Birds

P 3144 James 1:3-4

/ DVH

I understand if you think of this blog as something that daily talks about the Word, however, today, I want to talk about finding fun in annoying things. I have mentioned before that hubby and I suddenly find ourselves in fits of laughter for good reasons – as well as totally inexplicable ones. Not just a smile, or a giggle, but-wiping-your-eyes-because-you-laughed-so-much-you-cried – laughter! In case you are thinking, ‘lucky you,’  I also want to reassure you that it doesn’t happen all the time… I wake up grumpy too! Should have let him sleep. That’s a joke, right?

Whatever! So I thought I would share a couple of the things that have happened to us recently that seem to have contributed to these laughing fits! I bought a gizmo – it needs batteries, gizmos always need batteries – it’s from Temu. Please, no letters explaining to me that I shouldn’t buy anything from overseas, I should buy from here. That thought is because of our economy … I get it. But it’s cheap, we can afford it, and most of the time, the stuff is great. 

Let’s just dispense with all that supposition and go back to…I bought this gadget. Our beloved dog loves to bark. She’s a sweetie, she wouldn’t hurt a fly, and is utterly cheerful about life. Even though she is over 13 years old. She still jumps around like a puppy. In the dictionary under enthusiasm, it shows her picture! But she loves to inform everyone within earshot, that this is her house, she lives here and you’d better stay out. Then the dopey dog wags her tail!

Back to the gizmo, which I like to call a ‘persuader’ … it emits a high pitched sound that supposedly dogs hate. I should only have to use it for a few seconds, because it is designed to interrupt the dog’s instant reaction. Her “see danger tell you about it”  instinct. Please note the words – supposedly and should! Hmmm. Maybe she’s deaf. She IS old! But currently she sleeps right through the you-beaut dog persuader. Whatever it is that dogs are meant to  hear, she doesn’t hear it.. Ho-hum! 

SO! I had another thought. My not-so-wunnerful-friend the mina bird is still bugging the daylights out of me whenever I sit down to write my blog. I’ve taken to singing “Sing a song of Sixpence, a pocket full of rye. Four and twenty black birds, baked in a pie!” whenever I am around these pesky birds. In the desperate hope that they might take the hint.

It is entirely possible that we have the wrong kind of birds in our garden – these birds obviously arrived on earth hint-free. My nursery rhyme attempt does not make an impression – it’s a bit like the dog really. Maybe the noisy minas think my singing doesn’t apply to them, because they know they are not blackbirds! Mo-v-ing on … Guess what! I had another brilliant idea! 

The U-beaut $14 gizmo does not work on my doggie, but perhaps it will work on those pesky birds! So today I sat and pressed the button a-n- d  … … they kept on squawking. I thought to myself, perhaps I should press it longer …I probably need to give it a good go …!  Nuthin’ happened here – except they got more vocal and louder. So I literally leant on it for a few minutes a time.

Maybe they thought I was some sort of musical accompaniment for all that  twerping and chirping?  It’s a thought, OK? Sadly the outcome was obvious from the beginning. I’m still writing this blog and I’ve just wasted 10 minutes trying to shut-up the noisy mina birds taunting and teasing me outside my front door. And don’t tell me it’s not personal because they fly away the minute I’ve finished the blog!

Sigh. When you open the door they also fly away … in an arc… only to come back again and land in the same place. It seems we have set up some sort of game!  It’s like an old black and white movie comedy scene – except I end up feeling murderous. I can’t pray, I can’t write, I’m firmly ensconced in bird-interrupting-your-thoughts land. So I told hubby about it. I thought: ‘Men like to solve things!’ Give them a problem and they are happy – meanwhile don’t BE the problem because then they are NOT happy… that’s another subject for another day.

Now my darling husband has taken to sneaking across the lounge floor, and remaining motionless beside the glass doors … waiting for his moment to persuade the birds to go elsewhere. Lucky me! Now I have RAMBO living at my house! Minus the torn bit of material tied around his head! Instead, hubby has a plastic super-soaker instead of a proper machine gun… more’s the pity! Day by day, there he is silently stalking his prey, waiting … waiting … suddenly he jumps up, flings open the door and aims his trusty.. … wait for it – water pistol …at the bird!

The bird is long gone by the time he arrives outside the door … but, he assures me, he has hit it with water twice. FYI, It didn’t hurt the bird, it couldn’t wait to begin again! The minute I stop writing my blog, or praying, the bird is gone. Yes, seriously!! It has taken me a while to realise that perhaps this is a demonically inspired bird. Sigh. I suspect that all that twerping and chirping for weeks, has muddled my brain. At least I practise what I say — I’ve been stuck on ‘help, help please Lord,’ for the past hour and a half! 😡 

BTW I found a verse … you knew I would! God bless James! 1:3-4. “…for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” There’s that ‘let’ word again! Bye.👋

P 3097 How to live.

