directive on how to manage things. Then we need to read the book, and find something in it to do, that we are not already doing, and do that. Those biblical things are the principles of His kingdom. We always have plenty of those.

It is incredibly important to let go of the weights that have been holding us down. We sing these things … we say them, we read them and we even memorise them — but we need to do more than that. It is time to remember that the life we had before we met Jesus is over. Our previous dreams are over. There are better things than that ahead! He gave His life to us, and now we choose to give our lives to Him. We can’t tell Him how to operate His kingdom – He is the King! The more we let go of our own agendas, timetables, lifestyles, the more His kingdom will manifest itself among us. 

Our God is incredibly gracious to us, He lets us learn. But for some of us, even learning has become a side eddy. A place we’ve been caught up in. It stops us from going out and doing what He asked us to do. The best kind of learning finishes with practical application. Personal life changing experiences. By all means study the bible, every single day, but study it to find things you can do. The things that stir your heart are likely to be the things that stir His. 

We can read stuff like, ‘forgive one another’ but then we forget to do our “safety checks.” That’s like a sound check for believers … Let’s not put a big tick on any scripture thinking that we already know this stuff, and He died for it, so we’ve already passed. He paid for us, so we have already passed. However, now we need to ask the Holy Spirit: ‘do I have any little foxes in my life spoiling the vine?’  That verse above in Hebrews 12:1 sees sin and wounds as weights. Are we trying to run a marathon with a whole lot of weights all over us? 

We have to let go of our wounds, even though they are deep, and they still hurt. We are not releasing things because these things don’t matter – those wounds, those sins, cost Jesus His life. They matter! Let the Lord take care of them. Forgiveness is not giving in – IT’S A BATTLE-PLAN! Think about it. Let’s release everything that distracts us and let Him help us win. Bye. 👋

P 3240 Come up higher.

/ DVH

Sometimes we can become so earthly-minded we are no longer of any heavenly use. It seems to me that the church has become distracted by the cares and worries of this world. At the same time, it kind of looks like we expect Almighty God to enter our world and meet our needs here and now — He already did that. The thing is, He has higher priorities and I don’t think that it is His priority to make sure His kids have a cushy life.

Let’s take what the bible says seriously, and start making investments and withdrawals, using that book as our guideline. Then we can begin to bring His kingdom down here where the truly needy live. Truly needy people are the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet! Personally, I think telling people Jesus died to make them rich and prosper, is an abomination! 

None of Jesus’ disciples settled down into living in a grand house, in the ‘burbs, with everything they needed on tap. Instead they hit the road, and trusted Jesus to meet their needs. BTW, I am not saying, sell your house, go and sit on the curb and wait for Jesus to come back, but I am saying  – He is our priority. His agenda is now our agenda. We have given our lives to Him, so we can’t afford to let this life dictate what happens to us, through us and around us. 

As kingdom people, our destiny is to bring light and hope into the darkness. We may have to punch a hole in the darkness sometimes. The author of the book of Daniel punched a hole, and it took a while for the answer to come. Yet this man kept waiting for the Lord to do what He loves to do for all of us. Redeem the situation. Jesus loves to redeem situations, as well as relationships. It’s faith that gives us the impetus we need to pray, and keep on praying as we wait for Him to answer.  

Sometimes a believer’s problems can be a wrong attitude. Especially when we want to use God to make this life, our own earthly life, better. This world is a sewer. You can’t see the kingdom of God in a sewer, unless God Himself called you in there! This means we can’t afford to steep ourselves in the gunk that goes on around us – we need to soak in the Word of God to stay clean! We are called to be IN this world and not OF it. That means this world is not alive in us.

We can use our spiritual energy up by trying to praying our way out of this and that. But the bible says we are already more than conquerors, because of what Jesus has done. Let’s focus on that instead, and deliberately make sure all our relationships are based on the kind of love Jesus gave us. And when things are difficult, and “stuff” happens – while we are in the middle of it – let’s look for someone we are there to help, to witness to, to care for.

