Bible

P 2897 Peace is our portion.

/ DVH

“And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in Me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in Me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!””John 16:33 TPT.

We cannot survive 21st Century living without His peace.  Injustice pops up everywhere like wild mushrooms, all across the world. Peace is an inside job. Everything around us will try to steal it away. This week we have had a procession of endless, skilled tradesmen parading, banging, clumping, etc. right through our house. We discovered mould in one of our least used rooms. It’s a long story and not worth repeating here. One of my mum’s brand new hearing aids has grown legs and walked away, plus our daughter and grandson are moving in about a month. And our next trip is in 16 days. Not to mention all kinds of malfunctioning arms, legs, heads, backs, knees …a-n-d … we are both preaching this Sunday! 🤣

None of us can afford to rely upon good, positive circumstances to help us feel peaceful. We already have peace within us because the King of peace resides within us. That peace will thrive in an atmosphere of faith as we believe and act on what the Lord has said. It gives us confidence so we can face whatever comes at us from the world around us. Christianity is an ongoing relationship with the Man of peace, Jesus Christ. We learn to live in His peace as we watch and study Him, because He didn’t just teach us what to do, He showed us how to do it, by the way He lived! “Keep turning your back on every sin, and make “peace” your life motto.Practice being at peace with everyone.” Psalms 34:14 TPT.

We need to remind ourselves that we are foreigners, ambassadors of Christ, living in a foreign land where peace is now either enforced or ignored, or labelled impossible. Unfortunately, peace cannot be legislated, otherwise our freedom to choose His way, goes right out of the window. To me that means peace is always OUR choice to pick up or put down. It means we learn to bend with the winds of change and opposition, not just strive to be in control and stay rigid. Peace comes with a great cost to the people who are living any conflict. 

Sadly when there is no positive choice made, there can be no true peace, because the ‘machinery’ of our lives returns to a habitual default setting of agitation and worry. Yet Jesus Himself chose to live at peace in a society that hated everything He stood for, He had no home, His relatives opposed Him, His church leaders wanted to kill Him, He was surrounded by needy people … yet He had true peace, all the time, because He chose to walk with the Holy Spirit and obey His Father. 

The people who lived around Him were superficially content to live within their religious rules, and often those rules actually opposed or destroyed peace for many of them. Rules carry within them the possibility of failure – true peace doesn’t see failure as the end of the story. The Lord was not affected by people’s approval or disapproval, He carried out the things He did by choosing to reflect His Father’s will. He wasn’t looking to win a popularity contest then, and He still isn’t. 

He teaches us in this verse that rest, which is a part of peace, is also our portion. It is OURS. We learn to rest when we choose to put aside our own opinions, and feelings, and aim at His Ways, with His help. As we do that we are mirroring Jesus’ own relationship and trust in His Father. Father God made the supreme effort for us, to come here and reveal His will in Person. God Himself stopped being remote, and hard to access, instead He walked the roads of Israel and its surrounds. Jesus was assimilated into this world so well, that some people identified Him by where He lived as a child. He was known —as Joseph the carpenter’s son from Nazareth. 

If you and I have no peace, then we have somehow left Him out, or left Him far behind us. His peace within us is present to saturate the atmosphere around us. But if we lose our peace, then we need to return humbly to the Source of all peace, Christ, and ask Him to help us live in harmony with Him, and His ways again. When trouble and difficulties bash on our doors or seep into our lives, those things are not a statement about our personal efforts or lack of them. Instead they are simply the result of living in a fractured, unredeemed society. It means we have forgotten who we are and WHO He is! The answer is not to condemn society, instead we are to flavour it … with His qualities.

Peace is a Person. We walk in peace, when we choose to walk with Him. If we revert to our old ways of thinking, then we simply repent and start walking with Him again. Walking with peace means we do not have to carry our own burdens, we turn them over to Jesus and ask Him to deal with them, us and the situation. Peace is our God-given birthright, freely received – part of our inheritance.  Jesus said:“Peace I leave with you, MY peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27.

Jesus gave it to us, so now we have it, just like salvation whether we feel like it or not. Bye. 👋

P 2896 Relinquishment.

/ DVH

Jesus is portrayed in the bible, as our Shepherd, He is called the Good Shepherd. At the same time, many of us have what we might call lost sheep in our families. I have them, and like you, I often weep over greatly-loved people who have chosen to leave our Saviour outside of their camp — because they don’t wish to hear what He wants to say to them, and they don’t want to live a life of laid-down love. It’s their choice, a choice that can break our hearts, but that choice is sometimes made because of great pain, deception, anger and disappointment.

It is tempting to think that if we just manage to give that person the right scripture from the bible, they will be set free. But God has put incredible value on the power of our own personal choice, this means He respects their choices, so it is clear we need to do that too. The answer to this pain, is relinquishment! Plus choosing to remind ourselves that He is faithful.“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” 2 Timothy 1:12. Yes, you and I will suffer but –”…love suffers long…”  And incredibly, He is always faithful – even when we are not!

