Almighty God

P 3371 Cultivate Fruit. 

/ DVH

I love summer time when all kinds of fruit are in the shops and it seems like we are overloaded with choices. Any kind of fruit looks great to me. You know in the bible I can’t find one instance of anyone talking about dieting! Fasting – yes! Dieting – no! Father God has provided us with a tremendous variety of foods. He is the source of it all, including the fruity yumminess, because He caused every pleasant and fruit-producing tree to grow in the Garden of Eden. It was a fruit-bearing tree that seduced Adam and Eve! 

And today, I have a little theory I want to write about that. Here we go… inside any fruit there are seeds – most fruits have at least one seed. According to my little bit of research, most of the fruit we have today that are seedless, have been specially cultivated by horticulturalists to remove those seeds for our convenience sake. If you’ve eaten an orange with a great many seeds in it, you will understand why! 

If we look at the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, I think we will find that when Adam and Eve ate whatever kind of fruit it was, its seed was in there too. It also became part of them, not just the fruit. Inside any seed is the potential for many other trees to grow. When Almighty God banished this couple from His garden, they lost all access to the tree of life, because they’d disobeyed when they ingested the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, together with it’s seeds.

Now this couple had the potential to decide what was good and what was evil … because the seeds of knowledge, and the quest for power were growing inside them. They decided disobeying God was evil, that’s why they hid. They already had the potential to be like Him … without His WISDOM, MERCY and GRACE and DISCERNMENT etc.

Their disobedience robbed them of their holiness, and the access to Holy fellowship that God Himself gave them. That fruit of disobedience, that they chose to eat, was passed on to their offspring. Then God planted Himself into the earth in the form of His seed in a virgin’s womb. Jesus was planted and He lived here, He died and was buried here. A seed has to die to bear fruit.

Cain became jealous and killed his brother Abel. The seed of ‘whatever I don’t regard as evil’ is not evil, has become my new idea of truth. This was fostered the minute Cain entertained the thought: “Why didn’t God like my sacrifice?” Independent thinking is a very popular theme nowadays. It seems to me that truth is no longer fixed, because we have thrown away our access to the Tree of Life, the bible.  People are planted in the wilderness, instead of being planted by streams of living water. The bible points us firmly to our need of a totally New kind of Life – in Jesus! 

Humanity has been sowing trees ever since. Conversely if I think it’s good then it’s good!  EG. You can’t tell me what to do, because seeds of disobedience and rebellion have already been sown and cultivated in my life from birth! We can’t blame Adam and Eve, because we are personally responsible for what we choose to cultivate in our lives. Every interaction, every chosen course, every single choice … feeds and waters His seed in us … or the wrong seeds.

Jesus Christ hung on a fruitless ‘tree’ and HE became the Seed that died to foster our new life in Him. When we ask Him to live within us, we received the potential to cultivate the Tree of Life in us. I think that’s the abundant life Jesus spoke about. Not spectacular houses, piles of money or fancy cars. We can spread heavenly seeds wherever we go.. When we were born again, Jesus Christ gave us His life and put His seed, inside us, WE DON’T HAVE TO SIN ANYMORE. We have a choice. 1 John 3:9 – “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.” 

And Colossians 3:12-14 tells us what that seed looks like: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

This new life we have today is about cultivating His seed, His new life within us — together with all its graces. Jesus died for us, to produce IN us, a new way to live. That way to live isn’t just about us having comfortable lives, it is about our enemy meeting an army of people sold out to spreading God’s love, everywhere. They are being trained in righteousness by the Spirit of the Living God. God’s love is not a theory, it is His grace, let loose so mankind can lay claim to their birthright – the tree of life and the different kinds of fruit that freely grow on that tree.

We’ve been misled by religion. You and I can’t cultivate His seed in someone else – it is their choice. But they still need to know they have a choice. We are His witnesses to everything He did, and is still doing in our lives every single day. His seeds of obedience, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, love, and joy and peace are now in us. We simply co-operate with the Holy Spirit and follow His lead, using the opportunities life brings across our path. 

The seed of eternal life has been sown into us when we said YES to Him. So we choose LIFE, the way our Saviour lived it. Now is the time to cultivate His fruit… and that’s my little theory. Bye. 👋

P 3367 The Bride Jesus deserves.

/ DVH

One day, we are going to the greatest wedding of all eternity.. We will marry Jesus and be His Beloved Bride forever. This time here on earth is our preparation time for that wedding. Everything has already been prepared in heaven, on the Groom’s side. The Groom is waiting. However, it is up to His Bride to accept all the provisions and alterations that have been provided for her. The Holy Spirit is the One Who is in charge of Jesus’ Bride’s preparations. 

Just recently I’ve noticed that there is an ongoing trend everywhere in our world. There is an attitude that minimises people’s obligations to carry out what they say they will do. We’ve stopped being a people of our word. Excuses are made. When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we entered into a relationship, an engagement with the Lord our King, and Bridegroom. It is part of the marriage covenant to allow ourselves to be made ready for this incredible honour.