We seem to have given up on fulfilling the Great Commission. Sadly, we’ve become so involved in human affairs, we’ve forgotten our mandate. My advice is this – tell the Lord your needs, and choose to walk with the Spirit of God. Our faith is not designed to be like a credit card that is whipped out for use when we need it. Our faith is like an atmosphere that surrounds us. We live there, in good or bad seasons, we choose to focus on our glorious God being in charge. We comfort ourselves that He is doing what He set out to do … we just can’t see it yet. So we pray for steadfastness in trials and the ability to rest while He’s doing whatever He is doing. It is going to be for our good, we just can’t see it yet.

The Body of Christ is here to be salt and light — to lift everyone around us up higher, by the way we regard others. It is not lying to speak to the good in someone else who has been anything but good to you! It takes faith. We have the power to speak things into being – ask the Lord to show you what He sees in those people. Let’s stop rehearsing other people’s sins, and start looking for why they are here, and speak into that… … encouraging them into those things. 

In the last century, my age group made a mistake, we started exalting ourselves. Telling ourselves that we were  this or that and quoting verses from the bible to prove it to ourselves and others. It was a lot of hot air. Forget being the head instead of the tail – Jesus is our Head! I do not care if I am a toenail in the Body of Christ, I’m just glad to be included! Jesus is the only One Who is all this, AND that. We are here to encourage and bless and uphold others. We don’t need to big note ourselves spiritually. 

What stands us out in this world needs to be His GRACE and LOVE operating in us and through us. Let’s  decide what kingdom we want to live in, here and now – HIS kingdom is the Higher Place, living like He lived. We dare not call ourselves successful unless we are living to help others, because loving one another has become our priority. Let’s put our prayer, faith and energy into that. Bye 👋.

P 3204 The Star Chasers!

/ DVH

Three very powerful, rich intellectual guys set out once, in their day’s version of a BMW, to investigate a brand new star. These astrologers had noticed that star in the evening sky. Nowadays we would probably just turn the James West Space Telescope onto it. Sigh… I know the Hubble was old, and the JWST can see much further, but I really wish that they had found a much more fun name for itI I liked the name Hubble better than that mouthful! Any-way … these guys had come a very long way because they knew enough to know that the star meant something incredible was about to happen. 

The thing is, this journey for the Wise men took much longer than it takes for us to find a local McDonalds! They had to travel through other countries to get to the great King the star foretold. A lot of time had passed between the star appearing and the Magi travelling to get to Bethlehem. Imagine only being able to travel at night, because you are following a star! I mean, you can’t see stars until it is night! Not to mention those normal obstructive atmospheric things like – snow, rain, fog or cloud-cover!!  This is what I call a long-term devotion to the task ahead of them. These are patient men. 

Do you know what I like about this nativity story? The poor people got to the stable on the night. They were the first to be invited to worship Jesus. However, God did not leave the rich and powerful intellectuals out – He led them there too. They just had to make a bigger effort. Let’s look at something Jesus said when He was teaching His disciples, in Matthew 19:22-24. “When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 

It is ‘not easy’ Jesus tells us, for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God – it seems their view is blocked by dollar signs. EG: money and comfort. The shepherds were used to sitting on the ground, the wise men were used to a swisho ride!  I sometimes wonder why the Western world is breaking its neck to get more and more money and things, and why they put all their security in that stuff! Um… money is just bits of printed paper and metal, we are the ones who put a value on it. Meanwhile, there is no U-haul on the back of a hearse. What matters, and will last, is what HE DID FOR US.

Back to the Magi! By the time they arrived, months or years later. They had to do a search for Jesus, and they didn’t have Google Maps or whatever either! So they went to the most logical place to find a new King – Herod’s palace.  And here is what is fascinating … King Herod didn’t have clue what was going on until these men rocked up. He’s the duly appointed King and he doesn’t know what is going on in his own kingdom – he’s out of touch with the people He is ruling. 

The shepherds knew and they probably told everyone what they had seen and heard, but Herod didn’t travel in those circles. He was above that. Securely closeted in his palace with armed guards around him. Herod responds the way many rich people would respond to the news that another big man in town is on the scene. He wants to protect what he has. So he plots to get rid of the opposition and then carries it out with appallingly murderous consequences.  Anybody want to be Herod – when Jesus asks him to ‘please explain,’ in front of the big white throne?

