Bible

P 2776 Learning occurs in a process.

/ DVH

When we live this life accepting our faults;  as well as dismissing the fact that we are not what we can be;  but at the same time refusing to choose to learn to overcome – that’s when we are lowering the standard Christ set before us. The bible says we must press on … continually … toward that new mark. Human beings often make the right noises, so that they can remain comfortable. However – comfort is not our new aim. Our aim is to live this life like He would. Christ is not petty or mean, nor did He ignore human suffering, and He spoke constantly about His Father’s kingdom. My point is this: I believe we are stopping short of the mark Father God set for us when He sent Christ.

When I was born again, I knew I was different, inside. But, at the same time, there were parts of my personhood that had been previously damaged, in the way life damages all of us. At that time I did not know that I had left my sinful nature behind so instead, I tried to avoid sin, and I failed. I gossiped, or thought lustful thoughts etc. in secret. As I behaved like that I got mad at myself and I tried and tried even harder to be better. Avoidance, sin, denial, despair, guilt and condemnation plagued my faith. At that time I knew nothing about how real faith works. In the end, I slowly reverted to the old insecurities that had plagued me in my previous life. But, praise Jesus, He always kept after me. 

We ALL need to die to self. We all fall short of God’s glorious ideal Man. That goes right across the board. There is no easy way to do it or say it, that’s why Jesus told us to pick up our cross and follow Him. We must choose to go on a journey – it’s called dying to self. That’s where mercy and compassion grows. As I learn to die to self, I can easily see that life is hard for you too, because this kind of dying is not easy for anyone! It involves, discipline, self-control, and patience, as well as listening to and being guided by the Holy Spirit. I think that spiritual correction is normal, the Epistles have a lot of instances of it. However heart knowledge of the love of God toward us, will help us go higher – Christ already did the work, now we step out in faith and follow His lead. But some things are learnt under pressure. Christianity is not for cowards or slackers, it is for the dedicated.

Around about the same time I read in the bible that obedience is a key that unlocks the door to living out the kingdom of God – here and now. It is not good to read His book and disobey what it says. Instead, it is essential for Christians to read the bible looking for things to do. If it says to repent wherever you are reading, then stop reading, and ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you need to repent. Even when you don’t get an immediate answer just keep on pressing in. We already know we are not perfect, so we must have done something that we have dismissed or chosen not to remember! In those moments I refuse to excuse myself because I know I probably ignored the Holy Spirit’s gentle nudge.

So then I ask Him to forgive me for ignoring Him, and that opens the door to revelation of my own motivation. The things-I-have-said-and-done-recently that had their roots in selfishness, self preservation and cruelty. We are in a learning process. However, there needs to be a visible progression as we learn to love others. We are to love them like He does. Now our faith life becomes active. It shows up outwardly as it flows out of sheer, gut-wrenching obedience. I regard the bible as truth that has been written down. It becomes solid, seeable, when we ACT on it. That means I need actions and appropriate activities to validate His word, as it changes my life. 

When I act on what He says, I begin to learn – from experience – how I can change. I can’t just say I believe the bible, and then still look and sound like everyone else around me! Or even say the word “sorry” and hope that will cover the fact that I keep repeating some sins over and over again. Doing that is a patch. Sadly, it will not transform anything. Jesus said in Matthew 9:16: that you can’t put an un-shrunken patch onto an old piece of cloth, it will tear. Our ongoing efforts to change ourselves, are that patch. We gain humility when we begin see ourselves realistically and we stop excusing the very things we are meant to crucify. Yes, we are dearly loved by God, but we are still not perfected. Our old man is incredibly active and selfish through and through – so we need to die – day by day, minute by minute, using our choices, perseverance, by acting in faith.

To re-present Christ we need transformation in the ranks. This life we live now is to be lived by faith, doing what the Holy Spirit tells and teaches us to do. It will not become a reality by simply pretending we are nice, and blaming everyone else for how nasty we can be when no-one else is around to hear us. Our potential needs to be realised by our whole-hearted participation, and true humility is knowing who we are without Christ’s ever present guidance. SomeBody Else paid to give us the right and the power to choose to change our ways. Now we voluntarily enter this life-long lesson of learning to love the unlovely… and we choose to stay there because that’s the teaching moment. Learning occurs in a process.  Bye. 👋

P 2775 The best kind of knitting.

/ DVH

“He Himself carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we would be dead to sin and live for righteousness. Our instant healing flowed from His wounding.” 1 Peter 2:24 TPT. This verse shows us that Christians have been totally restored in God’s sight through Christ’s selfless act. When Jesus said: “It is finished …”  — the exchange of His life for ours was complete, signed in His own blood, forever. When He rose from the dead He proved, once and for all, that He had the authority and power over death. He authenticated His claim.

You and I don’t have to be trapped, or sucked into sin anymore – because Christ’s death has taken us out of the kingdom of darkness and put us firmly into the Kingdom of God’s marvellous light. This is a fact, it is already established in heaven. Our job is to believe Him and start spreading this good news around. God is not angry with mankind – SomeBody else PAID for our sins. We are to introduce, and display God’s kingdom, down here, in Christ’s absence. However, we have His Presence, the Holy Spirit –inside us. He is always with us to help us accomplish the things He tells us to do.