No amount of human persuasion, or application, can do this work as beautifully as He can. He knows how to open up hearts, and we don’t. Jesus once called ordinary fishermen to follow Him, and He said He would make them fishers of men! I mean — hullo?! What the heck does that mean? But, those men got up and left everything they had ever known immediately and went on the road with Him! Some people’s lives were transformed just because He walked past them. These people we care deeply about need HIM, not us. Our job is to continue to show them love, however He tells us to do it..

When you read the gospels carefully, you will see that Jesus hardly ever repeats whatever He does. He had an individual answer for each individual. He knows the way into someone’s heart. I’ve seen His light break into a life many times – however, you and I don’t have the power to do that, unless He helps us. We are mortal, and we have the power of persuasion — EVE shows us how badly that can be used. It can seem like God is in no hurry to answer desperate prayers like these – take heart – He knows how to woo and win someone, with His unfailing love. 

I want to point out that Jesus was taken outside of the ‘camp’ — outside the walls of Jerusalem — to be crucified. So whatever shameful, dreaded location your friend or family member is living in, it will not bother Him. He’s seen it all. The most horrible actions and attitudes people are capable of – betrayal, murder, envy, fear, lust, cowardice, wickedness – all of it.  Even those people who hated Him, paraded past Him … right in front of Him as He was dying. Yet He was doing what He did for their despicable attitudes too. Our God is not afraid of sin. He.Took.Care.Of.It. He knows the depravity within human hearts, but – we can follow the scarlet thread of His redemption right throughout the bible from Genesis to the Gospels and beyond them.

I would like to go over the faithfulness of our God in these matters because time sometimes dims our hope. Jesus told us clearly In Luke 15, in three different ways – that He seeks the one lost sheep, one lost coin. And He waits patiently at the gate for His lost kid to come home. Those stories lead me to this conclusion: lost people are extremely important to Him! That’s why He sends us out to find them.

The Israelite nation was rescued by Him at least ten times. They tested His love, and His right to be their God, over and over again.They were rebellious, abusive, arrogant and stiff-necked, plus easily deceived, and yet they were still very precious to Him. We all know you can be furious with someone and still love them! However, His faithfulness knows no bounds, which is why we should never question or abuse it.

It can be extremely difficult to personally let go of a precious person and not preach at them. We can waste all our time and our tears and anguish over someone who is trapped by deception. BUT! — giving them to Jesus is the very best answer. Think about it. Anything and everything that was ever given to Him – He blessed it. He either multiplied things in an astonishing fashion, or He transformed them with the power of His always-present LOVE. He knows how to bring “…beauty out of ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…” because He is supernaturally faithful. “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;  Do not forsake the works of Your hands.” Psalm 138:8.

Our task is to choose to keep loving those who cruelly and despitefully use us, and that can be an extremely hard thing to live with, especially if they are someone close to us. Sadly, if that person is angry with God, then they will be angry at you for believing in Him. This is part of the fellowship of His sufferings.Don’t stop praying for those you love, and don’t stop believing that your faith is valuable. God gave His only one-of-a-kind Son to us. There is no sacrifice that is greater than that one – He understands how big a sacrifice this situation is to you.

Remember, the Lord is their Shepherd too. Keep on praying for them, and then give them back to Him. Talk to Him about your pain, and let Him heal you. Relinquishment is the best pathway. Bye 👋

P 2895 God’s Love is inexhaustible.

/ DVH

We all need to leave behind the lies we have inadvertently swallowed regarding God’s Love. Our enemy goes out of his way to tell us we can’t have the Lord’s love and grace anymore because we did so and so, and God cannot forgive so and so – it says it in the book. That is a horrible lie sent to torment us. The bible is a balanced book, one thing leads into another – leading us back to HIM.

Today, I am hoping to pass on some reassurance to those of you who have become bogged down in legalism – because I know from experience that our adversary never misses an opportunity to nag at someone – day and night. Many Christians have walked away from what they believe, because what they believed became untenable in the face of their desperate pain-driven reactions to this life. Say this with me: …”there is NOTHING our God cannot do!’

We need to focus on His faithfulness. Here are a few swords for you. 2 Thessalonians 3:3:“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.“ Lamentations 3:22–23: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Exodus 34:6-7a.“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD,a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin …” Fortunately we are this side of the cross, and Jesus took any curses we might pass on to other people with Him to that cross. Read the book.

Confession is often the best solution to accusation. Think of sin as mould, it needs treatment, light and air. Darkness and lack of air will make it grow. We can always have a new beginning. Here’s a verse we all know: “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. What Jesus did was complete and comprehensive. Deliverance from the enemy’s lies starts with us making a quality decision to stop believing those lies, and instead we deliberately choose to put a verses of scripture in its place. The Holy Spirit will help us find them.