Herod shows me that we think we know about someone, is not all there is. The more you have, the more you have to lose. What we read in the newspapers, or podcasts, or news broadcasts isn’t always truth. It is often doctored, and distorted because the people producing these things have an agenda. There may be elements of truth in what is said, but it is mainly coloured by what I call the rich powerful man’s doctrine.

A rich powerful person always wants more money than yesterday, and they perceive things through the kind of filter that says – what was enough last year, won’t be enough this year. I think that the line for ‘having enough’ always moves away from us. What we sometimes hear on the news is the hyped-up panicky report of people who are scared to lose their income. Moving on …

We all know the conclusion of this story about the Wise men, Jesus is eventually located in a house in Bethleham, and He is given expensive prophetic gifts. Those gifts may well have funded all the moving this little family had to do to get away from a jealous King who didn’t bother to understand what was actually going on! Jesus didn’t ever threaten Rome, He didn’t come to threaten anyone! He came to explain there is a far bigger reality than anyone understands. Our God is not a God Who is far away – He is THE GOD who came near, and lived like we do.

Jesus came to give, not take. He came to include everyone, rich, poor. Whoever they are, wherever they were born – God is not partisan! He loves us all. That baby born in a cowshed was His Way of communicating with the world mankind lives in. This time He didn’t send a messenger – He came Himself, to tell everyone there are no barriers anymore. Just like those shepherds came from the fields and those foreign astronomers came from afar — we too can come to Him just as we are. 

There is room for everyone in the stable. It’s like the proverbial Tardis, it has lots more room inside, than it looks like on the outside. Bye. 👋

P 3162 This is true worship!

/ DVH

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2. True and proper worship starts and ends with ME, voluntarily laying myself down on His altar, daily. All day, every single day. The secret to walking with the Holy Spirit is to deliberately surrender your life, even when things are good as well as when they are bad. Then I pray: “Your will, Your way Lord.”  I’ve found it is best to have no other agenda but His.

When we follow Jesus it means our lives change. It is our obedience to God’s Word that causes that transformation. As we read it, we begin to realise that worship from His POV, requires more from us than just happily singing songs of praise and worship … it is about giving Him the gift of YOU. Your time, your energy, your obedience, your love, your family, your sometimes-present difficulties. Our families are so much better off in His hands, no matter what is going on around us. We put them in His care – and we leave them there. Obviously I am not talking about whether the kids need a bath, or not, and Jesus won’t be cooking the dinner! Everything  we do we do in service to Him. “Whatsoever you do, do it with all your heart, as though you were doing it for Jesus!”

Realistically speaking, in today’s climate, we know that very few people have spare time! So the reality is like this — to honour Father God with our whole self, we will have to put something else aside. Those things we need to put aside are often important to us. And at the same time, we can have interruptions that need attention. Like, if your toddler falls on its head, that’s an important thing! But, the phone can wait. Leave that somewhere else, turned off. You can tell your pre-school child: “I’m reading the bible, I will be with you soon.” Showing little ones that we also need to pray and read the bible, is just as important, as doing it with them. 

We simply have to make reading the bible and praying, a priority, just like we make family times a priority. My hubby’s dear mother used to sit in the middle of chaos, people coming and going, the phone ringing off the hook, squabbling everywhere etc – and there she was, in the middle of it, bible in her lap, with her eyes closed because she was praying. Her alone time with God is sacrosanct. The things that dear lady has taught me without saying one word!!

We all know that God’s Word requires our obedience. We simply need to read it to find things to do, not just to tick off a daily quota. That translates into – read it, then do it! Or read until you find something to do. Actually I read until something stands out to me. This is part of putting our bodies on His altar. Don’t  dismiss these things because you haven’t got time to pay attention to them, instead make it a priority to act on them. It is a delusion to think: “I will get around to doing that.” Trust me, you won’t. We have an enemy who loves to distract and interrupt us. Make a plan to obey while you are with the Lord. Ask Him: “How do I do this Lord?” However, when it comes to repentance, do that right away, including fixing and repairing it with the other person if necessary. Never postpone repentance. Repentance blows away the cobwebs over our hearts. 

If we want to know God’s will, then we must align ourselves with Him. It’s simple. Most things about the Lord look like this… stay out of the stuff that is going to drag you down, and cling to what He has said instead – and don’t move from that place. We need to recognise some things are a distraction or temptation, and avoid them. Just because something is demanding, that does not mean we must give it our attention. Paul said: “…I die daily…”  That’s what laying our lives on the altar looks like. God’s great love and provision for mankind, has been clearly demonstrated to us, through watching how Jesus lived His life.