/ DVH

“But He’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.” Micah 6:8 MSG. 

I just love that this verse says don’t take yourself too seriously. In my life as I follow His instructions and learn to live by them, I’ve discovered accidental times of sheer bliss. It is as if heaven comes down in a little bubble of joy and hubby and I and the Lord are right in the middle of it. He’s laughing and we’re laughing – and we have no clue why we are laughing … we just are! And it feels so good! Eventually you end up wondering why you were worried, harassed or upset in the first place. That’s the place to stop wondering why, and just enjoy the moment! You and I ain’t getting out of this life alive!

Here’s an interesting thought that might help with that. We cannot spend the life we now have, trying to punish any previous generations for the mistakes they made. This life is not meant to be lived retrospectively – it’s too short. I’ve also learnt that deliberately avoiding someone else’s mistakes means I’m just going to make different ones! And I did! Groan!! Judgment always leads to a worse place than we started at.

Hubby and I have just returned home after a little time away in a peaceful place. I’m always glad to get home again, but boy I will miss the view. (See above.) We met a new group of tiny friends here. A small flock of sparrows appeared on our balcony. The bible says that the Lord feeds birds! I distinctly remember that God once fed His little birds my homegrown, much anticipated raspberries. I was pretty ticked off about it too! I didn’t even get ONE! Yes, I repented!

Back to our sparrow visitors. These dear little birds kept arriving early in the morning, and peering hopefully through the big glass window. I’m a sucker for any bird that sits on the back of a chair and sings its heart out! Meanwhile, those little birds really know how to eat, they sure can sock it away. The way they ate you would think they were emus!

OK – it seems it is time to be spiritual! Did you get that instruction in the above scripture? Right at the end, it says: ‘don’t take yourself too seriously, take God seriously instead!’ That’s the whole point of course. That’s why we are all still here, we are here to learn to take the things of the Spirit, seriously. Here’s a question I don’t much like to ask myself, but it has been helpful because it diagnoses my own attitudes rather quickly. What if you were the only person left in circle of family and friends who knows Jesus? Is your life a witness? Yeah, I know. Bring that up!

Meanwhile, we don’t just witness by what we say – we also witness by WHO we are – especially when people are looking, and …even when they aren’t. However, somebody, it seems, is always looking – I’ve learnt that the hard way. Living this life, the only one we have, for His sake, is part of taking Almighty God seriously. The same God Who heals the sick and raises the dead, makes the deaf hear and the blind see – is living inside you. Our job is to let Him out for the world to see. That’s what Paul did.

Paul often ended up in nine kinds of trouble because nobody could shut him up! Everywhere he went he found a public place and started telling people about Jesus. He told governors, kings, religious people, important people, business people, ordinary people, and some listened and some didn’t. Some hauled him off to jail, and he took that in his stride and witnessed to the guards instead!  Paul didn’t wait for revivals – he started them!

The thing that Paul’s life clearly shows me is that half-hearted won’t do. Whatever the Lord has in His plans for each one of us  – we need to make sure we listen, stay humble, and simply go and do it.  Paul was so brilliant, he could do more than one thing at a time. He witnessed, preached, founded churches, and wrote a huge chunk of the New Testament. But all of the Lord’s disciples, with the exception of Judas, gave up the rest of their lives serving God. 

It seems to me that we can sit about waiting for the Holy Spirit to do what He has already done, many many times before in the church’s history – or we can take God Himself seriously and get on with His kingdom’s business. We still have the book and that’s plenty to go on with! I would hate to think that we will spend our whole lives knowing we are saved, yet ignoring the many who are not. What Micah is talking about here is our attitudes – our attitudes are meant to lead to actions. 

We were saved to serve Him. Look! I’m truly sorry if nobody told you that you were actually giving your life away when you first said ‘yes’ to Jesus — but I just did that, right here, right now. So what are you going to do about it? That’s the real issue. How to live this life now, is all over His book. Bye. 🤪 !

P 2996 Outer space is yelling at you!

/ DVH

“God’s splendour is a tale that is told, written in the stars. Space itself speaks His story through the marvels of the heavens. His truth is on tour in the starry vault of the sky, showing His skill in creation’s craftsmanship.” Psalms 19:1 TPT. Today, we are going to do some pausing to contemplate … off we go …!!

Every now and then it is good to take yourself outside at night, and just look at the stars. And if it won’t wreck your life, or your nightly routine — take your kids too! We all love to watch fireworks, but God Himself has the kind of splendour that is on display almost every single night of the week. Looking up at it opens up our eyes to His incredible creativity. He decorated that sky just like he decorated this earth …for His glory and for our benefit, then He declared everything He made “good.” That’s a really big statement from our God, Who is the ultimate definer of GOOD.