God said way back in Genesis, that the sun, and the moon and stars, were put into the sky for a sign. They are there to exhibit His faithfulness. Human beings know that the sun will come up again tomorrow, but before that happens it will disappear temporarily, and night will come. In the same manner, we know that we are as eternally saved, today, as we were yesterday. The sun and the moon are there to remind us that what God has established cannot be changed, until this world passes away.

As Jesus’ followers, we really do need to make sure we understand what Christ did for us. When He died – we died. Even if we don’t feel any differently, we can no longer legally be held captive to death anymore. Our old life is gone. We’ve been given a new life and that means we no longer have to sin. Sinning was part of our old dysfunctional life. Now, we can choose to operate in His power and overcome our old ways. Christ’s death gave us the power of choice.

Before Christ did what He did for mankind, people were trapped by their proclivities, heartaches, family habits, and lacks. But we’ve been taken OUT of that life and given powerful, eternal choices. Our sole thought now, is how do we live this new life the way HE would?  We gave away our old way of life, when we said yes to Him. We serve Him now. Christ died voluntarily, and now we serve Him voluntarily. Simply because we love Him and we are grateful to God that His Son saved us from the previous life we were trapped inside. Now we live in freedom – one decision at a time.

We useour faith in His truthfulness and goodness to believe that we are free from the impulses and attitudes that bound us in the past. That’s why we read His book, so we can see His faithfulness and truthfulness in action, with other people who are just like us. We probably won’t feel any different when we begin to live like this, because it will take a while for our feelings and thoughts to come into line with what the bible says. We don’t have to live in that old kingdom where feelings and circumstances run our lives anymore! Instead, we choose to obey what we read in His book. Jesus Himself taught us that this is the way God has chosen to release His Kingdom into this world.

“When someone curses you, bless that person in return. When others mistreat and harass you, accept it as your mission to pray for them.”Luke 6:28 TPT. This verse from Luke shows us that the way Jesus did things is not at all like the kind of response we would expect in this world. When somebody’s sin, or their attitudes against us come up in our minds, we need to take those thoughts captive … Why? Because what God said is the greater reality! Then we act upon His Word, rather than our feelings. The Kingdom of God has a language, a culture, a way to treat others that is foreign to this world. We are now ambassadors of that Kingdom. That is our mission. To bring heaven down to earth.

The language of heaven is LOVE. Love recognises no boundaries, no faults or sins, no personally inflicted pain and hurt –love loves others, simply because He received us, first. His love is powerful! It has an ongoing effect in the lives of those who receive it. That love motivates and propels us forward into serving others. Even people who hate us. By choosing to live a life laid down for His sake, we gain continual freedom to release the power of God in extraordinary ways. As we walk in this kind of selfless love, the Body of Christ will grow. It is knitted together. Bye. 👋

“From Him the whole body [the church, in all its various parts], joined and knitted firmly together by what every joint supplies, when each part is working properly, causes the body to grow and mature, building itself up in [unselfish] love.” Ephesians 4:16.

P 2774 It’s time we started …

/ DVH

… to hear His Voice in someone else’s voice. Someone prayed for this at church the other day and it impacted me. We need to find and see Jesus in each other. How? Well, to start with – He lives there! We said: “Come into my life Lord Jesus, and take over.” And He did. How we feel from day to day is irrelevant. Emotions are fickle they change with our circumstances.

However, sometimes what we are really saying is: “You can come into the lounge Lord. It’s nice and tidy in there, I cleaned that up the other day. But please don’t go into the bedroom, that’s a mess. And definitely stay away from the kitchen and the bathroom, You won’t like what You find in there!” A “Keep out” sign is a warning bell, clanging away trying to get our attention. It is not good to have keep out signs in our lives. It usually means something is badly amiss. Something we don’t want to fix or even pay attention to, because we like it, and we know full well … HE WON’T. It also contaminates our relationships with others.

I had keep out signs practically everywhere, when I first started to follow Him. Life had greatly shattered my trust in humanity. I was afraid I might lose something I cared about. Like my snarky attitudes that I had previously cultivated before I met Him, so I could protect myself. Did you know that keeping a bad attitude toward someone else is like SUPER GLUE? We have the power to stick them there, right in a place where we don’t like them! Read the book. We have the power to forgive people … or not!  A bad attitude is like wearing coloured glasses.

The Lord is far more patient with any of us than we will ever deserve. Praise God, Jesus came here as a human being, so He gets … PEOPLE. If you don’t believe me then read the way He relates to the disciples when they’d lost their brain. Or they didn’t want to change their minds because they couldn’t see anything wrong with their thinking! Those keep out signs stop US from changing too. Meanwhile it’s a wonder, at the beginning of my relationship with the Lord that He had somewhere, at all, to put a toe on. 

But after it took me awhile to realise my error, here’s what I did instead. I’ve pulled out all the keep out signs, because they limit God and I don’t want to limit the Answer! And instead I put up a “proceed with caution, please Lord” one. That sign is for my benefit, not His. He has more loving kindness than I will ever experience anywhere else, but I need to say it, and He listens to me so patiently. I love Him for that.

