Christian

P 2522 Throw away your fear of failure.

/ DVH

I think that we need to tone down our need to learn, and ramp up our doing what we already know! There are times when we’ve measured our Christian faith by our faithfulness in attending church.  However our allegiance, as I said yesterday, is to Christ first – fellowship comes second. We cannot ever afford to let our fear of failure decide what we will and won’t do.

Today it is easy to wander from one church to another – or even not go to church at all anymore – purely because of this conceptual error — “they don’t meet my needs!” I can’t see in the bible where it says the church is meant to meet MY needs. I know there is a verse that says: “My GOD will supply all my needs …” 😳 However we are clearly told not to forsake meeting together. Plus the church is His BODY, so good luck with going somewhere and leaving your hand home!  Meeting together in church is more about loving each other, and/or … learning to love each other!! … than it is about having MY needs met. The essence of the Christian faith is about Him meeting other people’s needs through ME … If we feel we are not up to that then we haven’t been doing our homework again! 

We will fail in our primary mission to reach the world, if all we do is to go to church Sunday by Sunday with a personal expectation that the church is there to meet our needs! When we think like that we start looking for criteria … proof about where they should be meeting our needs and eventually, why they are not doing it. That thought makes church into a support CLUB. Yet the bible says we are an army. Many things seem to be an easy excuse to avoid going out to talk to the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet! That also includes the thought – what if we mess up – and we get it wrong? We have a Saviour Who is a Redeemer! I can personally testify that He can save and transform anybody. We simply need to step into His process with the idea that He cannot, and won’t ever fail! That’s what faith looks like!

That principle of agreement fails us when we apply it to something that needs US to take action. We must deliberately choose to engage in the process of our transformation. I cannot tell you how many times people have said to me: “WelI I prayed about that …!!” As if it is now the Lord’s will or fault when they stay fleshly! He won’t do it for us! As His body we need to make hard choices. Christians go to so much trouble to give the appearance of good, and we seem to have forgotten that we will answer to the Lord, not to the people around us. Let’s remember some people will never hear the gospel if we do not vanquish our personal fears.

Hubby and I have been on the road for Jesus for nearly 19 years. In that time we freely admit that we have done some dumb bunny things. Too many to repeat here! Plus we’ve been tested as a couple over and over again. Living like this has tested our relationship. It’s no fun fighting in the middle of nowhere …  if you don’t drive. I’ve had to learn to swallow my pride, and get on with repentance, plus pray like mad. And sometimes even phone home for prayer as well! 

Boy, all those things will humble you! Especially when you are supposed to be a “missionary” and you have unfortunately swapped your God-given peace for being opinionated! It can get very quiet in our car in those times. Being human is not an excuse to avoid what He told us to do. Read the gospels. Those disciples were pretty ordinary when Jesus sent them out, but they still raised the dead, delivered people from demons and ministered healing!

Hubby and I have also had many learning curves simply because of the difficulties we encounter. Things like packing well so we don’t need something that is right up the back of the car when we get to an overnight destination. We’ve learnt tired people fight easily. That some toilets, beds and lounge suites are always going to be too low for adult people with wonky knees – so get over yourself and stop complaining! A-n-d … petrol will always be expensive. How else will the petroleum executives be able to travel first class everywhere around the world if we are not overcharged? 😂 Plus the accommodation will very rarely look like the photos. Too bad if you believed the pictures … they were taken by someone who crawled right up into the opposite corner of the ceiling. They wanted to make the room look bigger!

On the road, reaching out in His Name has helped me personally find out who I really am. Bonus buy! I can actually look pretty good in my own home, because I can hide my occasional grouchiness there, because … WELL …everything suits me there. But on the road nothing suits me anymore! Boy is that a litmus test. Using your faith stretches you and reveals stuff you don’t know is there. The biggest plus of all is that it throws you back upon the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and challenge you. We need to throw away our fear of failure and just do what He told us to do.  👋

P 2512 Who’s the Boss?

/ DVH

Part of the reason I think that most Christians have lost their free access to the power of God, is because we thought, or hoped, or maybe even prayed, that He would rubber stamp our grand ideas. I think we meant well … we were simply trying to advertise or showcase the goodness of God to those who didn’t believe. However, the power of God resides in every word that comes out of His mouth. Not our mouth – or even our head! If the Lord kisses an individual’s idea, then that person needs to start praising Him for His goodness toward them. He is under no obligation to do that. Even our faith comes from Him! 