Here’s a fun fact:  the world has a new telescope – the James Webb Space telescope. It is floating about in space above us, and it can see much farther than the old Hubble could. It recently saw a large cluster of what appeared to be brand new stars … Yay! It turned out, on closer inspection to be a cluster of galaxies just like ours! Doesn’t that just blow your mind. It blew mine. 

Sometimes I think the thing that separates us from those ants which are always scurrying about, is the fact that God did not come to earth to save the ants! Did you know it says in the bible:“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!…” Psalm 8:3-8. It is good to stop and consider what God Himself has made. This kind of pausing is good for us.

Moving on, but still star-gazing …“And the Lord brought Abram outside [his tent into the night] and said, “Look now toward the heavens and count the stars—if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “So [numerous] shall your descendants be.” That’s some kind of promise! Have you ever thought about the fact that we, you and I, are sons and daughters of Abraham? God fulfilled, and He is still fulfilling His promise to that patriarch in each one of us,  until Jesus comes back. Here’s another fun fact:  Abraham was not alive on the earth to see that promise fulfilled! And yet there are times when we complain to the Lord because He doesn’t get us a parking space when we need one. 🙄  Sometimes we can be easily distracted by trivia.

It’s called perspective, and we need to deliberately stop what we are doing and get some.  Maybe we can sit and look at the clouds roll by in our lunch break, or watch rain drip off leaves on the trees. Perspective ushers in balance. There have been terrible things in your life and mine that seemed like they were going to end us! The ceiling fell in, or someone did something unthinkable, and we could feel life draining everything out of us.. 

But, here and now, we are sitting  – with me typing, and you reading this dumb blog … teehee – and we are still going. We survived whatever that horrendous thing was, even though it seemed insurmountable at the time. Sometimes things really aren’t as bad or permanent as we think they are  — all we need to do is look at the bigger picture instead of what is happening within our own little tiny frame.  And yes, I do know that sometimes when you stop to smell the roses you can get stung by a bee – or you find that very pretty rose has no scent whatsoever … but nevertheless, pausing is worth it. 

We need to give ourselves permission to pause. And take off all those hats we force on our heads. Maybe we could assess how many of those hats actually belong to us! I have found when I’ve done this, that many of the hypothetical hats I wear, are there because I don’t want someone else to be angry with me, or I feel obligated to put on a Christian face and do the right thing! Now there’s some dumb motivation!! Here’s a thought: that means that somebody else, other than Jesus Himself, is controlling me. It means my faith in His ability to protect, comfort and help me is slipping.

Romans 8:9 states,“You, however, are not in the flesh but are in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.” Have you noticed that the Holy Spirit is never in a hurry, but He is always right on time? Especially when you take the time to look at whatever happened to you retrospectively. SomeOne Else will be up tonight watching over us, no matter what is going on around us or outside, while we are sleeping.

The bible says in Psalm 121:3-4:“He won’t let you stumble, your Guardian God won’t fall asleep. Not on your life! Israel’s Guardian will never doze or sleep.” We need to remind ourselves that the Lord Himself has got me! He will not let go. So this life that presses in on us, actually doesn’t rely upon you, it relies upon Him, and His faithfulness and He ain’t moving! Give yourself a break, and start to inhabit a life that makes room for thoughtful  pauses …maybe there are times we just might hear outer space yelling at us! 🤣 Bye. 👋

P 2837 What we do with what God tells us daily, matters.

/ DVH

I know that many people, past and present, have had a great deal to say about this parable, I personally love the clarification the Lord Himself gave, which comes directly after it in Matthew 13:1-9:

“He (Jesus) taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Almighty God gives us seed to sow from His Word – hopefully… daily!! His book is a fantastic source of life-giving seeds. We need to take those seeds He has personally given to us, and share them with others. That seed that His Spirit kisses, especially for us, has His life in it. Its power lies in the fact that God revealed His truth to us.

It may have been something someone said when they were preaching, and it struck us in the heart like an arrow finds the target. Or it may have been something that stood out as we were reading the bible. It could even be when we were talking to the Lord and suddenly a scripture fell down from our thinking and meditating —- where we had hidden it while we were renewing our minds – and it sank down deep inside us, into our heart where growth can begin. Wherever or however it happened, that fresh seed is now ripe for planting. It can produce a crop.

The seeds of His Word that we sow into our lives – as we daily read the bible and act on it — can behave exactly like this parable describes. Sadly some seed doesn’t even make it past 2 seconds of thought, because it has fallen upon a well worn pathway of previous knowledge, and so it is whisked away by the birds of the air … those thoughts and words that are constantly flying past us, because of everything we are exposed to in a single day. It is so easy to think: “I know that already.” Now we have a seed immediately stolen by pride.