I think this is part of the problem with our fellowship within the church. Some of us have been so badly bruised by the very people we thought were perfect when we were growing up spiritually, that we put up keep out signs everywhere. On the chimney, on the lawn, in the window, by the front gate… you name it! Now we are just plain scared of other people’s faces and responses, so we live guarded lives. Lives peppered with plastic fruit. Other people could hurt us … BUT …we won’t tell them about it, because that would give them an advantage over us. No faith there.

Here’s a not-so-wonderful revelation — keeping His kids out, limits our growth. The Lord will not limit His right leg, His elbow or His kidneys by seeing them as separate to Him. We are all part of His body. We do whatever we do on His behalf. Jesus has owned us, and become engaged to us, by choice. And He will do everything He can, without violating anyone’s free will, to keep us safe with Him.

Accepting any difficult or nasty people at church is part of loving Him… it’s in the book. Actually it’s often in the part of the book, we don’t much like reading so we avoid it. But the Lord is so gracious, and spiritually attuned, that He can look after us and our overwhelming feelings of fear and doubt, and still not hurt someone else who scares the life out of us. Boy is that a skill I really want!

So, here’s the answer to the church-is-the-place-where-everybody-pretends-to-love-everybody problem. I look for Jesus in that other person. Sometimes  we may need the Lord to install a huge love filter.  My filter is in Colossians 3:14: “Together with these things, the most important part of your new life is to love each other. Love is what holds everything together in perfect unity.“Let the Holy Spirit do this whole relationship thing between each of us – He’s brilliant at it… At the same time we need to prayerfully insist that now, today, we want to accept and love other people. The real deal can take time to grow .. keep pressing on. 

We may have to throw out a whole heap of our own prejudices and smelly attitudes to get there – but embracing love helps us all grow beyond platitudes. Honesty is great, but please don’t tell the other poor sod that you’ve always hated them – that’s counterproductive. Seeing love through His eyes, means we develop spiritual sight, which goes right along with spiritual hearing. We need to turn off that snarky voice inside our head that comments about other people’s sincerity – and aim at love.

My last clue to solving the problem of loving the brethren is pray. Pray, pray, pray pray pray. Then do something nice, like ask them about themselves. You can get a whole lot of insight into someone else’s attitudes by simply listening, it’s a greatly underestimated skill. It is time we started to hear His voice within other people’s voices. The spirit of isolation leads to error. Bye. 👋

P 2773 The place where intimacy starts.

/ DVH

Lately, it seems like every single person I talk with, is having an appalling time. It is as if the floodgates of trouble, irritation, strife and frustration have been flung open and bad stuff is flowing rapidly out into our lives. Boy! Have I got a great scripture for all of us! Isaiah 59:19-20: “So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” 

A standard is described in the dictionary as: “…a baseline, a value about something that you just don’t go below.” This verse is not about our standard, or lack thereof — this verse is about God lifting up HIS OWN STANDARD. (Jesus!!) Every single word or phrase in our bible is a door into a bigger and better understanding of the Ways of our God. It doesn’t matter what version we read, because the Holy Spirit made the world, so He can translate and use whatever one we use! Even those little words we would normally skim across because in ordinary life they are not important. In the bible they are important!

We cannot afford to read the bible like a magazine or an ordinary novel, because these books are not a collection of ‘stories;” they are God showing Himself to mankind, revealing His Will, His Way. Whenever we pause, and ask Him questions, we open the door to wisdom. At the same time, what we read will start to become familiar to us. We begin to know Him through what He says and does. The people who think God is a softie who turns a blind eye to the daft, disobedient things we do, have not read His book properly. 

The God of the New Testament is the same God Who is in the Old! The New Testament changes who man is  … not God! HE is always the same‘ …yesterday, today, forever – He never changes.’ ˆ(Hebrews 13:8) God is so much bigger than we can ever understand, and He is incredibly and wonderfully, deep! We cannot afford to limit Him. However, we will grow spiritually when we stop blindly accepting everything somebody else says in a sermon – instead go after wisdom and understanding with the Holy Spirit’s help, for yourself under His guidance.  

Proverbs 4:3-6 MSG: “When I was a boy at my father’s knee, the pride and joy of my mother, He would sit me down and drill me:“Take this to heart. Do what I tell you—live! Sell everything and buy Wisdom! Forage for Understanding! Don’t forget one word! Don’t deviate an inch!  Never walk away from Wisdom—she guards your life; …” Wise parents!!

When we persevere, and press into God, by reading His Word, looking for things to do – in response to what we’ve read — we do it because we want to know Him and His ways. “Lord show me Your ways so I might walk with You.” By pressing in, wrestling with the bits we don’t understand — we are showing the Lord how much knowing and understanding Him and His ways means to us. That’s where intimacy starts. Intimacy means I know that other person well, no matter what sort of situation I am in with them – I know enough about them to know they are trustworthy.

And if there are spiritual delays sometimes, we learn that they have a purpose. …John 11:11-15: “After He (Jesus) had said this, He went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Some answers to prayer are delayed for reasons that only make sense much later!

