Blame

P 2391 Peace thieves.

/ DVH

It’s the little foxes that spoil the vines. (S of Songs 2:16.) And it is the little things that niggle and nag at us, that steal our peace. Today I want to talk about somethings I’ve noticed that steals MY peace. I hope this helps you as well. 

Unforgiveness is a thief – it steals peace, and it is destructive to relationships. It colours the way we see things – it maximises bad things and makes good things totally disappear. It is very easy for our faith in mankind to be battered, but in my observation that happens because I have let my focus on the Lord fade, and now all I can see is the mess in front of me. That blocks my view of other things … especially good things! And when somebody else is involved it becomes wa-ay too easy to dump the blame on them.

It is amazing how quickly I can forget my own missteps, and excuse them as whoopsies, whereas if someone else does something dumb toward me, I immediately suspect a dire plot to overthrow my spiritual life and ruin my day. And guess what? I am right!! There is a plot … but I am mis-identifying the source. It isn’t you! It’s the other guy. Nobody can make anybody else be snarky, that’s a choice – but the enemy of our souls is a master of setting all of us up for a fall. As well as pointing out other people’s failures and stupidity.

Then we start to think of the other person as our enemy and begin collating evidence to prove this is so – so that we can stay where we are and remain unchanged. IF WE ARE NOT CHANGING WE ARE NOT LIVING A SPIRITUALLY CHALLENGING LIFE. Here’s a red hot tip – people hate to change! Which is kind of sad because transformation involves change.

First things first, chuck out any evidence-against-others-files that you might holding onto! That stuff will shoot anyone in the foot faster than Wild Bill Hickok can draw his rifle. It is one of satan’s ploys … and it can only be defeated by reminding ourselves the temptation to SIN IS COMMON TO MAN. (1 Corinthians 10:13) I am a part of mankind so that remark applies to me as well as you. 

At times like this it is way too easy to think …‘That’s because they are not in tune with the Lord like I am … they have a wrong attitude.’ 😱 Hello pride – time for you to leave now! When I start to hear myself think like that …that’s when I realise I am circling the drain. My focus has come off the Lord and onto me and my feelings and whatever dumb thing you did accidentally, or even on purpose. I need to throw my car into reverse …pronto. I find humbling myself does that pretty quickly.

Now I have to start praying right away, instead of checking out my hurt feelings, and then I remind myself that I don’t forgive others because they deserve it, I forgive them because He forgave me first and I definitely don’t deserve that. I need to remember that this life is not perfect – instead it is about perfecting me … and to tell the truth … some days I just plain don’t like that idea!  So some things ARE my fault, not yours.

Here’s another little fox under the X-ray! What comes out of my mouth. Look, I know people have gone on and on about that, and to be perfectly honest with you I hated what they said because I am an external processor. I don’t often know what I think until it comes out of my mouth. It took me 50 years to pay attention, but I nowadays I agree that what comes out of our mouths does matter. To start with we can easily end up agreeing with those destructive thoughts about someone else’s behaviour. 

…That’s like getting ready to pour concrete. First you dig a hole, then you put in formwork, then you pour in the concrete and wait for it to set. Concrete is a permanent thing. I want to suggest that we don’t need to permanently think badly about other people. It makes it too hard to change your mind. Suddenly the other person has to prove themselves to us, to get back our good opinion of them.  In my observation, satan is delighted to get all of us saying the dumbest stuff to each other and about each other – he hates harmony. Let’s not help him!

Here’s what I have learnt … if I speak kindly and thoughtfully about someone else it encourages the Holy Spirit to hang around with me because He likes it. That’s a HUGE plus. The Holy Spirit knows good stuff about that other person that I haven’t even noticed and He’s really happy to share. I don’t have to make things up, with His help, I will get new eyes. I have personally proven in my life – this can be a learned skill.

We need to identify and deal with the peace thieves that invade our lives and our homes …a good place to start is to blame the enemy, not the person, and deal with satan, first. 👋🏻

P 2369 We cannot legislate unity.