Accusatory thoughts can overwhelm and dismiss the power of God’s Love, together with the grace Christ released by what He did. Many times we do not have a sin problem per se, we have simply allowed God to become too small in our eyes, and Jesus stops being the Saviour Who saved everyone. When He said “…it is finished.”It was a universal statement for all time. However, if you are currently doing something or other and you clearly know in your heart that it is sin, and it is slowly dragging you away from everything you believe then you need to repent!  

Almighty God provides us with a tool to access His inexhaustible love. It’s called repentance. That is the quickest route to restoration. Almighty God is incredibly kind. He will lead us out of temptation, AND He will also deliver us from fast approaching evil. Because we need to withstand further and future attacks from our enemy, our faithful God will sometimes allow him to ‘gnat’ at us, so we have opportunities to develop spiritual strength. We fight back with “God says: …”  This is not about how we feel, it is about what HE has already said. Our job is to believe He is a merciful Father Who has done everything necessary to bring about our redemption.

Jesus made reaching God’s standard impossible without His help.I dunno about you – I’ve wished people dead, told thumping great lies, and worse things – and I’ve fallen down the hole of desperate despair. I think it is necessary to point out that God judges hearts, and none of us fully know what’s in there! Sometimes we can be too lenient, and at other times w-a-y too permissive. We need the Holy Spirit’s ever-present, always current, on-the-spot wisdom.

God lets us learn! That’s not an excuse it is a blessing. Think of repentance like this, as regaining our strength after we have allowed it to lapse. Every action we deliberately take against sin, strengthens us spiritually. It strengthens our faith when we step away from something purely because God says: “Don’t do it.” The Lord advises us in this manner because He knows what comes next. It isn’t always about sin – many many times it is about the kindness of God. He leads us into repentance because He doesn’t want us to end up in the land of WORSE – fighting shadows from the past.

We can also choose the road of humility and tell someone else so they can pray for us. Other people can lift us up when we feel lower than the ground we are standing on. Always remember, God’s Love is inexhaustible. Bye.👋

P 2894 Whose pleasure? …

/ DVH

 …His or ours??…

Around 4,500 years or so, ago, Noah sent out a dove to fly over the face of our flooded planet to find a resting place. The third time, he launched the dove, it did not come back …

“Then he (Noah) sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.” Genesis 5:8-12.

Thousands of years later, in another time and pretty much another place … a dove landed on Jesus Christ’s head … and that dove remained with Him. (Matthew 3:16&17) Let’s be clear, when the heaven’s opened that day, and God Himself authenticated Jesus, I think it is pretty safe to assume that Noah’s original dove was long gone by then. That previous bird was deader than dead! But I wanted to bring this subject up today because hubby was talking to me about that thought a few days ago. I think the symbolism in it can speak to us.

First of all, blind Freddie can see that Noah’s dove was looking for a resting place! The earth was covered in water and the bird was looking for a safe place to roost. I believe this is one of the many incredible word-pictures of the Holy Spirit’s work. Thousands of years later, the Holy Spirit wanted to find a place to rest and Jesus Christ provided Him with that place.

Please note that the Holy Spirit did not land on John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin! Yet that man was filled with the Holy Spirit from before He was born. He lived a very peculiar life devoted to God – but the Holy Spirit was looking for somewhere He could stay and make His home. Ask yourself – why? Why would He want somewhere permanent? What is this telling us about the Holy Spirit’s Ways? 

I personally think we can over-emphasis the experience of being filled by Him, over and above the sheer joy of simply obediently walking with HIm. We get stuck in our own pleasure, rather than emphasising His pleasure. Again, something we need to think about! We desperately need the Holy Spirit to abide in us, the same way He abided with Christ. So the next question is this: What must I do, personally, for that to happen in my life? How can I make Him welcome?

Here’s the good news!  Jesus has already done all the work for us. He removed the sin that kept us in captivity and stopped us from living pure lives before the Lord. Now, the only thing that can stop us from walking with the Holy Spirit for His pleasure, is strangely – OUR pleasure. Our society at large, l-o-v-e-s double standards. Ya might want to think on that one!! 🤔 Here’s an old saying: a ship in the water is great, but water in a ship is not so great! I think, the problem is there is too much water in our ships! We need to value what He values … and one of the things I think He values is people.

When the Holy Spirit filled that building at Pentecost people didn’t rush about talking about how they felt – instead they couldn’t stop preaching, talking about and worshipping Jesus! Their personal encounters with Him led them deeper and deeper into obedience and sacrifice for His Kingdom’s sake. They met a Person and they followed Him! Our primary focus in this life matters. We cannot serve Him, and have the Holy Spirit rest upon us like He did on Jesus, when we continually choose to be double-minded. We must learn to live a compatible life. “For how can two walk together unless they be in agreement?”Psalm 119.1-2.

Obedience to His Word, despite our own personal fears, or preferences – or even inconvenience – positions us to continually walk with Him, relying on His provision. Almighty God loves obedience – it is one of the ways we show Him our love for Him. Our deliberate and heartfelt obedience positions us to hear and follow Him. It is like opening our spiritual ears. If we cannot hear Him clearly then we need to start obeying what the bible says. Pick the verse that says “Love your enemies…” find an enemy – and DO IT! This is what valuing His company looks like. Throw away your need to stew in wonderful feelings, and doggedly, continually, choose His Ways.