In today’s current climate I have been puzzled about what seems to be someone’s intentions, and what they— in real time, in real life —actually carried out. There seems to be no difference between INTENTIONS and ACTIONS in some people’s minds. In my opinion, those kinds of attitudes lead to confusion and sometimes even self-deceit. Self-deception occurs when we think saying something sincerely, and doing it, are the same thing. Because we owe Jesus everything – everything is what He should get!

Actions are about someone following through on the choices they’ve made, until the things that have been accepted by both parties are finished, and concluded. But intentions are  based on a person’s communicated desires and thoughts – however they don’t necessarily have to be translated into actions.The general feeling about this concept today, is that intending to do something is the same as carrying it out. IT’S NOT!

Almighty God has always held mankind to our word. He gave us His word and He carried it out. His gracious treatment of humanity is our example of promises given and fulfilled. Jesus’ Bride has a responsibility to be the kind of people who follow through on their promises. What we say at the altar needs to be followed up!  When we don’t, then we need to take the time to confess those things as sin, repent, (which means turn around and go the other way), and allow the Holy Spirit to help us keep our word. 

Father God understands, first hand, (His Son came here!) that because we are human, we can have oppressing circumstances. But the best response if we truly want to be transformed, is to go back to Him and talk to Him about it, not just excuse ourselves. Looking for permission to avoid responsibility, or to cover up things and pretend that they don’t exist, will compromise the very essence of our privileged relationship with the Trinity. 

Jesus paid for our sins, it was a gift, freely given. That means any presumption is offensive in the face of that gift. Gratitude and obedience are the right responses. Jesus won’t hold our sins against us, He has already provided a way for us to deal with our sins and missteps. But that way is not avoidance. Many people have indicated to me about obedience: “I can’t do that.” I cannot agree with that premise. The Lord Himself has provided a way to help us obey, at great personal cost to Himself. The Holy Spirit is here! Obviously we can change – we are simply using our feelings and habits to hide from reality.

The bible is the only way we can actively learn about what our Bridegroom expects from us. Yet we cannot do HIS WILL, His way… without HIS help. We need to learn how to behave like a royal, loyal Bride would. We must determine in our hearts to be steadfast toward our Husband-to-be and grateful for His goodness toward us, above our own negative feelings or fears. I am aware that living like that cuts across our desire for self preservation, and the appearance of looking good to others. Our Groom knows about that! He was innocent and He allowed mankind to punish Him …  yet He said not a word.

My scripture today is not one that is spoken about a lot, so I will leave you to draw your own conclusions about your  responses – just as I need to assess my own. As I have intimated before: I believe the Bride needs to stop cherry-picking scriptures that suit her and read the bible seriously, reflectively, with humility, and then go on to discontinue any course that says””I intend to… one day, when I’m ready.” Instead she must be committed to carry out anything and everything that will facilitate her new role as His Beloved Bride. Humility is our bridal shawl, now we wrap ourselves in everything He did for us.

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Luke 18:10-14.

After all Jesus has done for us, don’t you think He deserves a Bride Who will humbly submit to the Holy Spirit’s ministry and preparations with great joy? Let’s be a Bride Who embraces everything the Lord Jesus Himself deserves from us. Bye. 👋

P 3355 What love can’t do.

/ DVH

Love can’t be an obligation, because when it is, it loses its power! Love won’t make us do anything – we must choose to apply ourselves and obey. I hear such lovely people – sincere saints – they are so sweet … yet they keep praying AMISS! They think they are being honest, but God’s kingdom coin of the realm, is LOVE. The only truth is HIS truth. 

People pray: “Dear Lord, please help me to obey You and love this or that person” Amen. Great prayer, sweet prayer… useless prayer! If I have just offended you, then please forgive me! But this kind of prayer is evasion. We wipe our hands and say: ‘Well, I’ve prayed, and now it is up to Him.’ Then we keep on doing the same old same old, grizzling behind people’s backs, listing their faults, keeping hatred alive. And we wonder why nothing changes. 

The kingdom of God does not work like that. Read the book. We are the people that His Son made free, and when we voluntarily give up that freedom to bless someone else, despite their behaviour toward us, we are acting like His kids. His kingdom will flourish within us. ‘I want to’ is not the same as ‘doing.’ It’s wish praying. Real prayer has legs, feet, arms, hands and heart. In order to SEE a difference, we must BEHAVE differently. 

We can’t know what loving our enemies looks like unless we choose to love those who despitefully use us. Loving our enemies is not about being fake … it is about stepping out in faith and living like Jesus said, despite our feelings. While we are concentrating on what others are doing our own hearts are at risk. Personally, I have found the way I treat other people changes the way they respond. But I must start from poverty of heart, and then do whatever He tells me to do. Love can’t and won’t make us. Almighty God will sometimes offend our minds to reach our hearts. 

Let’s look at Jonah, God told this prophet “Go to Ninevah.” Now Jonah had a fatal flaw, he hated Ninevites so he said “No!” And off he goes, on his …‘I’m running away from God tour’ – and he ends up on a ship that’s going to sink in a huge gale. He’s asleep at the bottom of the ship. There’s probably not much conviction there yet … eh? This is where Jonah begins to turn around, and God starts to teach him something …  Jonah’s NO! has consequences on other people’s lives! He is God’s man, the pivoting point. The crew of the ship will drown right along with him because of his disobedience.

