Betrayed

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 3259 Family business.

/ DVH

I honestly think that some of the hardest things to wrangle are the things that are happen inside our families.  Those things seem to press right up against your chest, like they are trying to smother you and stop you from breathing. The bible acknowledges this kind of pain. These are the places where our faith can be severely tried and tested. On the plus side, they are also the place where massive growth occurs. 

Psalm 27:10 NLT:“Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close.” Jeremiah 12:6 NIV: “Your relatives, members of your own family—even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.” 

It is not good to get stuck by other people’s sins. Instead we need the Lord’s help to focus on the solution! Let’s turn Psalm 27 around. ‘The Lord will hold me close, even if my father and mother abandon me.’  Father God wants to help us into a bigger place where HIS LOVE REIGNS, so we can love those who despitefully use us. Love is not about feelings, it is about our choices.

However, the people we love deeply, are also the people who can hurt us the most. Sometimes our families can use fear, anger, intimidation, neglect and threats of harm, as well as threats of expulsion and rejection, to try to control our adult decisions. It is better in these times not to focus on what is coming at you, instead focus on how much the Lord loves you. Plus His assurance that HE will not abandon you.

It is a basic human need to feel loved and appreciated. Even tiny little babies can die when they do not experience nurturing and love. Emotional abandonment is a terrible thing. But it is good to remember, even with all this going on – you are a sinner too. It is never good to focus on “them” and “us.” We are not victims – we have our Saviour to guide us. But breaking away from family demands can be difficult. These are the people who taught you from when you were a baby. Whether they were neglectful, smothering or abusive does not matter – the love one feels for someone this close, is much more than superficial.

I believe this kind of love is based on human need. So, Jesus Christ is our ONLY Answer. He is fully God and man, and He lives to love and pray for each one of us. Read what He said in the bible, as if He were there with you talking TO you! And remember, Jesus’ family didn’t always understand HIM either! In reality we cannot expect the people who broke us, to fix us!

There can be a tremendous sense of betrayal when you struggle with your family. But I don’t want to comment on other people’s sin, otherwise that becomes the centre of our focus. Trust me, the only Person worthy of every single bit of our focus is Jesus. He cannot, and He will not ever abandon us or punish us like other human beings will. Instead He took our punishment for us. That means, He volunteered to be abandoned, misjudged, rejected, and punished, both physically, emotionally, and mentally. He was utterly despised for our sake.

In any times of family rejection, I want to encourage you to continually go back to the well of righteousness the Lord died to provide for us – and drink from it. Being righteous in His eyes is not the same as being right according to this world’s standard. Our righteousness with God has been given to us. In this world, human righteousness is earned by behaviour. 

It is best to activate your faith, and turn whatever the bible says into action. It looks like this: when a family member is treating you badly, pray and ask for the Lord’s help. Then make a firm choice to forgive them, and then, give that burden to Him. Deliberately put your thoughts about that family member, aside. When memories pop up, allow yourself to grieve, but don’t stay there. Give everything back to Him again, and choose to trust Him to fix it. Now you need to REST in the fact that He has heard you, and we are ‘persuaded that He is able to keep those things/people you have entrusted into His care.’

Put hurtful people down at the foot of the cross – it is our symbol of redemption. Leave them with Him! All the worry, tears, and anguish in this world can’t make someone else understand you, or love you, or give you what you need. However! Our God can do anything but fail! The secret is to keep walking with Him. Don’t look back, just trust Him to take care of all of it.

At the same time, limit set what you choose to do around these people. Don’t cut them out of your life, unless your life is in physical danger, but do set limits. Ask the Lord to help you with it. Finally, please don’t let bitterness or spite get hold of you, because that stuff will muddy His living water, and you will get lost in the mud! 

Let your glorious Redeemer, redeem your old life. Losing your earthly family because of your spiritual beliefs in Jesus is a terrible thing – however, Jesus will help you to survive – and eventually thrive. Praise Him! Bye. 😢

P 2841 Real RAW power.

/ DVH

I mentioned this parable a few of days ago, and almost immediately after I talked about it – I was tested on my response to someone else’s apparent debt toward me. 🙄 

Matthew 18:23-35: “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’  In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

It is obvious to me in this life, that forgiveness is meant to be a supernatural act!  We are to freely give forgiveness to others because we are aware that Jesus has already given it to us. But there is nothing like a nasty argument to wreck our memory! By ourselves, we don’t have it within ourselves to forgive someone else, because sin is UGLY, it fills our perception and it definitely distorts our view of other people. But we took in the seed of the Holy Spirit when we said “yes” to Jesus, and He lives inside us now. That seed wants to grow as we walk with Him. Because we have been freely given forgiveness, we already have forgiveness on the inside of us – so now we can give it away using our faith. 

