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P 2911 LET.

/ DVH

‘Let’ is actually a really big word despite it only having 3 letters! God clearly tells us: “I will LET you learn.” The dictionary says this about the word LET… not prevent or forbid; allow. As we deliberately pick up His yoke, He has promised to teach us everything we will need for our new life. But the Lord won’t push us, we still need to choose what He wants. So … let’s move on and look at a few of the many blessings of ‘letting’ …

“Let us gaze upon Jesus, as the Author and the completion of our faith,…” Hebrews 12:2;  Looking at our failure kills faith, but looking at what He did for us, opens us up to learn His Ways.“And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds…” Hebrews 10:24. WE set the pace, we choose our growing edges. God is always waiting and willing to teach us.“Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not …” Galatians 6:9. If we get tired we can ask for help, that’s how we will learn how patient He is, how ready to help us. 

“…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus,…” Hebrews 12:1.We need to let Him guide us, and teach us what we need on our journey with Him, His book is a revelation of His will. Some things are weights, so we can get tired if we don’t  leave them behind. We need to choose to confess our sins, and receive His forgiveness, be-ca-use … “IF we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.

So much is available to His kids when we chose to deliberately learn His Ways and practice them! Jesus said: “…Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:29a&30. The Lord allows us to learn how Grace works, as we read and put into practice what He said in the book. This is how we learn to trust Him, because what He does can be seen unfolding around us.

His overflowing Grace is always there for us, and we have more than enough to give away. That’s because we have a more-than-enough God Who is rich in these qualities and HE LOVES TO SHARE!  A.S.K. and … keep on asking!  Jesus gave this world an inexhaustible supply of Grace. We are encouraged to learn how His Grace impacts our lives and the lives of those around us, with His help, by using our faith. We are now grace dispensers.

Grace is our all day, all night, in every circumstance – enabler of good! It’s the Holy Spirit’s forte. He is so-oo good at it! Sometimes I have been as dumb as the dirt I came from, but HE knows how to do anything and everything – well!  When His Grace is present it means my focus is on Him, not just any pain or circumstances. I deliberately choose to put my focus onto the Lord and His eternal provision, and at the same time, I understand that He is teaching me about Himself. Then: “having done ALL I stand!” … until I hear from Him again. The Holy Spirit helps me, and praise Him, He will help and allow His kids to learn LOVE in all its forms.

We can gladly embrace the Love God has for every single human being, because our focus is not on what they have done, or did or didn’t do — it is on Who He is and what He already did! As we let that kind of love in, using our faith — it opens us up to the infinite possibilities of His Kingdom. He helps us by pointing out where we are falling down … so we don’t have to fall down next time! He lets us learn His Ways with His loving Eye upon us. Our God is never an absent God – He can be silent – but He is never gone!

You and I are a part of Him now, because we are His Body. We know we will always be received and He loves to help us to be ministers of reconciliation.. We need to make Him welcome, as our personal tutor/teacher/helper/guide/interpreter. We just need to A.S.K. I am so grateful that He lets us learn. I’ve found that the action of letting Him, or allowing HIM to take charge, is a HUGE thing.

Despite this word’s actual size, it is incredibly important. It has opened the door to a whole other way to live – in another Kingdom – His! Bye. 👋

P 2874 Our attitudes help define our understanding …

/ DVH

Luke 8:15 “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”Jesus is teaching the people who choose to follow Him around, about God’s kingdom, and how it works. First, He uses a story about a sower, and then He explains that further. However, His meaning is only clear to those passionate souls who want to truly hear about God. We, have been incredibly blessed – we get to hear both versions!

After the sower parable the bigger crowds dispersed, then the Lord took the time to expound that story to His disciples. He treated these people differently than the crowds who followed Him around, because they were the people who were going to take His place! He wanted to teach His disciples, His dedicated followers, the ways of the kingdom. He was incredibly wise and He knew that those people in the facebook crowd can have hard hearts and little application! 😶

So after the crowds had left, Jesus expounded His allegory and made it clear and applicable for their lives. The Lord wanted His disciples to see, through His loving insight, that the gospel can fall upon deaf ears, or busy ears, or hardened hearts, as well as being subject to other unforeseen things which can literally pick up our knowledge of God and carry it off! Plus the real eternal life which is in what He tells us personally, can be choked out by our own fear, doubt, carelessness and disobedience.

