Christians

P 2648 There is no instant reward.

/ DVH

OR… how I have been learning to love somebody His way. Someone who drove me crazy! There’s been an important person in my life that I couldn’t live without, and yet they literally drove me nuts. I have been so angry with them! They had a terrible effect on my wellbeing, first I’d cry, then I’d start ranting and raving, then I’d cry some more – mainly because I felt bad about the raving and ranting bit! Please note, I’ve used the past tense … but I am very aware that I can’t afford to be complacent about this issue!

One of the hardest things to do is to love somebody who is difficult. People who are dangerous and hurtful in our eyes. I secretly hoped the offender would move, and go and live far, far away. Then I was utterly condemned because Christians aren’t supposed to be like that! SoI repented until I was blue in the face, but this person continually kept jumping all over my heart… This situation is like an awful ride — you never want to get on, because you know you will hate it and go round and round, but you can’t easily get off either! In the past I used to get my hopes up that things were changing, and then the other person went and did something worse and I felt even more betrayed.

My bible-based learning curve started like this:  I was complaining to the Lord about how misunderstood and cheated I felt whenever I was around this individual. I tried to love them, I really did! I did nice things to please them and then they said or did something worse, and I sank back into anger and despair, adding to my failure. The list of their faults and infringements just kept getting bigger. There was no way of permanently pleasing them. It took me a while to realise that I needed to leave pleasing them behind, and start living to please God! 

I asked the Lord why He thought I had to have that person in my life. And this is what He said: “You asked me to help you to learn to love the way I love, and this person is your opportunity to learn!” Did you ever pray something when your heart was all soft and mushy at the altar, then afterward wish you hadn’t? Me too! I’d prayed He would change my response to this person – yet in the middle of the daily scrum I failed. I still wanted to punch out their lights! I was desperate, because I truly wanted to obey Him … but it seemed like I just couldn’t. My whole concept of LOVE God’s Way was wrong. I kept trying so hard, but my thoughts and emotions let me down. I needed to let go and follow instructions.

Then the Holy Spirit, my Resident Expert, said this: “You see giving someone else love, is a reward for their good behaviour. I see loving others as simply living in the River of Life. It’s always your choice, whether you live in that River or not. You are angry with this person because they hurt you. They bring out the very worst in your own attitudes. Actually, they are doing you a favour, because this is a fault in you that you can’t see, and their actions have brought that fault into the light.”

He was right. Duh! … I saw God’s love as FEELINGS not as a guideline for life. The thing is you can follow guidelines, it’s simple. You just follow the instructions – no feelings involved. When I consulted my feelings, I didn’t feel anything but anger, disappointment and disdain toward this person, so I didn’t think I had any love left. That’s when I did the smartest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I gave up! And I asked Him to show me how He loved people, whether they were nice or not!  I began re-reading the Gospels. 

As I read about how the Lord was treated I noticed that very few people actually appreciated Him! They wanted stuff from Him all the time, but He didn’t get many ‘grateful hugs,’ that’s for sure! He operated His whole earthly life under a different system. He was not interested in “What’s in it for Me?’’ He was far more interested in – “What can I do for you?” So I switched my focus from getting to giving. I asked Him: “How can I possibly bless this person?” Loving people God’s way is about how we choose to treat people, it is not about how they treat us. People cannot steal our emotional and mental health when what we are doing is OUR deliberate choice!

The Lord gave me some helpful hints:  “Don’t do a revision of how your time with this person went after you leave them. Give it all to Me, and leave it with Me. Continue on asking Me to help you love them. Then stop constantly bringing up why you are annoyed with them. Remain silent in the face of adversity.” Did you know we can talk ourselves into bad stuff? Neither did I! “The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.” Matthew 12:37. 

Lastly, He said: “Let Me define HOW you love them. You think love is about you, because it makes you feel good. Loving others is about them, not you.” Through this time I discovered that loving difficult people means we give up the right to get any reward for doing right. So I took my ‘feelings’ – good or bad, back, and I stopped trying to feel loved by them. I simply chose to obey HIM and obey His instructions.👋

P 2632 Will you yield?

/ DVH

When I hear that sentence I am transported back to the days of knights and quests etc. I can see some big guy in an overgrown sardine tin suit pointing a lance at some poor peasant’s chest, and the victor is giving the man a chance to continue living.  As I went looking for a picture to use in today’s blog, I discovered that there seems to be an exciting video game – ‘Aerial Knight.’ And the theme of the game is – WE WILL NEVER YIELD. 