Jesus laid Himself on that altar by everything He did. We don’t even get a recording of the Lord’s private  thoughts or opinions in the Gospels! He didn’t even go on Israel’s got Talent! 🤣🤣 Instead, He validated God’s Words for our benefit by the Way He lived. He knew the Father so well, He could see what His Father was doing, and then He went and did it too. Ten lepers were healed once – Jesus saw His Father healing them before it happened! BTW, the Lord didn’t want the lepers to thank Him, Jesus wanted the lepers to thank Father God for what happened to them!“Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Luke 17:18.

If we want to see what Jesus saw, and do what He did, then we need to live like He did, and do whatever our Father tells us to do. Obedience is one of the growth factors for flourishing faith. Our true worship is to lay our lives down for His sake, even as we sing and praise Him in our hearts. We are to be continually filled with the Spirit. And! We should take care of widows and orphans … James chapter one. All those good things are set into motion when we choose to lay our lives down, daily, for His sake, Galatians 2:20. Bye 👋

P 3083 Adaptability.

/ DVH

““Learn this well: Unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become teachable like a little child, you will never be able to enter in.” Matthew 18:3 TPT.

Back when my kids were little, once a year I took the three of them, separately, off into the city to buy an individual ornament each for our Christmas tree. Those individual journeys included a visit to the Christmas theme park on Myer’s roof, a ride on something or other, plus a joyous inspection of the Myer windows. Then we wandered around the Christmas shop together choosing this year’s ornament. Finally they had a yummy treat, and a return long train ride home, with lots of time to talk. 

However, even though fun was on the agenda, I knew I was there to teach them how to be responsible caring people, whilst preserving as much of their childhood fun as I could. So somebody else, (me!), cleaned their clothes, and decided what they would eat, and I looked after them when they were sick etc. Unfortunately, once they started to grow up, things became more difficult. They didn’t like this and they wouldn’t eat that. Their ‘teachability’ and ‘adaptability’ levels dropped clear away as they grew older. 

I discovered today, when I spent time meditating on this verse from Matthew, that I personally have no idea how to be a child when I am with the Lord. After all children trust their parent to get things right! But that kind of freedom was absent from my own life, because I don’t think I actually knew very many carefree moments. I’m not complaining BTW, I simply lived with a distinct lack of the kind of freedom a happy child enjoys. So it continually clouded my view of the way the Lord sees me. 

And let us be clear —the Lord sees us as His children, as well as seeing us as His people. It dawned on me that I need my thinking transformed in this area as I have a limited human reference point to draw upon. I strongly suspect that I am not the only pickle in this barrel, many other people have had limited childhood experiences too! But is this what this verse is all about? Is it just the idea of being taken care of without even noticing? Or being able to play anywhere you want, whenever you want? I came to believe this verse is all about our inner attitude toward God Himself.

So I did further research and decided to look at children in other countries. And lo and behold, in the midst of war, starvation, and suffering, I saw that if a child can play, it will. We’ve all seen pictures of children playing in bomb sites, or in the dust and dirt of a refugee camp. I came to the conclusion that childlikeness is an inner attitude – it is not formed by our outward situations. It seems to me that Jesus is talking about the way we approach this life. Things like wanting to learn and being adaptable to change.

Those children in refugee camps etc. don’t want to be where they are, they would probably like a nice little safe house to live in, but their circumstances have taught them to ADAPT.And as I have aged, it seems I have become less adaptable. That attitude, plus life’s ongoing difficulties, trials and heartaches can actually keep me from the very place Father God wants me to live in! He wants me to remember that I can always be confident in Him, despite my inner or outward circumstances. 

Faith is defined in the dictionary like this:“complete trust or confidence in someone or something.” That’s when I took a good look at my own measure of faith and I decided that my somewhat oppressive childhood was no excuse. I can’t hide in what other people did to me, because now – today! – I have a choice. I can’t even hide in what some people continue to do to me …because my confidence is in GOD HIMSELF, not in my circumstances or other people’s actions. Whether I am damaged by this life, or ill because of my body’s weaknesses, I can still choose to live in complete confidence that God is with me, and for me, and He will finish the work He started in me.