He is showing us the way to ensure and increase our participation in the things of God. To do that, we need to learn to take note of the dangers, and make sure we are not involved in the sort of stuff that will drag us under. Our default settings are not getting the job done – we get distracted and the birds of the air, the cares of this world, are picking off our potential. Jesus has taught us that today, right here, right now, we need to pay attention and participate in the Ways of God.

To do that we are going to need dedicated obedience and prayerful watchfulness established in our lives in order to be able produce a good crop. He explained that we have a great need for hearts that will not swing about all over the place. Add to that, the ability to listen carefully to whatever He tells us, and esteem what we’ve heard, and ACT on it. Without HIM we are nothing. We can come up with great schemes, but only God can bring us through tough times.

I strongly believe it is essential to retain the word by making it a part of ourselves, so that we are transformed by ingesting it and becoming it. Did you know if you eat too many carrots for days you can turn ORANGE? That ingestion leads to an outward change everyone can see. As we live out what the bible says, it becomes part of the way we think, and act – it stops being a theory, or even a great admirable teaching, and becomes our way of life. Who we are.

The circumstances of us living this life – on again, off again, in and then out – can conspire against us and leave us fruitless when we finally stand in front of the Master Gardener. He has given us two options in this parable. Believe it or not both are useful. The first story shows us that life can and will conspire against us, plus circumstances can occur that can harden our hearts.

The second story shows us how incredibly important it is to walk daily with Him. The people who wander off from following Jesus do not plan to wander off. The cares of this world overwhelm their devotion to Him. And His teaching becomes story-like – interesting, instead of LIFE-GIVING. That’s when we are less likely to hear what He wants to say to us, right here, right now!

And obviously this parable shows us the need to choose the right way, if we want to be fruitful. That often comes at a very inconvenient time!  We must never forget we live in enemy territory and that means we are subject to other people’s agendas, and life’s circumstances – they can steal away the reality of what Christ has said. Only by progressively allowing ourselves to be changed, will we stay available to His heartbeat. 

Christ has already provided the answer to these difficulties that haunt us every single day. His death on the cross is the single ingredient that makes our ongoing spirituality available and viable. We dare not factor Him out – otherwise we will become groupies instead of disciples. Groupies follow someone for the fun, for the excitement and notoriety.  Disciples lay down their lives. Our attitudes define what we understand, we must choose to press in and press on. Bless you 👋

P 2870 Stay available.

/ DVH

Luke 4:25-27 “I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

Can you see from these few verses that the Lord actually sent His servant Elijah to wherever the prophet would be listened to and obeyed? It is easy to see that God’s heart is always toward provision and healing, that means we must not limit Him. We can spend a lot of our time, deciding who is in and who is out, when we should be using our time to bring ourselves to Him – so He can fill us for whatever He chooses to do. He did the above things for people outside of the Israelites. Once for a widow, and another time for an important man. 

And if you read these stories carefully, you will see that the Lord was extremely patient with that important man for his own good. He’s patient with us too, He has things for each of us to do.. He waits for us to say yes, and put aside our opinions, our man-taught divisions, and go after HIS. The Old Testament clearly shows us how Father God dealt with mankind, personally, directly, for man’s own good. Stories like these in Luke teach us His ways and how important it is for His people to say available.

These verses explain how His very own people can be so pre-occupied with their own lives that they are not available for His loving kindness to touch them! Sound familiar? That also kind of whacks the concept  ’round the ear-hole that our church is the only church God cares about! We can easily think of His love as intentional, ongoing and indulgent toward US, but … barely tolerant towards some other denomination, or the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. That’s not true – read the book!

We can get so busy proving or disproving our pet theories and theological points of view that we will utterly miss Who He really is and misrepresent Him with hate instead of love. God sends His rain on the just and the unjust – and that rain is a symbol of promise, growth and fertility. Here’s a thought – instead of waiting for it to rain at your church, why not find out where it IS actually spiritually raining – right now – and join in!

“Oh, but those people over there believe in speaking in tongues and we don’t … blah blah blah …” It gets kind of easy to see why Elijah ended up in Sidon and Syria eh!? With that attitude we might not even be able to see what the Lord is doing right next door to us!!  Let’s remember, Jesus Himself interacted with people who were not the ‘chosen people.’ This life is not a contest or a competition between us and our theological ideas and ideals. It’s actually all about HIM! Who He is, and how greatly He loves human beings.