When Jonah realises he is the cause of the situation, he selflessly volunteers to be thrown overboard. This has a huge  impact on the crew – they all get saved. Two things worth noting here:  we can mess things up so badly it looks like we have ruined other people’s lives. But our Saviour is a Redeemer and He works everything together for good. When we act according to His purposes, He releases His kingdom. He cares about everyone’s lives, even the people we don’t like, who have hurt us badly. God doesn’t take sides – He only has one side …HIS! His side is pure, right, just, and wise.

Now let’s look at Jesus Who tells His disciples to “Go and heal the sick, set the captives free, cleanse the lepers and raise the dead.’ These guys don’t know up from down, and the Lord just told them to do something they know they can’t do. They’ve seen Him do it, but that’s different. We can’t love other people without Him helping us any more than we can raise the dead. It’s ALL faith! The Kingdom comes wherever the King is welcome. What did the disciples have to do? They had to do more than pray – they had to GO and DO what Jesus said. He gave them a job, and they had to go and do it. Our ‘job’ is to love others, including our enemies.

Everything rests on how much we trust Jesus’ WORD. We show Him we trust Him when we live this life the way He told us to. And when God says to forgive people, it’s not a suggestion, He’s teaching all of us HOW to enter into His Kingdom and LIVE THERE. We can’t just pick and choose what we want to do. In His Kingdom, people don’t hold grudges. Unforgiveness, disobedience and rebellion cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 

Repent, ask Him to show you what you need to DO, and obey, and then leave it with Him. It’s a choice. It is not about giving other people permission to sin, and it is about not letting their sin cause a response in us. If someone in your family of origin, or friends  used to beat the living daylights out of you, or abused you physically, or derided you with words – you probably won’t much feel much like loving them. We can’t afford to act on our feelings. Almighty God is always doing more than one thing at a time. While He is transforming us through our obedient actions, He is also reaching into someone else’s life because our obedient actions release HIS GRACE.

Acting on what the King says ushers in His kingdom. Love can’t make us choose to change. We need to yield to the Lord and act. Let’s choose His Way, and cherish it – it won’t just fall on us. We simply can’t wait for the Lord to do what He has already told US to do. Our faith has to have biblical action. We get a pure heart when we choose to have our old ways renewed, but He won’t make us- it’s our choice. Bye. 👋

P 3353 It’s worth a thought.

/ DVH

Philippians 4:4. “Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in Him!”

Psalm 65:1-13. “Silence is praise to you, Zion-dwelling God, And also obedience. You hear the prayer in it all. We all arrive at Your doorstep sooner or later, loaded with guilt,
Our sins too much for us—but You get rid of them once and for all.
Blessed are the chosen! Blessed the guest at home in Your place! We expect our fill of good things in Your house, Your heavenly manse. All Your salvation wonders are on display in Your trophy room.
Earth-Tamer, Ocean-Pourer, Mountain-Maker, Hill-Dresser,
Muzzler of sea storm and wave crash, of mobs in noisy riot—Far and wide they’ll come to a stop — they’ll stare in awe, in wonder. Dawn and dusk take turns calling, “Come and worship.”Oh, visit the earth, ask her to join the dance! Deck her out in spring showers, fill the God-River with living water. Paint the wheat fields golden. Creation was made for this! Drench the plowed fields, soak the dirt clods With rainfall as harrow and rake bring her to blossom and fruit.
Snow-crown the peaks with splendour, scatter rose petals down your paths, All through the wild meadows, rose petals. Set the hills to dancing, Dress the canyon walls with live sheep, a drape of flax across the valleys. Let them shout, and shout, and shout! Oh, oh, let them sing!”

I would like to start out this morning by remembering that King David in his heart, was first a worshipper; then he went on to be a great warrior and a Godly king. But he started out on the side of a hill, watching sheep, looking at clouds, and marvelling at God’s creation. Please note that not only does he admire the Lord’s handiwork – he worships Almighty God for Who He is, as well as what David can see! Hubby and I had opportunities to do that, on this latest trip while we were travelling.

It was autumn in most of the places we visited, and the hills and valleys were alive with colour, smells and movement. We stopped the car at one point, just to watch a little breeze stir some deep red, orange and green leaves into a delicate little dance. We saw lambs and heifers… and our personal favourite … birds of all kinds everywhere. Flocks of them. We haven’t seen some of these birds in years. Hubby took my photos today.

When I read this Psalm, it reminded me that in our cities, sometimes all we can see are buildings, cars, trucks, concrete and people — but in the country you can often see God’s creation, bubbling over with life. It’s like He decorated this world with every beautiful thing He could think of, just so we could see Him in another way. Father God is constantly revealing Himself, how glorious He is. We cannot afford to reduce Who He is into only words or language. no matter how revelatory language seems to be.

Sometimes the best thing to do, is to go outside and just take the time to look. What a pity it would be if all we know about Almighty God are some words that somebody else taught us. Instead, lets allow Him to reveal Himself to us, by what He has made.