Yeah, well that explains a lot! No wonder there is so much suspicion, rebellion and anger floating about in this world. Many people are stuck in an angry stage – they’ve never made it into reconciliation. The whole point of Christianity is yielding! The thing is, now all that ugly internal stuff is outside where we can see it. It seems we took off all the pretty bows, plus the sparkly paper we’ve used to hide a whole lot of garbage, and there is no hiding now from how truly selfish and wilful we really are. 

Jesus Christ has set us an incredible example. He voluntarily gave up His life on mankind’s behalf! Nobody pointed a sword or even an uzi at Him to get Him to do it either. That’s been a huge problem in the church, over the years – in the past, and it still happens today … The church at large has used blackmail, guilt, oppression and misrepresentation to push and manoeuvre people into compliance. Meanwhile, if you don’t happen to like what your group says, then it’s OK to vote with your feet and …go over there. Those people think like I do, so I will be much happier with people like you. 😳 

Christians move churches like other people change their undies, because they can’t agree with what the previous church’s pastor said!  Lunacy!! Where’s that in the bible? Where does it tell us to shop around until we find somewhere we will want to go to church, because it will make US comfortable? Jesus isn’t remotely concerned about our comfort! He will always comfort us, and He helps us to comfort others – but making us happy by saying things we will like and approve of is not on. 

Read the book! The Lord Jesus made everyone around Him uncomfortable by what He said and what He did. It was almost His life-theme – right after redemption that is. He loved upending wrong concepts. I think He is saying:  WILL YOU YIELD? Today. Will you and I voluntarily lay down our lives, the only ones we have? I mean that life that we’ve so  carefully and neatly planned, and put aside our agendas and plans, to live this life HIS way? 

“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, Lord my God, are the wonders You have done, the things You planned for us. None can compare with You;  were I to speak and tell of Your deeds, they would be too many to declare.” Psalm 40:4&5&V8:“I desire to do Your will, my God; Your law is within my heart.”

You know, if we think this life is all about our comfort then we definitely aren’t spending enough time with Him! God doesn’t want us to be happy MORE than HE WANTS US TO BE… HIS! The God Who made you and I, is looking for volunteers, but He’s not above giving us a bit of a shove to get us there. He will even push us from behind if necessary! Think about Jonah, or Moses, or Jeremiah.  Pick someone in this book that doesn’t get their life turned on its head by following and listening to Almighty God. You can’t can you?? However, we can limit an omnipresent, omnipotent, almighty God simply by thinking about Him, and His Word, from our human POV. 

Jesus came here to show us what God is like. He chose to become one of us to reveal the Father’s heart to us and then He chose to die to make it possible for us to belong.. He followed His Father’s plan! If He can do it then so can we. In that time He exhibited love like we could not imagine. The Lord talked to and healed people that nobody else would touch. He dealt with demons like they were dandelions. And at the same time, He was totally devoted and dedicated to His Father’s will. Jesus did everything He did, His Father’s way to show us we can too.

When I look at churches today, we are falling short of our glorious ideal … CHRIST.  We’ve underestimated everything about Him and His purposes. The Person Who made eyeballs, whales and platypuses isn’t limited like we are! So when we are interacting with the LIMITLESS ONE — WE, that is YOU AND I — may need to adjust our ideas and attitudes. Jesus did not die to give us everything we will ever want or need in this life. It’s time to think again … 

“These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”(Revelation 17:14) Jesus is the Almighty Everliving One, the First and the Last, The Beginning and the End. Learn to YIELD. Bye 👋

P 2631 Beware of roadblocks.

/ DVH

There is a possibility in our lives that we can have hidden, (even from ourselves), agendas – things that will inadvertently get in the way of true growth. Sometimes we can get caught up in our minds or emotions with ideas, people or things that we fiercely defend, but we are totally unaware that is what we are doing. Over a longer period of time, we can also learn to carefully avoid some situations because we are subconsciously aware that we don’t cope with them. Likewise, we can steer away from, or even get angry about, some things, purely because there is concealed pain behind them.

Ask yourself this question – apart from Jesus Himself – Who is THE most important person in your life – is there anyone or anything that you strongly feel that you cannot live without? Maybe a person who you value so much, that even the smallest thought of loss can send you into fear or anxiety? If you are a parent, maybe it’s a child …whether it is an adult child or not …  or perhaps a spouse;  or a close friend. Even the thought of any loss connected with these things can send you into an overwhelming downward spiral. If even the very thought of letting go of something or someone sends us into a panic – that is a clear indication something has grabbed hold of us!