I’ve counted at least 5 times when Jesus interacted with Gentiles. Faith is bigger than our borders and boundaries. The thing about listening and reading what it actually says is that His Word will broaden our outlook on Who He is and what He will do … and for whom. We need to stop cherry-picking verses and stories that suit our church’s personal agendas and GO BACK TO BEING NEEDY. Neediness attracts the Holy Spirit like a bee to a flower meadow.

The thing we cannot ever hide from Him is our hearts. He knows what readiness to change and preparedness to be transformed looks like – because He’s met lip-service before. Here’s a last verse to chew on and it’s a tough old piece of steak, so chew away! It’s from Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”Only God does.

And I put it to you, that we do not know what is in our own hearts, and so we need Him to reveal that to us. We must stay alert and available to His Word, and His daily  guidance, because that is the only way we will see what is really going on inside us. Instead of looking and searching about to find out what ministry I have, I need to ask Him: ”Is there anything inside me that might hinder what You want to do in me, and through me? I need to be ready and available for whatever You want me to do next!” Bye for today! 👋

P 2843 Do yourself a favour.

/ DVH

Proverbs 8:32-36 “Now then, My children, listen to Me; blessed are those who keep My ways. Listen to My instruction and be wise;  do not disregard it. Blessed are those who listen to Me, watching daily at My doors, waiting at My doorway. For those who find Me find life and receive favour from the Lord. But those who fail to find Me harm themselves; …”Proverbs 17:16 “What’s this? Fools out shopping for wisdom! They wouldn’t recognize it if they saw it!” … It’s in the book!

We need to show the Lord we value everything He gives us by the way we live, loving Him, others, and applying His wisdom. People rush here and there looking for that thing and this thing to ease their pain, when the answer to everything is in the Wisdom and Love of God. Humanity has learnt to value our own knowledge above His wisdom, that fact is our very great personal loss! 

The thing I want to say over and over again regarding the Lord’s wisdom is that God’s love language is time, followed up by obedience. It doesn’t have to be hours, but we must cultivate our hearts to be listening hearts. Our life-motto needs to be this – don’t go anywhere or do anything without Him!  We choose to daily get filled, so we can spill whatever He gives us … onto other people – His wisdom is for sharing.

This means continually being filled up with His Wisdom, and then we give it away to others … however He says to do it. Wisdom means taking the time to listen for His heart, and that takes patience as we wait for Him to speak – we need a heart that wants to learn and change. A heart that runs daily after Him. Waiting for God to speak is true wisdom. Sometimes I read the same verse in about 6 different versions before I finally get to “OH! I see!”

The people who live all around us don’t understand these things, they don’t have a clue that they are harming themselves, because they don’t know any better. They think we worship a theory – one theory amongst many! Simply because everybody else around them lives without any faith. satan has snuck in a new normal. People don’t know anything else, because Christianity has spent a lot of our time telling them what not to do, and very little about WHO they need to meet. Many people have no clue that Christianity is about a Person, not just a set of impossible rules. This is why we need to carry His Presence with us everywhere we go. – He wants to be with us!

When we pray and read His book, we are interacting with a Holy Person, not a legal document. That Person knows exactly what every single human being needs to hear. This means when we search for and seek His Wisdom, we are going after Him. Read the Gospels carefully, and watch how Christ Himself interacts with people. He is our primary example of how Christianity works. He spent quality time with His Father on purpose, and then He knew exactly what to say and do for each person. He treated people as an individuals, not just a succession of tasks to be done or sins to be sorted out. 

Did ya get the whole ‘don’t disregard His instructions’ bit in that scripture above? When we disregard what He says, we are tuning out from His frequency. True Godly wisdom listens and obeys. Otherwise we are literally saying: “Talk to the hand, the ears aren’t listening.” And then we complain that: ‘God never speaks to me’ — when He could easily say to us: “You are not listening to Me!”  And at the risk of repeating myself, endlessly! … we have a whole book of what He has said to keep us busy.