/ DVH

Unity comes from an overflow of love, compassion and respect for the other guy. Instead of constantly rehearsing what divides us, let’s try to find common ground. Sadly we now have 45,000 denominations!! Look, as long as the other person you are talking to believes Jesus Christ is the God-sent Son and Saviour of the world, just let go of other things you don’t agree with and find things you can agree on. Jesus is Lord is a good one!! 

Seriously. We can lose opportunities for reconciliation by being pedantic. Telling the other guy where he is wrong will shut down a conversation faster than the bullet train in Japan travels between Tokyo and Osaka. Just let love loose – love is about focusing on the good. I don’t mean we have to agree with everything, but our POV doesn’t have to collide with someone else’s in the name of straightening them out. One of the best things to do when conflict arises is to ask if you could pray together. Come before the throne in Jesus’ Name and let the Holy Spirit do what He does best … sort things out. 

We do not put enough faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to change US as well as the world. Sometimes I don’t think we put enough faith in Him to sort out our lives! That’s why we start meddling and throwing in our own good ideas. Remember the garden. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful, she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6. Eve used her own wisdom and initiative to decide what was right. Look at how that turned out!

Obviously rebellion dropped in, and of course her husband didn’t even run it by his brain – he just did what she said for peace! (Joking) 🤪 That kind of peace, BTW, giving our agreement to shut somebody else up, is not true peace. True peace happens, and unity begins, when both sides agree because they want to, because maintaining love is more important. In that place there is no coercion. Silence isn’t in the answer either – it’s a beginning, but we are aiming at LOVE not just an absence of sound. We must not aim too low!

All Eve shows us is how easily we can be led astray, away from peace directly into blame. Meanwhile sometimes I think we consult one another because we don’t want to be bothered waiting on God… He can take too long. Hmm… maybe He takes a while so we can calm down and reflect instead of reacting! That would be His Grace in action. Perhaps He wants us to choose to die to self out of love, instead of an absence of conflict! How do I know that? I’ve done it! I’ve given up my power of choice and compromised. PS it never works. Our hearts can’t be right when we disagree and then lie about it. Duh! 🙄

That is why I started memorising verses like: “Why not suffer wrong?” 1 Corinthians 6:7. Because the minute I start to straighten you out – I’ve stepped out from under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and I’m back leaning on my own understanding! You know, some people are so committed to their own POV, they would exercise their free will even if their entire house was on fire but they weren’t ‘ready to leave yet!’ 😱 Learn to yield. First to God and then to each other.

True unity can’t come under a dictatorship. The fault is not just the people disagreeing – it is that people need to pray together more than they talk AT each other! We cannot maintain our agendas …  things founded on fear, or rebellion – in the throne room. Sorry to repeat myself because I know I’ve said this before, Isaiah was a prophet who turned to JELLO in the throne room. He spoke for God all over the place, but when he was confronted with God, he knew his place — ON HIS FACE! 

In the Presence of the Lord any disunity disappears. I have been known to  have heaps of opinions – until I get in there. We are handling disagreement badly if our aim is to get the other guy to think like me, because I know I am right. If people can’t see pride in that sentence they need Holy Spirit glasses and they also need to pray heaps more. 

Unity matters to God. He’s got the best unified game going in the history of the Universe. Not only does the Trinity agree – They PREFER one another. We need to set our aim higher. Unity is about love, and what the Father wants, not about what you or I think. 👋🏻

P 2276 Mercy starts with US.

/ DVH

Mercy is like a well, sometimes we can run dry, and at that moment …we often let fly!  When that happens, repent quickly, fix it, and go and get alone with Jesus as soon as you can. Then ask for a fresh infilling of His love and grace. We extend mercy to ourselves when we do that instead of beating up on ourselves. However, at the same time, we are not absolving ourselves of the need to repair, and re-connect with the other person. 

Self flagellation and self accusation is not profitable, we need His grace first before we can begin to analyse what happened, and we need to look through His eyes at the current event, and not ours. We need to choose to look at whatever happened from His POV and not the world’s. His POV of restoration is far more important than us yelling at ourselves for getting it wrong.

We need to rush to our mercy seat, Christ, and sit down with Him. The bible tells us when we run toward Him, He runs toward us. Just stop and think on that. The God of the Universe rushes toward us and the Holy Spirit is on point and totally engaged on our behalf as well. He is ever-listening and ever-present to carry out Father God’s wishes. This is the exact moment that we need to remember Whose child we are. 