Let’s put aside our pleasure and choose His pleasure instead. We want to be the place where the Holy Spirit is welcome, a place where He wants to land and remain. Because when He rests upon us, we will rest in Him. Bye 🕊️

P 2892 God gives us opportunities.

/ DVH

Luke13:6-7. “Then He (Jesus) told them a story: “A man had an apple tree planted in his front yard. He came to it expecting to find apples, but there weren’t any. He said to his Gardener, ‘What’s going on here? For three years now I’ve come to this tree expecting apples and not one apple have I found. Chop it down! Why waste good ground with it any longer?’“ The Gardener said, ‘Let’s give it another year. I’ll dig around it and fertilise, and maybe it will produce next year; if it doesn’t, then chop it down.’”

Obviously Jesus is the Gardener in our lives, and as you can see in this passage – He’s always looking for fruit. In the case of this particular apple tree there was none. So, in theory, this tree needs to be cut down. But because the Lord is motivated by forgiveness and generosity … and — He is also the Gardener Who intercedes for fruitless trees! “ The bible says: “He ever lives to make intercession for US… ”That thought translates to this — Jesus is always praying for US! Thank you Lord!!That ought to give hope to anyone who thinks they’ve used up all their chances with Him! In this story, the apple tree gets another chance, purely because the Gardener intercedes for it.

The Lord has a reason for what we might call ‘slowness to act.’ In 2 Peter 3:9 it says: “The Lord does not delay [as though He were unable to act] and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” I can have a party over this verse …Boy am I incredibly grateful He is so generous! Meanwhile, if an answer to prayer is slow coming, my advice is to try asking Him if there is something you need to repent over! God’s book is not just an ordinary book, what is not said is often just as important as what is said.

Here’s another story, this one is quite startling! Matthew 8:21-23:“And another of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead…” Boy this one takes some praying over. In our natural minds, what Jesus says here is almost an unnatural act. How could He say that? Why wouldn’t we owe the dead the dignity of attending their burial, especially a human parent! Meanwhile, did you pick up on the fact that this guy was a disciple?

He was already following the Lord. That shows us the depth of commitment He requires from us. This follower asked to simply go and bury his dead father and Jesus said ‘no!’  Smarter people than me have great lengthy explanations about this one, but I noticed one thing – “suffer me FIRST.” Unless I am very much mistaken this disciple’s problem is the same as the guy I mentioned yesterday – his priority was not his commitment to Christ.The real question is this: what comes first? God’s will or our human obligations?

Meanwhile I don’t like the man’s chances of witnessing to his family etc … they’d all get the stitch with him if he missed his father’s funeral. That would be another no-no in our world – it would probably make it into the news!  Christians would condemn this guy for being a bad witness and deserting his family like that. Actually, Jesus often deals with individuals and targets whatever is holding them back. Following Him is a serious commitment. It is not the “sometimes when it suits me thing” that we seem to favour today. 

You know that makes sense to me? An apple tree does not ask for a time-out for further fruit production. It’s either producing fruit or it ain’t! In my mind this helps me make a bit more sense about that darn fig-tree Jesus cursed. We like to debate and postulate about why, but the simple answer is that we are either fruitfully obeying Him, and following Him or we are not. Christianity doesn’t actually come with an optional opt out, or extra clauses. The wonderful news is that He will not give up on us. We can end up being pruned and uprooted a bit because we are disobedient and unfruitful – but these verses clearly show us why.

The things that Jesus said are not suggestions – which we sort-of kind-of obey if we think we can! They are written in His blood, right there in His book, for our sanctification, and edification. Cherry picking the verses we like is not part of discipleship, it’s called evasion. Now here is the scary bit, He knows exactly when to stop striving with mankind because they’ve gone beyond the point of no return. I’ve seen people just turn around and walk off, without a thought of what they are leaving behind. None of us should treat Almighty God that way – not after all He has done for us. That is holding the Grace of God in contempt – we will quickly grieve the very gentle Holy Spirit, if we live that way.

Obviously none of us should let any kind of ‘fear’ be the motivating force in our decision making either! That’s also not Who He is. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance…” At the same time we must also never forget that verse 9 is followed by verse 10: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night…”  2 Peter 3:9.

There is always tension in what we believe, simply because He is God and we are not! Almighty God gives us  opportunities to obey Him. His words are not just suggestions, they are in the book to guide us HOME. Bye. 👋

P 2890 Further to yesterday.

/ DVH

Hubby and I occasionally talk about what I’ve written in my daily blog. During our discussion today we talked about various adverse scenarios. Did you know that any of us can lose the MAIN battle – which is fighting the good fight for the Lord – simply because we are trying to make a point? Making a point is a distraction. That point will quite quickly be lost in time!