You know, the thing we are most afraid of, can sometimes be the greatest spiritual strength in our lives, when we overcome that fear with His help. Always remembering that His help leads us TO DO SOMETHING. Perhaps there is a job we don’t want to lose, or we’ve fixated on finding somewhere safe to live – but this thing, whatever it is, influences every other decision we make. And it may not even consciously register in our minds. In this scenario that person or thing, no matter how normal or insignificant they seem to be, can become a roadblock to spiritual growth. 

When things get tough, and hardship strikes — this predisposition to protect ourselves and hide from suffering, will get in the way of any of the Holy Spirit’s solutions. Simply put, we won’t ask Him to help us with someone or something we don’t want to lose … just in case He takes that thing or person away! Plus we can easily go on from there to make decisions based on fear and pain instead of what the Lord wants. 

It is incredibly easy to think we know what is best for us – but that decision can be formed within the framework of hidden fear NOT FAITH. The assumption that our feelings, or even familiar thought patterns are a good guide, is a lie! The Word of God is our primary, solitary guide. I have seen godly parents put up with abuse, because they feel they cannot live without their fully grown child and the sneaky wrong spirit in that adult child ends up ruling the roost.

Or maybe the parent is afraid of what will become of their progeny and sadly, co-dependency has taken hold. We can sometimes desperately pray and hope: “that Jesus won’t mind, because He understands I can’t help it, I need it to be like this.” Read the gospels … the Lord told one man to leave his recently deceased father behind!

I have also seen sweet Godly Christians hurt others because they refuse to let go of something that should have been left behind them years ago. That has been caused by fear which has been carried forward from childhood pain. It can colour our adult thinking. The thing to do in such situations is to get to the root of the tree by asking WHY?

Why do I feel so strongly that I cannot let go of my child, or spouse etc. and give them to Jesus unreservedly, without any agenda in my heart? What pattern of ungodly thinking is preventing my growth? What fear is ruling my life? How did it start, and what am I still doing now, today, to keep that fear alive? We need to prayerfully identify and deal with these issues under the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and guidance.

Our God is not mean. He is a loving caring Father, who is deeply involved, and intimately engaged in our everyday lives. BTW, this issue is not about disobedience, it is a deep lack of trust. We are not trusting the Lord to take care of those things that are extremely important to us. Sadly we could even be letting fear rule. But our precious loving Father knows us, and He knows the way we need to go to get through things like this. We must follow Him, step by step into relinquishment. It is not good to hold on to other people so tightly that you lose your own God-given freedom!

Matthew 16:19:“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The Lord Jesus Christ gave His power to the disciples when they were too dumb to know what they were given. That’s how generous to mankind He has been! We can personally prevent any change in difficult situations or even dangerous ones by misusing the power we already have — instead of yielding people or material things to Him and progressively learning to live a life of faith. We need to let go of those things that weigh us down. At the same time by holding on too tightly to someone/something else we have the power to prevent growth and change in that other person or situation.

It is part of our job description to voluntarily choose to live this new life Jesus died to give us, embracing the power to overcome, instead of hiding away from it because it might pinch something from us! Plus always watching and aware of any roadblocks or ‘keep-out signs’ we have inadvertently put up or embraced… because we know those things will steal His new life away from us. Bye. 👋

P 2630 The false cloak of invisibility we need to lose.

/ DVH

Today the Lord spoke to me about a problem that is reoccurring in our churches — mainly because the Body of Christ has wilfully remained ignorant of the side effects of our actions and attitudes. Sometimes we pray and pray so faithfully, but we are not responding to the Lord with FAITH in action for the things we are praying ABOUT. We must be prepared to put feet to our prayers, otherwise we are not expressing our faith fully. There is no room for compartmentalisation. If God tells me – then it’s my job!

We need to get up from prayer and go on to engage with the difficulties He has indicated. Then we use our faith to do those things the way He says to do them. I know it can take faith to pray, I know that first hand – but I also know that the Lord wants us to take what we believe and act on it. Otherwise the enemy of our souls can steal away our hope! Plus we become unaccountable for our mistakes and missteps – if we are unfortunately praying amiss. Outside of our own personal, intimate conversations with the Lord – we need to initiate action after prayer, prayerfully.

Sometimes when we are put into difficult situations, we need to say: “I’m sorry, I can’t do that, it’s wrong. It’s against my beliefs and what my God tells me to do.” It’s time to stand up, not hide. It is not good to stand silently by and say nothing. I’m not just talking about witnessing here, I am talking about following our prayers and beliefs through with actions. At the same time when we pray for someone to be helped then we need to be prepared to be His hands and feet and help them. Maybe we should take the time to go and pray with the people we are concerned about.