We don’t have the season of autumn much where I live, it is semi-tropical. So all that happens is that the sun gets lower on the horizon, and the days seem shorter as it gets a bit colder. But when the sun is out, the rich golden daylight dances through leaves creating shadows. Every single time I look at it, I understand why the Impressionists thought that just painting representationally was not enough! 

Our God speaks so many languages, and one of them  — is visual, and exquisitely beautiful! I think what we call nature, is another one of our Father’s Heavenly languages. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.” Psalm 19:1,2. 

It is interesting that David notes how important our obedience is to God. I think disobedience can render human beings a bit dumb and blind. Some people think we need entertaining to help us relax, but there was no TV, Media, books etc. in the Garden of Eden! Just God’s handiwork. Imagine the smells in that garden!

Then our sin put a tear into the perfect fabric of this picture. Human beings allowed disobedience and fear inside that glorious garden – and their inner silence was shattered. Sadly, I know I can do that myself by rushing past what really matters, to get to something that doesn’t – just so I can put a tick on a long list in my head! Sometimes I think mankind is almost a parody of who we are meant to be — instead of a glorious reflection of Who He is! We were created to look like Him – “Let us make man in Our image.”

If someone seems ugly to you, in the way they are acting or speaking, then ask the Lord to help you to see Jesus in them. There are so many angry, agitated, shattered people with so much fear in their eyes, that the light God put in them has almost gone out. Even our children have not been nurtured to appreciate the beauty around them. Their eyes are stuffed full of immersion in worthless stuff that ushers in distraction. That is so sad, children were made for wonder.

In my mind’s eye, I can see a tiny little two year old girl, hugging a small book to her chest, dancing with delight. She didn’t need the internet – which went off the day we left! She had a book. Who knows what sorrow her little eyes had seen before we met her that day? Today my thought is this — let’s never stop expecting to see the good things of God. Instead we need to treat what this world offers as a pale shadow of His life-giving realities. It’s worth a thought. Bye. 👋

P 3349 Real life.

/ DVH

I have a question —  how do you handle the everyday difficulties that frustrate you? When we get back from a mission trip, all kinds of not-so-nice things can happen. Instead of floating about on a cloud of victory, praising God for His goodness in our travels, we suddenly need to cope with unexpected illness or some frustration or other. I like to be truthful about this life, and that’s because our faith needs to be realistic, not glamorised. Trust me, nobody needs to feel a failure for being human – Jesus took man’s humanity in His stride, and kindness and compassion flowed out from Him. 

Let’s remind ourselves that whatever happens that is good, right and profitable, it is the Lord doing what He loves to do, reaching out to people. Personally I definitely need that kind of spiritual exercise!  The deliberately renewing of your mind when you’d rather have a hissy fit … kind. When there are day-to-day difficulties and challenges, it is easy to fall into the trap of over-emphasising the good, diminishing the bad, and deliberately losing sight of the ugly! But we can’t afford to live in the beautifully, hand-painted land of one glorious victory after another, either. That’s not reality … not where I live! 

We are no less His kids just because we can’t cope. Living in victory every moment of every day is just a happy story we tell ourselves because we are desperately longing for  brighter days. We we really need is relief from pain and we’ve forgotten our true hiding place is in Him. “God is close to the broken-hearted,” Psalm 34:18 …But when our feelings are fierce and we’ve been stabbed through the heart, or we are afraid, we don’t often remember verses like that. If you have a friend who will remind you – cherish them.

Today I want to talk about something so simple, sensible, and clearly thought out, it thoroughly blessed me in the middle of a difficult time. I was listening to a very ordinary little old lady (Yes I know I are one!) She was briefly speaking in a YouTube clip. She said this: “Why do we think everything should always be wonderful in our lives, and work so hard to achieve it, when we are actually living in enemy territory?” … … I was poleaxed. She blew my mind. What a wise older lady! The Lord sure has His precious gems hidden away in secret, and when you discover one like this precious saint, they bless you. When I find someone like this I want to adopt them! 

My point is, we need balance. We can’t make excuses for our behaviour when it is less than what we are aiming at,  but we mustn’t beat ourselves up either. Our response is to increase our faith in what He did for us – that’s the renewing our mind bit.  Blame is the enemy’s sharpest tool of discouragement and distraction. The only Person we can ever safely invest in is Jesus – everybody else suffers from harassment, trouble and strife just like we do.

Here’s a verse that doesn’t always suit our version of theology … Romans 5:3-5: “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us.” Almighty God does not see our hard times the way we see them. I can become very concerned when Christianity is driven along by our desperate need to be positive. We sometimes try so hard to make gold out of straw! The only Person Who can do that is the Lord … and it is our joy to watch Him do it. 

Every single Christian needs the Lord’s help to manage what comes at them. You and I are not exceptions. When we cannot cope, we need to remember for ourselves, and also remind others that we are human. Let’s remember where our help comes from  – “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.”  Psalm 121:1, 2. Find a hill and look UP! I’ve found that doing something He asks me to do for someone else, cheers me up when my spirit is flagging. Meanwhile, we need to allow the Holy Spirit the freedom to do what He loves to do – redeem situations. 