Living out even one of the gospels could keep us busy for years! I urge us all to tell Him that we are here to spend time with Him, because we really really really want to know what He thinks. That’s what wisdom looks like. It looks a lot like depending on every single word that comes out of His mouth. Father God doesn’t throw His pearls in front of pigs – that’s in the book too – just in case you think I am being insulting. Pigs rummage about in the mud and dirt looking for whatever they can find. Pigs may be smart but they are not even remotely discerning, they eat anything. 

God’s Word is the treasure buried in a field that some smart guy sold everything he had to buy. Don’t skim and skip, instead, read His book like a love letter to you. When it reveals something you are doing wrong, thank Him for telling you, and for valuing your relationship with Him so much that He told you what you needed to know. He never accuses us. That’s the other guy. Father God reveals His word to us so we can be transformed.“As silver in a crucible and gold in a pan, “so our lives are refined by God.” Proverbs 17:3. Our negative experiences are a part of His refining processes. Everything is Father filtered – He never takes His eyes off us.

His wisdom is our treasure. Anyone that takes the time to unwrap and uncover that treasure and buy that treasure with their time spent, will find even bigger revelations inside it than they can imagine. I urge you not to dismiss what you read, by saying, “I know that bit …” Wisdom is available to everyone, it simply needs to be our treasure, not an optional extra.  Bye 👋

P 2617 Thinkaboudit. Prayaboudit. DOsomethingaboudit!!

/ DVH

“But how can people call on Him for help if they’ve not yet believed? And how can they believe in One they’ve not yet heard of? And how can they hear the message of life if there is no one there to proclaim it?”Romans 10:14 TPT.  Quote: “There would be no sense in saying you trusted Jesus if you would not take His advice.” (C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity.) 

Jesus Christ told us, as His disciples, to “go.” It was not a suggestion, or a happy thought, it was a direct order! The Lord wants us to go … individually, personally, and corporately. Whatever He wants us to do when we get there, is between Him and you. However, we all need to obey what He said when He said GO! And here’s a very good reason why we should go, that many people aren’t aware of…

… the plain fact is, most Christian people are stuck in a rut when it comes to their faith. They battle doubts and fear all the time, but especially when life gets difficult. And life, nowadays, gets difficult OFTEN! Jesus Himself is speaking here: “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]” John 16:33. He said, expect trouble!

Here is a fantastic secret I have discovered about go-ing. Go-ing means we will have to use our faith. Well, that seems like a duh! thing right? But it’s true. In order to obey Him, we will have to take what the Lord Jesus said seriously, and move out of our comfort zone and into the battle zone. The thing is, if we look carefully, we are already living in a battlefield every single day, anyway! However, daily using our faith makes it stronger!

satan doesn’t just want you and I to be inactive – he wants us dead. So, every day we fight for our faith as well as our lives. But, at the same time, we can also use up what little faith energy we may have developed, by striving to live in a neutral place — seeing only occasional evidence of our faith’s reality. Most of us live pedantic, sadly disappointing lives, and we never experience the joy of being in God’s right place, at His right time. Trust me there is NOTHING like that in this world. Instead of doing the same old, same old, every day – spend your life for His sake!

There is no surer way to kill off faith than to live this life only dusting off and dragging out our faith Sunday by Sunday. Or using it as an emergency cord, when things get bad. We either believe what the Lord said, or we don’t. Practically everyone I know believes what Jesus Christ said is the truth … the whole truth and nothing but the truth! But most people do nothing about what they believe. How tragic! You and I have God-given appointments to fulfil.

We all have a destiny. I discovered that there were actually things that only I could do, that didn’t involve setting up a tent somewhere and hiring an evangelist! I read in His book that I am destined to usher in His kingdom everywhere I go! So I decided to believe what I read. Now, I live this life aware of the kingdom of God in me and around me. You and I carry His life within us. All we need to do is to let His life out every day – instead of saving it for a chat around the urn, slurping on a cuppa tea at church!  We are all full of faith round that urn! There are people all around us daily who have no idea that Jesus Christ is alive – today.

Yes, it IS dark out there, but remember Christ Himself said: “The light shines more brightly in the dark.” At the same time, please, don’t let fear stop you. Fear is the antithesis of faith. Fear will make you self-involved. I’ve found out personally, that even tiny little things matter – they sure make a difference to people who have heard nothing. The truth is, people will be drawn to His light in us.  Kindness and love toward others can make a huge difference. We don’t have to give them the whole gospel in one sitting, sometimes all we need to do, is to say: ”Jesus loves you so much. He cares what is happening in your life.” Then they cry, and you get to explain why they are crying – it’s a piece of cake!