Now let’s go back to today’s verse from Isaiah … What is God’s standard? Jesus Christ is God’s perfect standard. We have a visual illustration in the bible of what God wants, and WHY He wants it. Jesus perfectly represents our Heavenly Father and His Ways. Our question to the Holy Spirit in hard times needs to be like this: “What do I do now? How do I handle this flood coming at me? Do I fight like Jesus did, when He turned over the money changers’ tables and they were too astonished to stop Him? Or do I simply hand everything over to Him and lie down like a lamb, and go to sleep because He’s going to take care of it?” Amen.

When we ask Him questions we are carefully examining His standard. Anyone can read this way – you don’t have to be a scholar, but you do have to be a lover pursuing the One you love! Otherwise you will just come up with more rules, and not much revelation! Galatians 6:9 says: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Remember, God wants intimacy, but it will cost us time. We need to value what we have been given. We cannot afford to stop short of reaping the harvest that comes from perseverance. We have an onsite, always available Helper – Who also loves intimacy. Bye. 👋

P 2772 How to wreck a perfectly good day!

/ DVH

The other day I had an eye specialist appointment. In the time we spent waiting for our turn, which was about forty minutes, we chatted to a number of people in the waiting room. I was totally blessed to be able talk with a lovely tiny little Indonesian lady sitting across from me. We even hugged each other when we said goodbye. 

She cried, I cried, I was just so blessed by her. She didn’t speak English very well, but somehow that didn’t matter. She told me she felt our hearts had connected. All I know is that I loved her instantly, and we knew each other like 10 minutes tops! Meanwhile, hubby chatted to her husband and shook his hand, and we gave them both stuff. We were so warm with this older couple the specialist asked us if we were all friends who knew each other before! 

When we finally made it in to see him, life took one of its nasty turns. First of all, I was only with the doctor for all of 20 minutes, and after that, the receptionist told us his bill was $400. That, BTW, is $20 per minute! Wow. He prescribed eye drops that can be bought over the counter for only $33, for a teeny-weeny bottle. Mortgage anyone? Did I mention we are pensioners not prosperous cattle farmers?!  

Hubby then patiently explained to me that the doctor had put the ‘liquid gold’(?) drops on a prescription, which meant it was free for us. Even after that I was still pretty ticked off with eye specialists! I need to be truthful, I kind of mumbled about it a lot and let the idea of paying out that huge amount  of money – for only twenty minutes(!) spoil the rest of our morning, by complaining.

In the afternoon, on the same day, I was chewing away on my Rice crackers – yes, I said rice crackers! And I broke a tooth. After a whole lot of effort, we could not find one dentist who was available who could look at said broken tooth asap. So I was back grumpy again, because dentists cost money, and $400 had already flown out of the window. Not to mention the whole thought of drilling, and teeth and stuff! I’m not all that keen on the dentist. 

Finally hubby found one who could see me the next day. This dentist hadn’t worked on the weekend before – they had only just put that appointment in, on the net as a trial! Hubby, bless him, went right on persevering, while I was still grumping about these things. There is a point to this saga, please hold …!!

Next morning we found out good old Medicare has given us $80 back on our $400 investment – many thanks to the Government. That was when I finally began to throw my grumpy ‘attitude’ into reverse. I said all that, to make this point – Father God was already working for me behind the scenes in ways I didn’t even comprehend. I couldn’t see Him, because I was much too busy developing a bad attitude! 🙄  Eventually I figured out my response left a whole lot to be desired, so I took my own advice, and repented. 

I’ve written about my very-bad-awful-terrible day so you can see what happens when someone concentrates on the negative. It means you can’t see the good stuff!  So let’s look at the good stuff and recap. We did have to pay $400, but God gave us $80 back unexpectedly. We sat in the eye specialist’s offices for about 40 minutes, and that meant I met the sweetest little lady and we shared a time of enjoying one another’s company briefly. My horribly expensive eye drops cost us … wait for it … zero. Then I broke a tooth. I went to the dentist on the weekend, gaining a free appointment that wasn’t normally there! And! It cost the same as it would have on a week day.

Overcoming in this life depends on how we look at stuff and that point was really driven home to me. I’m the kind of person that thinks that being grumpy is wasting a day, and I had just wasted one on something I couldn’t change – sigh – I hate it when I do that! The worst bit is, it is way too easy to concentrate on the bad things and totally miss the good. Especially when the bad stuff comes in waves. Are you feeling me right now?? 

So here’s a couple of verses to chew on:“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil;  for He gives to His beloved sleep.” Psalm 127:1&2.  “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?” Matthew 6:27.

How do you wreck a perfectly good day? You totally forget what God says in the book. Bye. 👋

ps My tooth was fixed with a minimum of fuss, and we now have a new dentist. Like I said, it all depends on what we focus on.

P 2771 The kingdom of God.

/ DVH

In Isaiah 55:8-9 the Lord said: “My plans aren’t your plans, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My plans than your plans.” That kind of clinches it eh? Because it can’t get any plainer than that! We have not got a clue how God operates, and without the Holy Spirit’s help we never will … He is far too complex for us to understand. Aren’t we blessed that He reaches down to us, and shares how He wants us to participate? The Lord has plans for everyone’s good – not just mine. His plan is to save the world … one person at a time … and He wants to use us to do it.