Our favourite tiler came and finished tiling our main bedroom floor yesterday, which means we might be moving back into a bigger, more comfortable bedroom soon. We are a bit squashed in a single room. But at the same time, we were able to share the gospel with our tiler friend and his beautiful wife, and they responded so well. They are a Muslim couple, and the very sweet young wife read parts of the bible out loud, to practice her English! I still get misty eyed thinking about it. 

My point is, we all suffer. Sometimes with niggly, messy irritations, disturbing interruptions, or even some sort of unspeakable agony, when life turns into a nightmare. So we pray and pray because we want it to stop; we can pray and ask for His help, and remember that we are living in enemy territory and bad stuff will happen. There is no need to punish or deride yourself for failure, or missteps, or a lack of faith … right when you most need it. This is real life and some days it can be hard to take. Bye 👋 

P 3348 Show me the Father…

/ DVH

“Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Now, there’s poor old Phil with his socks blown off! 🧦💥🧦! Hang on to yours … OK? Jesus is explaining what seeing and knowing the Father looks like. So now, let’s take a look at John 14:21,23.

“The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.]” AMP version.

The above verses are a tool. Jesus is showing us HOW to see the Father. Let’s remember, we have been told in the bible, God’s Ways are not our ways. That’s Isaiah 55:8-9. Indeed our Heavenly Father’s thoughts are so far above ours, we are doing Him a grave disservice if we try to bring Him down to our level! That’s because basically, we can’t understand the way He thinks because it is simply beyond us!

However! The Holy Spirit has been sent to us to help us to understand what He is doing and He reveals the Father’s character to us, as we pursue Him and cherish obedience. It is not just that God is wa-a-a-a-y smarter than we can ever be … but He is … it is that His thoughts are based on, and rooted in LOVE, and we don’t speak “love” very well — yet. 

His love is pure, holy, accurate, discerning, faithful, patient, joyful, peaceful, kind, good, gentle and it is full of self-control!! Our kind of love is whimsical at best, and it floats about like a cork on the ocean, we can be guided by many things outside of our conscious control. But nothing is outside God’s control! He is a sovereign God with humanity’s good in His mind and heart. That’s something that is so far beyond our comprehension, we are going to need the Holy Spirit’s help – all the time. Otherwise we end up speaking our enemy’s language – hatred and blame.

If we wanted to show someone what our spouse or child or parent looks like, we might show them a photo. Jesus Christ is God’s photo! At the same time, He is incredibly 3 dimensional and far more real than we can ever comprehend. He is God Himself, and a living breathing obedient Human being, Who loves mankind and came here to save and help us understand that Our Father is not like other gods.

When we choose to obey what the Lord says — we will get glimpses into the WAY He does things. Remember, He doesn’t do stuff the way we do it, so some things won’t always make sense to us. The difference between God’s ways, and ours is huge. I think we fail to understand Him sometimes, because satan encourages us to use human logic to understand a Holy God. That’s like using wet spaghetti to tie your shoelaces. You can, but why on earth would you? Our God is a mystery wrapped up in glory and splendour — not SomeOne who can be parcelled up nicely and put in a box.

Jesus came to earth as God personified. He came to save us — as one of us. He was the perfect Person to come here, and the perfect representation of our Holy God. Reducing the Lord to rules and regs is like trying to repackage hot melted butter in the same paper it came in. The Lord Jesus is God Himself with our kind of skin on, and He is a totally, everlasting, smitten lover of mankind. Jesus blew away all of our rules and regs toward His Father, but He carefully kept the Father’s heart in all things perfectly. He did not come to earth to please us – He came to rescue and save us from satan’s wiles.

When we look at Christ sitting beside a well, talking to a women who had been married 4 times, and was now living with the fifth guy — we are looking at God sitting beside her … kindly guiding her, piquing her interest and transforming her life. Almighty God says so many things at once we cannot take them in! God once sat down beside Jonah. The man was complaining about a dead plant that was supposed to be there to give him shelter. Almighty God took the time to explain to Jonah that plants are not more important than people. Nineveh needed saving, and He had chosen Jonah to preach to them. Trying to avoid our destiny is a waste of time and it can have very strange consequences. 

Our God has deeper, more eternal motivations than we can ever dream of — to even begin to know Him we need to obey what He tells us, in His Word, and keep looking, and re-looking at Jesus. We must practise paying attention to the way He did things, toward His Father, and men and women. When we do that we will begin to learn God’s ways. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Hebrews 1:3. 

To us, words are simply a method of communication – to God Himself, they are a way to speak LIFE. Jesus Himself said it: ‘show me the Father,’ means we take the time to deliberately observe His dear Son in action. He expected the disciples to recognise Him by His actions. Jesus clearly says: God looks like ME. Bye 🙏 .

P 3340 Learn to fight …

/ DVH

…for what is yours by birthright! And remember, we don’t fight against flesh and blood. It’s not your spouse, or your parents, or your uncles and aunties – it’s the devil! 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 :“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”

And Ephesians 6: 1-18 says: “And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and He wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the devil throws your way. This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the devil and all his angels.                                                                           Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare.” 

We are in a battle, day by day, whether we like it or not, and even earthly soldiers get battle fatigue. However, we have the power of God within us to make the difference, and we need to use His power to help ourselves thrive in His Ways, and for the benefit of others. We don’t just fight under adverse conditions – we learn to thrive. Many times in our lives together, hubby and I have commented it seems like it is one thing after another, and another.