God’s utterly kind consideration of mankind started in the garden. That’s where Eve came from – His kindness. After all, Almighty God was there with Adam in the cool of the evening, so he was not always alone!  Yet the Lord knew man needed someone who was the same, but different. God Himself saw and said:“It is not good for man to be alone …” Nothing is hidden from His sight, not even our needs. He is so good to us that He pays attention to every single detail. Which is why I am happy to say that if I don’t got it, then I don’t need it!

Read the bible carefully for yourself, and find somewhere where a man told God what to do, and how to do it, and it happened. “No one can tell God what to do or accuse Him of doing evil. He has always been praised for what He does; you also must praise Him.”Job 36:23-25. I found in my search for such a man, that Abraham bargained with God for Lot, and the city of Sodom and Gomorrah and God graciously listened. And Jonah was as cheeky as a man can get, but His attitude did not stop what God wanted to happen from happening – Nineveh was saved! And still God reasoned with that man. Moses ended up talking to Pharaoh even though he told God he couldn’t speak. The Lord let Aaron speak until Moses grew into the job! Our God can take a maladjusted man and make him into a great leader – He did that with Gideon. But with all these great men, Almighty God’s hand held them up!

The great Patriarchs in the Old Testament, knew enough to work with the Lord under His instructions. Moses knew the value of listening to Him and doing things the way God said. So much so, this great man refused to move forward without Him! These men, who had wisdom and understanding, as well as an established relationship with God, often learnt that kind of obedience by utterly messing up their lives first. Moses killed someone. Abraham treated Sarah like a bag of candy – he passed her around to save his life a number of times. Even Job learnt WHO is in charge the hard way. It is, I believe, an enormous error to think that we can organise God to do things our way.

Oh! If we could only enjoy what we have been given! He is a God unlike any other, Who watches over us, comes to live in us, came to earth to save us, and deeply cares about every single little detail in our lives. Independence is overrated! Total dependence upon the Spirit of the Living God is to be appropriated and cherished forever. Amen!

Sadly, submission is not a popular topic in this world – human beings are incredibly busy fighting for their own rights. Everybody  thinks if they yell loud enough and make a good enough logical case that things should change in their favour. I cannot imagine anything more frustrating or fruitless than going along banging into the Lord’s will, and getting up and doing it again! We show our ignorance and lack of maturity when we start to think that being saved means we are the boss now. WE do not have the omniscience and omnipotence of Almighty God – Who knows the end from the beginning … and all the bits in between.

Having said that: we can, and we should command the things of this world that are out of order to come into order – but that needs to be HIS order, not ours. I think that is why Jesus rebuked His disciples in Luke  “…  but the people there did not welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” *But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then He and His disciples went to another village.” Luke 9:53-56.

In another version it says that like this: *“Jesus turned about and rebuked them, saying, You know not what manner of spirit you are of. The Son of man has not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” It is plain from reading the book that we cannot be trusted with that kind of power. Mostly, because we don’t know if we are in the Spirit or not, half the time! Yet those men watched, walked, slept and ate, for three and a half years with Jesus Christ, God’s Son. And they still said and did the dumbest things!! Using our own understanding got us into this mess in the first place. The most blessed place to live is the place of freely submitting to His will. Like I said: Independence is overrated!

Who is the boss? Here’s a verse to think about:“Why do you call Me LORD, and you don’t do the things I say?”

Luke 6:46. 👋🏻

P 2504 NEVER underestimate the power in forgiveness.

/ DVH

When we forgive others, especially if and when they don’t deserve it …  this means we are His disciples, we are following Jesus. Plus we are living in obedience to the Lord’s commandment to “…love one another ...”  The idea that we cannot forgive people is a lie, it’s from the pit. However, forgiveness is not lip-service. It is a promise that I won’t hold whatever has happened against you again. That’s the WAY Christ forgave us!

Jesus Christ released all the power we will ever need to overcome sin, sickness and the devil from the cross. However, we cannot successfully walk in that power without cultivating a relationship with the Holy Spirit. We receive the power to be transformed, when we receive and welcome Him into our lives. Unforgiveness is not an option to us! This process will kill off the old man in us.

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All power in heaven and on earth is given to Me…” Matthew 28:18 “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to MEN.” Matthew 9:6-8. “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” Luke 10:19. “But you will receive power and ability when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses [to tell people about Me] both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.” Acts:1:8. The very foundation stone of God’s kingdom is forgiveness!

Forgiving people means you are releasing His power, and His Grace into that situation. It is no different than healing a headache or raising the dead. These things take choices, together with His Grace, particularly if the other person/s have deliberately and consistently hurt you. But Jesus died to give us that power. Now the power of His incredible forgiveness has been released all over this earth – it cannot be stopped! “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you shall retain, are retained.” John 20:23. 