Here’s a question:  is it really more important that we are understood by someone else – or does Jesus totally deserve the reward of His suffering? ← That’s the real battle! Our needs will be supplied by Him – but we can’t see the good stuff when we are snarking around growling at other-people-who-don’t-suit-us. And the reward of His suffering is to see everyone saved. We can’t con God. He is not impressed with who is right, or who thinks they are innocent, and who is not. We have been given the revelation of His Grace, in the book, that alone makes us responsible to spread it around.

There is a much greater, constant war going on over the souls of those men and women living all around us. The other guy can waste our God-given time fighting with our spouse, our kids, our parents, the pastor … whoever!! But there are people who do not know what Christ has done for us. They are dying without being told about His Love for them. An ambassador exists to represent, publicise and extoll the virtues of his home country.

What does it matter lady, if your husband leaves his dead socks on the floor? It’s those little foxes that spoil the vineyard of your love and obedience to the Lord! Maybe your house-mate won’t take out the garbage? So what? And what does it matter so much that your wife’s idea of tidy, is to drop whatever it is where she stands? You have hands, and your wife is not your mother. Work on your own responses to them, not the other person’s actions.

We can easily waste the life God gave us going on and on over things that have happened in the past — things nobody can change unless they have a time machine!! Do the schmuck who hurt you a favour, will you? That person who wrecked your life when you were little — let ’em off the hook! The only person captive is YOU. You are stuck somewhere, like a record, going round and round what happened in your mind. Repent, forgive, and …move on. Have you ever done or said something so terrible but you couldn’t take it back? I have! 

Our enemy clouds the very real issues surrounding us. he makes the daily stuff about being understood, or making a point, seem to be incredibly important in that moment.“Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God…” Is what is important. We are wasting our time hoping that the other person will hear us, understand and change. The point is not for the other person to change – it’s for US to change. Lemme put that another way, when we stand before the great white throne do you think Jesus is going to ask you why you didn’t change your spouse?!! He’s looking for us to love impossible people, by spreading around His Grace, that’s what HE did!

These little every day skirmishes we try to dodge, or even indulge ourselves in when we feel rejected, dismissed, or looked down on – can actually prepare us for the REAL wars when they suddenly hit us! Have you noticed that people don’t announce wars? They are instigated by stealth movements, done that way to surprise the people who are to be conquered. The element of surprise throws the other guy off. 

Think about this for a minute: our enemy suddenly throws an accident in our path, or someone gets dreadfully ill, or a job is lost. Terrible things happen to people every single day. Just ask the people in the countries currently at war, they can give you a billion reasons why they can’t forgive the other guy! We need to practise forgiveness daily, or we have nothing to give the guy who utterly shatters our lives! Learning to fight those daily battles for His kingdom in us IS our boot camp — these things prepare us for the things we may not know about, that will turn up unannounced.

I do not want to be negative but I think the positive thoughts movement grew out of disobedience to His word. We made up a god who would always understand us, always be on OUR side. How on earth can that work? Plus He is supposed to give us precisely whatever we want! Where does the bible say that? Joshua asked the Israelites this question:“Who is on the Lord’s side?”That’s the only side that matters, by the way … not yours, hers, his, theirs – God’s side! And if we are on His side then we need His help to act like Jesus would. Maybe instead of constantly collecting promises, we can look at what He says as instructions!

It is not up to us to sort other people out. We are here to preach the word, in season and out of season. We are to live out what He said, in front of the very people who deny He is Who He says He is. Every single time we choose to forgive and release people from our expectations, etc. we release the power of God’s grace into their lives. Why waste your energy fighting? Time is short and a larger life awaits us. The bigger battle is raging all around us. Let’s us our faith and grow. May God bless you as you serve Him, bye.👋

“If a ruler loses his temper against you, don’t panic;  A calm disposition quiets intemperate rage.” Ecclesiastes 10:4.

P 2889 People disagree …

/ DVH

… sometimes very loudly! When you read the gospels you will find different people from all walks of life that are outrageously unkind, plus people who cheat each other, or they hate each other for all kinds of reasons. The thing is, disagreements are not necessarily about who is right and who is wrong – that’s this world’s way of thinking. ‘I think I am much right-er than YOU are,’ is a really common theme. I hate disagreements … everybody loses!

To be perfectly honest with you, difficulties can have a positive side, they can usher in change in us – if we put down our sword of attack, and pick up His Grace, the people around us would feel much safer! God’s Grace needs to be the way we live now. What Jesus did at Calvary, released an incredible, overabundant Grace, and it is ours for the taking. We need to use our faith. Let me clarify that into English – let what you’ve been given by God be your new motivation – it makes it easier to apologise! Do it for the Lord!  He deserves to see the reward of His suffering in our lives.

This is our highest form of worship. This, in its very essence, is Romans 12:1 ”Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”When we choose His will, His Way, we are choosing to worship Him! Here’s another scripture nobody much likes, Jesus said it: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13. We live this way for people who totally don’t deserve that kind of attitude or action from us! I’ve known people who said: “I would die for you” – but they haven’t considered that dying for the other person might include not liking or loving them very much at the time! 