Also in our daily bible readings, if we take the time to treasure His voice, we can sometimes discover “rocky places” in our hearts. They are not like the well-worn pathways that we barely notice, these are hard places that we try to skim over and ignore with thoughts like this: ‘The truth is, I don’t think I have to change, I think the other person should.’ The scorching heat of that bad attitude kills off the power of His precious seed, and it is killed off by negligence. Always remember that true forgiveness doesn’t keep accounts, be-ca-use … hallelujah!!… fortunately for us, Jesus doesn’t keep them either.

“The thorny ground” seeds are the places in our hearts we haven’t bothered to weed and keep watch over our wrong thinking. ‘Weeds of unbelief, or discontent or disappointment’ have flourished there. What we haven’t realised is that, spiritually speaking, any one rotten attitude can take over our thinking. So the possibility of a harvest from any seeds that are sown into the weed-filled patch, is negated. These spiritual seeds won’t receive their share of nourishment from any water and good soil, because the weeds of our wrong thinking are crowding them out, and soon the whole plant of His word, becomes sterile and unproductive.

Now let’s look at “good soil,” the stuff we are to cultivate and watch over in our hearts. Good soil not only gladly receives the seed of God’s Word;  as we act on it, that seed begins to flourish, and grow into a healthy plant. The increase in our seed production, is always up to the Lord, our part is to cultivate the soil of our hearts with humility and love. And take the time to prayerfully water and feed these His seeds with tears of repentance, and acts of sacrifice as the healthy plants begin to grow. Now we have seeds that will bear fruit and can be harvested.

As you can see, there are four different results from exactly the same seed. The seed does not change, but how it is received does. Even if we sometimes feel unsure about what we think the Lord is saying – it is our responsibility to watch over His seed and act on it accordingly. What we do with what God tells us daily, matters. How we receive it matters. Preparing our hearts to be open to change and transformation matters. A huge harvest can come from our dedication and our willingness to yield to His Ways, even to the death. Bye.  👋“They triumphed over him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Revelation 12:11.

P 2628 “Don’t You care??”

/ DVH

“Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”  Mark 4:38. Of course you would never say that … and I would never say that either! 🙄 Hmmm… while we are all on this learning curve called life, I believe that there are times when we’ve all prayed, we’ve hoped, we’ve stood on the Word and …. and! … nothing changed. It’s what we do after that happens that matters. Fear makes a poor leader – yet we all know how it feels and what we sometimes do to avoid it!

We had one of those times recently. Hubby and I have been married for 37 years, and there are times, not often, 🙌 – when we disagree. That chaos, of course, is instantly replaced by something spiritual and peaceful…  we sing ‘Kumbaya’ and it is all fixed!! It is a wonder my nose is not in Pakistan by now … Me and Pinocchio, just like that.🤞

So, long story short, we argue just like everyone else. My primary reason for talking about it today, is that the only way for all of us to get to the other side, like the disciples wanted to – Is to be real about who we are and the fact that we aren’t totally transformed yet! I like to throw blame in the bin. However, there are also times when I can miss! … I always was a lousy shot!! That’s when I discover, all over again, that I still need His help and transformation badly.  I too, can get tired of cheerily singing: “I’ve got a new way of living”  … 😊🙌 … and instead I want to have a tantrum.

So I’m praying, with tears, of course! ‘God don’t you care??’ And somehow, in the back of my mind, I can see these 12 guys stuck in this boat going up and down, up and down, taking a violent seawater bath … Now, let’s look at this …Jesus is up the back of the boat taking a power nap. Yeah.I’m pretty sure I would have had a “Don’t you care Lord?” in me too.

Now let’s be clear. The Lord Jesus needed that sleep. He had just delivered an amazing sermon about planting seeds in good places and watching them grow. Of course, the disciples all thought they were getting a horticultural lesson! But the Lord was teaching them how to retain good seed and become fertile ground. Stuff like getting rid of rocks (of unbelief) and weeds (of fear and arrogance) as well as shoo-ing off the birds that want to steal and peck at your faith. (Other people’s anger, and rotten behaviour toward us.) 

These guys had had a great meeting, right before this. They learned lots … they took lots of notes … well, … probably not, … because they would have looked like nerds. Anyway!! The blooming boat starts to sink and things look pretty terrible …!! It’s not just a bit of a splash in the face, BTW, this boat starts taking water in. Boat in water OK! Water in boat NOT OK!! Anyone knows that. The disciples let their KNOWLEDGE of the sea drown out their FAITH.