Unfortunately we also have power from Him to continue to hold people right where they are. If we don’t forgive them, then they will be stuck. Because sin separates humanity from God – the only way to remedy that is to release His Grace into someone else’s life. Maybe they will change, maybe they will not – they have a free will. However we will be changed by doing it –  we will no longer be held captive by other people’s sins. We have been given the power to speak GRACE and LIFE into others. We cannot walk in the power of the risen Christ unless we live in the land of constant forgiveness -.His  kingdom!

Unforgiveness is the Christian’s Kryptonite. It renders us weak, powerless, helpless and hopeless — those things are the exact opposite of everything Jesus died to give us. It literally is like this — unforgiveness nails one foot to the floor and the person goes round and round and round – getting nowhere. If you have noticed you are going nowhere spiritually – ask the Lord:  “Who do I need to forgive?”

I am not talking about chasing rabbit trails, I am talking about anybody in your life that makes you grit your teeth, or want to go hide in a cupboard. Anybody you see as hurting you, or being stronger than you are, is oppressing you. We cannot be oppressed when we are choosing His Ways – our choice to live differently frees us. Now, today, we’ve already been taken out of this world’s kingdom, and translated into the kingdom of His marvellous light. Other people can only hold us captive with our permission.

This is why we need to choose between anger and revenge – and peace and grace. People have been free inside in the worst prisons, because “… those whom the Son has set free shall be free indeed.” The first port of call we have in any given situation is forgiveness. Park there. Don’t move from that spot. I have been forgiving some people who can’t see me at all, yet they think they know me. Unfortunately they have kept right on hurting me for 70+ years – it is possible to forgive in the presence of persecution. The people who practice forgiveness are kingdom people.

Meanwhile, FYI, hating, hurting, manipulating or controlling others is not Godly. When a Christian lives like that, it is a sign that they have not yet had a revelation about the freedom they have been given to choose to live in His kingdom! They are valuing the enemy’s usurped pitiful power, over the real power Jesus gave us freely. Real power CREATES, it does not destroy! It is far more powerful to forgive. Those ugly things in anyone’s life will suck every single bit of joy, peace, and holiness out of our lives like a straw drains a milkshake! Those things destroy families.

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16. Never underestimate the POWER of forgiveness. 👋🏻.

P 2502 Watch out for that big tick!

/ DVH

Parable of the Speck and The Log – Matthew 7:1-5 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Today I want to talk about the reality of not being able to see straight, because we are living with a plank in our own eye! I think that these verses are a fantastic diagnostic tool. When I can’t see properly spiritually speaking, then I go to these verses and I ask questions like: “Who am I mad at Lord?” Or “What am I putting up with that is weighing me down?” Or “Who am I judging?” That last question is a pip, I totally, like ne-v-er enjoy the answer to that one. On a bad day I can actually get a list. Sigh. I think Jesus wants to remind us about how easy it is to try to correct others – and yet our own lives are out of order!

Meanwhile just imagine how a plank in anyone’s eye would weigh them down! You know, sometimes maybe that heaviness that Christians can feel, isn’t enemy attack — maybe it’s our plank collection! 😱 One of the greatest dangers of the Christian faith happens when we read verses like these, and agree with it and do nothing. We put a big tick on it, without checking out our own lives, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance first! Here’s an idea, let’s not excuse ourselves, let’s just repent and get on with it!

Lately, a lot of the time I can barely remember what I did, yesterday, or even said, two minutes ago! 🤪 But I do consider it to be extremely dangerous to excuse myself without checking with the One Who knows me better than I know myself! Sadly, with all this hot weather I’ve been getting my crank-on at the drop of a hat. Sigh. There is nothing like turning up the heat to show up any weakness in a vessel! 

Actually I think maybe the real reason I want to deal with that speck in your eye, is called distraction. A bit like a magician who wants you to look over here while he is doing something else over there! You see, if I look in your eye that helps me to feel like I am doing OK, and perhaps actually getting somewhere. At the same time I don’t have to pay attention to that very large thing that is smack in the way of me seeing my life clearly, because after all, I’m helping YOU!

To be honest with you, the other reason I am pretty sure I don’t like looking in my own eye is because if I actually decide to see what’s in there … then I have to do something about it! Human beings aren’t fussed about being wrong, or even being seen to be wrong – we like to think we are grown-ups now and we know everything. Yeah right. 🙄 Us people can make an art form out of avoidance and evasion. These verses in Matthew expose our hearts, as well as our lack of sight.

