Bank

P3391 Personal testimony.

/ DVH

Hubby and I have made bible delivery trips all around Australia from top to bottom and side to side, for the past 21 years, approximately 280,000 kms. We lost count! God called us, when we were in the middle of Australia, staying at Uluru. My dear hubby was in terrible pain at the time. The L4/5 discs in his back were disintegrating, plus he couldn’t sit for long periods of time, and he couldn’t work anymore.

The bank wanted to repossess our house at that time. Undaunted, hubby had faithfully finished a 3 year bible college course lying flat on his back, most of the time on the floor! He had bone crunching against bone so it was not nice. A dear friend paid for us to fly to Uluru, and he shared his accommodation with us.

I like to tell people that my husband walked all the way from Brisbane to Uluru, because he literally did. Apart from going up and coming down again, he walked the aisles of that plane, both ways, in terrible pain. They had to put him in a wheelchair to get him on and off, because he could not manage the stairs. A bit later he had an operation for those discs and praise God, the pain left. But at that time we were both praying and waiting on the Lord to find out if there was anything He wanted us to do for His kingdom. 

On the very last day before we flew back home again, we decided to scrape up our pennies and invest in a hire car from Uluru, and go out to Mt Conner, which was about 147 kms away. The picture above shows you the area. We climbed out of the car to look at this interesting formation of rock, and hubby very carefully warned me to lock all the doors, because the car was not ours. So I did. 

The scene wasn’t all that riveting, just a huge lump of mesa rock far far away. Plus, by this stage we had taken some truly great pictures of Uluru. Now that is some rock!  But we took pictures anyway, then we went to leave. Poor hubby was taking pain killers for his back so he could manage the never-ending pain, so he was a bit vague. That’s when the unthinkable happened. In all his concern to keep someone else’s car safe, my dear husband had locked the keys to the car — IN the car. And it was very HOT in the sun. There were the keys, together with some  water, a very necessary item – plus sunscreen and food etc. All of it was locked away, tighter than a drum. This is not good when you are out in the middle of the outback, in the middle of nowhere! We were stranded. Yay!

We prayed for help, because neither of us had the ability or energy to walk to the nearest cattle station, which was, at the time, 65kms away. Then a Dutch couple turned up in a Combi van, and tried to help us with a tiny little screwdriver so we could get the window open. No chance there! Then along came a busload of Japanese tourists. They found what was happening to us, much more interesting than the view of Mt Conner! Bless them. Fortunately someone had a great big screwdriver, thank the Lord, so while this was going on, all the passengers were busy filming our dilemma. 

Finally a Ford Falcon drove into the viewing pull off – there wasn’t even a toilet! And out climbed these four guys who could have played international Rugby! Boy were they big guys!! One of the biggest ones had his wife with them. When they found out our predicament … which wasn’t hard to miss with a crowd of Japanese tourists jostling round the car filming away…the wife whispered to my hubby: “It’s OK, they can fix this for you. My husband just got out of jail for breaking and entering!!” We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

But sure enough the four of them started tackling the problem of how to get into our little rental car. Meanwhile, they were all so big they could have picked up the car and shook the keys out!  A-n-y-wa-y … I shan’t tell you what they did, because I’m pretty sure it was illegal, but in the process someone came up with a coat hanger and they used the BIG screwdriver to open a window a bit, and then the coat hanger trick to pull the keys out of the ignition. 

Slowly the big guy balanced the keys toward the slightly opened window, and then … the keys fell off! A collective groan went up from all the Japanese tourists who were still  watching on! The keys slipped off the coat hanger hook onto the driver’s seat. Another big groan from the audience. Finally the guy managed to thread the keys back onto the coat hanger and carefully pull them out of the window. And he noticed a tiny scratch on the driver’s door and licked his finger and wiped it. “That’s OK,” he said. “That’ll buff right out.” Problem solved! 