The bible says: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you …”  Along the way in my life, I’ve discovered that faith gets ‘added to’ when you use it.  Don’t let anything stop you from entering into any God-given opportunities He will send your way. Look for them, they will build your faith. Tell Him, daily: ‘Lord, I am available at any time, any place of Your choosing.”  Thinkaboudit. Prayaboudit. DOsomethingaboudit!! Bye 👋

P 2606 Look for hidden gems.

/ DVH

‘With this in mind, we constantly pray that our God will empower you to live worthy of all that He has invited you to experience. And we pray that by His power all the pleasures of goodness and all works inspired by faith would fill you completely.” 2 Thessalonians 1:11 TPT. Now that’s a prayer! Amen.

I don’t know what you do when you read prayers like this, but the first thing I do is pray them for myself! I need all the help I can get – especially when it comes to leading a life worthy of Christ’s sacrifice for me. 🤯 I know that Paul prayed this prayer for his church family in Thessaloniki but the miracle is – we can participate in that prayer today because it’s’ in the book! It’s a hidden gem that will help increase our passion for Christ and His calling on our lives. I personalise prayers from the bible all the time.

Paul prays here for all of us to be empowered to the point that we fulfil our destiny in Christ. BIG prayer. HUGE. He is also praying from an established place. He says “with this in mind” –  that means he’s not ‘hope’ praying, he’s praying using his established faith in God’s goodness and ability, to ask for the answer. He has something in his mind as he prays for us  … a place that he knows well, because he lives there. There is nothing more inspiring than the passion that has personal knowledge of the circumstances.

But let’s look at what he is not praying for – he’s not praying for us to have happy lives, plenty of money, safe places to live, and an easy life!! Instead, Paul’s praying for a worthy life for each one of us. Amen!  He wants us to have increased experiences with God’s goodness so that we are inspired into more faith. Here’s another version of the same verse … (NIV)“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.”

I like that one too! To start with it puts Almighty God firmly in charge of my transformation. That does not mean I sit back on my hands and do nothing – it means I tap into His power and begin to do whatever He asks me to do, using my faith. I’ve been assured, by reading verses like this one, that this power has already been made available to me! This power is the power to be transformed and it activates, as I develop a passion to know Him and want to be like Him.

It also means whatever I do, I respond with my own faith.The great thing about this verse is it is not a wish prayer. It is healthy to put our faith in the One Who started this new life for us in the first place! You and I have nothing to contribute here but our obedience and our love for Him, plus our utter gratefulness for all He has done for us. I’ve found that I need to pursue my desire to be like Jesus. He died to give me that total transformation. That is what I call passion. 

Passion should not be reduced to simply singing worship songs loudly etc. Passion is a driving life-force not just a momentary thing. In this world’s thought processes, ‘passion’ comes and goes so quickly — we have lost its meaning. Some people fall in love and then just as quickly, fall out of it. That fact alone tells me that human beings know absolutely nothing about passion or love. I like what one person said about that subject. ‘Anything you can fall into you can fall out of!’ I call that very powerful feeling this world acknowledges … LUST. Passion is not a feeling, it is a directional life-force that pulls us along. 

Today, people can get ‘passionate’ about rebuilding cars, or sport, or movies etc. But passion is more than feelings, it is a strong devotion to something outside ourselves. Actually, I think that passion turned inwards, is called narcissism! We can become so devoted to self-preservation, recognition and popularity, that other people and their needs disappear. However, the best place for passion to be born and maintained is through the Spirit of the Living God Himself – He is the Author of the kind of passion that does not fade – it increases. 