There are times that we can get so caught up in proving ourselves not guilty – we totally miss the fact that we can’t possibly see straight enough, let alone help anyone else! At the same time we will immediately become deaf, as well as being partially blind, because the precious Holy Spirit doesn’t like judgment – so He moves away from us. Then, if we are not mindful, we will start to hear our voice over whatever the Holy Spirit is saying to us. Our own voice protects us and our own personal agendas – above His. None of that stuff is a good – trust me.

So I decided that being spiritually deaf and not being able to see properly is a cue, and now I use it as a prompt. I start out by asking: ‘Who am I mad at Lord? etc.” You know, that is so much quicker than going the other… I can’t hear OR see the Lord anymore… route. I decided to ditch the big tick and go straight to repentance and conviction. It’s not fun – but I highly recommend it. We all spend way too much of our time blaming other people for our own sins. Did you notice that the Speaker in Matthew is not speaking illustratively – He is being SPECIFIC.  Perhaps this is a far more of a generic problem than we realise? The bible does say that sin is common to all of us.

The reality is, by the time I have gotten rid of my plank collection, I’m hardly ever concerned about what is in your eye anymore! Your short-comings seem a bit minor in comparison to the major reconstruction that I just went through. My desire to walk with Him, outweighs any desire I have to avoid change.

So I’m ditching the big tick … ✔️ method, in favour of letting the Holy Spirit walk me through His processes. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2501 Keep in step with the Holy Spirit.

/ DVH

There is one sort-of-kind-of good thing about making mistakes – it is a great leveller. I can’t look down on you, you can’t look down on me, be-cau-se … we are actually in the same boat!  “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to ALL who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and ALL are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”Romans 3:22-24. I am utterly crazy about that word ‘ALL.’ 🥳 I don’t have to compare myself with you, I simply need to pour my love and energies into walking with the One Who saved me. What we have now, praise you Jesus … is the fellowship – the friendship of the Holy Spirit to help us. Don’t leave home without HIM!

Every single human being is included by that little word “all.” The idea is not to waste your energy over what you have done wrong – repent, and then repair – and then go on to focus on walking with Him, by staying in the light. When you wake up, ask Him to walk with you today. Ask Him to check you if you wander out of His light. Our God loves our obedience. Personally, I have observed He is so sweet and kind, He loves it even when we try – failure is not the issue – continuity is. Even when you are falling asleep at the end of the day – repent and repair, and then embrace Him.

I think the Christian life is hardest for perfectionists. When you give these dear people a list of stuff they could or should do or be, or even not be, they drive themselves batty trying to hit the mark every single time. And they beat themselves up when they don’t. I wanna grab them by the shoulders, and say: “Mate, where’s your faith? Just stay in the light. Confess your sin, let Him wash you and stay in the light of the Holy Spirit. He’s perfect – YOU ain’t …”  Striving produces either defeat or pride.

There are works that James mentions in chapter 2 of his book. These kinds of works begin and end in faith – not our own effort. So we ask ourselves, what we are focussing on right now? If the only thing we are focussing on is getting things right, then we’ve missed the point. Our focus is to be on following the Holy Spirit everywhere, prayerfully discerning what Jesus wants. Living this life with an unreachably high standard cannot eliminate us from God’s love – it will just make our lives appallingly hard – and then we will give up on ourselves, and walking with Him, too soon.

Surrendering to Him is the key. When I live this life surrendered to His will, I give up my will and place it under the direction of SomeOne else – Jesus Christ! He proved how much He loved me when He died in my place. At the same time I am believing, despite my circumstances, that the Person I have surrendered everything to – is trustworthy. That’s the daily battle we fight. DO WE TRUST HIM to do what He said He will do?“Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please Him …” we need to stop hoping faith will fall on us, or God will give us a sign, and simply act on our faith. Faith will give what we do substance.

Because Jesus has already been punished for my sins I do not have to be afraid of being wrong. Our Lord is a Redeemer – He works miracles with very little!  He can take 5 fish and 2 little loaves of bread and feed thousands.   Instead I want the Holy Spirit to make His word personal to me, while I am reading it. That’s why I talk so much about reading the bible. We need to have the Word of God flowing in and out of our lives. To do that, it needs to be present in our minds and hearts. The Holy Spirit will use His word to check us when we move away from what He wants.

Finally, I want to remind you that this is what Father God says in the book about any flaws in us. ““You are altogether beautiful, my love;there is no flaw in you.“- Song of Solomon 4:7. That’s what we look like now, because of the blood of Jesus over our lives. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:8–9. Well there’s a hallelujah!