That’s what childlikeness looks like. It is about trusting in  SomeOne Who is greater than I am – even when I don’t understand what is going on. Every single thing that happens to me does not always have to be assessed by my understanding because my understanding is broken! Unless I believe that God Himself means to do me good, when things look bad – I will start to lose my childlike attitude and trust. 

Wonder of wonders, my glorious Father has given me a book that gives me detailed descriptions of how He feels about me, (and many many other people) so I need to put my faith in His written word, more than I put it in whatever is going on around me. Children trust their parents to fix things – while they go on with what they are doing. In the end, I decided to pray to be more adaptable … how about you? 👋 

“Energise the limp hands, strengthen the rubbery knees. Tell fearful souls, “Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here, on His way to put things right And redress all wrongs. He’s on His way! He’ll save you!” Isaiah 35:3-4.

P 3078 Anger is like Hydra – it has a lot of heads!

/ DVH

Many people give up on God because it seems to them that following Him from day to day, doesn’t work, and so they just float off proclaiming “that religion thing didn’t work for me.” The good news is – Jesus never ever gives up on us. Even when we are kind of pretending we are OK, as we sob or angrily bob about on our man-made li-los. The Lord Jesus will always come after us. Reconciliation is at the core of Who He is. 

Anybody who has had a difficult person in their lives will tell you that being misunderstood;  or having your motivation treated with suspicion;  or even being judged by someone else’s standard —  is an awful kind of suffering. I think Christians are a bit like salmon, swimming against the pressing tide of the rest of humanity, waiting for the power to jump up the next waterfall. Meanwhile the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet are merrily cruising the freeways of this life, creating accidents and disasters for others.

This week I fell over, or under, or maybe into!  — an old learning curve and it knocked me on my head. My spiritual life lately has forced me to re-evaluate a whole lot of things, a death in the family does that. It included issues that I thought were kind of settled. I discovered that sometimes being ‘angry’ with someone else doesn’t go away permanently, even when I am trusting Jesus to help me with it. Instead it hangs about and waits for an opportune moment to pop its nasty little head up again and poke you! That aforementioned many-headed Hydra! Things often make a return appearance when we’ve been weakened by adverse circumstances.

I am astonished at how ordinary events can hit buttons you didn’t know you had anymore, because they have remained hidden. Even those things that you’ve given over to the Lord and forgotten, can still be dragged up and used by the enemy against you. satan will still remind us of our past grievances, and at the same time, we can get sucked into into a ‘poor me’ vortex. It is good to remember that when we confess our sins our God forgives us, and now our sins are under Jesus’ blood. We need that!

I’ve prayed about anger a lot, I had to!  And the Lord reminded me: “It says in the Bible: be angry but don’t sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” This is what I’ve come up with since then —I’ve been practising giving my anger to the Lord before I go to sleep! Because right now when I am in an unexpectedly pressing moment, I can’t seem to deal with my anger. It just keeps popping out, unbidden, in the darndest places. I was in the bank the other day, facing mountains of idiotic red tape — and what I actually thought just flew out of my mouth, at someone else, and boy was I grouchy.

And, even worse,I wasn’t sorry either!! I fake apologised to the person I grouched at, but the inner rumblings continued. So, I exercised self-control, but I practically had to whack my hand over my mouth. Then  I managed to shut up. I actually didn’t repent, repent, until we were back home again. That’s when embarrassment grabbed me by the throat, because I had been caught publicly being rude to someone who was very nice and polite to me. Sigh.

God’s Grace came to meet me, through my husband. He reminded me that part of any normal grief is anger. I always thought that meant you got angry at the person for dying and leaving you. Wrong answer!  I’m actually  happy for my mother, because she was very old and very ill. But at the same time, I was also relieved, because we often had a complicated relationship while she was still here. 

My anger came from many many unresolved issues between us over the years. Instead of confronting those issues at the time, I simply sucked it up because she was my mother. They say one straw breaks the camel’s back? Well, I had a bus load of straw that landed on my head — and the bank’s rigidity and inflexibility regarding their rules won. The lack of justice banged on a wound, and I ran out of Grace. It instantly reminded me of my past injuries. Our enemy is a snake, he knows right where to poke us and find a sore spot..