Those burly men drove off almost immediately, but before they left the wife said to hubby, “They would never have left you alone here to manage this situation. They would have stayed with you, until you were safe.” They told us they were all from Newcastle. We gleefully jumped back in our now wide open car, drank a whole bottle of water, waved at the Japanese tourists boarding their bus, and then headed back toward the Uluru complex. As we were driving away praising God loudly for His provision, and kind hearted people, the Lord spoke into hubby’s heart. “These are your people, the people I have sent you to – ordinary working class Aussies”

Sometimes we get our assignments from the Lord, in unusual ways. We’ve been doing what He told us to do in that little white car on the road back to Uluru, ever since. I don’t usually share our personal life here, but maybe somebody out reading the blog today, needed to hear that a ministry can be born from strange and difficult circumstances. Bye. 👋.  Isaiah 40:3-8. Isaiah 55:10,11.

P 3124 Accessing His power to change.

/ DVH

Each one of us needs to choose to grab hold of the power Jesus died to give us to change the way we live in this world. It is always available. We do that by using our faith that what Almighty God has said in His book, the bible, is true. I will not lie to you – living like this is costly at first. We have to give up our right of reply, self-defence, or vindication and trust God Himself to vindicate us. And that whole scene usually happens when you feel extremely provoked and you want to zap a zinger back at the other person! 

But we have to choose to be finished with our old life when we said yes to Jesus. Then we choose to enter this new life to learn how to walk by faith. Sometimes by taking baby steps, or by making big strides. Almighty God loves faith. “…It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that He exists and that He cares enough to respond to those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6b MSG.

Here’s an illustration that might help make this ‘faith’ thing clear. Let us say, I have $1000 in the bank, I can’t see that money, it’s just a number on a bank statement. It won’t become viable until I use it, or collect it. I can even  give you $500 of that thousand dollars, and no physical money needs to change hands. All that will happen is that the numbers being recorded will change on both sides – yours and mine. I’ll now have $500 and so will you. With regard to using our faith – the power for transformation Jesus gave us is limitless, it cannot and will not run out until time itself ceases.

Back to my illustration. For you to get the money I’ve given you, you will have to spend it, or somehow use it, and you do that by using your faith that the money is actually there, even though nothing visible needs to change hands! Our God loves it when we use our faith – our belief that He is Who He says He is, and He Has done what He said He has done, is His pleasure. We can do whatever He says we can, it is all written on His bank statement in the New Testament and He has given it to us. When He says we can do it – then we can do it – feelings don’t come into it. We defer to the Holy Spirit’s goodness and wisdom:  then we obey and trust in the Person Who gave you His Word. 

The day we said ‘yes’ to Jesus, we were given Christ’s power to overcome. To use my illustration, that power was ‘deposited’ in our account. It came when the Holy Spirit convicted us and we responded with joy and repentance. While He was on earth, the Lord Jesus overcame sin, this world and the devil. Because of that He has imparted that power to us as His legacy. Just like someone might leave you money in their will – in Jesus’ will, we inherited many blessings including total transformation into His likeness!“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,…” Romans 14:17. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me…” Acts 1:8. Do some research for yourself in the book, and start obeying what you find. 

Even though we may not see anything or feel anything our inheritance is still there. It is a reality. Hebrews 8:12: “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”When Jesus took His own blood and poured it all over the heavenly Mercy seat, He washed away all our sins. and now God has no record of them. They are like a bill you’ve paid – stamped “PAID IN FULL” However, I may not feel any difference, because I’m still living in this world which is anti-God. Now I will have to take the Lord God Almighty at His Word. 

Everything we have been given comes from Calvary, and it was carefully written down in the bible, by the Holy Spirit. These things have been credited to our account, but we will need to access them by using our faith. We don’t need to make big one-off withdrawals, rather we can access the kingdom of God step by step as we ask for His help to obey Him, and then step out and act on what the bible says. That help is with us, right now, from the moment we gave our lives to Him. We began by using our faith and we continue by using it.

This means we can with His help – love the unlovely. We can, with His help …”do good to those who despitefully use us.”We can overcome personal sin, this world, and our enemy because Jesus gave us His power to do it. At the same time, each deliberate act of obedience transforms the way we think. Daily we use our faith to access the Holy Spirit, our personal Coach and Helper. As we learn to walk with Him using our faith, His Way of living becomes more and more natural to us. We’ve stopped looking for our own advantage and started doing what He wants. Jesus began our faith, and He always finishes what He starts!