OH, if we would only let go of our preconceived, or even badly taught notions, that our God is limited by who we are and what we do, and use our energy to learn to walk with the Holy Spirit instead!  The bible says: “Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and outstretched arm; and there is nothing too hard for Thee.” Did you get that? Nothing!!  You and I are not too hard for God – He has already dealt with our sin. 

Meanwhile comparing ourselves with ourselves, and others, is a waste of time.  Let the Word of God live in you, by acting on it. And remember our destiny is to keep in step with the Holy Spirit! 👋🏻

P 2497 Even our motives need to be purified.

/ DVH

“I just want to obey all You ask of me. So teach me, Lord, for You are my God. Your gracious Spirit is all I need, so lead me on good paths that are pleasing to You, my one and only God!” Psalms 143:10 TPT. 

What a wealth of faith, hope, and love has gone on in this life, before any of us arrived here! This morning I was overwhelmed by thoughts of the wonderful saints of God who have died, and now they are singing their hearts out around the throne! You and I are standing on everything these incredibly faithful people have contributed in the past – because of their devotion to the Lord and the things they have said, and done, and written down. Their example is our platform. These men, women and children have gone on to their reward, leaving behind a legacy of faith in Christ for us. 

Maybe there have been incredible saints in our own personal lives who shared what they knew with us, so that we too can know the reality of His love. Mothers, Fathers, Aunts, and Uncles and Grandparents etc. all sorts of relatives who made faith choices, and stuck by their choices through thick and thin – giving us individual platforms to stand on. Many of them chose a life of service over popularity and fame. And now it is our turn. We have the opportunity to serve and obey Him, and glorify Him, through our little lives so we can pass an even deeper legacy onto our children. 

I love the attitude of the Psalmist David, in the scripture written above. There is great humility in what he said. “I just want to obey all you ask Lord … so teach me …”  King David had the most incredible heart. How amazing that this passionate, loving, shepherd boy kept on writing Psalms, and kept on documenting his life with God, right up until the end of that life. I know he also failed and sinned, and he betrayed the trust the Lord had put in him – don’t we all! But the bible indicates that at this time, when he wrote this Psalm, he was in one of the hardest times of his life. His much-loved adult son, was betraying him – yet he still maintains his soft heart, which is quick to repent.

David’s son, Absalom despised his father, because he had not sought or learnt the faith of his father.  This younger man was lobbying and doing all he could to replace David as king. As we read the entire Psalm we find that David is yet again, in turmoil, overwhelmed with yet another different kind of sorrow and broken-heartedness. But David knows the only Person Who can get him through the incredible pain of betrayal in his shattered heart, is the Lord Himself. What a lesson God has taught this man! The first place and the only Person we need to turn to in times of trouble, is the One Who has shared this ordinary life by living among us.

There is such wisdom in knowing where our help comes from! I don’t know about you, but I have lived in the ‘phone-a-friend-because-the-ceiling-has-fallen-in-on-me’ vein for years and years. My help was sort-of-kind-of in somebody else. I was looking for a person, someone I could see and hear more easily. Someone who would buddy me through any pain and heartbreak until it was over. I wasn’t interested in growth, I just wanted relief from pain.

Our Christian families, church, or otherwise, are the biggest blessing — but they are not meant to be a substitute for a relationship with God Himself. This personal relationship with Jesus Christ is our highest calling. Yet one of the paradoxes of Christianity is that we often deeply feel the need to have someone next to us, someone with skin on – someone who will pat our hand and tell us that God will get us through … whatever it is…   And we miss the opportunity to identify something that David himself, understood. OUR GOD IS ALWAYS WITH US.

At the same time, I am personally guilty of trying to be all things to everybody, so I can help others in any way I can, and some of the time I mess that up badly. Everyone misses out, including me!! There have also been times where I tried so hard to impart my faith to my immediate family that I know I got in the Lord’s way. I have never wanted fame or such, but I have definitely been guilty of wanting to leave a legacy behind me. That’s when I realised I desperately needed to have my motives purified. King David had a pure heart that was devoted to Almighty God above everything else. 

This man was tested in ways that appall me, yet he stood fast. He repented quickly, accepted any consequences of his wrong actions, and moved right back into leaning on God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. I truly pray that my motives are pure toward the Lord. The mind is a funny thing, it hides things it doesn’t like from itself … Today, I want to remind myself that I want my motivation to be like David’s, trusting in God’s wisdom and strength to get me through whatever comes next. Bye. 👋

P 2478 So here we are again!

/ DVH

That dratted clock keeps on ticking, it never stops – it’s inevitable. And here we go again, yet another New Year looming at us. Hilariously, the Lord said to me: “At least you are still alive to complain about it!” (Yes I repented.) Let’s all pray 2024 is a kinder year everywhere, including world-wide to those who are suffering terribly.