There is also no room for shame either! Jesus took our shame, sin, guilt and blame with Him to the cross.  “There is …no condemnation etc . etc.”  We need to get to Him as fast as we can. Then we prayerfully override our feelings of despair about what we did or said, and start reminding ourselves of how much we are loved by Him. He is the source of healing. Healing is not just about bodily ailments, our souls can be sick …it’s in the book.

I am not talking about ignoring our own personal responsibility to fix things with other people. Father God is the place where we get the grace to forgive others. The way to get a clear conscience is to deal with the matter. Don’t get tied up in who is to blame, or who said what. The point is we have to get back to Jesus, throw ourselves on the mercy seat, acknowledge our own fault, and don’t just start raving on about what the other guy did or said and  how much it hurt you. There is no value in that. It’s like yelling at the bus when it’s already gone, all the yelling in the world won’t bring the bus back.

Condemning yourself is a bit like adding fuel to the fire of your own hurt. Take a breath. Remind yourself that our precious Father loves you no matter what and He doesn’t change … “in Him there is no shadow or turning…” Now turn and look at the cross! It’s empty!! We live in the other side of the resurrection there is hope there! The Holy Spirit knows how to turn that mess we are in around.

Don’t try to fix something while your own emotions are in turmoil. Just breathe slowly, tell the Lord you’re sorry, ask Him to forgive you. Wait for Him to speak. You need instructions. If your toaster is malfunctioning then you will probably need to look at the instructions or check out the guarantee. The bible is God’s personal instruction manual for human beings. It is His guarantee IN WRITING! So when we are malfunctioning we need to go back to the word of God, and start reading. 

When I’m in a tizzy emotionally, or in in my mind, OR both! I find reading a Psalm calms me down. I rediscover my humanity by reading about what the psalmist said.- I like to go to one of the Psalms David wrote. Pick one where David is cranky at somebody or other, so he wants to kill them, and tell God they died. And I keep reading because I know that by the end, he will have calmed down and started turning his thoughts back to God. And that’s what we need to do too.

If you need to cry, cry. BUT – our God does not take sides. He only has one side – HIS! Remember the angel asked Joshua ‘who is on the Lord’s side?’ There are no winners or losers in Father God’s plans because when the Lord is in charge …everybody wins!  He loves us all. His aim is for every single human being to know Him and trust Him. We need to actively learn to have mercy toward ourselves. However that does not mean we are right or wrong, or that He favours us over someone else. Everything hinges on us treating the other person with His grace because our relationship with Him cannot go forward without active grace. Grace for us and grace for them. 

The Lord has already forgiven mankind – as His family we operate by His agenda now. Forgiveness is the hallmark of Who He is, and now, it has to be the hallmark of who we are. Focussing on our flaws magnifies them – this is why it is destructive to our faith to focus on someone else’s flaws. Our focus is always on the Answer – JESUS. 👋🏻

P 2251 About sin.

/ DVH

Yes, I know I talked about this subject yesterday, but I am not done yet … apparently! 😶 Sin is not a whoopsie, a boo-boo;  a mistake;  or something that happened when I wasn’t looking;  or even a momentary suspension in my concentration! It is not an accident;  or something I just kind of sort of fell into;  or even something someone else made me do; and it is definitely not my snappy response to someone else’s sin against me, either! 

Sin is governed by my own choices. We can blame our mother, father, cousin, auntie, sister, friend or brother but if we read the bible carefully, we will find that… that kind of thinking don’t cut no mustard with God. Neither does … the devil made me do it. Sin is an attitude that has been embedded inside human hearts as normal – something everyone does. That is how it negates what God has said, in favour of what we want, or what is expedient to us.

Most people don’t tell the truth, and I am not just talking about the guys in jail, or terrorists! We all sin all the time, and we are so used to it, we don’t notice – or maybe we have convinced ourselves that after all we aren’t perfect. 😳 Then, because we are too busy excusing ourselves, we miss the opportunity to repent. The truth is – sin has no power over us anymore, it only has perceived power. That comes from a lack of understanding that we don’t have to sin now! We settle for less. Jesus said that like this: “I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler of the world is coming. And He has no claim on Me. (He has nothing in common with Me: there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and He has no power over Me.” John 14:30. 