Sadly, at least half of Christianity, at this moment in time, are not even trying to participate in His plans. We pray for His kingdom to come, and then we go out into the world and try to further our own kingdom instead! It is impossible for someone to live in two kingdoms. We are either living for His, or living for ours. And the sad fact is this – we postpone participation in His kingdom, in favour of organising our own. BTW, age does not factor in this reality, Moses was 80 when he started living the life God planned for Him. 

It seems like Almighty God is looking for “Onward Christian soldiers” but most of us want: “The Happy Song.” So, what do we do with the fact that we seem to like “The Happy Song” better? Here’s what I think — I think we can have the Happy Song AND Onward Christian soldiers, when we have learnt to stop allowing this world be the source of our happiness. And we make Jesus, together with obedience, our source of inspiration and action, instead. How do people know I am an Aussie? When I open my mouth! Kingdom people have a different focus in their conversations.

The bible says in Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Seek His kingdom first. That’s not hard to understand! There are apparently 46 scriptures that point out a facet of what God’s kingdom is like. Obviously I can’t list them here, but looking those verses up is worthwhile. If we are going to aim at something it will help us to know what it looks like! We are told to seek His Kingdom first, after that comes the righteousness that only Christ’s death and resurrection can give us. And after that we use our faith and believe what His book says … and …we step out using our faith. Participation in that process means we will get our needs met. 

Most of the time, I have observed when we pray, we feature our own needs. That’s backward. Start with the Kingdom. Seek the kingdom first. Pray like this: ‘Your kingdom come in me,’ OR… ‘I‘present my body as a living sacrifice.’ OR …’Your will, Your way, Lord.’ When we start with His kingdom, a whole lot of unnecessary stuff falls off instantly. It means we’ve put down our little list of needs and wants, and started to focus on Him and what He wants. We need to remember Christ’s position before His Father is now our position. So we live this life, the only one we have, like His kingdom is more important than ours … because it is. Our needs are temporal, His kingdom is eternal.

Here are a few examples of what His kingdom looks like in action: a/ righteousness, peace and joy. We can have these 3 things in the here and now, because they are part of living our new life IN Christ. b/ Being spiritually helpless and ignorant doesn’t cancel His kingdom – it gives us access to it. c/ His kingdom is activated by faith, not knowledge or wealth. d/ It’s a treasure and it’s often hidden. e/ The kingdom of God starts out small but then it grows. f/ It blossoms in us as we embrace it. g/ In His kingdom HE is the ruler. h/ This kingdom is not just a place per se, like heaven! His kingdom comes in a ‘people’ wrapping. You and I, we are kingdom carriers. i/ Final one for me, the kingdom of God is a treasure – it must be sought, dug for, paid for by surrendering every bit of our lives to the King.

Remember, His kingdom is now within us but it needs to be released through us by our obedience to His word. The Holy Spirit is our Helper, He will teach us which way we should go, and how to serve the King. So if we go to school, or work, or to the shops, etc. He goes there with us.  We carry the kingdom of God – what a privilege! Jesus wants to be wherever we are, because He loves us and…He wants to reach the people all around us.. Seeking His kingdom is like seeking the King – the rewards are out of this world. They are priceless. Bye. 👑

P 2770 God has a plan.

/ DVH

If you have been a Christian for a while you may have bumped into Jeremiah. Jeremiah is, in my mind, one of our great faith pioneers. He kept his faith strong even when his life was awful. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11. But when you look at Jeremiah’s life, it was a far cry from being filled with great plans and fab future! I want to comment on this particular verse today, because I believe it has been misused on occasion, to imply that our God is more like a genie, than our omnipotent, omnipresent, always wise, sovereign God and glorious Father – Who made heaven and earth!

Let’s just look carefully at what this verse says: God totally declares that He has plans for each one of us. We have not been left here, in our often difficult circumstances, all alone. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to help us with every second, of every minute of every day. We can now walk with Him like Christ did, that’s the plan! In order to walk with the Holy Spirit – emphasis on the word ‘holy’  … our lives need to change. Our focus has to come off our own comfort, and be firmly planted into whatever the Lord wants for us.

This verse says that His plans are about giving us hope. The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus Christ is our ever-present hope, and this scripture is a prophetic statement about Christ! It is not a promise that this life will never ever be bad again. The hope in our future is Christ Himself. Jeremiah did not live an easy life. His whole nation went into captivity. However, our God has incredible plans and if we ask Him, He may even let us in on them! He has promised He will listen when we pray, and answer us. But we may not understand His answer right away!

We need to consistently remember that Father God will never ever mislead us, quite often we simply can’t see beyond the end of our noses and our need to control everything and make it peachy! However, our future always lies with the Lord. It is very important that we understand that – the scripture above is about security IN God. You and I have eternity ahead of us, so we have an ever expanding future!  Heaven is real and we will go there. I think our God is incredible – He’s planning to spend eternity with all of us! Imagine that!