Our passion to know Him and be transformed motivates forward movement in our faith. It is way more than a feeling that pulls us to our knees at an altar — it is the driving force that stands firm in the heat of strong temptation. It is as alive and well when we are all alone at 3.00am, as it is in church. Passion is a hidden gem. It inspires increased intentional devotion, and a life laid down for His sake. 👋

P 2495 Let God disarm you …

/ DVH

“Now, please listen, for I need to address an issue. I’m making this personal appeal to you by the gentleness and self-forgetfulness of Christ… … Now I plead with you that when I come, don’t force me to take a hard line with you (which I’m willing to do) by daring to confront those who mistakenly believe that we are living by the standards of the world, not by the Spirit’s wisdom and power. For although we live in the natural realm, we don’t wage a military campaign employing human weapons, using manipulation to achieve our aims. Instead,our spiritual weapons are energised with divine power to effectively dismantle the defences behind which people hide…” 2 Corinthians 10:1-6 (with omissions.)TPT.

Paul talks about this greater wisdom in the verses from 2 Corinthians above. This wisdom relies upon God’s power not man’s clever plans, or great counselling … or even avoidance. Instead it exposes lies, and disarms the sorts of excuses that men and women often make in order to stay the same and feel good about themselves. Paul is quite severe in this edict, as he first establishes the essence of this lie – there is no power of God in it … therefore … it won’t accomplish anything lasting!

He is explaining that the Lord’s spiritual wisdom goes beyond the stuff we understand with our minds, into the very heart of what is actually going on. It leads to complete exposure of the desire that human beings have to justify themselves, and hide our true selves, for one reason or another. That hiding gig started in the garden of Eden, the first thing Adam and Eve did after they sinned was HIDE. Hiding is not good because that action denies the power of the cross. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. IF we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…”1John 1:8&9. Confessing sin means we own it!

Meanwhile, we don’t have to tell every single person every single thing about ourselves! But we do need to be ready to have the Lord uncover the things we have hidden …  sometimes … even from ourselves. I have found hatred in the weirdest circumstances in my life. If you asked me I would have said: “I don’t hate anyone, its a waste of time.” Actually what I was really saying was: “I hide my hatred under another name.”

But the Lord had my number, and He showed me what I called hurt was actually hatred, and I avoided looking at it because I did not want to know. It was like my own private warning system that flashed a sign that said: ‘this person is dangerous,’ when I looked at certain people, and that was my excuse for not loving them. These are the lengths we go to to justify ourselves! When all we need to do is confess our sin. 

Unfortunately, in reality, I think I sadly felt quite OK about having that attitude – the people I was scared of, and concerned about were very mean! Hiding was a way to avoid their meanness – but it also cleverly disguised my real feelings! None of these thoughts were allowed to prevail in my conscious mind, because I had become really adept at concealing this stuff from myself.  I would have noticed things like that in a heartbeat. So instead, I gave it another name. HURT. But as I chased after loving like He loves, things kept floating up into my conscious mind. Like gritting my teeth when that person spoke to me – a big clue right there!! 

That’s when I realised that I actually went out of my way to reward those who were good to me, and secretly avoided those who weren’t. I pretty quickly figured out that loving like the Lord loves, means my opinion, or experiences no longer matter. He does not love us based on our behaviour. He took that aspect of our lives out of the equation, when He died on the cross. Indeed, our bad experiences and attitudes actually need to be confronted because they create greater potential for His Grace to be released! 

He wants us to treat everybody the same way – we are to love them enough to die for them. And if we truly want to changed to be like Him – then that’s the standard! Here’s a red hot tip, taken from my own experience: you and I can’t do that all by ourselves – we need supernatural help. This is the place, mentioned in the bible, that is designed by God, for His power to be made manifest through us. His strength is made perfect in weak people.  And along the way we will gain, bonus buy …  self-control.

If we choose to hide our weakness – the result is we will miss out on that perfect strength. Father God is not interested in the appearance of good.  He wants His goodness to be immediately evident even when someone else takes a nasty big fat bite out of us. Boy is that’s going to cost us! It cost Jesus to save us, and we are following Him now on the road to total transformation. Praise God! Right now we have His power available to us, so we can overcome anything that paralyses us, by leaning on Him and following His ways – instead of pretending we are A-OK.  

We simply must let/allow the Lord to disarm us. This new life in Christ comes with honest transparency, not deceit, shame or guilt. Embracing transparency will, over time, help us to know that we are truly loved by Him – especially when His love reaches into the hidden corners of our hearts.  👋🏻

P 2418 His Grace is an Ocean.