Jesus died to give us the same power He used to overcome our common enemy. His righteousness with God exchanged for our sin. The reason sin trips us up is we don’t actually understand what Christ gave us. Unfortunately, we are incapable of deciding for ourselves whether this or that is actually sin. We need the bible! Personally, I’ve found if anything is not motivated by LOVE, it is sin. 🧐 However, often people think if it looks or seems OK, it is OK. Just because we’ve always lived this way, that doesn’t make the things we do spiritually sound.

Now let’s get to the good bit. Because you and I have given our lives to Christ, we don’t have to worry about sin anymore. Jesus became like US, so we could become like HIM. “This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment:… because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. Jesus died to give us the Holy Spirit’s power to live this life like He did. This thought needs to be uppermost in our minds. It was an exchange. Jesus paid for all our sins, past, present and future, and He gave us His position with Almighty God instead. It was given, we didn’t earn it or deserve it. However, tolerating sin renders us spiritually deaf, a little bit at a time. 

When God looks at you and I, now He sees us IN Christ. We will stay in that new position, covered by Jesus’ shed blood, when we live our lives the way Jesus Christ would live them. Living like that, gives us total freedom – but any rebellion against how Christ told us to live, makes us vulnerable to deception. Deception will make sin look OK. Understanding now we have a choice, helps us rise above this kind of rebellion. Instead, we step out of the boat of our old behaviour, (our old self), onto the water of Christ’s loving provision, and begin to use our God-given faith. We now have heavenly help at any given moment.

The bible says: “IF(!!) we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1John 1:9. Freedom from sin comes from confession and repentance – not just pretending things didn’t happen, or blaming someone else. Blame is a dangerous thing, it can destroy people’s faith. Instead, we give up our right to excuse ourselves. So if someone accuses us, we repent. Then we go on to humbly apologise, and acknowledge what we did. After that we need to revise our behaviour when the next opportunity turns up – using our faith.  

Christians need to learn to repent, not debate whether it is sin or not. What we think does not matter – we must let the Holy Spirit vindicate us. This is because we have died and we want Jesus to live in us more than we want anything else. We cannot afford to let pride give sin permission to hold us captive – because that will limit our ability to live in His kingdom. I’ve found regularly renewing my mind, together with prayer, and fellowshipping with the Lord and others, keeps me on track.👋🏻

P 2250 Value His opinion.

/ DVH

We should never be surprised by this world’s actions and activities – this kind of hate filled stuff has been going on for centuries. Sin is common to mankind. After all, we were like this from the very beginning. God said to Adam and Eve: ‘You can have everything you see, but that tree over there – don’t eat from that one.’ He had a great reason, and He gave it to them … but they didn’t value His opinion.

So Adam and Eve ate from the only tree that was forbidden. Did you know that there are 73,300 tree species? Approximately 20,000 plants are edible by human beings. That’s a whole lotta choices. Yet the tree that attracted those two was the one they were not allowed to eat – and it wasn’t about hunger at all. It was really  about ambition. That teaches us a lot about what makes people tick! The power of choice was always going to be our downfall – as well as our salvation.

satan put a caveat on that fruit when he told this couple if they ate it they would be just like God Himself. satan, BTW lied, by twisting the truth and not stating the consequences. Adam and Eve were already like God, they were eternal pure beings. satan implied that the lack of choice in one area was robbing them. However when they sinned, it corrupted them, the same way satan had been corrupted. he was ambitious too. Many people want a God who provides – but not one Who is in charge. 