These experienced fishermen were frightened out of their wits by the power of the sea and they knew a bad storm when they saw one.  So there were “we’re gunna die” shrieks and shouts … and then they remember that Jesus is up the back of the boat — and — “How on earth CAN HE BE SLEEPING??!!” Just like little kids run to their mum or dad and demand that they fix something that is broken – we too sometimes run to the Lord and drop our faith along the way. We simply can’t work out why He isn’t helping us.

In times like these we need to tell ourselves – one more time  … and press on, remembering that we are stretching ourselves a little bit further.  Do yourself a favour, try not to set false finishing lines. The bible teaches us: “WE STRIVE …WE STRETCH toward the goal …”  that doesn’t mean we always get there! Sometimes knowing where to run TO is everything —  especially when life produces chaos. Even though these men had just learnt about being careful about where to plant the seed of God’s Word, they immediately planted it in earthly fear instead. Don’t we all?!!  

Whatever we think we’ve learnt, is going to be tested. God is not interested in raising up a whole lot of people with fat heads and skinny, dried-up hearts. Pain will overcome our faith unless we cling to the SAVIOUR … not just focussing the result we think we need. It is not about finding the answer or not, it is about: ‘where is MY faith, right now?’ Sometimes my not-so-spiritual-answer is: ‘I dunno! I think it fell right down the well of my unbelief!”

If we want to follow Jesus with all our hearts, even though we know that we do dumb stuff, or sometimes we are oppressed by terrible things – then WE’ve won. Press on… !! We simply must stop throwing away our faith … or even other saints because people make mistakes or they are not perfected yet. None of us are. Redemption is a process. Half the time none of us know what’s IN our own hearts until we get squeezed tightly by circumstances. These fishermen walked with Christ and fear still jumped on them.

The bible wouldn’t teach us how to overcome fear if we didn’t need to learn it. Some awful thoughts attach themselves to Christians like rampaging elephants, crushing the life out of them. Those thoughts do not make us a failure. Hold on … if we can just hold on, and breathe, our faith will come out the other side stronger. When we cling to Jesus in the storm we are doing OK. Remember, the God of all LOVE stood up and HE CALMED THE STORM. We cannot begin to understand the Lord’s aim in whatever is going on in our lives… all we know is that He’s been there before us!

Here’s something to chew on …“the natural mind perceiveth not the things of the spirit.”  1 Corinthians 2:4. So we can’t trust what we think or feel, we must learn, progressively, by pressing in, to trust what He says. We know He cares. It’s in the book. 👋

P 2603 Some thoughts are not welcome!

/ DVH

Some thoughts are definitely not welcome, they are not worth our time, or even losing sleep over! Here are some great scriptures. Matthew 9:4 “Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?” Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

I am sure you already know these scriptures — but today I want to briefly talk about taking them seriously and acting on them. We would not ask an unreformed, repeat-offender, serial killer to stay at our house and babysit our kids! That would be, like … insane!! Yet, in our minds, there are times when we entertain all kinds of bad and poor thinking habits… and we kid ourselves that those thoughts don’t matter. Entertaining dumb thoughts is like nailing one foot to the ground — we will go round and round and round – and get nowhere. Because those thoughts will eventually take us CAPTIVE.

Whatever we have meditated on in our heads will come out of our mouths. ‘As a man thinks so is he.’ If all you can think about is how mad you are at someone else, then that stuff will leak out… somewhere. It’s like a forest fire, give those thoughts enough kindling and we end up with a blaze nobody can control!! Let’s look at this a bit to clarify the subject. 

Before anything happens it starts as a thought. My advice is to do spot checks on your thoughts and begin to decide, for yourself, which ones aren’t worth a welcome mat, because they are not helpful. Otherwise, what we often end up doing is this:  we will beat ourselves up for having some rotten thought – and satan probably ran by and threw the thought at us in the first place. However! he is delighted to add fuel to that kind of fire. In the end we can get so busy concentrating on what we think we are not… WE FORGET WHO WE ARE NOW!

Blaming yourself produces nothing but shame. Shame produces hiding. Hiding produces avoidance of the truth instead of application. Stop the production line!  Simply agree with the bible and apply it to your life. Act on it. Truth becomes stronger when you stand on it in faith – no matter how you feel. You know, Almighty God doesn’t say ‘always get it right‘ – He says use your faith! God loves YOU and I unconditionally. As we walk with Him, we need to grow used to living in His unconditional love for us. That’s how we will grow His fruit. Acting on our faith, not our feelings.