/ DVH

When I think about the ocean I think about its vastness, wave upon wave, large and small, finding its way to the shore. Consistent. Inevitable. Endless and constant. Plus great POWER!! God’s Grace is like that ocean. Today I want to look at the parallels between an ocean and what freedom from our sin means. In my illustration WE are the shore. We are the recipients of this incredible ocean of Grace that just won’t quit  … it just keeps flowing and flowing toward us.

Wave after wave, after wave. Endlessly flowing toward, and into, and through … our little insignificant lives. It does not pause, falter or cease. Sometimes His Grace even pounds upon our lives like the ocean on a stormy night, and sometimes it is barely the tiniest ripple. In and out, in and out. God’s Grace is like that. Have you ever sat and watched the little waves creeping their way to their tide-appointed spot? Mesmerising isn’t it? Maybe you’ve watched the land take a thorough thumping from bigger waves. They can be so powerful and seem so tall. Grace is like that too. Powerful and always there. Big or small – always available. 

Those waves we’ve both watched, take the most minute pause as they reach their zenith, then they start to drain away through the soft sand. For us, in those vulnerable moments before we decide to let our deceitful desires overcome us – Grace is available to us, so we can resist whatever it is that is trying to distract us from our purpose. OUR PURPOSE IS TO LOVE AND BLESS OTHERS WITH HIS LOVE. In and out, like the waves hitting the sand.

Everything we need is there for us in Him, as we use our faith, step out and change our destiny. One shaky step at a time. The Holy Spirit says to you or I: ”Look at Me. I’m here for you. Don’t say that mean thing you want to say right now. Take a breath, wait.” And just like that, His little Grace-wave kisses us. The Holy Spirit waits for us to accept it, like the sand receives the sea water, and suddenly we taste freedom from the sin that can so easily catch us. 

We can pray “help help” if we are overcome with intense emotions, or we can plant our feet and say to ourselves: “I have nothing to prove, God loves me.”  And then we say no to temptation, whatever it is. Just like the waves that relentlessly wash up on the shore, His Grace knocks at the door of our hearts and says: “Let Me help you.” Then the choice becomes ours. Suddenly we are confronted with what we really want – we need and want Him! I want to exhort everyone to treat God’s Grace, respectfully, not carelessly or dismissively. It is the power of God that brought Jesus Christ out of the GRAVE. It ain’t feeble and it ain’t nothin’! And you and I can never be too hard for it to deliver us.

Jesus Christ did not intend for us to live this life alone, because He knows, first-hand, how hard it is to be human. He overcame the enemy by placing His faith on the Rock of God’s Word in His time of trial. Let’s not kid ourselves, resisting some temptations is difficult. Some of the dumb stuff we fight daily we have been actively cultivating, or inwardly ignoring for years. But instead of focussing on the sin – which can easily overcome us – focus on that ocean of Grace. Every wave of Grace coming toward us is Jesus shouting: “I love you! I won!” 

What did He win? OUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE. The power to choose was loosed by God’s Grace, when it was released toward us, at Calvary. And it is so wide, so deep, so vast that our enemy can only win if we let him. Our choices matter. The enemy can make things seem trivial and petty, but the truth is, our battles to stay with Jesus, in His Presence, are won in the everyday skirmishes we face. However, even if we fail, there is redemption in His ocean of Grace.

The secret to living an overcoming life is to focus on the One Who overcame everything … not the problem. Jesus said in ‘2 Corinthians 12:9–10. … “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” We need to admit our weakness to Him, and ask for His strength. Then we take that faith step, whether we feel like it or not. Pause, and remind yourself about the amount of power there is in the ocean – that is what is coming toward you and I, to help us.

If we want to, we can swim and live out our lives in His ocean, where there is no right or wrong there is only GRACE. Grace doesn’t hold a grudge .. it pays no attention to a suffered wrong. You can’t easily live this way AND I can’t do either. But the power to overcome whatever it is that shoves in on you and grabs your attention away from Him – is in that endless ocean of Grace. Give up. Give in, and give it all to Him and let it float away on that ocean. Don’t let anything take your gaze away from the Saviour. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2366 Opportunity knocks …

/ DVH

… at the strangest times! It banged on our door all last week. We’ve had people coming and going and doing stuff at our house practically every day. More on that in a bit.