Now let’s look at Genesis 9:1 for another illustration: “Then God blessed Noah and his sons. He said to them, “Have children so that there are many of you. Fill the earth.”… But they didn’t! … Genesis 11:2-4: “The whole world had only one language, and everyone spoke it. They moved to the east and found a broad valley in Babylon. There they made their home. They said to one another, “Come on! Let’s make bricks and bake them well.” They used bricks instead of stones. They used tar to hold the bricks together. Then they said, “Come on! Let’s build a city for ourselves. Let’s build a tower that reaches to the sky. We’ll make a name for ourselves. Then we won’t be scattered over the whole earth.” 😳

That is in direct disobedience to what they were told to do. And here’s human defiance and ambition sticking up its nasty little head. Father God told those people to fill the earth, literally … spread OUT. But they clubbed together instead. Then they built a tower because their building was going to get them to heaven – their way! They even changed their building materials to make that tower more permanent! They had to work to make those bricks!

Humanity wants the freedom to decide what is good for us, and what is not. Instead we need to recognise that what holds us all back is common to mankind. Sin. Defying God. Wanting our own way. Let’s look at Job 5:1-7: ““Call for help, Job, if you think anyone will answer!To which of the holy angels will you turn? The hot temper of a fool eventually kills him, the jealous anger of an idiot does her in. I’ve seen it myself—seen fools putting down roots, and then, suddenly, their houses are cursed.

Their children out in the cold, abused and exploited, with no one to stick up for them. Hungry people off the street plunder their harvests, cleaning them out completely, taking thorns and all, insatiable for everything they have. Don’t blame fate when things go wrong— trouble doesn’t come from nowhere. It’s human! Mortals are born and bred for trouble, as certainly as sparks fly upward.” 

The bible tells us that sinful attitudes are inevitable – because human beings think that what WE know, is all there is. That, and blaming others when we get it wrong, is our downfall. Sin isn’t just sex, booze and deviancy. Sin is saying: “I know better than You do God.” That’s what happened in the garden. Blame and disobedience. However, Almighty God already had a much bigger plan. If satan had had even a whiff of God’s plan he would have left those two newbies in the garden alone! 

We are more than capable of corrupting ourselves – we once gave away purity for independence.  We gotta stop blaming the snake for our own proclivities. All satan did was give Adam and Eve an opportunity. he’s a tempter, and he studies humanity for flaws, but he’s not able to make us do, anything. Our will can oppose his temptations, but instead we allow supposed needs, and our own opinions drive us. We need to value God’s opinions above our own, and see what He will do with our obedience. 👋🏻

P 2242 I belong to Jesus – satan you have no place in me anymore.

/ DVH

A lot of the time, we can be tricked into thinking we are failures at living this faith life. It is a huge mistake to underestimate the fact that we have an enemy, and he’s outrageously sneaky! he will hand you some awful thoughts and then blame you for thinking them. Treat satan’s lies like a tennis match – bat the lies back over the net to his side! Our biggest and best defence against his offence is to know what the bible says.

Jesus knew how to play this kind of tennis! Take a look at Luke 4:1-13 and watch Christ win. His enemy spoke and, if you look carefully, you will see that Jesus did not bat back the same ball that was served to Him. He picked up a scriptural bomb instead! Sometimes our best weapon is not our flesh! Even though He’s starving and tempted about food, the Lord speaks out the reality of God’s sovereignty. We need to do ourselves the favour of realising that a general knowledge of what it says in the book is not enough. We need to know this book the same way we know what colour our eyes are. These words are our weapons …and those weapons pull down strongholds, in our lives and the lives of others.

The next temptation is that the Lord Jesus is tempted to get everything He was sent to do, by taking a short-cut. My advice? Avoid short-cuts! Jesus refuses to enter into that conversation – He bats another bomb back about God’s sovereignty. It is as if He can see through the enemy’s temptation and He understands what is really being said. We all need that kind of wisdom – we need to know what we are really being tempted about! You know: every promise in His book is mine but some verses are more weighty than others. Ask the Lord for an ACE to bat back at the devil.

The last time, Christ is tempted to see if God really will protect Him, and He goes back, yet again – to Father God’s sovereignty. He refuses to be baited into a discussion with the devil about the superficial things in this life. And the Lord Jesus makes it perfectly clear that He knows why He is here … His times are in God’s hands. When we are tempted like this, we need to let go of what we think should happen and hand stuff over to the Lord. satan could not find one place inside Jesus that elicited a response. The Lord protected the ground His Father had given Him to stand on. And basically told the enemy: ‘I’m here for the Eternal Mighty God, not for My own personal wishes, comfort or notoriety.’