Up until then, I thought I had been a bit successful at overcoming anger, because I had defeated my bad attitudes after a bit of a skirmish or two. It sounded like this: … “that was so tough, but I made it through to love – ya-ay me!” Here’s a really good thought to remember, pride goes before a fall! But fortunately Jesus throws all our sins in the sea of forgetfulness … however, our enemy still has a whole other agenda. 

This battle we are currently living in, will not be over until the Lord Himself comes back. Plus anger has a lot of heads, and it comes at us in many different ways. However, the bible tells us that the martyrs under the altar are continually crying out to be avenged. Revelation 6:9-10: “…I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying,“How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 

I found this scripture oddly comforting. These Godly people have left here and now they are in the safest most glorious place and yet they still want to be avenged!  Ya might want to think about that yourself – I did. Bye. 👋

P 3008 Some people need to be hugged back to life. OR …

/ DVH

…how to bore your congregation to death and get away with it!“On Sunday we gathered to take communion and to hear Paul preach. Because he was planning to leave the next day, he continued speaking until past midnight. Sitting in an open window listening was a young man named Eutychus. As Paul’s sermon dragged on, Eutychus became drowsy and fell into a deep slumber. Sound asleep, he fell three stories to his death below.” Acts 20:7,9.

Hah! And you think your pastor’s sermons are boring! The Apostle Paul had an agenda, he was leaving and needed to say everything he wanted to say. I’ve said this quite a few times before, sometimes really bad things are pre-cursors to miracles. I had a friend who used to say:  “If you want to see a miracle then you are going to have to need one —  and that won’t always be as much fun as it sounds!!” Just don’t sit in any windows OK?

Here’s another pretty good thought — I’d be careful about saying the preacher’s sermons are boring! If I were you, I’d make sure that guy is proficient in raising the dead first!  Meanwhile, ladies stop nudging your husband awake, let him snore away… you just might be missing out on a miracle —! 🤣 Lets’ continue on with this fun story and get to the hugging bit.

“Paul went downstairs, bent over the boy, and embraced him. Taking him in his arms, he said to all the people gathered, “Stop your worrying. He’s come back to life!” Paul went back upstairs, served communion, and ate a meal with them. Then he picked back up where he left off and taught until dawn. Filled with enormous joy, they took the boy home alive and everyone was encouraged.”Acts 20:10-12 TPT.

Retrospectively thinking about this subject, I have heard some sermons where I felt like I was nearly dying of boredom while I was listening to them. The bible doesn’t subscribe to political correctness, in this instance the writer says: ”…the sermon dragged on…”  So … this is PAUL preaching, right? The Paul who wrote more than a third of the New Testament – and yet he bored some poor guy into such a sound sleep he fell out of a 3 story window and got DEAD for his trouble.

You see, to my way of thinking —the one mistake this congregation made was this:  right after Eutychus died and was resurrected —  they went and FED Paul, and he got a second wind. And so he started up preaching again. I think we need a policy in place, that says — never ever feed a boring preacher. The moral of this story is don’t be boring – you never know who you might accidentally kill!

And do not, as in .. not ever!! — let the preacher guy get back into the pulpit again, because you could end up at church until dawn. Why prolong the agony? I particularly like the line that said: “he,(Paul), picked right up where he left off …” Most preachers would happily surrender their right arm to be asked to keep on going. It seems to me that there are two clear lessons for us all here. One is don’t ever fall asleep while somebody is preaching …and the second is … dead people are not a deterrent to whatever God wants to say!   Any dead people out there reading this today? No?? Good, just don’t go near any windows!

A word to the wise, for a pastor reading this – you may think your sermon is fantastic and all your points are valid … but if people start dropping out of the church’s windows like dead flies maybe you need an editor. Just saying is all … Some people need to be hugged back to life, and all the shouting and preaching at them that we can do, will not help them. There have been people in my life that I would rather have thumped on the head because they seemed pretty dense to me … but then I would need to be able to run faster than they can – so that shoots that idea down in flames.