One of the difficulties of this transformation is that faith is not feelings. It is a deliberately chosen act of obedience responding to what God has already said in His book! The feelings, if they come, come much later. Accessing His power to change our old ways of thinking, doing and being, will now become our new way to live. We live for whatever Jesus wants, and follow His ways. Bye. 👋

P 3101 Life happens!

/ DVH

Just recently we had someone try to pinch all our financial details. So, we grudgingly packed a cut lunch and then hubby picked up the phone and settled in for the long haul, which means we had to connect to someone in the bank so we can inform them what happened. THAT is a whole day job! We entered the long and dreary world of guess the right extension bingo! Actually we went round and round for a bit, but eventually we found someone who didn’t just want to transfer us somewhere else. I think some people want you to hang up because you are too hard for them, but they are too nice to tell you that. 

An-y-wa-y … finally we gave a real live person our sad little story and the nice person on the other end was prepared to take responsibility to help us fix the ending. It appears someone cloned hubby’s voice. As this never-ending saga gobbled up most of that day, I started to think of clever ideas to stop your voice getting cloned to prevent the whole thing from reoccurring. At the same time we also prayed for the people who thought stealing is a legitimate job! I wonder if they do tax returns? So today I came up with daffy ideas to cheer both of us up.

I wondered if buying a voice-changing device would be a good idea? Good old Amazon has loads of those. You can sound like Darth Vader, or Daffy Duck, or a lady might sound like a man … stuff like that. It could be a bit expensive, we are pensioners after all! But then came bright idea number 2. Buy a helium balloon and breathe in some gas. Um … I’m not quite sure of the long term results of breathing in helium, I’ve been assured it isn’t deadly, but that did seem a bit extreme. I mean, how many people have helium balloons on tap, waiting for a thief to phone up so they can use them? 

So now we’ve hit upon a capital idea. Hubby says his first name and then he waits – the rest is up to the other guy on the other end of the phone. Some people do think they can out-wait you …but they could be wrong! … And so far they have been. Thank God some semblance of order has been restored to our financial situation. We could of course, take our savings and stuff them under the mattress — but then we just might run into another kind of crook, who breaks into your house and wants to make your stuff – THEIR STUFF. 

In the past – long before Jesus and I discussed Who really owns everything we have, when I went on holidays, I hid all my dearly loved items in peculiar places. Not in the freezer! …cos I have it on good authority that thieves look in there! But in totally idiotic hidey holes around the house. There was only one teeny tiny problem with that. By the time I got home again, I had forgotten wherever my precious treasures were hidden and it took me AGES to locate them again. So the Lord kindly reminded me I was hiding my treasures in the wrong place. “Store them up in heaven,” the Holy Spirit said. ‘That’s a great idea.” says I, “where do I find a l-o-n-g ladder?”   

It seems to me that Father God has a great sense of humour and He always has a much better slant on any situation we find ourselves in. I think that’s why Paul said … “all things work together for good.”  He did add,“according to His (the Lord’s) purposes “.. but most people skip that bit because they aren’t quite sure what it means. They just like the beginning of the verse — the ending not-so-much. I decided to think on the phrase according to His purposes more thoroughly. 

This is what I came up with – God’s purpose and our purpose may not always be the same. He wants to save thieves, and we want them to GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL and not pass Go! Like I said, we did pray for them  because they may not have anyone else to do it! Then we asked for the Lord to invade their lives, the way He has invaded ours. After all Jesus had a thief for a disciple, so He knows about stuff like that. Then we blessed them because the bible says to bless people when they persecute you, and despitefully use you. And at the same time we also prayed for our money to come back to us, and, praise God, it did! But that didn’t seem to be the entire point of that phrase… then I found this version of Romans 8:26-28.

“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” MSG.

I think this means a couple of things:  we don’t have to pray right, to get the Lord’s attention. We already have it because we belong to Him. After all, Judas didn’t have to jump up and down for Jesus to speak to him, yet the Lord knew he was a wrong-un. The Holy Spirit is always with us, helping us, whether we know what to pray or not! Isn’t He wonderful? He also keeps us present before God.