The reason this can sometimes seem difficult is because we don’t feel like we can forgive the other person. Our feelings are hurt, they betrayed us, they did something unforgivable etc.etc. Sadly then we are no longer looking at someone else’s sin through spiritual eyes, instead we are choosing to see it through injured ones. Have you ever noticed that what they did seems much bigger and badder than what you did? Yeah, me too.

However, our new lives are designed to be lived in the Spirit, we must not be guided by the flesh. The flesh has nothing profitable in it. It will come to nothing but dust one day, but the things of the Holy Spirit last forever. So now I must personally make the choice to obey, or to hold on to my hurt feelings. The thing is, I need to die daily to what I feel, or want, or like, and deliberately yield to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. 

Recently somebody pushed hard on a button I didn’t know I had inside, and my flesh had a whole lot of junk to say that profited nobody. I came to, when I realised I was so mad I wanted to  … quote: choke the life out of the person who was annoying me! Figuratively of course. I’m too much of a coward to be literal about it! 

That’s when the Lord reminded me of all the stuff I’ve written on this blog. So, through gritted teeth, I obeyed the word and let the other person off the hook, I accepted their apology and kept taking those nasty little irritable thoughts captive – whether the other person deserve it or not. God’s ways are not our ways! To be totally honest it was like stripping my skin off a centimetre at a time! I had a list of reasons as long as my arm as to why I shouldn’t have to do it … and then I did it anyway. 

However, my ‘hurt’ feelings kept jumping up and down, and they kept right on doing it. Learning to love when you feel wounded is very difficult, as I am sure we all know from experience. The thing that helps, is to focus on how much He has forgiven us – until our thoughts are taken captive and we go back to being grateful. Otherwise our memory of the offence – which can often be carefully coloured in, so WE look like the injured one – blocks out everything else. It really is a choice to renew our mind, and to deliberately push all thoughts about whatever has happened out, and focus on obeying the Lord instead. 

Holding a grudge needs to be addressed because that is also a stumbling block. And yes, I understand that the other person keeps on doing whatever it is, despite your pleas for mercy! The thing is, we cannot know what is in someone else’s heart, and mind, and perhaps they think they are right too. We can all think we are totally right and be totally wrong … all at the same time.

Meanwhile our obedience to His word despite our feelings, is the best way I know to prove HIS power! The more we practice the things Jesus told us to do, the quicker we are released from being tossed about by our emotions and mind. Having power over your own feelings is REAL RAW POWER.  Bye. 👋

P 2822 Remembering.

/ DVH

Mark 1:9-13 “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, Whom I love; with You I am well pleased.” At once the Spirit sent Him out into the wilderness, and He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.”

My first thought when I read this scripture is this: isn’t Almighty God so wonderful to bless and reassure His beloved Son in this way… He owned Jesus as His Son right in front of His cousin, John. It was so personal! And then the Holy Spirit came and kissed Him. All that happened immediately before He had to wrangle with extreme fasting – and the kind of temptation that urged the Lord Jesus to accomplish what He came here for without any pain! satan tested Jesus at His weakest physical hour. And there would come another day, three+ years later, when satan would come at Jesus again, as He wrestled with God’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Here is something I have noticed over the years that can happen in our walk with the Lord. (I try not to make a rule out of anything, this is just an observation.) I’ve found that the Lord sometimes extravagantly blesses you or I and our families, with something quite wonderful and unexpected – and right after that – something happens that truly stretches and tests our faith. You will notice I offer no explanation for this – I don’t have one. I’ve just seen it happen.

My point today is that God is so good, and so kind, He gives us something substantial to hold onto as we slog through our own personal wilderness and testing time. A memory of good is a brilliant asset, it will hold you up in times of pain and sorrow and stress. Here’s my free advice — don’t be someone who is always looking for the next thing, the next blessing, the next breakthrough – take the time to savour everything He has ever done for you in your life-time, so far. 

Also, don’t ever wander so far away from your salvation that you can no longer see the cross anymore. To me blessings and trouble mean I had better pay close attention to whatever is going on, in me and around me. Otherwise I know I will  totally miss the blessing, and end up flailing about when the bad stuff hits me. I have a teenage grandson, he used to be little now he is taller than his mum! Growth stretches us and sometimes that is uncomfortable, the clothes we’ve grown so used to don’t fit anymore!