This is the secret to living in the righteousness of Christ. We must know the ground we are standing on. We are now here for HIM – our ambitions, no matter how Godly they seem to be, our agendas, even our needs are all secondary to our calling! Because of what Christ did we are now standing on higher ground with a higher purpose – we must live this new life according to those purposes.

Christ gave us His place in this world as an exchange – His life for ours. Now we voluntarily give up our lives for His … to the death! At this moment we are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus because of what He did for us. It was an exchange – His precious life for ours. We aren’t seated with Him to make this life here on earth comfy cosy – we are seated there, in a place of authority over the enemy and his lies, to get free ourselves, and to set others free.

satan could not tempt Christ away from His purpose on earth and we must not let the devil distract us away from our purpose either. We are not just here to have kids, a job, a house and raise a family … this is our time to stand on the Lord’s side! We are here to fight for the people who are not aware that they don’t have to play in that snake’s putrid, filthy arena anymore. Christ died to give us all another way – another place to stand. Beside Him. The disciples stood beside Jesus, and now we do that too – using our faith. It isn’t something we say or sing – it’s the WAY we live. 

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8.“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12. “So that we would not be outwitted by satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.” 2 Corinthians 2:11. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7.

The battles we face every single day are not just about peace, or a happy life – they are about winning a war that started in heaven. Every single time we say NO! to satan, we enter that arena with Christ as our example and guide. He’s standing with us. We do not have to fight alone, we live in the knowledge that as His ambassadors, God will fight with us and for us. We need to stop playing this game the devil’s way… and start living Christ’s new way, day by day, by day. If we fall down we get up again – because we know, like Jesus did, OUR SIDE WON and we have a job to do. 👋🏻

P 2178 This life has snares.

/ DVH

You may have noticed, when you have come through a period of brokenness, that compassion for other people will begin to rise up in you without any effort at all. Unfortunately, for some people, those moments of brokenness become a snare. They get stuck in the eddy of ‘looking after poor me.’  When we live in self pity, we are leaving a pathway open for the enemy to continually harass us. He lays down snares that take us out of the flow of the Holy Spirit’s compassion. Self-pity, blame, and distraction are satan’s tools.“Poor you” is a snare. “It is someone else’s fault not yours” is a snare. “Ignore it and it will just go away” is another one!

When we allow those things room in our hearts, we are postponing the opportunity to gather in more of His Grace. Personally, I need all the Grace I can get .. all the time. I run out of it a lot, particularly when I am stressed, over-stretched by circumstances, sick, or tired. But there is a real transaction that happens in the spirit when we acknowledge our spiritual poverty and we ask the Holy Spirit for His input. His Grace starts to flow in us again and then through us. I’ve noticed it is very important to learn how to reverse quickly. What I mean by that is that its good to quickly back up, and back down when you are going the wrong way. The Holy Spirit loves to transform situations and He is incredibly good at it. He once took dirt and made a human being, remember? 

In combat warfare, soldiers are constantly on the alert for any sign of danger. The Holy Spirit can see any snares or danger better than we can. We need to listen to Him and stay alert. The bible says this: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” 1 Peter 4:12. It is critical to understand that the presence of this kind of sneaky warfare in our lives doesn’t mean we are doing something wrong. It is often enemy attack. satan hands us thoughts and then blames us for thinking them! However, the ONLY place to find real justification is in Jesus Christ. 

There are some people who try hard to distract themselves from pain and difficulties by ignoring them. Pain is common to mankind. Since the fall, we all experience pain and suffering, and a passive response is an easy one. But those people who have transformation in their hearts take an active stand, pick up their sword (verse/s of scripture) and fight! They live alert to the real enemy around them. That doesn’t mean we fight others! We need to fight that kind of thinking – bad thinking feeds itself – and our enemy often stands by handing us reasons to stay there.