Try to look at the bible as helpful hints, and don’t allow a bad thought to stay long enough to become an obsession or an action. There’s a very old saying:  ‘You can’t stop the birds of the air from flying overhead, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair!’  When Paul tells us: ‘“let your mind dwell on these things.” He is talking about the things that help us: “whatever is good right and profitable.” Beating yourself up for doing something dumb IS NOT PROFITABLE. All you will learn is punishment, not LOVE. Repent, repair, and then – move on! Teach yourself to discern what is not profitable by digesting the book. Digestion follows doing.

The time to take the next step is often when we least feel like it, but we can learn through the Lord’s processes that our feelings run dead last in a kingdom mentality. God isn’t saying we need thought police, instead He is telling us what sort of things are helpful to think about and warning us what to stay away from!  Do you have family or friends? Start thanking God for them. Even if some of those things are broken – just transfer your thoughts away from what’s wrong about them, to what He says is right. It’s a skill, just like brushing your teeth… we all can learn it.

We can feed our minds good things to think about by reading His book regularly. Read the bible until you get happy that you started reading it! Look for how much He loves you. Instead of seeing the bible as things I can’t possibly do, read it to find out what Jesus wants to say to me, TODAY. If He is pointing out something that needs changing, thank Him. “For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.” Hebrews 12:6. Don’t get stuck on the discipline part, firmly plant yourself on the fact that our God loves us enough to discipline us. That verse tells us that correcting us is His Way of showing us His love.

God is on our side and He does not stand afar off, instead, He’s closer to us than our heartbeat. The Body of Christ has forgotten who we are – we are His kingdom in action – we are the people who know that going the wrong way starts in our thoughts. Tell the things that push and shout at you, and demand to be entertained – they are not welcome. Put out the welcome mat for the things that remind you how much He loves you. 👋

P 2595 Hubby found this ace place …

/ DVH

We are currently in Uralla, NSW, a tiny little town just past Armidale. We’re out in the real bush, yet we couldn’t be more comfortable – no hip-holes in the ground here! Hubby found this cottage on the net and it is really special. The lady who runs it has thought of everything … well, almost everything … some things are out of her control! The net coverage here is a nightmare. It’s kind of ironic how we found this cottage on the net, yet we can’t get on the net for toffee!

Hubby has been walking about inside the cottage trying to find a spot where the net works, so we can put today’s blog onto WordPress. We’re not brilliant at this tech stuff – we kind of get by, but we don’t know any clever little tricks. Meanwhile,Telstra seems to have fallen out of the stratosphere — or is that the information highway? Hah! Maybe they fell in a ditch!  I think somewhere out in the immediate bush around us, there is a cleverly disguised hide that houses a little man who is peddling like mad, trying to get the net to go faster. We sure are spoilt in the city. I know I complain if the net drops out at our house – I am pretty sure that country people are amazed if it drops BY. 

Right now I’m sitting in a very comfortable chair, and outside of the window that is directly in front of me, there has been a parade of birds of all shapes and sizes. Corellas, rosellas, wrens and finches, magpies … whatever!  There are Eastern rosellas and Western rosellas. Boy are the Western ones lost!! They are apparently only found in the south west corner of Western Australia!!  I looked them up – we have proof, he took pictures!! The bird above is an Eastern Rosella BTW, the Western ones are shy. The owner here has cleverly put out food so all the birds around come at sunset and dawn to eat. What a treat that is!

We are mad twitchers. No, I am not talking about us badly lacking magnesium! We simply love birds – especially the little ones. Watching and photographing them is a favourite past time. Hubby has taken over 200 photos here, so far.  Personally, I think photography is an art. My mother liked to take pictures of people, years ago. However, it was a certainty that she would cut everyone’s heads off. That made for fun family photos!  Everybody would take hours trying to figure out who was who? We all look different HEADLESS! She once took a picture of someone very famous playing tennis. She showed me the photo so proudly – hilariously the only thing you could see was an arm and a hand with a tennis racquet in it! 

To keep you up with what we have distributed etc. so far, we’ve given away 169 things in 2 days, and 60 of them were bibles. One third of the great wall of blankets has been delivered, as well as many other things to the women’s refuge in Armidale. It is such a relief to have some of the blankets gone! Hubby packed them all carefully on the roof of the car in our flexible cargo bag, and we’ve prayed away the rain that kept threatening us, on and off since Brisbane. We didn’t want to be a WET BLANKET! Well, I thought it was funny anyway.🤪

When we arrived here, we realised we had a God-appointment with the owner of this cottage. So we gave her the things the Lord told us to give her and she was teary, and happy, and excited and overwhelmed — all at the same time. In the end she quite delightfully asked us: “Are you guys prophet-people or something?” We laughed and pointed at the roof – the Lord is great to hang around with as you do this stuff – He has the skinny on everyone! No! it’s NOT cheating.