Jesus chose to die for us, and He loved us while He did it! Good place to praise God for mercy!! Before you throw your hands up in the air in frustration, because we all have difficult people in our lives …think about it. Name somebody in the bible who had a happy, trouble-free, carefree life – you can’t do it can you? Our happiness, our purest joy comes from knowing Him – other people and relationships line up behind that. It often seems to me in those angry moments, that I’ve forgotten that love is a choice not a feeling!! 

Human beings stagger about doing the weirdest stuff, searching for that mythical land that is called “my happiness.” It won’t happen – it can’t happen. If we don’t find our happiness in serving Him, and learning His Ways – we are doomed to keep repeating the same rubbish mistakes over and over again. We will remain stuck in a mire of our own choosing. The answer to other people driving us crazy isn’t them changing – It’s our own personal transformation – we change the way we think and see everyone else, and they don’t bother us anymore!

There really is a place where other people don’t have to get on your nerves – Jesus Christ lived there and He was a man just like us. Every single one of those irritations are giving us an opportunity to die to self. Jesus didn’t have to wrangle His emotions, because He knew what was important – He knew the book from when He was 12! Everything He did He did to further His Father’s Kingdom. That’s now our job.

Christians admire other people’s testimonies. Things like: some dear missionary went to some lost tribe, and the tribe was saved but they chopped the poor missionary into little bits.’ Let’s pause a minute … the thing is, we don’t have rampant indigenous tribes waiting to kill us … instead we have Mrs Kerfoops who is always gossiping about everyone and she comes to church every Sunday … that dear lady needs to know His Grace. Obviously she has none, because she can’t keep her mouth shut. Somebody is going to have to be a source of God’s Grace toward her!

The bible works as a WHOLE. That missionary who died released Grace to the pagan tribe …  they left their comfortable homeland and went to a strange place for the sake of the gospel. That’s GRACE. Today’s Christians don’t value GRACE enough. We expect other people to understand US.. Instead we need to learn to turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile, right in the middle of the time when we feel so provoked we just want to thump the person who is provoking us. 

This means we will need to put His Grace into action to manage our painful circumstances. Think on this — the Grace that we cling to while the world around us continually shifts on its axis, is the same Grace we give away to other people when they don’t deserve it. In those moments I remind myself — “I don’t deserve His Grace either!” It really does help. Right along with my all time favourite prayer. “Help help!” Prayer is so much more than words, it is an attitude of our hearts!

Some of the time people disagree because they don’t know Him well enough yet. So there are no hard and fast rules as to who should be the one to give away Grace. I’ve found if I can actually see what is going on, then that means He will help me to get through it. I step out in faith, and I ask for His help to holster my own opinion. I’ve yet to start cheering when a disagreement comes up, but these things are opportunities for me to practise what I preach. Bye. 👋

P 2888 Obedience matters.

/ DVH

Ecclesiastes 8:2-6: “Do what your King commands; you gave a sacred oath of obedience. Don’t worryingly second-guess your orders or try to back out when the task is unpleasant. You’re serving His pleasure, not yours. The King has the last word. Who dares say to Him, “What are you doing?” Carrying out orders won’t hurt you a bit; the wise person obeys promptly and accurately.”

Obviously the ‘king’ referred to in this passage is Solomon, but I have taken the liberty today of extending its jurisdiction — I think it is also about obeying Jesus – our King. Especially as obeying Solomon kind of died-out when he did! I’ve found Ecclesiastes can be a bit of a down-a-later. Boy did King Solomon sound depressed a lot! 

I had to keep returning to the fact that I know that God Himself gave this man wisdom. That meant I had to go and find my trusty spiritual shovel and keep on digging! I won’t pretend it was easy either, I almost needed a blasting cap to get rid of some of those huge humanity-driven rocks that my mind kept putting in the way of what this entire book says. That King took a dim view of life!

The bible is like food. Some verses seem to be more like gravy and mashed potatoes and I think that there are definitely some verses we all ‘like’ more than others! As I thought about it I was not cheered up much by the thought that gravy and mashed potatoes are merely one step away from baby food! So … I went back to the steak and kept on chewing. The more I went over this particular verse, the more I realised that this is the very essence of what we need as Christ’s disciples. OBEDIENCE.

Jesus sent out twelve guys in Matthew 10:1 –“Jesus called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” So what happened in Matthew 10:1? The disciples began to use HIS authority. That’s a bit like me writing a letter to the bank telling them that you can operate on my account. You are accessing my account because I authorised you, but you can’t do that by yourself, the bank will call a policeman!

These disciples were deputised by the Lord to be like Him in matters of healing and deliverance, wherever they went. So they obeyed Him, and they saw results that caused them to exclaim and marvel at what they had seen!  But they were still subject to the spirit of stupidity, as well as disobedience. Their characters remained unchanged – remember … Judas was in that group! Jesus corrected their misplaced enthusiasm by reminding them that the greatest thing that had ever happened to them was that their names were now written in the Book of Life. Like I’ve said a kajillion times — God doesn’t think like we do!