Societally we are being pulled apart into categories —even in families, some of the members don’t always know what their close relatives are doing. As a body, we are often only superficially related to each other … perhaps by using social media accounts. These things allow us to have impersonal PC opinions, as well as superficial ones. Things that we can say freely on paper, but we actually don’t LIVE them out in our daily life. We need to take the time to be accountable. Accountability has all but disappeared because we don’t know enough about each other to expose the way we really live in our own homes. Embarrassment and shame causes us to hide from each other. Hidden sin is dangerous. DEADLY.

Christians are designed to stand up and be counted as His disciples, and that means we will automatically become accountable, as well as visible for our actions. Instead of being “found out,’ we need to “confess our faults!” We need to be honest about our sinful behaviour: “confessing them to one another so we can be healed.”(James 5:16) The bible says:“They will know we are Christians by our love.” (John 13:35.) How can that occur when we only talk about superficial things?

I can’t see privacy being of paramount importance to the early disciples. Transparency flourished. Just look at Ananias and Sapphira. What happened to them came out of a lack of transparency. That incident created holy fear amongst the believers. Nobody wanted to lie to the Holy Spirit, EVER, after that!! And a good thing that is too.

When we keep on living our lives like this world does, we are pulling on lampshades – so we won’t offend people. People need the light!! And you and I have it. There’s always room for gentle, loving disclosure, we don’t have to whack others over the head with our belief systems! However our lives still need to be visible in our communities and homes. The way we live behind closed doors matters. 

God challenges me about that all the time. If hubby and I disagree He says: “Are you going to leave that there? Go and fix it.” Purity of heart matters to the Lord. It is not about getting things right, it is about constantly going back and beginning again until we have mastered the skill of following in His footsteps – always with His direction and help. My own resolve to change melts like butter when opposition comes up – but with His help, I can stand still and stop fighting for my rights and yield to Him.

Human beings are very busy fighting for their rights today – everyone is militant about something! The earth, women’s rights, children’s rights – God’s wisdom is not in any of that. He sees individuals not corporate agendas! We already know the outcome of this earth, Jesus is going to roll it up like an old carpet!  We are told to submit to one another  – one sex is not better than the other! These earthly ideas do not leave any room for dying to self – they profit us nothing! Christians must not hide, or have private lives, we’ve been saved to take this stuff PUBLIC – not by being argumentative or disagreeable but by being loving and open.

Maybe we are ashamed to take things public because we are not living this life the way Christ said. This world already thinks Christians are hypocrites because we don’t live up to what we say — sadly instead, we’ve let judgment rule, to protect our own little world. We need to lose that cloak of invisibility and become transparent. Everybody’s faults were paid for once and for all!  That’s called THE GOOD NEWS. Remember ALMIGHTY GOD MADE HIMSELF VISIBLE WHEN HE SENT HIS SON! Bye. 👋

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 2625 Love needs to be given away.

/ DVH

“Love is never wasted for its value does not rest upon reciprocity…  …To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” (C.S. Lewis – The Four Loves.) “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” Matthew 6:21.

I was challenged by what C.S. Lewis said, because I think it is so true. I have met people who decided loving others was not ‘safe’ — and, sadly, they seemed to be some of the most black and white people I ever met. It was as if all colour was sucked right out of them. In my opinion ‘compassion and empathy’ bring God’s glorious out-of-this-world’s colour into, and out of our little lives. Those incredible gifts are the very essence of Christ’s being and life. However, without His Presence we can do nothing but flap our gums and look awkward. But with Him, we can usher in His kingdom here on earth, right here, right now. Our God is always NOW.

Let’s be clear, loving others is not only hard, like C.S said, it is fraught with danger. People are not reliable by nature, instead they have been badly influenced by the world around them. However, we have, inside us, the power to speak His life into others. Nobody can tell me that this kind of thing doesn’t or can’t happen, because I’ve watched it happen time and time again! A seemingly ordinary person, who is polite and helpful – but distant – suddenly floods with the Lord’s colour and His light, and they are alive in a way that seemed impossible a second ago. It takes my breath away every single time.