Meanwhile, enough frivolity! Let’s get back to today’s real point … Love is always the answer. It is not an alternative response – it is THE ANSWER. Paul illustrated that practically. Love meant everyone went home from church that day happy, with a heck of a testimony all round. Loving others includes restoring them … back to life if necessary.This means we may have to stop and interrupt whatever we thought and planned to do, to love on somebody who seems pretty dead to us. The priority is always the people, not the sermon. 

Words can be blown away on the wind, and actions speak so much louder than words. Paul is the best kind of preacher because he interrupted his sermon to meet one young man’s need. Some of the people you and I meet every single day – might need someone to hold up their arms, like Aaron and Hur did for Moses, until the battle was won. … And some poor sods need to be hugged back into life. Maybe it’s time to start demonstrating instead of talking. Love in action is never boring. Bye 👋

P 2937 Two ways to read stuff.

/ DVH

“So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute Him. In His defence Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”John 5:15-18.

The Pharisees could not see beyond their prejudices because they thought Jesus was making Himself equal with God. That’s the trouble with human opinions and prejudices – they colour in whatever you see to prove your own point. Sadly, these brilliant scholars and teachers missed something in their singular focus! They missed a huge revelation, because they wanted to disprove its source.The sabbath was made for man, for our benefit —man was not made for the sabbath. REST is our portion, every single moment, hour, day, of the week. Not just on Sunday! We are to live in His rest right now, by doing what God wants us to do. (Matthew 11:28) 

Almighty God often hides Himself and His truth inside things that could offend us, or stuff we may dismiss or resist. We are to do whatever we do from rest, not from striving to get it right, or trying to be good enough. And that’s not some-day pie-in-the-sky stuff. It’s REAL, it’s for today, it’s for YOU. God absolutely, totally took care of our sin when Christ came and died on our behalf. Now we simply enter into the place that Christ won for us – using our faith and then we rest in what He did. 

Jesus was pointing to a new reality – one that ushered in a different way to live … Now we are destined to live this life totally dependant upon Him, and follow His plan for our life. That’s what freedom looks like, it looks like the right to say YES or NO to God Himself. At the same time, what He said pointed to His authority to say it! But these legalists didn’t like that at all, they stumbled over His claims that God was His Father. He’s OUR Father, too!

Right before the above incident happened, Jesus healed a man who had been lying by the pool at Bethesda. The people in authority took exception to this healing because He did it on the Sabbath. That’s why He explained Himself in the above scripture. He basically said: “I’m working because God Himself is working.” Jesus spent His life helping people, ushering in healing and deliverance, and everything He taught us was to show us what the Father is actually like. He went over and over it. He did what He did because He saw His Father doing it. 

We need to go far deeper than simply reading and rereading the stories — we need to be more like Ruth, who went into the fields to gain food so she and Naomi could eat. Even the leftovers in God’s kingdom can feed people and change a life. (Matthew 15:27) There is always more. The more we look, the more we will see. If we only look for instruction, that is all we will see. But if we look for HIM, His nature, His Ways, we will find HIM and, He is our forever treasure. 

The Pharisees were already happy with what they believed, and they weren’t willing to have their lives turned upside down. But Jesus persevered with them, over and over again. He said stuff like this: “You’ve got this bit right, but you need to look hard right there!” Jesus didn’t just come to die for us and show us a new way to live, He came to reveal His Father! We get so tied up with finding the benefits we miss the Main Event!  He said this in John 5:30.“By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is just, for I seek not to please Myself but Him who sent Me.” 

The Lord had no agenda – at all. It’s hard for us to imagine what that is like, because most people today are all agendas! But watching Jesus do what His Father wanted Him to do, gives us big clues. “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” Proverbs 25:2. God likes to hide things, and they are not always in plain sight. It is worth soaking in, meditating on what is said in the bible, plus asking the Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see what is really going on. And don’t forget to ask how it applies to me! 

Father God is there as plain as day for those who take the time to seek Him out. However, we must stop seeking Him to prove our point and let Him make His own! Things that don’t make sense to us now, will suddenly begin to make sense, when we stay open to His point of view. The bible was not just written to benefit us –it was supernaturally written and preserved to reveal HIM.  We must pour over the scriptures like it is a puzzle we want to solve, because our clues to our Beloved are IN them – the Living Word is in there!  