Jesus Himself did a reassuring thing with His disciples, right before He was betrayed. It says in 1 Corinthians 11:23b-25.”The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My Body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”We all know this litany by heart, but there are also times when God is doing something on many levels – we need to live looking for Him in everything that happens to us.

Right after this meal, the downward spiral toward Christ’s death starts. His betrayer and captors are almost at the door. Jesus knows these men, He loves them. They have been dependent upon Him, His leadership. They have seen His wisdom in action in every single moment. While He was eating, sleeping, and interacting with them and others. He has been their in-front-of-your-eyes example of how to live. He was with them for three and a half years, and He knows they are going to need something spiritually substantial to remember Him by — because right after this meal together, He will be brutally beaten, murdered, and resurrected. Soon after that He will go back to His Father in heaven. And then, for our sake, He sent back the Holy Spirit for us. The Holy Spirit has never left.

Christ lovingly gave His men something spiritual and physical to do that night – it will remind them in the dark days to come, that He is still with them – even though He is no longer physically present. This action is to be a continual visible reminder, a joining together, ‘a remembrance party’ that what He did will last, and be with all of them their whole lives. But like I often am, sometimes these men were clueless. Fortunately the Holy Spirit came and opened their eyes at Pentecost!

I love another story that is in the book. It also happens while all these devastating things were going on. Two of the Lord’s men walking along the road to Emmaus. And Jesus, the resurrected One, walks with them and joins Himself into their conversation. They have no clue Who He is!  The Lord gives these men an opportunity to remember and revise all the things that have happened to the Jews, as well as when He was with them. He is so kind even in the face of their heartbroken loss. Further, the Lord pretends He wants to keep on going with His journey, but they are so taken with Him, and the conversation, they beg Him to stay…

…AND THEN HE BREAKS THE BREAD. Those men knew that action!!!… They had seen Him do that very thing days before with their own eyes. Suddenly, He is gone again, but now, their hearts are are rejoicing. They gallop off to tell the others – because now they know that DEAD isn’t DEAD! 

In this life, of ours, our human ways are often like a little stream bubbling along, moving past this, bumping into that — but God’s ways are a river in full flood. Carefully moving this obstacle, watering that dry place, and teeming with life. I exhort you to keep daily jumping into His river! We have a river of life in us. Remembering is part of following Him.  Bye, 🙌.

P 2648 There is no instant reward.

/ DVH

OR… how I have been learning to love somebody His way. Someone who drove me crazy! There’s been an important person in my life that I couldn’t live without, and yet they literally drove me nuts. I have been so angry with them! They had a terrible effect on my wellbeing, first I’d cry, then I’d start ranting and raving, then I’d cry some more – mainly because I felt bad about the raving and ranting bit! Please note, I’ve used the past tense … but I am very aware that I can’t afford to be complacent about this issue!

One of the hardest things to do is to love somebody who is difficult. People who are dangerous and hurtful in our eyes. I secretly hoped the offender would move, and go and live far, far away. Then I was utterly condemned because Christians aren’t supposed to be like that! SoI repented until I was blue in the face, but this person continually kept jumping all over my heart… This situation is like an awful ride — you never want to get on, because you know you will hate it and go round and round, but you can’t easily get off either! In the past I used to get my hopes up that things were changing, and then the other person went and did something worse and I felt even more betrayed.

My bible-based learning curve started like this:  I was complaining to the Lord about how misunderstood and cheated I felt whenever I was around this individual. I tried to love them, I really did! I did nice things to please them and then they said or did something worse, and I sank back into anger and despair, adding to my failure. The list of their faults and infringements just kept getting bigger. There was no way of permanently pleasing them. It took me a while to realise that I needed to leave pleasing them behind, and start living to please God! 

I asked the Lord why He thought I had to have that person in my life. And this is what He said: “You asked me to help you to learn to love the way I love, and this person is your opportunity to learn!” Did you ever pray something when your heart was all soft and mushy at the altar, then afterward wish you hadn’t? Me too! I’d prayed He would change my response to this person – yet in the middle of the daily scrum I failed. I still wanted to punch out their lights! I was desperate, because I truly wanted to obey Him … but it seemed like I just couldn’t. My whole concept of LOVE God’s Way was wrong. I kept trying so hard, but my thoughts and emotions let me down. I needed to let go and follow instructions.