If we want to see Him at work and watch what He can do, first we need to lay aside our fear of rejection, abandonment and looking foolish. We will need to be brave. At times like this my favourite thought is: “I am never going to see these people again, what do I care what they think of me?”  So I start with whatever small thought He has given me, and I just keep pulling on that thread. Then, I stop and wait. I’m waiting to see what the Lord will do next. I try not to speak in paragraphs or whole pages. Instead, I do my best to speak as simply and clearly as I can. But the main point is: I do what He tells me to do the way He tells me to do it.

My dear hubby has been used by the Lord in this way, in front of my eyes, many times.  And he illustrates this releasing of God’s  glorious colours in others, time and time again when we are on the road. He is normally quite shy, and retiring, or that’s how he appears, until the Lord lights up inside him! At those times he is so bold when he speaks, even to strangers. And they glow under the lamp-light of God’s kindness and approval.  Then they tell him all kinds of personal things they probably wouldn’t even dream of telling people they know!

Hubby’s personal transformation illustrates to me what the kingdom looks like when it flows through us toward others. In those times we do not have to persuade anybody that God is real … when He turns up, His Presence is self-explanatory! Everyone knows that He is there. They don’t know, how or why … but they know that something extraordinary is going on. Mostly, the people we speak to look like little children who suddenly feel at home and LOVED.

God loved us so much He gave… and unless we participate in a lifetime of giving, loving and continually caring for everybody we meet, we will get stuck in a grey world that is the same old same old, day after day after day. You know, when many Christians get stuck spiritually, they end up hoping that going to church week by week will do. Actually, our relationship with Him is meant to be alive and vibrant minute by minute. If we only have Christian friends and Christian fellowship, then we have limited our exposure to the world around us. This means we will most likely never see the Lord shine as brightly as He does in the darkness.

Lately, we’ve all been so focussed on making ourselves feel better, we forgotten we are keepers of the most precious substance on this earth – HIS LOVE.  Love is meant to be given away, not hidden or hoarded. Hiding it defeats the very purpose we were given love in the first place! The more we give His love away, the more our lives will be bombarded with His colour and beauty. Jesus can’t help Himself, He just loves to do extraordinary things … usually without our permission! YAY! Our privilege and joy is – we are allowed to watch Him do them.  Aren’t we the blessed ones? 👋

P 2618 Waiting to move is a trap.

/ DVH

“But I promise you this—the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will be seized with power. You will be My messengers to Jerusalem, throughout Judea, the distant provinces —even to the remotest places on earth!”” Acts 1:8 TPT. Instead of waiting for a sign, obey the book. This is what we have found – HE COMES WHEN WE GO! It ain’t rocket science. And yes, I am on about that today, again.

I learnt twenty years ago, that waiting to be well enough to do what Jesus told me to do was a trap! Yeah I know that’s a tough thing to say. However, I live out that kind of tough every single day. I hardly ever feel well enough to even get out of bed, let alone type this blog! I will not bore you with a list of things that have stolen away my health and well- being, but I totally want to say this: since hubby and I have been travelling on the road for Jesus – I’M HAPPY and He’s over the moon. Neither of us are nuts either. Oh, well, maybe! Maybe you should ask our kids! 

Actually, I wouldn’t live any other way. But … being well would be nice! I remind the Lord about that daily too. I live expecting my circumstances to change, and … I utterly do my best and refuse to live in disappointment, when they haven’t … so far! Hubby too has his share of aches, pains and trials, and between us it takes a while to get going in the mornings, so we get up early, and we go to bed at a ridiculously early hour. Some nights one of us is battling for sleep. (Which is why I wrote the blog a couple of days ago about not sleeping!) It happens here quite often – it sure improves your prayer life!!

I try not to be negative, but in this life trouble needs to be normalised – not accepted, but normalised. This world is not heaven! Things happen. Awful earth-shattering things a-n-d… petty insignificant things that make you mad. Paul had to escape trouble by being stuffed inside a basket and lowered down the outside of a city wall! These men we read about daily, were beaten within an inch of their lives on a regular basis. However, getting beaten up was regarded as an honour for His sake! It meant they were doing something right.

We have to stop hiding in our religious wish-thinking and start to live in the real world. The bible says ‘in this world we will have trials’…Sigh… You know, I am a tiny bit tired of hearing testimonies about “how God made someone’s life better” … but …I hear absolutely no testimonies about how wonderful it is to serve Him! Watching Jesus come into the picture – however He chooses to do it ….is the most amazing thing like E-V-ER. It is such a privilege.