Why would He use a whale to post a man somewhere he needed to be? Why would He use 300 men to vanquish more warriors than someone could count? Why would He walk an entire escaping nation across the bottom of an ocean? Why would He explain Himself to someone who was so devastated by loss that he couldn’t hide under his own platitudes any more? Why would He speak through a donkey? Why would He send His ONLY Son as an infant? That list goes on … there are two ways to read the bible. Stop simply reading, and ask the Holy Spirit questions.

He’s looking for the people who choose to lap water – the ones who are ready to run with Him.  Bye 👋

P 2903 Do I listen?

/ DVH

Listening is an important skill. How can anyone learn and change, if they think we already know? On the other hand, if we think we are right, perhaps we are listening … with an agenda?! I bumped into this particular attitude in myself today – it was not a happy thought! One of the very best gifts we can give someone else is to listen to them. Whether it is our children, our spouse, a friend, or a stranger who needs a listening ear. 

Because we are constantly bombarded by all kinds of media, I think we’ve lost the art of true listening – from the heart. The term social media, by the way, is a misnomer. There’s nothing social, or truly interactive about social media! Because of this phenomenon, people have become used to either oversharing, or colouring in what they say with pretty pencils to make themselves look better. 

I think that this extreme has resulted in losing the art of listening with love in our hearts, and concern on our faces. I have no excuse for my own personal behaviour – as you know, I don’t partake in any sort of social media. By the way, I just bumped into contempt and pride when I said that! 😱 We all know, I have no love for that stuff. Blimey, it’s raining bad attitudes at my house!!

There are times that someone could still be typing their response furiously while the person on the other end is trying to communicate with us, via this or that platform. Instead it becomes a game of one-up-man-ship. Who types the fastest? I also think sometimes our lack of intimacy with the Lord, can actually show up in our personal relationships. And…  our lack of intimacy with others can show up in our relationship with Him! Jesus is passionate about people, He is so passionate about people He died for all of us. The Lord is a great listener, if we will put away our agendas, and simply ‘…be still…!’

Sad to say, we can get so busy doing this and saying that, we can’t hear each other speak anymore! Important words get lost, or people get the brush-off because we think we know what the other person is going to say, or maybe … we don’t actually want to know what that other person is going to say because we are not interested. Either way we are the losers because the bible tells us that iron sharpens iron – and that sharpening won’t happen in a vacuum, we will have to choose to participate.

The bible is all about all kinds of relationships and it teaches  us how to live, side by side, with each other. Sadly, today all the godly motivated ideas about forgiveness have been thrown out —- and instead we get indignant stories about people being disobedient to society’s new laws, which are sometimes called political correctness. I’ve looked hard at that lot, and those things also totally annoy the living daylights out of me! They rub me up the wrong way so hard, I can lose my cool over it all. That’s when the Holy Spirit whispers to me that I have been called to love people, no matter what society tells me I should do. I am to obey the King – my allegiance to His message is my first priority.

You know, I found out that if you pay attention to the stuff you actually don’t like to admit about yourself, you can learn a lot of things you’ve never even thought about!  In this process I learnt that I don’t like being told what to do. I can be extremely compliant when things suit me, but when something is outrageously unjust – the red balloon goes up and so do my anger levels! So much for having a loving inclusive attitude. We can’t be transformed if we don’t admit to having a problem, and I was  totally unaware that this attitude had crept up on me. I was judging people without hearing His heart on the matter, first.

Jesus had injustices all around Him, yet still He only said what He heard the Father saying, and He only did what His Father told Him to do. (John 12:49-50.) That sounds like a great plan to me! Maybe my own personal problems have occurred because I’ve been busy justifying my snarky ways by pointing to the bible, and using it as a club instead of a book that was designed to heal. His book is designed to heal our relationship with the Lord first, and then it heals our relationship with others. We will miss His greatest blessings when we use His Word to justify stuff that is resistant to transformation.

Today, I just want to share that I fall on my head in matters of change, often. Many times I miss the mark and I don’t even know until hours, or even, days later. I’ve been too busy pompously riding about on my high horse to notice. Then I can easily spend a couple of days trying to avoid the only cure … ‘Draw near to God, humble yourself…’ James 4. Humbling yourself cures a whole lotta stuff – I recommend it. It helps me listen. Bye.👋