However, when Jesus was leaving them for the final time to go back to His Father, He breathed on them: And when He said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “And when He said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.”John 20:22. Perhaps they received perseverance and the courage to wait, at that moment. The Lord told them clearly to: “WAIT for the power.”  Then Jesus left them all alone in an astonishing manner. They went back to the upper room and hid themselves away again. But they obeyed Him, as they waited … prayerfully.

They were waiting to receive the same power the Lord Jesus Himself walked in, although they did not know it. They felt like orphans, but Jesus had clearly told them He was sending SomeOne Else, SomeOne Who would always be with them.  This time it was not just the power to wait, etc., now the Holy Spirit came amongst them and He became the new LEADER. He has never left. Every day He gives US the power to live laid-down lives for Jesus’ sake.  

Those disciples became instant over-comers when the Holy Spirit exploded upon them in that locked upper room. They went in afraid, and came out bold. And it was their obedience to Jesus’ instructions that facilitated what happened. Obedience is not just about participating in a single event – our deliberate choices to obey leads us step by step into facilitating change. We change direction. We line ourselves up with His will and His will positions us for MORE… Always.

At the same time some of us have not yet gotten out of the ‘starting gate’ so to speak, because we feel afraid and so we excuse ourselves from participating in the greatest adventure mankind has ever known – uncovering the Will of God for ME! You and I have been reborn to follow JESUS. He has a plan for our lives and there is no point in asking me to tell you what you should be doing – because I don’t know!!

We walk in our God-given destiny by following the Lord, one step at a time. And every single one of those steps will include being tested to see if we have purposed to obey Him, no matter what happens. What is He telling you? Maybe He wants you to stop picking a fight with somebody or other so you can hear what He wants to say to you! Sin and unbelief cloud our hearing. Obedience matters. Our own faith can be weak, but obedience strengthens our ability to live our lives HIS WAY.

The character of Christ is not an optional extra, given to those who are dedicated to His purposes. We’ve been dedicated to His purposes the minute we were saved. We die, so He might live in us and through us. Step by step, as we learn to obey the Holy Spirit, we will develop the skills we will need to walk in whatever comes next! Bye 👋

P 2887 What ARE we thinking?

/ DVH

“Perfect, absolute peace surrounds those whose imaginations are consumed with You; they confidently trust in You.” Isaiah 26:3 TPT. What we think about matters. You might ask me can anyone change their own thinking? God says we can! What I mean is this, because our minds are often easily distracted, we need His help. Here’s another scripture to chew over from Proverbs 23:7 it says: “As a man thinks in his heart so is he…”Proverbs 14:12 says: “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”

What we think about will eventually come out of our mouth. Let’s just stop and selah that thought for a hundred years or so! One day, the bible tells me, what I am thinking is going to be broadcast from the rooftops. Luke 12:3. Man have I thought some dumb stuff! Stuff that I sincerely want to take back. Today’s world wants us to be consumed by what we think we want, or what we think we need. There is a general assumption that people know what is best for themselves. My point is, what occupies our thoughts even when we are ‘resting?’ Even in His Rest, God is thinking about us! He’s always thinking about us. We are so blessed.

If God is a PS or an after thought in our lives then it will be much harder to occupy our thoughts with Him, we will be distracted and established on other things that can colour our point of view – the things of this world. Thinking about what the Lord has already told us in His book, needs to be cultivated. When someone we love gets sick – they are never far from our thoughts. At the same time, we are often bombarded by negative thoughts of death, devastation and destruction. That’s the other guy – he is very adept at throwing thoughts at us and then blaming us for having them!

Eve tangled with him and look what happened there – mankind lost their intimacy with God! Our thoughts need to be regularly transformed through dedicated application of His Word. We must change the ungodly patterns in our minds if we want to transform our hearts. When the Lord made Adam and Eve, He put them into the garden of Eden to enjoy it – then He came every evening to walk and talk with them. You know, in the absence of God, sin flourishes. The responsibility to cultivate and correct our thinking rests on us.

The sin Adam and Eve made was one we often make, we use our own understanding. Big mistake – HUGE! Let’s look at Genesis 2:6:“When the Woman SAW that the tree LOOKED LIKE good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.” Eve’s weakness was that she wanted to be “in the know,” then she influenced Adam to join her. 

Human beings are already way too power hungry and revenge-seeking for that kind of power! The enemy ambushed Eve with ambition. She wanted to be like God and know everything. That’s what the fruit of satan’s work does. It puffs up. Humility and obedience go sailing out of the window, and people throw away our position of protection that God gave us. Sometimes, we don’t even bother to find out why He said no! Instead we start assuming He is keeping something from us, like Eve did!  