The Lord’s purpose for this world is clearly stated in John 3:17: “For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.” His purpose is to save people, even thieves!  And because He is God and He is always good – HE gets to define good!  Bye.👋

P 3074 Use your faith to make withdrawals.

/ DVH

“Everything we could ever need for life and godliness has already been deposited in us by His divine power. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing Him Who has called us by name and invited us to come to Him through a glorious manifestation of His goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3 TPT.

Our Heavenly Father’s goodness and generosity is glorious! It has forever changed the whole of human history. Humanity went from an exclusive club, to an everything-included open-door policy that flourishes and grows as we all get to know Jesus! Knowing Him continually opens new spiritual doors. Whether you are at the beginning of your walk with Him, or you’ve been walking with the Lord for years —there is no greater joy than to know Him and follow Him, by serving Him and others. 

The Apostle Paul says this in Philippians 3:10.“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death;…” Knowing Him includes suffering. We are bound to suffer when we don’t get what we want, because to serve Him, we must die to self! However, there is a huge plus — now we enter into true fellowship with Him. We have a shared experience! He is our chosen Leader in and through every situation.

Whatever we need to gain transformation, and greater intimacy with Him we already have. He already gave it to us.1 Peter says that in verse 3 Chapter 1! We didn’t even have to earn this honour. Feel free to raise a ruckus and jump about, because if that thought doesn’t want to make you cheer, maybe you’ve fallen a bit behind as you are following Him. May the Lord fix that! I’ve found astonishing things happen when we start yielding to Him. The more we lean our head on His chest, and listen to His words, the more we understand that this world has nothing lasting to offer us. 

If you were to give me a hundred million dollars and show me that you deposited that large sum in my name, in writing, all I would need to do to participate in what I have been given, is to turn up at that bank and start making withdrawals. And that’s the problem for many Christians — they don’t make withdrawals. That’s what our faith is for – to make withdrawals. We have been given everything we need for this life, but we need to use our faith to access it. 

We are going to have to put our whole selves into this new life we’ve been given, in order to experience transformation, because these holy, heavenly things won’t fall on us. So there is a pathway we tread, as we follow Him. That pathway leads down, and it will take care of pride. We learn to practice repentance and reparation, even when we think the other person should apologise. Now we are choosing to value peace above being right. The by-product is that we stop judging others by one standard, and myself by another. There is a far greater blessing when we walk through difficult things with Him.

Back to my thought above:  If I want to access that deposit Jesus died to give me, I will have to exercise my faith. Belief means I will act on what He has told me, whether it seems too amazing to be true or not, simply because Jesus Himself has told me. He tells me I can live life proactively instead of reactively now. I don’t have to wait for proof! It’s all in the book. I have chosen to live this life differently and I stick with it. I don’t try to weasel out of what He says, or excuse myself because of some reason or other — instead I ask Him to show me how to obey Him and then I do it. I don’t do it for YOU, I do it for Jesus, because that’s what a life laid down for His sake looks like!

When He says I don’t have to conform to this world, because I am no longer captive to its demands and threats, I step into what He said, rather than check with my feelings or previous experiences. When He tells me I can love the unlovely, I don’t wait to feel like it – I start loving them. I follow His instructions from His book daily, and I know He will teach me:  ‘this is how I want you to love that person.’ 

I might wait for you to bring that mythical 100 million dollars to my house, but I could have a mighty long wait. The way for me to access this blessing is to go to where the provision is – the provision is in activating our faith, and JESUS IS OUR PROVIDER. I go to Jesus and learn from Him how to repent about sin, and fix things with others, and then I obey what He says in His book.

The Lord has already told me that every other yoke I can pick up, apart from His, will be too heavy for me to bear.“Come to ME, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.