I was giggling this morning, remembering when hubby presented the gospel in Nyngan to a whole family, and then the father said something that every pastor wished his people would say!! ”Could you tell me that story again please?” This man was asking hubby to repeat the sermon!! And there they were, the four of them, their eager shiny little faces waiting to hear the good news, again. The only trouble was — hubby couldn’t remember a word he said! He looked at me, and I looked at him, and then the dear man started prompting him. Hubby had the good sense to ask him which bit he meant. Let me tell you – that man was listening – he could repeat what he heard. Me? Not-so-much. 

Is everyone we meet going to be like that? Nope. We’ve met a few who were not even remotely interested. Here’s a thought — maybe they are waiting for you to turn up in their neighbourhood! It is a glorious thing to be part of someone else’s journey toward Jesus. However, we simply cannot have a harvest if no-one will go out into the fields and sow seeds. Some starving people might stagger through our church doors. That’s great! Yay Jesus. But most people have no idea that what we believe is any different from any other religion.

Many people choose what to believe by default, not a spiritual encounter with a real Person. It’s a bit like choosing a political party to vote for. Some people even choose a religion because the statues that belong to it make great decorating items!! 😱 They don’t know Jesus is alive —- and … hot tip … you and I can show them that just by turning up! There’s this first aid thing we are meant to do if we find an unconscious person — it’s called shake and shout! And this is me … shouting and shaking … wake up Sleepy Bride of Christ!

We cannot afford to wait to move, that’s a trap. Jesus had this problem with His disciples. They had no spiritual clue about what was going on around them … He had to tell them ..”Do you not say, It is still four months until harvest time comes? Look! I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields and see how they are already white for harvesting.”John 4:35. The Lord’s harvest is ready for planting all over the country – let’s all grab some seeds and go!  Everybody has holidays!

Here’s my advice, don’t sit about waiting for inspiration to fall on you, go because He said GO! Show Him that you mean business, that the people that are on HIS heart are on your heart… Insist. 👋

P 2612 Where are our empowered lives?

/ DVH

In our world, we learnt – some of us from the cradle, to be polite and watch what we say. However, the latest younger generations have stomped all over that idea. I think they see manners as a kind of hypocrisy, and I honestly think I agree with them. I wish they were nicer about how angry they are, and that grace might abound in them more, but I think that older generations try to keep things the same, because ‘the same’ is comforting as we get older. However, the reality is the Body of Christ is not living Holy Spirit inspired, empowered lives. And who we are behind closed doors is daily disproving what we say and act out at church!

There is no more room to continue to hide our old ideas under excuses, traditions, and made up theology. Our stranglehold on what we call reality is not the only one. The thing is, I’m pretty sure that younger people scare the pants off people my age, because they’ve taken all our manmade rules and torn them up. Us oldies are guilty of living concealed lives, mainly because we do not want to be vilified by our peers. Sometimes we’ve simply hidden what we really feel;  because the old way, the polite society way, said it isn’t nice to blurt out your thoughts and feelings all over other people. After all, maybe those other people will judge us! In other words, we’ve been afraid. And fear and love can’t occupy the same space.

It is hard to believe for the best in people today – without pretending at least some of the time. We’ve been a powerless people who refused to talk about reality for way too long. In a world that says whatever it likes, I honestly think I’d have gone down the proverbial plug hole if it wasn’t for Jesus helping me. He has helped me to see the blessing in truth, openness, and facing what is really going on. And traditions, old and new, suck the life out of true faith. Our generational hypocrisy is now showing. It is much too easy to dismiss any messenger because they don’t say something nicely, or respectfully. Or maybe we feel superior because of age. However, if we don’t take what Jesus said seriously, there is a possibility we will continue to lose our God-given ability to change.  

My question is this: ‘how can we repent from stuff we’ve done, if we refuse to acknowledge it is there?‘ Many churches today are living cloistered lifestyles. However by shutting out what we think of as ‘bad things’ – we are turning away the very people the Lord wanted us to love on. Sadly, we can quite quickly draw up our robes and refuse to associate with anyone who doesn’t look like us. Many churches barely tolerate each other, instead they continue to live their own little autonomous lives, as if they were the only church in the world! If that isn’t hypocrisy I dunno what is! We all claim to have the same foundation but we’ve built all kinds of weird houses, with even weirder ideas and theologies on top of that foundation. It’s time to take down, or choose to tear up the stuff that cannot remain.

Maybe sometimes our kids don’t want to come to church because they are living their lives in a very harsh real world and they can see what we believe has no substance, it is hollow. We say we believe this and that, but the power to change is not present. These kids are sensible, they want something REAL from their faith, and our battered, bent and adjusted theology doesn’t do it for them.