Our Heavenly Father, has already provided everything we will ever need IN Christ. Sadly we can spend our short lives looking for monetary or physical gain, and we do live this life celebrating the reality that eternity is ours, now and forever … and LIVE that way. Unfortunately we often want ease, now. It matters where our hope is, because ours is always in Christ. …Our hope is not in some scripture that I picked up, or one I decided suited my problem, my hope is in Christ. Christ is God’s demonstrated goodness.

In my opinion, Jeremiah, makes a very interesting example of God’s input into one man’s life. He remained courageous and loyal to his calling despite his difficulties. He faithfully told the Israelites the bad news about their future, over and over again. Sometimes … lucky him!…. he also got to physically demonstrate it too! He was beaten and ridiculed simply because he spoke out God’s truth. The people who follow Jesus Christ do not always have easy carefree lives. However, He will ALWAYS help us, so our faith is in His Character. These things flow out of intimacy. And intimacy is about God always being with us, so we live by faith – because that is the reality.

We must stop thinking that serving God means we will remain trouble free! Our wonderful Father is doing more than one thing at a time. He is answering our prayers for transformation, preparing us for eternity, and restoring and healing relationships, here and now. Jeremiah was carted off from his homeland along with everyone else, despite the fact that he was busy being obedient … doing and saying what God said!  He continually prophesied bad things were coming, not good ones, and sadly the Jews didn’t like it, or him. And he also pointed out that there is a great difference between saying something – even sincerely believing it, and… doing it. Belief must turn into action.

Personally, I think the Old Testament brings a much needed balance into the church-at-large’s current theory of: “let’s all have a jolly old party down here, because SomeBody else paid the bill!”  We cannot choose hedonism and indulgence and expect everything to be AOK with the Lord. What part of ‘take up your cross and follow Me,’ don’t we get? We serve Him – He doesn’t serve us. He proved His love for all mankind when He gave us His Only Son. Our choices from day to day matter, because Father God does not wink at our sins, they were far too costly for His Son. The very least we can do is acknowledge them, and live this life, here and now, differently.

He has a plan to give us a hope and a future. Our future is with Him, today, tomorrow, and forever, and His plan has already given us hope in Christ and all He did. Let’s stick with HIS PLAN and leave behind the idea of some sort of a trouble-free cushy life. Bye. 👋

P 2769 Be Gentle with people.

/ DVH

“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”  2 Timothy 2:22-26.

When people disagree with us theologically and we know they are wrong, we need to come alongside them, and go over the truth from the bible, mixed with great spiritual wisdom and kindness. There are many people today that would probably say nothing at all, because they feel somebody else’s error is none of their business and disagreement is not of God. But here, Paul is telling us not to fight about stuff, but we can’t ignore it either. Error flourishes when the truth is not explained, and error has a picnic when people stop reading their bibles!

Timothy is being instructed by Paul to dialogue with others about theological differences. The thing is, we don’t have to disagree about these things, but we do need to address them. It is part of our mandate to make the Lord’s ways, as written in His book, clear. In my own family there is someone who has some quite squirrelled-up ideas about God and what He will or won’t do. I remind myself often that love covers a multitude of sin – and love is not a feeling it is a choice. So love cares deeply if the other person is misinformed, but it doesn’t punish them for not knowing what the truth is, it demonstrates it, as well as corrects it.

However, please don’t overlook the fact that satan is the prince of the power of the air and he makes a lousy interpreter of what somebody else just said!! Clarification is imperative. Instead, no matter how either party feels, pray,  and release the Holy Spirit to bring about reconciliation and a deeper understanding. People can hear you better if you stand with them, not on the other side of some theological fence. We need to practise humility, and not blame. And if we are to correct others, we need to be humble and open to correction ourselves. Fighting doesn’t teach anyone anything, it just makes other people defensive.

Meanwhile, I think the Lord is on the move. The church at large, seems to think that God moving means ‘good times for ALL.’  Actually, I don’t think that. “…narrow is the gate, and few people find it…” I think this is the time to throw out erroneous theology and concentrate on what the bible says. We’ve been stuck on the “God wants to bless me and make my life great” turntable for way too long and many people were flung off it because it did not ring true in their own lives. The Holy Spirit is looking into our lives and asking each one us about what we believe and WHY. He’s levelling our theological roads to make a highway for our God. He knows how to fix everything. Meanwhile, in the Lord’s Presence, disagreements melt away. 

When God points out error it is not to condemn anyone.“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world … but that the world might be saved through Him.” John 3:17. So, I can say, unequivocally, that nobody should ever feel condemned, however, convicted works for me! Condemnation is not from God and it’s not why Jesus came! He came to save us from our sins, past, present and future. Jesus knows how to get through this stuff, He talked to the religious leaders in His ministry. He is truth. And He knows how anyone can escape from the enemy’s lies and traps. “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Did ya get that? I had to read it a couple of times before I did. The word endure popped out. Sometimes the best answer is to lovingly endure someone else’s ignorance. Meanwhile this verse also means He won’t immediately fish us out of whatever is going on… remember – He promises to be WITH US in trouble!  And faith does not grow without str-etch-ing …. What we have at stake here is the mistaken perception that if God is good, why do good people suffer? That’s an easy one –  all have sinned! His compassion for other people won’t fall on us, we must become alive to it, and often experience will teach us more than a theory can.