You can get very weary from fighting things. Like battling to maintain a Godly-attitude with His help; or not reacting to the same thing happening for the 479th time! Let’s face it satan doesn’t fight fair. he will kick you and beat you when you are down. One of the best weapons against despair and disappointment is the realisation that Almighty God will not ever give up on us. There are things float through our minds: “Does God care about what is happening to me?” Those are the battles we must fight in our emotions, and minds — they can be overwhelming, and potentially, destructive.

Remind yourself that Jesus took every single sin and mistake we’ve made to the cross with Him. And our God is not a fair weather Friend! Now you and I are blameless in His sight – that’s what His Grace is all about. The truth is a weapon we can use when our minds are full of doubt, unbelief, and anger or disappointment with ourselves or others. We must stop! — and remember Who we belong to now. It’s a supernatural task, so it needs supernatural tactics, not just mind games. 

We can’t continue to quote the scripture without knowing the reality behind it. The reality comes from living this life eating His bread, daily, and reminding ourselves of His blood over our lives, daily. I am reminded of someone else who tried head knowledge in Acts 9:11-17: “Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are you… ?” Being known by our enemy means we are bothering him. Good! Someone famous once said this, I have no idea who it was – “Be the kind of Christian that the devil says every day – oh no! He/she is up again!!”

People can sometimes be defeated because they are not pointing their will toward what the Lord wants. Obedience is essential. If you feel you can’t obey, then point your will toward His will and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. When God talks about truth, He means His truth, not just something that sounds like truth, but it is indulging me in self-pity – or making me feel justified in my sad sack attitude. I cannot BE justified outside of the blood of Jesus. He gave that to me, I didn’t earn it… I’m so grateful for His goodness!

When God says “renew your mind” He is not talking about parroting off some scripture or other, as a weapon against satanic attacks. Our own personal knowledge of His goodness, is a mighty weapon. I stand and face my fears, or other people’s accusations and misunderstandings  by saying: “This one thing I know — MY GOD IS GOOD.” Ergo, if it is not good, then it is not God! … BUT!! Please remember to check your heart first, and  make sure you are not blaming someone else simply because you don’t want to deal with yourself! Our beliefs are not second hand they are up close and personal. I dun fell down that hole many times! Sigh.

When it comes to battles I am like a three year old. I run to hide in my Father’s robes. I want to be that spectator in Psalm 91… I don’t even try to peek out to see what is going on. I let what He has already done do the work for me. Shape your life around the Lord, make Him the centre. Then we can’t be dragged about by the winds of change and impulses of whimsy. If you are under attack drag your heart back to thinking about how good He has been to you. Read the bible aloud!

Let’s choose to live this life, by finding out stuff from the bible for ourselves. I am no longer a child, if I need to know something, then I ask the Holy Spirit to help me find the answer. Then I go and dig around in His book. Learn to fight for what is your birthright by the way you live. I need to participate and feed myself daily, digesting what He said with actions. We can’t win with hot air, we need real weapons forged in our lives with the fire of His life in us. Bye. 👋

P 3328 You may need your molars!

/ DVH

“When You speak to me, I devour every word. Your Word brings me such boundless joy. The endless delight of my heart is in knowing that Your beautiful name is attached to me, O  Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies.” Jeremiah 15:16 TPT.

Right. Let’s be clear. This is Jeremiah speaking, he was the prophet who didn’t want to be a prophet — who had to lie on one side for a year, and then he had to do the same thing on the other side – all of this was for the Lord’s purposes. Once he was told to bury his loin cloth in the dirt, to teach the Israelites a lesson, and after that he had to wear the mangy, mouldy, mostly-destroyed loin cloth … that’s the scoop for all you fashionistas out there – mouldy clothes! 

This is a guy who walked about with half his head shaved … nothing new there! He was known as ‘the weeping prophet’ because his life was very hard. He was imprisoned, persecuted, betrayed, thrown into a pit by his friends. This man was a walking illustration of what God wanted to say to His people about what was rapidly coming toward them! But, please note — this stuff wasn’t just information to Jeremiah – it was his LIFE! And this man, whose life wasn’t a whole heap of fun, fun, fun — also still said those beautiful words at the top of this page.

My point today, is that life is filled with dichotomies. None of us are just one thing, we all wear different hats in different circumstances and each of us have been asked to deal with all kinds of things in our lives. Some people won’t like what we say – or we do – or even what we don’t do. My conclusion is this – you can’t please people, they are way too fickle! Go with pleasing the Lord. It’s much safer – He’s reliable! Just wait, your troubles will all make sense, eventually.

It is time to relinquish the idea that our lives are always meant to be happy, and but go after His joy! Instead of chasing this world’s idea of happiness our God saved us to use us to enlarge His kingdom. Let’s also remember, our God loves a big family! But just like Jeremiah … belonging to the Lord and being named and owned as the Lord’s child, is our greatest joy and aim as well as … … here comes a word we all hate … responsibility! 