Have you noticed how dead-set easy it is to be distracted from the reason that we are all still breathing and occupying space and time? Almost every single day now something else crashes or explodes, or gets worse and suddenly a terrible disaster looms. I have a theory … these things happen to keep us distracted from the main thing. The main thing is living the only life we have here on earth for Jesus’ sake, no matter the cost and no matter what is going on currently! Some of our situations offer opportunities for each one of us to show loving care, forgiveness and compassion toward others who probably don’t deserve it, but this is the way we have chosen to live! 

Things are happening in all our lives that threaten our day-to-day sense of well-being. Finances are not just tight they are almost non-existent, people have become sick and despite fervent prayer and good treatment they are not getting better. Marriages are under great pressure. Kids are becoming increasingly disobedient and lawless. It is as if despair is wandering around our streets looking for places to land.

Everything and anything is happening to destroy our HOPE in HIM. The bible says that …”hope does not disappoint” so if our hope leads to disappointment, then it is not HIS hope. Perhaps we are investing in our own comfort or passions, like James says. Personally I’ve found the Lord doesn’t change some things because He wants ME to change instead! How can we learn to be strong and courageous if we do not face opposition? How can we overcome sin, the world and the devil, if everything is aways easy. These are the days of Hebrews 12:5-8 …

“And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son.”Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.”

You know when we resist the devil then he must flee, so if he does not flee then … perhaps we have need of endurance! If our enemy has something to stand on, then he can and will torment anyone. I am not into defending that guy, but we can end up blaming him for a lotta stuff that has yet to be redeemed in our own lives. We excuse things that will totally shoot us in the foot, and we can easily make room for wrong attitudes and actions and explain them away … Yet we keep score about other people’s sins against us. There are times that we may as well write an invitation to our enemy and say ‘come on in.’

The things in the bible are not written in there as suggestions. If we keep holding onto unforgiveness, then the tormentor will turn up!! Those things that we are avoiding confronting in our own lives, are keeping us from real faith. Our enemy is a legalist – he knows where we are truly trusting, and where we are just pretending. he will string us along chasing impossible dreams of perfect trouble-free lives. People are not perfect, they have flaws. We all do!  But real faith has substance. That means when it operates you can see it! It is not airy-fairy pie-in-the-sky-when-we-die stuff … Faith is designed to permeate and saturate every single aspect of our lives. Our God did not say we would not have troubles — He promised He would deliver us out of all of them! You know to get out, you have to be IN, first!

His book is filled with promises, but the greatest promise of all is that our God is good. If whatever is happening is not good then it is not God … grab hold of the bible and resist it. Then ask and keep on asking Him for a way out. Ask the Lord to show you if there is something you need to personally learn or change in your life. Keep short accounts because resentment and bitterness are prowling about – but God promised us goodness and mercy would follow us all the days of our lives! We need to let PEACE be our umpire… not our feelings. Simply because we are here again – let’s make 2024 the best year yet, spiritually – His Grace is sufficient to help us. Bye 🥳

P 2477 No, we may not be excused …

/ DVH

There are 3237 characters mentioned by name in the bible – in a cast of tens of thousands. In the New Testament, Peter; James; John; Andrew; Philip; Judas Iscariot; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alpheus; Bartholomew; Judas Thaddeus; and Simon Zelotes — all of these men were named disciples of Jesus. These men He handpicked – yet the last four are relatively unknown. My point is – we don’t have to have a public face, to obey what Jesus said…

All the books in the New Testament were written by only 9 different men. Sadly we’d rather argue about who wrote what, than talk to someone else about Jesus! BTW, FYI, 13 of the books in the New Testament are accredited to Paul. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote the gospels and Luke and John also wrote books that were included in the Epistles. Well now, isn’t that a nice bunch of figures??!! What did I put all those in there for? Hang on the point is coming …you definitely don’t have to be famous to live for Jesus!! 😂 Anybody can do it. It’s the way you think, not eloquence or importance. People have been getting this backward for years. We left reaching the lost to the evangelists, and forgot our part. 

70 million Christians have died or been martyred since Jesus left this earth to go back to heaven. More than half of those have been martyred in the past 130 years. Population-wise, approximately 109,000,000,000 people, have died since Jesus’ time. Yes that is a lot of noughts and, no, I did not make a mistake – 109 billion people! Unfortunately Christianity is not growing at the same rate the world’s population is growing. So, to my next point for today … it doesn’t look like we are winning does it??