We are told in 2 Timothy that we must not be quarrelsome. Speaking for myself, I hardly ever start out trying to be quarrelsome, I jump in when I can see someone else is hurting themselves with a false belief system. I have also observed that there are times when people seem argumentative, but they are simply trying to explain themselves. Sometimes, loudly and aggressively! But, listening carefully is the very best posture to take. Responding like this can let the angry hot air out of someone else’s bright red balloon and disarm the situation. We simply need to continue to live in love, no matter what is said … and agreement comes later. And conviction comes from the Lord Himself, not from our opinions, even if they are accidentally right.

It can be really hard to talk to someone we know about touchy issues. Stress is everywhere and people get defensive. Even nice people!  We can all feel anxious and attacked when somebody else points out our faults or mistakes. That is time to ask for the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and help. The world gently  stands out in 2 Timothy — that means we will need the Grace of God to help us to operate in all our conversations, ‘gently,’ and not get ticked off. The major thing in any argument is to remember that nobody likes to be misunderstood, or have their personhood maligned. Insulting the other person, and what they believe, is counterproductive.

We can’t change someone else’s behaviour, instead, we are looking to introduce God’s Love into the situation so both people stop focussing on the issue, and start to remember that even if they are wrong or misinformed that God already forgave them and He accepts them. We do not have to be held captive to any strategy of satan that has been sent to create pain, division and strife, instead we can choose to become God’s messengers of gentleness, accompanied by acceptance and love. Bye 👋

P 2768 Religious wrappings.

/ DVH

Have you tried to open a Kit Kat or a bag of biscuits or a packet of cheese, lately? You need scissors! We used to be able to exert a little bit of effort, and the thing would just rip open. Actually, sometimes if you ripped it too hard, what was in the packet fell out because of the force applied – and you had Smarties all over the floor! But now you need to be a safe cracker to get into a bag of chips! Ah, the good old days … when partially-eaten chips were sealed with a peg so they wouldn’t go soft and nasty.

As you can tell, I am on about wrappings today. I think that religious wrappings are the worst kind of all, but I’ll get to that in a minute … …Right now I’m feeling nostalgic about the days gone by, when we went to a green grocer and if the apples looked nice, and they smelt nice, it was because they were nice. Today, looking nice means nothing, and you can go into a supermarket and not even smell the fruit and veg. The mind boggles. 

I can still remember sawdust on the butcher’s floor! They had that stuff there so if there were any little accidents, the sawdust absorbed all the evidence quickly and the butcher could sweep it away. Back then our milk came in glass bottles, delivered to your door, not in cartons. You could hear the bottles clink and clatter as the milkman thunked them down on your front steps. Then you would hear his horse and cart rattle off down the street. Ah well, memory lane aside – I’m finally picking up my subject for today.

Religious wrappings, what are they? Well, I think they are the things we wrap around ourselves so we can fit in. Either we don’t want to talk about our pain, or we don’t trust other people to keep what we say to themselves if we share it. Maybe, whatever it is, is so dastardly we don’t want anyone else to know about it! These are the things that will keep us sealed up away from the love of God, expressed through our brethren. So, sadly, we whack on a smiley face, raise our little hands … if that’s what our particular church expects … Or we sit still, and kneel at appropriate times etc. and nod and smile — when inside our hearts are broken, and we feel more like a discarded puppet than a real person!  Instead we add spiritual sawdust and quickly sweep up the evidence.

Do I see a tear out there? Oh, no. Perhaps it was a trick of the light…!  You know if we look at most church families we will see people who seem to be very much together. Lots of bright smiles and happy looks … But if we look closer? Well, that’s another story. It’s those supermarket apples all over again! Why do we work so hard to keep up a stupid charade. We seem to think that the Lord expects us to represent Him with bright happy faces, always saying positive things … yet, sometimes we are dying slowly inside. I’m pretty sure you won’t find “slap on a happy face” in the bible. You can ‘rejoice in the Lord always’ with tears still pouring down your face. I’ve done it.

It is very easy to think God doesn’t care about my troubles, my little bag of awful things – I’m just meant to plod along and hope they disappear … or I do!  But He cares! That’s why I’m writing this blog! Father God wants us to comfort and help one another. It seems to me that the church has left no room for the broken, or the unhappy, to join in. Personally, I think a whole lot of broken people are sitting bravely, week by week, desperate and sad, making the best of it as they can!! … on our nice seats. Covid did more than nearly kill a lot of people – it separated us. You know if we keep on separating church from our homes our faith won’t grow.

Jesus always interrupted whatever He was doing, to speak to, or heal a person trapped by pain and circumstances. Yet we feel that we simply must say that prayer, or sing that song, because we cannot let God down. It is one thing to want to see the Lord in every circumstance – but entirely another to deny real pain. Wouldn’t it be lovely if when we got to church someone said: “Is anyone here in pain? Let’s all gather around and pray for them.”  Maybe we would end up praying for everyone! Instead of hiding the fact that someone’s marriage is an illusion and our kids seem to be going off the rails.