I met someone recently who had been a missionary child, stationed overseas with their folks, and their parent had been powerfully used to evangelise the country they were sent into. The adults were successful in the eyes of their home church, because many people came to know Christ. But, their own children suffered all kinds of abuse at the parents’ hands and no-one else knew about it. Christians have been hooked on the devil’s crook that says we will undermine our credibility if we own up to our faults. It must stop.

It is a shame that others outside our walls are blowing the whistle on how far we’ve fallen from our glorious ideal, Jesus Christ. He didn’t preach church ideals and rules. He preached about a whole other kingdom that very few people know exists – thanks to us! We need to start thanking our children and grandchildren for saying out loud the things we’ve tried so hard to keep hidden from ourselves and others. “For the kingdom of God consists of and is based on, not talk but power – moral power and excellence of soul).” 1 Corinthians 4:20, and: “…God’s Way is not a matter of mere talk; it’s an empowered life.”  Bye.👋

P 2608 My final hidden gem.

/ DVH

This precious gem is about being honest with myself, as well as others. It is a gem that is hidden. Other people may notice inconsistencies, but what goes on in our own heads is only made clear when we speak or act … or both! Sadly, personal dishonesty is a big snare. It happens when we colour our own perceptions in with pretty colours, to hide any spiritual lack or laziness we have chosen to tolerate. Jesus is “…the Way, the Truth and the Life …”John 14:6. We cannot possibly follow Him and not be truthful with ourselves! John also said: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”3 John 1:4.

Let me explain. We can convince ourselves that in order to serve God we need to be a/ ready;  b/ equipped;  c/ doing really well spiritually. Rhubarb! It is not good to allow that kind of escapist thinking in our lives. Yes, I know that’s a bit harsh, but just like a child needs correction, or it will make up its own rules …  adults too use evasion far more than we realise – simply to escape from the very reason we were saved.

Now let’s look at a/ being ready. Have you read in the book that Jesus is coming back? To be accurate, actually, He’s ‘coming READY or NOT!’ Ya might wanna Selah that for a second or two. And here’s another nifty thought! The people who said they couldn’t come to the beyond-our-dreams wedding feast – missed out. (Matthew 22.) Just saying … 😶 …You know God doesn’t want you and I to be the whole ballgame, we are part of a team. But the people who don’t join in with the team usually end up on the bench.

On to – b/ equipped. Jesus sent His totally untrained, undisciplined, haven’t-got-a-clue disciples out to do what He did. (See Mark 6:7-13; Luke 9:1-2.) Um … now let’s see what He told them to do … He sent them to raise the dead, heal the sick, cast out demons and announce the kingdom of God has come! Without any training or anything!! Not even a conference! And guess what? They didn’t have the bible either! They simply took Jesus’ word and His Name and went out and did it. Training is only ever useful if we apply it.

And c/ our lack of spirituality. Christians give up their desire to truly embrace the Christian Way of life with the feeblest of excuses. We lack honesty … which is kind of criminal if you think about the fact that we pay incredible attention to appearances! We look at others as being more spiritual than we are, or more qualified, and use that as an excuse. “Oh, those people see angels. They prophesy. They are missionaries. That group over there pray in tongues.” Instead of finding excuses, why can’t we find reasons to try?! The short answer is – we don’t want to, it’s too hard, it is inconvenient. But the Jesus Christ that lives in those other more spiritual people, lives in you and me, and HE has never been, nor will He ever be … inadequate! There are things that we will never experience unless we’re prepared to take a risk. 

EG: there is no need to walk on water if you have a ferry standing by. We will need to walk on water when there is no other way to get to the other side! At the same time there is no need to trust God for food when the supermarket is down the road, and you have money in your pocket. We simply must understand that our lack of total honesty with ourselves is crippling our faith. We would be far better off to say: “I don’t want to,” than we are to say: “I can’t.”  “I don’t want to,” can be repented from! Let’s get that rebellion out in the open where it can be dealt with.

Other people tried evasion and it failed because God didn’t take any notice of their feeble excuses. (Moses, Gideon, Jonah, Jeremiah …I could go on!!) We have plenty of examples in the Bible of people who had huge excuses as to why they couldn’t possibly do what the Lord asked them to do and, you know what? He said … “Do it anyway.” 

Human beings have been making excuses since the garden of Eden! Every time the Lord Himself helped people do what they were asked to do, but there were also times when He said “Use your faith!”  And once or twice He said: “Where did your faith GO?” Why do we leave so much work to a half a dozen people, when what needs to be done needs an army?! An army functions because every man does the job he was given. And experience thrives when we simply turn up and get going! Experience is another way to know Almighty God for yourself.