The last 3+ months have been filled up with opportunities, hospital visits, countless occupational therapy appointments, plus physio ones. Also doctor’s appointments, various specialists, endless xrays, workmen installing stuff, plus all my normal yearly check ups. It’s all been rather a painful blur, and now poor hubby has pulled a muscle in his chest wall. Between the two of us we make about 3/4 of a person. But in Christ – well, watch out! The weaker we get – the stronger He gets …  Man I live/love that verse!

Here’s another appropriate verse for the melee happening at our house.“…because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18 TPT. Our focus is on His will, not our everyday lives. As I have said before  – OUR FOCUS MATTERS. Many days recently I’ve found I’ve needed the Lord’s supernatural energy just to drag my focus away from the day to day stuff that sometimes crowds in on me, so I can focus on the person in front of me. 

Have you noticed that one difficulty hardly ever happens by itself? Sometimes forty things kind of rush at you, like a herd of stampeding buffalo. That’s when I just want to sit down on the floor and cover my head until it’s over! I guess it’s called life, but it gets pretty intense for all of us sometimes. But with that intensity comes opportunities.

Now to explain those opportunities that fell on us this week. We’ve been changing our gas to electricity to save money. We put solar panels on our roof ages ago. Last week the gas guys came to take away our old gas hot water tank. We were expecting them at about 8.00am. Well, at 7.00am a young man turned up at our door to turn off the gas. Hubby greeted him and then kindly pointed out to this young man, who looked about 18, that he had planted some tiny plants between the gate and the HW service and could he be careful where he was walking please? I watched this young fellow as he carefully tip-toed through our garden, many, many times back and forth from his truck to the work site, and the Lord impressed on my heart how diligent he was, willing to take the slightest instruction. Do me like that Lord!

We have a small supply of compasses that we give away with a pass-it-on card, pictured above, and the Holy Spirit asked me to tell this young man how impressed with his work ethic I was, then He asked me to give him a compass to indicate God had plans and a direction for his future. To say he was blown away would be an under-exaggeration. He loved it all, and we had a wonderful conversation. I told him that God was so pleased with his attitude to his work. And I praised him for his diligence.

He kinda teared up then, especially when I said that I thought he was a such great example of what a responsible young man looks like. Apparently he had previously been running around with a very bad crowd, and until he found this job things had not been good for him. We told him that God has a great plan for his life and he went back to work smiling all the way. Some time later, a second, slightly older guy turned up to complete the job, and low and behold, there was the younger man out in our garden pointing out the little plants the new guy should avoid! 😊

We decided to give this second man a pen, with a dove on it and … his face also lit up. Apparently he had just come back from Herron Island. And he was walking on the beach, when he looked up, there was a dove in the sky hovering over his head. He felt our pen was a fantastic reminder of an event he could not explain. He kept telling us that you really wouldn’t expect to see a solitary dove on Herron Island! Hubby talked to him for a while about the Lord and then both workmen went on about their work. But they still carefully tiptoed around those plants every time they went back and forth! 

Then a third person, an electrician, came along, and our precious 18 year old, (I wanted to adopt him by this time!), went out and patiently explained to the electrician about the plants he should avoid stepping on. 😂  When they had all finished working, and packed up, the 18 year old deliberately came back to our door and told us that our talk was extremely significant to him, and he was greatly encouraged the conversation. He’d been having a hard time lately. He was beaming all over his face. BTW we gave the electrician something too, and hubby prayed with him and his wife, for their business to prosper. 

How cool was all that?! God brought those people here to our house. The only times I’ve been out since the accident have been to see professionals to help with my arm. (We gave stuff to them too.) And this is what has become apparent to us, when you make yourself available to the Lord, things will happen. We keep cans of lemonade in our fridge to give away to anyone who comes to our door. Maybe 2 in 10 people say ‘no thanks’ – but it definitely opens the door for a conversation with the ones who say “yes, please.”

So my final comment today, about reaching out to talk to others is this, be prepared to have your happy little routines interrupted. I figure my time is now His time, and I’ve watched Him give me back the time so often it isn’t even an issue anymore! Make preparation to bless other people in a way that seems appropriate to you. A cold drink, a pass-it-on card, a bible. We also give away small boxes of chocolates to say thank you to the staff, when we go into a hospitals or clinics. It opens people’s hearts and then you can encourage them with His love… and, if you are fortunate, you can talk to them about Jesus. Opportunity is knocking !!! 🤗