Of the approximately 8 billion people on the earth, right now, 3.40 billion of them live in unreached people groups with little or no access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Nobody has gone and preached the gospel to them! Brother Everybody-in-church-knows-my-name the famous evangelist, would have to be cloned to reach that many people. So what on earth is going on? Why is this so?? Here’s my little hypothesis…

John and Betty are a typical Christian couple who raised 2.5 kids and they go their local church, every single Sunday. They also go to bible study, and prayer groups during the week. Betty helps care for the poor every other week. Sadly when they prayed for John’s mum, she died — which kind of dented their faith a little but they know Jesus and keep on keeping on. Their faith is wobbly but not gone. Unfortunately, John does not make enough money to raise their standard of living. He feels bad about that. He feels like he is ‘letting the team down.’ After all, isn’t it a Christian’s job to set a good example of what Christianity can do for someone’s life? 😳 ???

Well, Jesus Himself seems to have had quite a different opinion – He just said go, and He wasn’t specific about WHO should go! “As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” Matthew 10:7-8. The words AS YOU GO… are a big clue to what He wants! “And He (Jesus)said to them (His disciples – aren’t WE disciples?), “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”Mark 16:15; Luke 14:23;  Matthew 28:19-20;  and Acts 1:7-8. If repetition counts then Jesus was extremely serious about this instruction.

As you can see from all those facts and figures I’ve jotted down above, there are very few people in recorded history, in the bible that we know by NAME. Which is the best clue we are ever going to get that God intends for John and Betty … as well as the rest of us … to simply obey what we were told. Hubby has had a specific instance of being called, I go because Jesus said to do it in the book!

I’ve been ‘going’ for 50 years one way or another. Even when I was backslidden I was still witnessing. We are to ‘go’ simply because HE said it. Where do we go?? To the shops, to the supermarket, on your holidays, in the schools, visiting the elderly or the sick, and sometimes even at your church. Because even there, people may not know that Jesus saved them from a life of sin and death!! 

Before I was saved, I went to a church for 3 months and people thought I was saved because I could pray out loud. That’s a personality thing, not a salvation thing – I didn’t have a clue about Jesus saving me! We don’t have to be famous to preach the gospel … all we need to be is willing! If we say we are His disciples then we have no excuse! Simply carry His Presence with you, and the Holy Spirit will do the work for you. It is scary but it ain’t rocket science. Bye 👋🏻

“Those who cling to their lives will give up true life. But those who let go of their lives for My sake and surrender it all to Me will discover true life!” Matthew 10:39.

P 2476 Ruth.

/ DVH

Ruth 1:9-17 “May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”Then she (Naomi) kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?  Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” Then Ruth uttered one of the loveliest lines reported in the bible,  But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

Naomi did all that she could to send these two young women back to their homes… but logic wasn’t the tool of the day – FAITH WAS!  Orpah returned to her homeland, but Ruth chose to stay with her mother-in-law. That just blows my mind. Think about it… one person turns back to the familiar and the household of their birth, and the other is activated and presses on into faith. Every step Ruth took after her decision to stay with Naomi, was one of faith.

Everybody loves the book of Ruth, it is a brilliant, inspiring, redemptive story about the power of God to redeem every type of human condition, and transform difficult situations for everybody’s good. The stars of this story were quite clearly not anybody fame-worthy.  But God, took an older lady whose faith had taken a battering, and a younger one who didn’t have much to look forward to, and put them smack in the middle of His-story and they didn’t even know it.

Boy is that saying heaps!! This is what the Christian life is like, it is a series of choices and we cannot always see the results. And some of them don’t seem all that significant when we make them! But Orpah’s choice separated her from a totally different destiny. She leaves the story at this point, and we don’t know what came next for her. Maybe she married again too, and had a very nice life … but there is more to this life than safety! There is courage, and innovation and freedom and the future to be fought for and won.

Our heroine Ruth starts out by being poor and having to scrounge for food, but eventually she finds a new husband, by following instructions, and by using her faith! She even has a family, when she thought that opportunity had passed her by. And she ends up being Jesus great great great great great great etc.etc. GRANDMOTHER. This story is so rich in spiritual imagery. Ruth chose to follow Naomi and use her faith and love for this older woman to move on, she seized the adventure as it unfolded before them both. Everything Naomi told that young woman to do, she did – she trusted and then she acted.

I’m starting to believe a lack of inspiration to be spiritually mature, is part of the problem today, particularly with many Western Christians. Plus we’ve all stopped being pilgrims. We seem have lost our sense of adventure. Instead of striking out in our little boats for foreign shores … stretching our faith and watching the Lord protect, provide and lead us … we’ve become settlers.