Then the Holy Spirit, my Resident Expert, said this: “You see giving someone else love, is a reward for their good behaviour. I see loving others as simply living in the River of Life. It’s always your choice, whether you live in that River or not. You are angry with this person because they hurt you. They bring out the very worst in your own attitudes. Actually, they are doing you a favour, because this is a fault in you that you can’t see, and their actions have brought that fault into the light.”

He was right. Duh! … I saw God’s love as FEELINGS not as a guideline for life. The thing is you can follow guidelines, it’s simple. You just follow the instructions – no feelings involved. When I consulted my feelings, I didn’t feel anything but anger, disappointment and disdain toward this person, so I didn’t think I had any love left. That’s when I did the smartest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I gave up! And I asked Him to show me how He loved people, whether they were nice or not!  I began re-reading the Gospels. 

As I read about how the Lord was treated I noticed that very few people actually appreciated Him! They wanted stuff from Him all the time, but He didn’t get many ‘grateful hugs,’ that’s for sure! He operated His whole earthly life under a different system. He was not interested in “What’s in it for Me?’’ He was far more interested in – “What can I do for you?” So I switched my focus from getting to giving. I asked Him: “How can I possibly bless this person?” Loving people God’s way is about how we choose to treat people, it is not about how they treat us. People cannot steal our emotional and mental health when what we are doing is OUR deliberate choice!

The Lord gave me some helpful hints:  “Don’t do a revision of how your time with this person went after you leave them. Give it all to Me, and leave it with Me. Continue on asking Me to help you love them. Then stop constantly bringing up why you are annoyed with them. Remain silent in the face of adversity.” Did you know we can talk ourselves into bad stuff? Neither did I! “The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.” Matthew 12:37. 

Lastly, He said: “Let Me define HOW you love them. You think love is about you, because it makes you feel good. Loving others is about them, not you.” Through this time I discovered that loving difficult people means we give up the right to get any reward for doing right. So I took my ‘feelings’ – good or bad, back, and I stopped trying to feel loved by them. I simply chose to obey HIM and obey His instructions.👋

P 2583 True salvation.

/ DVH

“Embrace the power of salvation’s full deliverance, like a helmet to protect your thoughts from lies. And take the mighty razor-sharp Spirit-sword of the spoken word of God. Pray passionately in the Spirit, as you constantly intercede with every form of prayer at all times. Pray the blessings of God upon all His believers.” Ephesians 6:17-18 TPT.

This way of life we have chosen can be difficult! We will have to press in and learn to thrive in all kinds of hardships. And to grow spiritually in times of rampant prosperity as well as deep poverty — to find joy in the midst of our mourning. And at the same time we will give constant praise to our God, while this world goes on its spiteful, murderous way. Our success in any of these issues probably won’t ever be seen. But Jesus sees.

What we lay aside, in prayer, love, kindness and sacrifice, for His sake, may not ever be recognised where we live every day. If we choose to live like Christ lived, we will need to learn to love, live and … even die for the people who hurt us, and despitefully use us. Even though some of them may actively pray for our demise and pain — we continue to reverently pray that they will only meet unconditional love, from Him and us! True salvation is more than a prayer – it can and should change the way we live.

Those things that are mentioned in the above scripture from Ephesians are our fighting tools!  They just don’t look like fighting tools. Nothing about this life we have chosen, looks like we thought it would. People we’ve known for years will betray us, and then blame us for their obvious blatant betrayal! You can’t fight that kind of stuff singing “Kumbaya!” We need weapons … and our weapons are not of this world. But they will pull down strongholds that have been established for centuries, as we set our faces towards honouring Him – living for Him.

If we really want to defeat our enemy, we need to live this life we have, fully saved. What does that mean? It means that no matter what happens … how many bugs, snakes, marauding, deceitful, angry, bad people, hit the windshield of our existence … we know that we know that we know, that our God is loyal and He will never, no NEVER leave us or forsake us. HE.MEANS.US.GOOD.  And now we live our lives, believing HE means us good!  “What can man do to me?” This is what knowing the Word of God means. It is not just regurgitation – it’s part of who we are now.