Christianity was never designed by God to be a part time job. Jesus, Who is our Perfect Example, did not do the work God gave Him to do part-time. Jesus Christ was always ALL IN. He was always on. Honesty with ourselves and others is a hidden gem, it is a key to opening new doors in our faith that have remained firmly shut.  Bye. 👋

P 2598 No fake smiles please!

/ DVH

My dear hubby loves the Emoji movie, especially that over-the-top female smiley face that blinds people with its toothy grin. He thinks she is hilarious. You know, that face is actually pasted on – it’s stuck. In other words that emoji has been carefully drawn to pretend to be something it isn’t.  So when bad things happen, that smiley emoji isn’t being REAL — which is just like a whole lot of Christians. Bad things happen and they paste on a smile but inside they feel God, and everyone else, has let them down. 

Most people in this world know FAKE attitudes a mile off. It is so much better to be your real self and repent for stinky attitudes, than it is to hide who you are. Now if you happen to be a grump … then the answer is to be transformed. 😂 The bible covers that! Please note: transformation is not instant. It’s repetitive… it’s re-pet-it- ive … it’s actually quite repetitive! So now we spend our days learning to lean. Getting stuff right is no longer our goal, leaning on Him is! 

If we are not careful we can make living for Jesus … into a future goal. We can live this life hoping that if we fake it we will eventually make it. Yielding, surrender, dying to self – these are all key words.  Otherwise transformation becomes something we work hard towards achieving, but we never seem to arrive!  The bible says we need to be living for Him every single day. 

Almighty God wants us to draw on His strength all the time, using our faith. Faith grows when you use it! So we exchange His beauty for our ashes. His joy for our mourning etc. We are human and we run out quite quickly — but Jesus is rich in these things ! He will give us what we need as we live a life of total dependence. The Lord is not fooled by our positive, Sunday morning smiley faces.

We could see miracles every single day if we stop trying to be what God already made us and learn to yield to and trust in Him! Listening to yourself being kind to someone, when you wanted to smite them mightily a minute ago is a miracle! Success is no longer our goal – because we know can’t do anything without Him and we don’t want to be without Him.“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

We need to be changed inside, and honesty matters.  We can’t! … But He already did it for us. Some of our nice attitudes are barely skin deep — so when they are provoked they end up coming out. The Lord is not looking for perfection … Jesus already nailed that, and then He generously gave it to us – for free. Ask yourself this: why would Almighty God – Who loves us – want us to live our lives pretending to be something we are not? But oh! How He LOVES a truly transformed heart and life. Then when someone else hurts us, we feel worse for them than we do for ourselves.

I know some transformed people. They know they can’t do anything without Him, but they yield in obedience to what the bible says daily, so they can change the way that they live. They are not perfected. Not at all! But they enjoy being close to Him, and they don’t want to give that up for living a shallow life that has no substance. Things stay shallow when we stop living by our faith.  We must learn that we are not called to exhaust our OWN patience/love/joy/peace,  first — only to find that we have run out! Here’s a hot tip, let go of your pride and GIVE UP RIGHT AWAY and fall into His everlasting arms. He will supply that need.

My point is, learn to pray “Help help” early! We cannot afford to wait until we are overwrought and exhausted because we’ve been wrangling a problem in the natural. I pray a surrender prayer all the time now. I remind the Lord that I won’t be able to  manage anything at all without Him. I do that at the beginning of the day and I repeat it when I find myself pasting on a fake smile. I could care less about looking incompetent, or inefficient. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy seeing Him active in my life. I feel Him help me to go further than I ever could in my own strength. I know I can’t meet Christ’s standard, what He did was perfect. So I start with surrender and I don’t move from there. 

We have all developed coping mechanisms over the course of our lives and when we get saved, we carry those coping mechanisms over into our faith. Then when we read in the bible and see what we are supposed to look like, who we are meant to be, we increase the pressure on ourselves to be like that. Unfortunately, when we fail in our own efforts – we feel we are letting Jesus down. And if we do happen to succeed, then WE GET PROUD.

All that leads to a level of inadvertent deception, and a lack of transparency that prevents intimacy. It stops Christians from becoming all we can be in Christ. It also leads to a form of religion with no power in it. We need to learn to live our lives dependent upon Him, using our God-given faith instead of striving to reach an unattainable goal. We cannot make ourselves perfect. He has already accepted us.  No more fakey fake smiles. Learn to lean on Him. 👋