Our hostess was extremely excited about everything, but her eyes really lit up at the Darryl Lea chocolates. There are no Darryl Lea Chocolate shops out here! Then Hubby gave her one of his famous paintings and she cracked up. Those paintings ought to come with free tissues… …  I must remember to write that down.

I am still not sleeping well, so, of course, my dear husband isn’t sleeping well either, although the poor man tries!! Hmmm. You really find the fruit of the Spirit at 3.00 am when your wife can’t sleep.😱 Yesterday, hubby spent ages re-packing the car – I was amazed he could fit everything in the first time. Yet he dragged it all out again and reconfigured the boot. I assume he does that to prove the first time wasn’t a fluke! At the same time I was praying for him, inside the house — I think that counts as helping, don’t you??

So far we’ve met all kinds of people, and some of them I was really glad to wave goodbye to, and others I wanted to take home with us. You can always tell when the Lord touches someone, it is like the outside veneer slides off and the inside gooey centre shows. It is such a privilege. These moments are the reason we do this, the deeply spiritual things  that happen are mind-blowing. People share their deepest needs and sorrows.

 Well, gotta go, gotta do, gotta be … somewhere else. Catch you next time. Bye 👋

ps He just discovered the net works perfectly …on the toilet!Sigh.

P 2552 Look up in the sky … it’s a bird …

/ DVH

…no it’s not, it is an illustration!! Matthew 6:26-34: “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 

Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. “For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”  

We can say His kingdom is our aim, but are we actually living like that is true? I am reminded every single day of the ‘birds of the air’ because my not-friend, the noisy miner, is parked every morning outside the room I’m in, while I am typing. And that little grey bird is just doing what comes naturally. In this passage Lord is not talking about ornithological or botanical interests here. Instead, He uses birds and flowers to point out a great key to our living overcoming lives. The above verses are actually about our personal value to the Lord and WHY we should not worry. 

Day by day our focus needs to be on how valuable we are to Him simply because having that thought will help us live within His kingdom. When we grab hold of the fact that our God cares about plants and birds etc. and He looks after them, it highlights the thought that we are so much more valuable to Him. This means human beings are way up the “pecking order” (s’cuse the bad pun)  when it comes to provision. Simply because we can see that birds are fed and flowers are beautiful, then those things become living visible evidence of God’s far greater passion for us.

I’ve found that worry can paralyse me. It totally distracts me from my real purpose. We were sent into this world to witness to, and visibly live in, God’s kingdom. His kingdom is not just for Sundays, high days, or holidays. It is to be our focus for every single day we are on this earth!  At the same time, Jesus is talking about something that is very important to any human being, our basic every day needs. Food, clothing, shelter. He is not saying we should not pay attention to those needs – He is saying they should not be our major focal point in this life because the birds around us show us that He is more than capable of looking after them!

Yeah. At the same time Jesus is not telling us to go and live under a bridge and dumpster-dive for food and clothes … like some poor souls have to. I believe He’s telling us that worrying about such things is counter- intuitive to the growth of our faith and our daily living within His kingdom. Worry takes over our minds. We become obsessed with things that do not benefit us spiritually. The Lord told me this one day, “turn your worry into prayer and leave it there.” It’s really great advice … and … it definitely takes practice. 

In this passage He explains why worry is bad for people. Worry takes over and accomplishes nothing but angst.  Plus when we worry we forget how much we are loved! Jesus is explaining that God will totally take care of all our needs, and we have that promise to cling to every day … simply because we can see His commitment to the seemingly insignificant things of this world. At the same time He wants to show us that our priorities matter, so we can simply enjoy living in His Kingdom – worry is not ever to be our priority.

I have personally found that worry brushes aside whatever He is actually doing, in favour of what I think or hope He will do. We are far better off to take the time to ask Him to help us understand what is really going on. Instead of overthinking stuff or pouting because some problem or other is not resolved immediately. That doesn’t mean we quit praying about whatever it is, it simply means our first and foremost priority is to believe He is good, and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

In my experience, you will not diligently seek SomeOne you are disappointed in, or SomeOne who appears not to care if you are struggling away with this and that. You may even actively avoid them. The Lord is telling us that worrying is a way to dissolve faith, and end up with a barrow load of doubt instead. So we should use the physical signs around us to remind ourselves that God cares. He looks after budgies and eagles, equally as well as roses and petunias, and they are our tangible day-to-day witnesses that our lives are far more important to Him than we can ever imagine.

🦅🦆🦜🦉 … 🌹🌸🌷🌻  Bye…👋

P 2486 It’s the everyday things that drive you crazy …

/ DVH

… and then, bingo bongo – there went your happy day! There is a grevillea right outside our front door, and I sit near that door, typing this blog. A noisy miner bird also sits there on said grevillea, and chirps it’s little heart out, day after day after day … endlessly! It is always there – right when I am typing, and it is not there – when I am not! These birds are permanent, persistent, utterly piercing, bossy boot-type natives, and they are not easily dissuaded from harassing one of my favourite native birds — the lorikeet. 