Our loving Father had already had a plan for what Eve went after – He planned it HIS WAY. Christ death is the God-given link to God’s power in us and for us. When we start feeling cheated, or robbed, that means we’ve fallen into our own understanding and we are ignoring His. It isn’t that we not allowed to think our own thoughts — it is about staying safe under the shadow of His wings. It’s about having peace in our hearts and minds, instead of the chaos of manipulation, fear and domination that comes with our enemy’s whispering! Our thoughts are often influenced by our circumstances and the immediate. This is why we read His book. The bible is food, it helps us grow spiritually, and digesting it creates a spiritual outlook, not a fleshly one. It feeds our minds and hearts with what God thinks … and why.

We must learn to cultivate that fixed reference point, because our own understanding is far more interested in our gain than obedience. We need obedience with trust. There is such incredible substance in God’s goodness, faithfulness, and His Ways. There is enough glorious reality in Him to keep us all busy for zillions of years. Our God is not boring. He is complex. Instead of talking with Him and negotiating with Him – like Moses, or Abraham, or Elijah, or Malachi, or Peter did — many people want to be wise and run their own lives, without any oversight. That kind of independent spirit can lead us away from everything that lasts. Human beings were made to inhabit eternity. 

Father God was not withholding anything from Adam and Eve, He simply wanted to protect them from the responsibility that comes when humanity has the knowledge of good and evil. Our judgment is faulty! It is influenced by our own passions. Peace went right out of the window the moment we gained that knowledge, and chaos ensued. Knowing evil also means that evil can tempt us.  Peace is our portion, but we must learn to think like the Lord does to live in that peace. Bye. 👋

P 2886 Confidence.

/ DVH

We can have confidence in the Lord, because He is always with us. 1 John 5:13-15 says: “My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in His Presence, freely asking according to His will, sure that He’s listening. And if we’re confident that He’s listening, we know that what we’ve asked for is as good as ours.”

The Trinity have provided everything we will ever need, because They want mankind to permanently benefit from Calvary. 2 Peter 1:3 says this:“Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.”

Our confidence in Him comes, as we live this life, His Way. And glory to God, His Way is clearly spelled out in His book! The Lord is gracious and compassionate, He does not want us to wander about not knowing how dearly loved we are. People who feel unloved can sometimes make really bad choices. But now we are HIS people, the sheep of His pasture – bless the Lord – He’s the GOOD Shepherd! Sin is a confidence stealer – it creates double mindedness. 

Here’s something from James! He says this in Chapter 1:2-8 “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get His help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.”

When is the last time you said: “Oh Goodie gum-drops, here’s another test for my faith, now I can grow more!”  Me neither!! That shows us that there is a space between how God sees this life, and how we see it. What I say is more likely to be:  “Oh no! Not again!” Hubby had to tear up the carpet in our spare room on Saturday, because rain somehow got in  – 1st test!, and it thoroughly saturated it in one corner, wrecking said carpet. The 2nd test was that Hubby had to pull it all out of the house— using his bad back … etc.! Mission accomplished, carpet out, all we have inside now is damp concrete. Job done! Hah! I think not!!

I dunno if you looked out of your window and saw it rain the other night but it rained where we are. Not just a little drizzle either, it poured down. Guess what! Enter the 3rd test! That dead carpet is now at least twice, if not 3 times as heavy as it was before! Well Y-A-Y!  Hubby has to somehow get it from the back of our house to the front for the council pick-up. Fan-blooming-tastic! At the same time, he needs to pack, and sort, and organise stuff to get both of us ready to board a plane quite soon. Now he has to organise dead carpet … and wait for it … also find and fix the leak in the roof! It just gets better-er and better-er! Can you hear me cheering yet? Nope! Me neither. I’m praying instead!!

Life happens – usually without our permission. And living a grace-filled, kind and loving life with other normal human beings around us, definitely does not mean we will have a care-free, trouble free time. I’ve found it can mean the opposite – stuff happens. But we don’t obey what Jesus said because our lives are always brilliant, and we will get some kind of a reward, we do what we do because HE SAID SO. Our reward is knowing that obedience, plus asking Him to help us keep our cool, narrows the gap between God’s way and ours. 

The Lord wants to help us, so He suggests: “Why not do that like this?” And so you do what He said, and lo and behold, it works! That’s the time for a party! You get to see Him work on your behalf. Our world stops being about other people’s God-encounters and starts to be about OURS.

Actually, in order to get saved from something you have to be held captive by it! Did you see what Peter said? We will escape from the lusts of this world, by choosing His way, and then we get to participate in that life that is in God, Himself. That definitely will give us confidence to continue. Remember David facing Goliath? He reminded himself that God had helped him kill a lion and a bear, and then he ran at that giant bully knowing God was with Him. 

As we obey the Lord, we get a personal history with Him. His story becomes our story.

That history of deliverance, and testimonies of His Grace get bigger than the nasty stuff this world throws at us. This is where we get all our confidence from, by watching Him help us, as well as work on our behalf. James is not telling us that trouble is our friend, he is saying it is both a diagnostic tool and a pathway to know the Lord better. “And if we’re confident that He’s listening, we know that what we’ve asked for is as good as ours.” Amen and hallelujah! Catch you later …  👋