Jesus died to give us a place in our Father’s heart. It is a safe place. We live there protected purely by the fact that it cost the Lord everything He had to buy us that place! We know that Jesus Christ held nothing back. He left it all there at Calvary. And now what He bought for us, is ours. The only response we can give to that kind of sacrifice demands that we stop living by appearances, and start living by faith, in the Son of God Who died to save US from sin, this world, our enemy and ourselves! When His salvation fits our heads like a steel helmet … nothing can get through that sucker, because nobody can tell us that our Heavenly Father isn’t with us and He doesn’t love us. 

We are protected by the fact that – even if you kill me, I will still love you!! Jesus did it first. He was betrayed, deserted, lied about, falsely imprisoned, accused and murdered. HE KNOWS! And right now He is at His Father’s right hand praying for us. He also knows our weaknesses, that’s why we can rely upon His strength. When we feel like an elastic band that is about to break, just roll all that stuff off onto Him … and leave it there. Do all you can and then STAND.

Because of His death, Christ has provided us with a way to escape …“God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Look, taking the sword of the Spirit isn’t just memorising what the bible said and spouting it off at the devil. It is the assurance inside us that what His book says is true! God’s word is not a magic charm or incantation … it’s the truth. The real truth about mankind and this world. We need to know that, and the way we find out that it is true is to stand on it. Looking at His Word from a sidebar and wondering if it will hold us up, is not faith! Jesus Christ DIED standing on God’s word believing that He would be resurrected!  

We must understand that there are bigger priorities than our comfort – His kingdom must come. And you and I are charged with the responsibility of bringing that kingdom with us wherever we go. No matter who we speak to!  It’s a way to live, not just a get-out-of-jail-free card. True salvation delivers us from a wasted life, into a way of life that reflects God’s kingdom, here and now. When His word changes us we will know that we are saved. 👋

P 2262 How not to go up, or down the stairs!

/ DVH

Well, we had a difficult day the day before yesterday. Have you ever had one of those days where everything you already know about the Lord is tested, and then tested some more? That day had more surprises than we anticipated.

We have a routine in the morning, certain things happen before other things happen. Our bedroom is downstairs, so in order to have breakfast and type this blog I have to go upstairs. There are seven stairs and I slipped, and promptly   banged my chin etc and a few other things, on every step on the way down. 

And there I sat at the bottom of the stairs having broken off the neck of my humerus. A couple of hours later they managed to get me off to the hospital. We discovered low and behold, it would need a huge operation to fix what I broke. And liver transplant patients really should not ever have huge operations.  In this case, breaking my humerus was not all that funny!

A couple of hours later, the hospital sent us home because I can’t have an awful lot of pain killers either.  And I haven’t even got any plaster to show for my adventure!  I feel gypped.  It is an amazing thing when your world goes upside down, because you learn even more strongly, that you really can’t control anything.  Hubby and I were chatting on the way home because some disasters give you a fresh POV about what the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross.  We probably don’t think of things like that when life is normal.  

So now we have to wait for my body to heal itself, and hubby is helping me lots more than he usually has to…..what fun!  The healing process will take awhile so I am on restricted duties, not that I had many in the first place, and I am developing a distinct dislike of stairs.  Needless to say, nobody slept very well at our house last night.

“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.

I got to thinking about that scripture today and realised that Jesus figuratively, and literally, DID overcome the sorts of things we have to overcome.  I’m going to try and list a few, but I bet you will come up with a bigger list than me.  Mary got pregnant before she got married – that would have made her an outcast, so Jesus was rejected in the womb.  People would have looked sideways at Joseph too.  They were very poor.  The Lord was a refugee by the time He was barely walking. They had no family to help them because they left them all behind.  satan tried to kill Jesus right after He was born. 

His dad was a carpenter so Jesus knows all about the troubles and trials and sorrows that plague ordinary people like us.  He lived His life, literally, at war with the religious society around Him.  People came to Him for what He could do for them, very few came for Who He is.  He suffered from conspiracies against Him.  His stepfather died when He was young and He had half brothers and sisters.  He was stolen from, betrayed, misunderstood, called a liar, heretic, and this is just a sample of what He faced.

When they murdered Him, among many things, His shoulders were dislocated.  People fought over His clothes whilst He was dying … and, yet, the Lord still took the time to give the man hanging next to Him the opportunity as He was leaving this world to go and be with Him in the next.  He was the victim of somebody else’s jealousy, religious proclivities – and everybody left Him at the end.  Food for thought.

So as you go about earning your daily bread, doing chores or studying, remember He overcame the things that will bury us if we let them.  Because He did that, now we can do it too.  👋🏻🤕 Bye.