There are plenty of pitfalls and snares that pop up when we purpose to take our thoughts captive to Christ. EG: We can end up blaming someone else. This is another pointless pathway. We have no control over another person’s behaviour, the only thing we can change is our response to their actions. Blame is a distraction. It takes our focus away from the real battle – which is our transformation – and creates a smoke screen. Taking ownership of our own faults, and inviting other people’s help to overcome them, is a pathway to humility. But blame leads to bad outcomes. We need to identify all that for what it is, and stand squarely against the thoughts that hand us illustrations about other people and how they have treated us badly. 

Distraction is another snare. Distraction clouds our ability to identify what is really going on by telling us to go somewhere else, watch TV, or not to think about it so we won’t feel bad anymore. In my experience distraction nails one of my feet to the ground and I go round and round and round feeling bad, and not knowing why. I try to pray and the words fall right on the ground in front of me. I need to seek God as a priority instead because at this point there is a possibility that I have shut off God’s bowels of compassion for others. 1 John 3:17. Our position in this life is to forgive others and we are to reach into their lives with His love.

To avoid snares we need to stay alert spiritually. Our primary focus is always what Jesus wants. It can help to realise that repentance is a normal part of the Christian life, it is not something to be avoided or used only in emergencies. Repentance shows that we have spiritual strength – we know we don’t have to be ashamed to be wrong. And we know that we can ask for more of His love and grace after we have done what we need to do. The Holy Spirit will sift our hearts for us if we ask Him to. He can see all those snares ahead and warn us and help us avoid them. Bye 👋🏻

P 2171 Who told you that?

/ DVH

In Genesis, right after Adam and Eve sinned, they hid. The Lord God came walking along in the garden, like He did every evening, and the first question He asked them was: “Where are you?” The second one was: ““Who TOLD you that … you were naked?Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Genesis 3:11.

Recently the Lord put His big highlighter over those four words. ‘Who told you that…?’  was all He said, so I went away and looked that scripture up. Suddenly I realised, there is somebody who stands at our elbow whispering in our ears, constantly replaying our sins and disobedience – even after we have repented. Our enemy won’t ever remind us about what the blood of Jesus did for us, because he never wants us to live in the knowledge of our freedom from the compulsion and temptation to SIN! We were made free when Christ died. Once for all. 

I believe the Lord Himself wants to say to everyone reading this blog today – “Who told you you’ve failed me? Who told you I don’t love you? Who told you that you have to run and hide from Me? Who told you that I am angry with you? Somebody told you that … and it wasn’t ME!” …satan led Adam and Eve right up the garden path and then shoved them off a cliff of his making.

I believe the Lord highlighted those words to me today, because the devil used that ploy back there in the garden, and he is still doing it now, today. he hands us the weapons for our own destruction and then clobbers us with what we’ve done after we did it. The good news is – we don’t have to take anything from him! Seriously … turn your hand upside down whenever he comes at you, refuse to take guilt, shame and the blame. Instead, intentionally – repent, repair and restore things, with the Holy Spirit’s direction and help. Don’t give him a reason to accuse you – fix things.

There were two trees in the garden of Eden. Genesis 2:9b says: “In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  In the middle of that garden was a choice! They could choose to obey God and live … or not. Genesis 2:16 says: “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”  And we all know what came next. 😵‍💫 Meanwhile did you ever wonder if Adam and Eve both lived a long time just because they actually did eat from the tree of life? That tree was not forbidden. I’m just saying is all …

Back to my point this morning  – the enemy can’t wait to hand us our sins. Meanwhile those sins are real! We do dumb disobedient horrible things, but … we don’t have to live under his lies. We can focus on our failures, or the cross. The choice is ours. Jesus Christ died to give us that choice. Now, we have access to redemption – because it has already been released. We must learn to embrace what has already been done for us … “IF we CONFESS our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

There were two trees in back in that garden, one brought eternal life and the other brought death. Jesus came here to die for all mankind. He hung on another type of tree and defeated death forever.  His cross truly was the tree of life for us! He released life for anyone who believes in Him. We don’t have to take the guilt and the shame that satan tries to hand out to us when we sin, accidentally, or not. Our enemy started that game back in the garden – but we have the power to live differently now – we don’t have to play that game with him anymore. Thank you Jesus! 👏

Our enemy will always try to tell us that we are trapped in the past, or stuck in our old behaviour – he’s a liar remember? he’s called the father of lies!  Jesus Christ FINISHED the work. We do not have to listen to the one who tells us we are failures, and that we can’t possibly belong to the Lord – the bible tells a different story!  We need to take note of who is telling us that we are not loved – and ask ourselves: “Who told me that?” 👋🏻

P 2124 Ambassadors of peace.