I’ve learnt to deeply appreciate what Father God says, and what He does, and how He does it. Often that actually happens after the hard stuff has been resolved. The difficulties life throws at us can hurt like mad, but eventually these thing fade, or we get used to it … or … we learn from Him how to live with it, like Jeremiah did. The secret to surviving is to allow the bad stuff to be regularly replaced by our ever-present knowledge that Almighty God loves each one of us, unconditionally, and He always wants our good. At the same time, we need to remember, whatever we focus on becomes bigger. 

Try focussing, like Jeremiah did, on Who the Lord is, and what He says about this life. We belong to Him now, that’s a comfort as well as a promise! Many people today want to be the prophet. I just want to say to them — “have you even read the Old Testament??” That kind of life is not as much fun as someone might think it is. A prophet’s life is a visual aid. Jesus’ life was! They often show us by the way they live that God’s Ways are costly, even though they are beautiful to behold. Jeremiah’s life did, so did Hosea’s!

The bible says: “It was for freedom that Christ set us free no longer to be made subject to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1). However that verse needs to be firmly accompanied by the knowledge that we are now yoked to Christ. So now we go where He goes, and do what He does – we become His heart, hands and feet.

I believe the Lord’s Word sustained Jeremiah through the hard times that constantly came hurtling right at him. This is a wonderful reason to cherish whatever the Holy Spirit says to us, when He says it. He wants to sustain us through trials. Father God promises to be with us, when we are in trouble — but sometimes the distance between that promise and its fruition is bigger than we would like. That’s when our faith in God’s goodness is tested.

Jesus warned us about this, in another back molar chewy verse – “I have told you these things, so that IN ME you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. So where is the peace? IN HIM. God has stated His purpose for what He does, and why He does it. We need to listen. Everybody likes the peace bit, but many of us wanna skip the ‘in this world you will have trouble’ part.

When we take what He says as information, we are instantly missing the application of His Words into our own lives. It means we aren’t chewing, instead we are browsing looking for answers that we might like more than the ones we found so far! Here’s my advice for free – simply ask the Lord: “What would You like me to learn here Lord?” This means we are both chewing and digesting God’s Word with the help of our molars!!  Bye. 👋

P 3325 Make His book your life.   

/ DVH

“And now we are brothers and sisters in God’s family because of the blood of Jesus, and He welcomes us to come into the most holy sanctuary in the heavenly realm—boldly and without hesitation. For He has dedicated a new, life-giving way for us to approach God. For just as the veil was torn in two, Jesus’ body was torn open to give us free and fresh access to Him! we come closer to God and approach Him with an open heart, fully convinced that nothing will keep us at a distance from Him. For our hearts have been sprinkled with blood to remove impurity, and we have been freed from an accusing conscience. Now we are clean, unstained, and presentable to God inside and out!” Hebrews 10:19-20, 22 TPT. 

I had to read the above scripture several times to let the meaning and significance of it sink in. Did you ever read words on a page, and you can repeat what it says, but the meaning of it kind of slowly slides by you? Me too. That’s why I read verses like this over and over. There was so much meat in this sandwich I couldn’t quite comprehend it! Then I cried. Because what is said is so incredible it is almost too good to comprehend. Sometimes modern translations are very useful for blowing your mind. 🤯

It seems incredible that we are encouraged to think such thoughts. “Just as the veil was torn in two so was His body torn open to give us free and fresh access to Him.”  Well, there’s me gone, crying again!  Every time I read something like this I see things that I didn’t see before. What a gift we have been given, it was so incredibly costly. Yet I know the Lord says this to each one of us: “You were worth it.” 

The moment Jesus took His final breath, all kinds of stuff happened all over Jerusalem. People who were long dead were seen walking around. Rocks fractured, the earth shook. We really need to take note of this, because God Himself, in the form of a man, chose to die for all of us that day. Now we can freely come to Him whenever we want, for whatever we need. Our Father’s arms are always open to receive us.

Before that day, the law decided who was guilty and who was not. But on that day the heavy curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy place – tore in two, from top to bottom. So after that day, God said: “Mankind no longer has to live with sin and guilt – I have taken it away.” Jesus became that snake on a pole, like the one Moses raised to save many from death, and their carelessness and sin.  When we look to Him and trust Him to do this for us, we can have confidence. When we ask Him to save us, He does it.

The Lord Jesus was figuratively torn apart, so you and I could enter the Holy of Holies unashamed, free from fear, and full of joy to meet with our Heavenly Father for ourselves. We don’t need an intermediary. I don’t have to go to a special church, or cathedral, or holy place to find God – any time I cry out, He listens to me. Because I gave my heart to Jesus, now He lives in me. And here’s the kicker, it seems I can easily miss what I have been given, by simply refusing to believe Him, by letting my sin, eclipse and block out His love for me. 

Any form of accusation is not from the Lord. Jesus died and took it all to the cross. And inadequacy is not ours anymore either, because when He died He gave us His righteousness before Almighty God, for free. When He gave us His standing with His Father, He deliberately took hold of OUR standing in this world and wore it. It killed Him. Now, the people who hate us can’t touch us anymore. The God of the Universe and beyond, has chosen to save us, heal our hearts and protect us. We get to be spectators, not targets. The real question for us is this – is Jesus Christ truthful?