Ask a bible-believing Jesus follower if they have experienced transformation, so they can live like He did – without His input. I’ve tried. I got fed up, then I gave up. My desires and needs were too great for me to manage. But when I asked Him to help me, I began to make withdrawals on the deposit He has already put into my name.“…Everything we could ever need for life and godliness HAS ALREADY BEEN DEPOSITED IN US by His divine power.” Amen. Use your faith to make withdrawals. Bye. 👋

P 2817 What are heavenly treasures?

/ DVH

““Don’t keep hoarding for yourselves earthly treasures that can be stolen by thieves. Material wealth eventually rusts, decays, and loses its value. Instead, stockpile heavenly treasures for yourselves that cannot be stolen and will never rust, decay, or lose their value. For your heart will always pursue what you esteem as your treasure.”Matthew 6:19-21.

In these verses, we have the answer to my title. Heavenly treasures are the things we pursue while we are here on earth. Some things we pursue could be money, success, fame, a new house, a car, a spouse, a family, a special holiday, going back to your home country etc. The way to figure out what that phrase means to you is to look at whatever occupies most of your thoughts, and time, plus whatever you are living and working for every day. Let’s remember that each one of us has a God-given purpose – a reason we are here.

We can be an active Christian and pursue all these good things, as well as the Lord. So let me be clear, things are not the problem – wanting them above everything else is. Our God is a jealous God. “For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. “ Exodus 34:14. Our God wants to be first in our lives. 

Many people today in the work force do everything they can to be successful at what they do, and if they are Christian I am sure these people think they are working for Him. I am not talking about how much time you are at work either – my point today is whether work is a greater priority than anything else. Maybe your priority is money. You don’t feel “safe” unless you have a prescribed amount in the bank, or invested. What holds your heart’s attention? Is it someone who will love you, and help you reach your dreams? 

When I was younger, all I wanted was a family, so I worked toward that.  I met someone, we were married and I began to work hard to be successful, both as a spouse and a parent. I was the mother who mouli-babied all her baby’s solid food … BTW a mouli baby grinds all kinds of food down into a paste, it means the food is fresher. All three of our kids spoke early … because I started reading to 6 week old babies! They could all read and do simple sums long before they went to kindy. 

I was totally invested in making sure they had a good start in life. That’s where my effort went and that’s where my heart was. Anybody who has been a parent can tell you, that you can invest all you like in your kids but, in the end, they are individuals who decide their own destiny!  Meanwhile I thought I was investing in eternity, because my kids would hopefully outlive me, but I had not counted on the fact that eventually those kids would go their own way and have their own aims.

As part of my investment in their lives, I taught them everything I knew about Jesus from when they woke up until they went to sleep again. And two of them follow the Lord and one does not. I did not realise, at the time that my investment was in them, in their future, instead of His kingdom. They were my major priority – not the Lord. And yes, there is a difference!! I was living with a divided mind and I did not know it. I thought being a spouse, and a good parent, and looking after my kids meant I was following Jesus.

I was taught “whatever you do, do it with all your heart as though you were doing it for the Lord.”So I camped on that scripture and thought and hoped it would be enough for Him. I went to church Sunday by Sunday, taught Sunday school, cared for the poor whenever I could, etc. But I forgot the most important thing: “You are not your own, you have been bought with a price … paid for with a Preciousness…” I Corinthians 6:19-20. His kingdom must always come first and we need to remember that God is more invested in our children than we are. Meanwhile, of course being an active parent counts … He’s an active parent!

At the same time I selectively read my bible accenting the verses that supported my POV, instead of looking prayerfully and carefully into His word of truth, looking for places to renew/change the way I was thinking.  In my mind and heart, I hoped God was pleased with me, because I was doing everything for His sake. I considered the blessings that came my way as a kind of ‘payment’ for all my efforts. Yeah, I can see the error OK? Old age has done me a heap of good, butthe overriding factor in all this was that the Lord never ever gave up on me! Praise Him!

He has taught me that when you seek His kingdom first, all these other things get added unto you. I knew that verse, but I did not know its meaning until I started switching my focus from what was in front of me, toward knowing Him above all else. As I have learnt to live this way, with my heart pointed toward Him, and Him alone – my whole focus for living has shifted. I was not just born here to be someone’s mother, or someone’s wife, or a functioning member of my congregation – first of all I am here to know Him, to give Him the first fruits of my time and affection. 