Settlers can’t wait to have a family, get a house and earn a living! BTW, we don’t need more pastors – we need more missionaries, at home and abroad!  People who leave comfort behind to make sure that others find out about Jesus. Surely we were born again for bigger things than normal! Our biggest claim to faith, these days, seems to be whether the Lord gave us the spouse/car/family/job we wanted! 

Pilgrims and pioneers press on, always believing there is more. More to know about Him, more to learn about themselves and others. Meanwhile we don’t have to go to the darkest places on the earth to become pioneers. We can reach unreached people groups in the alleys and doorways of our own cities! Or our offices, or schools, or at the shops. Pioneers are people with more than a dream – they are people of action. Ruth made a choice and she did not turn back. After all, she was not Jewish she was a Moabite, and yet God provided for her … all because of her obedience and loyalty. 

The Lord loves loyalty. Loyalty is more than an attitude, it is the way we live. Ruth is a wonderful example of a woman who could easily have seen her life as being over … instead she decided to take her chances in an unknown land. Today I want to leave you with yet another one of my icky questions …where have all the home-grown missionaries gone? Bye 👋🏻 

P 2457 There is no system.

/ DVH

“But give reverent honour in your hearts to the Anointed One and treat Him as the holy Master of your lives. And if anyone asks about the hope living within you, always be ready to explain your faith.” 1 Peter 3:15 TPT

The truth is, it is your faith, and no-one else can explain it. One of the marvellous things about living for Jesus is that your own personal story has worth. It doesn’t matter if your life was changed when were sitting about at your house, glancing through the bible and some verse or other struck you as truth … or you were pole-axed by God in the middle of a service. Whatever you have to say about how you came to know Christ is what someone else needs to hear.

That is the marvellous thing about following Jesus, your story, is your shared story … with Him! And no-one else can negate it. After all our God is so incredibly complexly big that He can hand-pick the people who need to hear that story from you – at any time He wants it to happen. Meanwhile, we cannot afford to make the Gospel anything else but personal. It’s very personal. It changed our lives.

In our churches there have been many systems, that may have started with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but they’ve wandered off into the land of ‘this is what we think and what suits us.’ Maybe the Lord isn’t kissing that sort of outreach the way He kissed it in the beginning. That, BTW, does not mean the systems are bad, they are just not what He is saying and doing today. This can also mean that our testimonies etc. are forced, or memorised, instead of being natural and relaxed. 

Talking about Jesus to a stranger, or even a family member, should not be a tremendous strain, or even a bit terrifying. They.Will.Notice.That! … And then there is a distinct possibility whatever you say can be dismissed as doctrine or brain-washing, instead of the new life you have inside your heart.

In Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 13 there is this scripture: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” I think that this scripture holds just as true today, as it did back in the time of Jeremiah. We have made systems (cisterns) to hold the water of the Holy Spirit and because the systems are not good containers … they are after all, man-made …they’ve become broken and less effective. When we talk to others it needs to be natural, not choreographed.

The bible says: “…open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” Psalm 81:10. My point is this, as we relax and simply share what He has done in our lives — we will get to know the Holy Spirit so much better, and we will become familiar with His ways. Especially as we lean our faith on Him to help us talk to others. The best prayer ever if we are stuck, is: “Help!” Then you simply start to tell that other person what you’ve seen and known of Jesus personally in your own life. Whether you talk about healing, or how much the bible has meant to you, or how your life has been changed.

Just be yourself. Lean on the fact that He loves you with an immeasurable, unchanging eternal love and simply talk about Him. Whatever you say is up to you, it can be long or short. It doesn’t matter. However, if the person’s eyes glaze over then it’s time to bail out… quickly! 😂 Like I said, be yourself. Talk about Jesus like He lives at your house and you know Him – because He does live at your house and you do know Him! Nobody can argue with the man with a personal experience. They might think you are nuts, but worse things have happened. Move on …

We honour Jesus when we talk about Him and what He is doing, or has done, in our lives. Even using His lovely Name with reverence is exalting Him. Some people ignorantly use His Name as a swear word, imagine how blessed He is to hear His Name on our lips praising His goodness! 

Be like the blind man in John 9:25“He answered and said, Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” That’s a testimony! We‘overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.” This man had a simple testimony and he gave it when he was asked a question.

We all have a testimony, and our testimonies cannot be refuted. The thing is, these testimonies have power in them. The Grace of God has kissed our lives, and when we talk about it to someone else, that Grace is released all over again to touch them. They may punch us on the nose, or walk away muttering, OR throw up their hands and say: “I want that!” Meh! The results are always up to Him. There is no system. Bye. 👋🏻