/ DVH

Living aware of His Presence, creates a peace zone … all by itself. At our house we do our best to protect that zone. Hubby and I have experienced what it is like to live that way, and today I want to talk about the results of that zone, so you can be encouraged that this also happens in YOUR life too. I’ve included some thoughts and tips about welcoming and hosting His Presence and peace in your own house. Learning to trust Him, no matter what is happening in our lives, is one of the best secrets to keeping and maintaining peace. We all need peace, the bible tells us it is our umpire!  His peace, or the lack of it, shows us where we need to back up and rethink our attitudes. Along with Hope, PEACE is one of our most powerful weapons in our daily lives.

Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You.” Romans 12:18 “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Hebrews 12:14 says that thought like this: ”Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

It is unfortunately, way too easy to blame our lack of peace on someone else. Our failure to take personal responsibility can open up already difficult situations into even worse misunderstandings. We need to do everything in our power to treat honesty about our own limitations and motivations, as a priority. Today in our society, it is almost an unspoken agreement that there are good guys and bad guys .. and WE, of course, are not the bad guys! Here’s red hot flash for you, we can all be the bad guys to someone else. So we need to make peace our personal treasure.

Nothing can be gained when we make a mutual problem someone else’s problem. I exhort everyone reading this blog to remember that blame is deadly – to both parties. The bible says that we are to be ministers of reconciliation, not judgment. Speaking for myself, I not only apologise to others, whether I think it is necessary or not, I also actively ask people I trust: “Do I do this?” We must remember, that feedback from others is really important, sometimes it gets very hard to see around the LOG in your own eye! 😊 So I look at me, first. This means I need to actively revise my own behaviour, and stand back and look at it from a distance. Sin can trip us up, but we have no reason to hide that junk from ourselves, or others – anymore. We have a Saviour! Glory!! 🙌

Actively or inadvertently hiding from reality is tempting but it is also a dead end street. Rather, exposing ourselves to the truth, opens windows and doors into His kingdom. And welcoming His kingdom means welcoming His peace. I have also found that this sort of open, honest attitude, takes time – maybe that is why many people avoid it.😂 In another version of the above verse – Hebrews 12:14 says: “Pursue peace …” I take that to mean – run after it! When, or even if, we cannot hear the Lord clearly – a lack of real peace can often be at the bottom of the matter. We need to value His peace more than we want to make our point or win an argument – or justify behaviour we don’t want to change – no matter how right we seem to be.

Jesus’ peace is not this world’s idea of peace. We can live in HIS peace in the middle of total chaos, because we know Who holds the future! Plus peace is an inside job. Here are some things hubby and I have noticed that show that there are signs of His peace in and over our lives. When people talk to us, they don’t want to stop – strangers tell us their life-stories. That’s a distinct hallmark of Christ within anyone – it is most definitely not our stunning personalities!.🤣 People are attracted to Him. Anyone who does not live in peace actually values it when they experience it, even if they don’t know what it is.

At our house, we are often quite naturally silly and lighthearted – hubby is like that far more than I am – he tells the most woeful dad jokes! 🙄 Laughter is another valuable tool in our fight against losing our peace. It is good to learn to laugh at yourself. I take myself way too seriously at times, and it can border on trying to control the atmosphere. Laughter removes pressure. I think it helps other people relax too, and they feel free to be themselves, because the need to pretend is taken away. Remember, peace is fragile, we must watch over it.

A number of visitors have commented on His peace in our house as they come through our front door. Like I said before, we know it isn’t us! It has to be the Presence of Jesus, because He is the Prince of peace and He is welcome in our home. We value His presence more than we value our rights and opinions. We intentionally make room for Him. Plus when any of us value His peace, which goes right round our minds and soothes our hearts, we can become ambassadors of peace for others. 2 Corinthians 5:20. 👋🏻