Other things slot in behind that – THE LORD IS OUR HEAVENLY TREASURE – everything else is wood, hay and stubble.. “unless the Lord builds the house … we are labouring in vain …” May God bless us all as we run after Him. 🏃‍♂️‍➡️ Bye.

P 2183 His word has power in it.

/ DVH

1 Thessalonians 1:4,5. “Brothers and sisters beloved by God, we know that He has chosen you; for our good news [regarding salvation] came to you not only in word, but also in [its inherent] power and in the Holy Spirit and with great conviction [on our part].” V6-9 “You became imitators of us and [through us] of the Lord, after you welcomed our message in [a time of] great trouble with the joy supplied by the Holy Spirit; so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 

For the word of the Lord has resounded from you and has echoed [like thunder], not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place [the news of] your [great] faith in God has spread, so that we never need to say anything about it. For they themselves report about us, telling what kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,..” 

V13 “And we also thank God continually for this, that when you received the word of God [concerning salvation] which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its inherent, supernatural power in those of faith].”

God’s word has power in it. I’m talking about His power ACTIVE in our lives to genuinely change each one of US from the inside out. Paul talks about that kind of transformation, here in Thessalonians.

The biggest transformation in my life came from doing what the bible says – even when I didn’t want to. I simply asked Him to help me obey – and then I did what He said, anyway, in faith. He began to change the things that looked impossible in me – things like changing life-long attitudes etc. I needed His Word to change my mind, and I went on to think about spiritual things His way. That’s what renewing our minds means – we start to think about this life the way Jesus did. He totally relied upon His heavenly Father to keep His Word. Disobedience to God’s ways distances us from the Holy Spirit’s loving ministry in our lives. Repentance puts us into a position to receive again. Repentance means changing our ways, not just agreeing that we are wrong.

When I first met Jesus, in order to fit in, I modified my outer behaviour. The church frustrated me because I strongly felt unaccepted, I was not able to be myself. The reality was, I did not know my true self, I only knew the person this life had bashed about – and I thought my responses to those hard things was who I was. But now I had been born again. I was no longer the same person I was before, I was now brand new! I couldn’t just put on a religious jacket – I needed to start to live out that new life inside me by using my faith.

The Holy Spirit taught me to obey Him by obeying the bible, and He helped me to co-operate with Him. I no longer felt controlled, I felt grateful, helped and free instead: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it, labour in vain.” I had to let the Holy Spirit rebuild my ‘house.’ I knew I could not change myself, because some bad attitudes were entrenched in my old self. It was all I could do some days to simply be ‘nice’ to others!  We can’t do His work in us for Him – we must learn to accept our circumstances and yield to Him.

The book of Romans points out that Paul had this struggle too, but he had a revelation about what happened at the cross. He knew he was delivered from this struggle from his former ways, by what Jesus did. He was now a new person. You and I weren’t just saved on the cross, the potential to be totally transformed happened there too. The power to change who we were happened back there at Calvary. We really are brand new, but it’s like click and collect – you just gotta go and get your parcel! Bit by precious bit.

We are not acquainted with this new person until Christ starts to be revealed in us. And, eventually, through us. We are no longer the sum total of our sinful reactions to other people, now we have been taken out of that world and brought into the world of the Spirit that Jesus Christ lived in. Cherish His company. It is a world of loving service to others and the Holy Spirit will help us live there.

It is as if God put our new life into a bank account and gave us His faith to access it – now we rely upon His reliability – His word  – not our own efforts. When we give away the Grace we have already been given to other people who don’t deserve it – we begin to live in the same spiritual place Christ did. Now we regard other people’s needs as more important than our own.

Paul preached this good news to the church at Thessaloniki and the result was other people far away, heard about the change in the Thessalonians’ behaviour and actions. And Paul said that change happened because of the power in God’s word. Test it out for yourself. Believe you’ve already been changed and start to live that way. Start building your new life on the foundation of salvation not on who you were before. We haven’t just been remodelled, we’ve been reborn!  👋🏻