How about we open up the windows and let the light in? Praying for each other instead of learning all the time. Why don’t we take off those very deftly sealed wrappings, and put what we learn, week by week, into practice? Well, that’s my little thought bundle for today. Bye.👋

P 2767 God’s incredible faithfulness.

/ DVH

Nehemiah 9 some excerpts from Verses 18-23, 26-31— this was read aloud by a group of Levites after the wall around Jerusalem was rebuilt and the conviction of the Holy Spirit fell upon them.

“… And You, a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, Incredibly patient, with tons of love—You didn’t dump them. Yes, even when they cast a sculpted calf and said, “This is your god who brought you out of Egypt,” and continued from bad to worse, You in your amazing compassion didn’t walk off and leave them in the desert. The Pillar of Cloud didn’t leave them;  daily it continued to show them their route; The Pillar of Fire did the same by night, showed them the right way to go.You gave them Your good Spirit to teach them to live wisely…”

“…They cried out to You again; in Your great compassion You heard and helped them again. This went on over and over and over…” “…Still, because of Your great compassion, You didn’t make a total end to them. You didn’t walk out and leave them for good;  yes, You are a God of grace and compassion…” “…You are not to blame for all that has come down on us; You did everything right we did everything wrong.”

Romans 8:32 “He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.”

You and I are a part of God’s story on this earth. We have been chosen to show others His heart toward mankind.Because our lives are limited, time-wise, it is extremely tempting to think more about our own story, than His story. But God’s story is the one we will sing about one day in heaven. When we understand that our lives are part of that story – we will begin to live in God’s bigger picture. Christ died to give us the power to live free of the junk that this world chucks at us.

Those people who have already gone on before us are cheering us on. You and I are now the ones writing His story today –  right here, right now – everywhere we go. Almighty God is so faithful to mankind, His book glows with His faithfulness and compassion toward all of us. We have been so blessed, everything we have is a gift from Him – all of it is so undeserved. Our only response is to give Him our lives, and live this life as living worship for His glory.

Do you think you are faithful to Him? I know He sees the way we treat others … but before either one of us hangs our head in shame about our failures … here’s an incredible scripture to also think about.  Many people have failed Him throughout time, however — “If we are faithless [do not believe and are untrue to Him], HE REMAINS TRUE (faithful to His Word and His righteous character), for HE cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13. We are standing, now, today, on what Jesus did. That cannot change. What He did will never change. It is more stable than the ground under our feet. This world may shake and tremble but the Lord said this: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.”

Because we count on Jesus, and Him alone to save us, we can have enormous security. Alive or dead – His words are so firm, so strong, so true, we can stand without fear upon them, because we know He is faithful. That’s why we need to choose to live by faith in this life. When we live by faith we are simply responding to His faithfulness. We are responding to a debt that we owe, that we can never repay but we can enjoy it, day after day after day!

God is so incredibly faithful He will not give up on even one of His kids. I’ve been praying for three prodigals in our family to come home to Jesus. But it won’t be my prayers that change their minds! My intercession is valuable, it helps me stay in love and not judgment – but Christ’s death and intercession changed eternity … for everyone, now and forever!! I exhort you to stand on that and pray from that place! I hold His faithfulness up to Him like a banner and remind Him about the things I have learnt about Him. Christ died for what He believed. Now I live for Him in response to what He already did.

I put the above excerpt from Nehemiah in the blog today because it shows the incredible, over-the-top kind of commitment Father God has toward His kids. It blew my mind! The Israelites were so terribly unfaithful, but our God stands by His word. And He doesn’t just sort-of-kind-of put-up with all us now either  — He totally removed the sin barrier between us and Himself, at incredible personal cost. Now we can get to know Him, personally, intimately even though we will never deserve it. He wants to be near us.

That’s why we no longer live this life as the unwise do. Instead we’ve learnt to cherish what we have been given. Christians seek to treat other people like they are Jesus, whether they are nice or not …it’s part of the life of God we inherited. And when we don’t or feel we can’t live that way – we repent!  We treat reconciliation the same way Christ treated it – He did not come to earth and pretend to take our sins away – He simply prayed like mad and went and did it.

Because He chose to do that, God’s power to overcome evil in this life has been released into the earth to save all mankind. We cannot afford to keep other people captive by pretending to be nice, or smiling with plastic smiles and fake attitudes, or insisting that we are OK, when we know, deep inside, we are not! That’s not faithfulness toward Him, that’s called self-preservation.

You and I have the power to live sacrificially, as a son or daughter of the Most High God. He is worthy of any sacrifices we might make along the way. His compassion, and reliability, His goodness, His trustworthy heart are so patient and kind. We are the ones who know, firsthand, that we don’t deserve any of it. Jesus continually stands faithfully beside His Father praying for each one of us, because He knows what it is like to be human.

We live this life choosing to tell other people about God’s faithfulness in a world that is overflowing with disobedient, imperfect, unkind, unloving people – even greedy, grabby, deceitful, murderous ones. His faithfulness is our great blessing.  Bye 👋