The local lorikeets also love our grevillea. This means we often have a bird-sponsored turf war in our front yard. It’s like ‘ringside-with-the-wrestlers’ only with birds!! Now, you might perhaps think that a dear little bird singing sweetly to me daily is a cheery thing. It’s NOT! Actually I’m pretty sure this bird would be in with a chance to play the didgeridoo – it can chirp and breathe all at the same time! On and on and on and on, for hours!!  I wish I had a great BIG gun! I’d shoot the blasted noisy miner stone dead. OK, OK – that’s a wish thought! Please don’t climb on your ecologically-sound, avian high-horse!  Despite my wishing this bird would drop dead … Hmmm… no.

My dear trusty, loving, helpful husband … who totally understands how strident and interrupting to my thought processes this bird’s chirp is … … mainly because it annoys the living daylights out of him too (!!!) … My dear Hubby stealth-walks outside. He sidles along the edge of the door and he sneaks up on the little darling and shoots at it with a … (wait for it) …water pistol! 🐦🔫!!  BTW, in case you are concerned we are hurting it, it quite easily chirps it’s head off in the rain undeterred, so it does not, ap-par-ently (!) dissolve in water … More’s the pity.

Instead it simply flies away to return to annoy me yet another day. It may seem like a dumb bird, but once it has been squirted, boy can it learn! The minute hubby’s hand hits that front door again, all pistoled up and ready to fire away… off it flies …And then it comes back quite quickly when he goes back inside, to recommence it’s torment. Yaaay. Meanwhile, it also successfully chases away my real-true-fav-friend, the lorikeet. Yes, I know the aptly named noisy-(I’ll-say)-miner, is not as pretty as the lorikeet. It’s call is definitely right in there with whiny little kids who want an icecream 🍦 …  but I totally refuse to feel sorry for it – ordinary-looking or not. Instead, I quite often feel provoked into bird-icidal thoughts about it!

My not-friend, the miner bird, reminds me of how easy it is to lose one’s cool. Everything is fine and dandy and suddenly … you are on your last nerve ready to thump the next human being who innocently says ...”Good morning!” cheerfully. Hmmm…. apparently today is going to be …complain about the wild life day … and once commenced on my current totally irritated course I cannot escape.🏃 Run for your life!

Perhaps I have been slightly brain-damaged by a rampant noisy miner. So now, let’s move on to my next least-fav indigenous thing, possums. One paid a visit to us last night, plus the night before. It’s a sociable little furry thing …it comes over to practise it’s high jumps for the Olympics at 2.00am. Apparently it is possum hoe-down season again. Wretched little monsters. They are either ON your roof or IN it – either way … grrrrr!. Way over in New Zealand, our southern cousins have more sense than we do – they kill possums. THEY actually think they are a pest. In Australia, of course WE must not harm the little darlings. But our friends, across the ditch, the New Zealanders, are very clever, sensible people. They make wool and knit socks out of their fur. (True story!) 

Back to my critter rant … presently, in our semi-tropic summer, we currently have millions of mosquitos the size of a small dog and they are more aggressive than a black-mamba. My dear hubby has to take our normal-sized dog outside regularly, to do what a dog’s gotta do. To get this mission accomplished, he has to wear even more clothes over his normal clothing – it IS over 30o here! Then he sprays himself with 3 different repellants and puts on his trusty mosquito repellant wrist band … and yet!! …don’t’cha know … Those nasty legalistic little blighters still manage to bite him…Somewhere the repellant wasn’t! 

While we are briefly on about things that irritate the living daylights out of me – I also hate, loathe and despise spell-check … it does not like my informal way of writing, so it yells at me, and bullies me all the time. I’ve yet to figure out a way to yell back at it … but I’m working on it! Now, in case you haven’t already guessed, I thought I might write about a blog about whiny irritations today, because, in the anti-climatical aftermath of Christmas, I’ve very cleverly found some. Actually, I found them when I wasn’t even looking! Meanwhile that stupid bird is ba-ack doing it’s thing.

Have you ever noticed that once you are irritated it is hard to escape from it? Me too! It’s kind of like a whirlpool, and you go round and round and round – gathering in even more stuff … while you are going under. Aha! I think I’ve worked out where I was amiss … I let sin reign. So now, I will depart, before I get totally sucked under and ruin this entire day. I pray you are more successful than I am in fighting off irritations. I just gotta go and find that water-pistol … bye ..👋🏻

Romans 2:12 ESV “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to MAKE YOU obey its passions.” … Now there’s good advice. 😂