Let’s pretend I have given you a gift and it is something you really wanted. So I bring it to your house, at great personal cost. But then, you put it carefully on a coffee table as you tell me that it is beautiful. You say: ‘Thank you, how kind of you, how good you are to give this gift to me’ … and never ever open it.  Instead it just sits there, with pretty paper around it, and a bow on top!  Father God gave mankind a gift, but it’s no blooming good on our coffee tables or bookshelves! We have to tear His gift open daily, and take the time to examine what’s in it, prayerfully and carefully. 

The bible is our Father’s love and revelation in a book. It’s His words to us that are important – it doesn’t matter much what the thing looks like. If all we do is take the bible and say: “Isn’t that pretty, I always wanted one of these” or maybe — “see here is where He promises to always love me, isn’t that nice?” We’ve missed the point! We have to devour His gift, bit by bit, slowly, chewing on it, letting His book become part of who we are. His book has the power to change our lives and our perspective, forever.

If you need to repent, read the book! If you want to praise and worship Him, read the book! If you want to know who you are NOW — read the book! Then go out and behave like it is true because that’s what faith does. Bye. 👋

P 3321 Fashion shmashion!   

/ DVH

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” (Colossians 3:12.) We have God-given, Holy Spirit activated clothing. It’s heavenly clothing – let’s choose to put it on! Our outer garments are not a reflection of our inner selves, our actions are.

These spiritual things are more lasting than spending money on Christian louboutin, Chanel, Kenji, Connor, Yves Saint Laurent or Myer doesn’t it? Why do we need to be careful what we wear? “All things are legitimate (permissible-and we are free to do anything we please) but not all things are HELPFUL (expedient, profitable and wholesome). All things are legitimate, but not all things are constructive (to character) and edifying (to spiritual life.)” 1 Corinthians 10:23 AMP.

People tell themselves that it is OK to wear this and that, it’s part of our freedom. But Paul says if my freedom makes YOU stumble I should voluntarily give it up. (1 Corinthians 8:9; Romans 14:13-23.) We have been exhorted to live for the Lord and other people – not ourselves. This world’s stuff can so easily take over our thinking and our lives. Our biblical focus, however, is to look like Jesus, and He cared about people. He wasn’t politically correct (PC) – He was Almighty God correct. (AMC) Let’s choose to take into account the fact that we can make other people stumble with what we wear, say, or do.

We live in this current society – we work, play, and interact with others – BUT —WE live by a totally different value system. Simply because we follow Jesus. Jesus Himself spoke about worrying about what we wear or eat, and He clearly made this whole subject about FAITH – not polyester, cotton or pure wool! Father God looks after lilies and daisies, so this means we can be sure that looking after US is one of His priorities. That’s where our faith needs to be. These things are not about legislating rules – instead we are to treat them as God’s loving council over our lives, so we can stay in step with what the Spirit is doing.

The Israelites walked about in the desert for 40 years and their shoes and their clothes did not wear out! Selah!  Father God has proved He knows how to look after clothes better than we do! People who worry about having the proper clothes, or fashion’s latest supposedly, cool clothing etc. are being distracted from the main objective – Christ’s likeness. We can choose to reflect Him, or we can reflect the current trend. That choice is always ours. Our primary aim is to wear things that don’t cause others to sin, but at the same time, let’s deliberately choose to ‘wear’ qualities that are rarely seen in this world.  

Like Paul says in Colossians, our garments are about loving others – and they describe spiritual things, not clothing labels. The things we concern ourselves with, matter – however this does not mean we have to dress like a rag bag. It means specific clothes and foods can drag us away from our main purpose … loving Him and others. God cares about those things. Plus – He promises He will provide for us.

Trust me, it is actually easier to learn to love others like Jesus does, than it is to wear a pair of Christian louboutin $4,000+ shoes or a haute couture dress! When we become slaves to our appearance, we are not choosing to reflect Christ-like qualities into this world. It is now about who the other person can see when they look at you. Can they see Him, or a fashion label? His clothing brings life and more life — that other stuff is designed to be instantly obsolete.

As we “consider the lilies’ we need to remember that we too, like those lilies are here one day and gone the next. Are you cheered up yet? Let’s choose to make our first thought about His legacy. God’s wardrobe for us reflects His beauty, and love toward others. Ours can be merely a reflection of how much available cash we have! 

It is too easy to be distracted into caring about dressing to please, or attract others. Mainly because we’ve left behind what Jesus told us we are here to do, and perhaps we think we need other people’s adulation and approval – because it provides instant gratification. When we choose to live in His love, our whole perspective changes. ‘Things” don’t matter – anything we have is a blessing from Him.

Dressing decently is a deliberately chosen act of love toward other people. It seems to me that the less material that is used to make a garment, means whatever you bought is immediately more expensive. I can appreciate that we are all not the same, and part of that self-expression is how we dress. Remember the first thing that Adam and Eve did after they disobeyed was try to cover themselves, because they realised they were naked in God’s sight? The next time you have to have these shoes or that dress, consider the lilies. And remind yourself ‘fashion-schmashion!’ Blessings 👋.