Circumstance

P 3310 The power of Pausing.

/ DVH

There is a word in the bible that means … “stop and think on this.” It appears often in the Psalms — SELAH. We translate that word into ‘pause.’ So we need to do more than agree with what it says, we need to stop and think about it. Selah means ‘I will stop and think about how these words I have just read can impact my life, my concerns, my hopes.’  Pausing and waiting for Him allows us to breathe, instead of anxiously holding our breath.

Pausing is like hitting the refresh button on a computer. It means we’ve been captured by something and we want to stop long enough to go back over it and see what is really being said. Pausing adds clarity.  We can find His Presence far more easily when we stop ‘think-worrying,’ and choose to pause. Then pray. I call it pausing, but Father God calls it by many names. In James 1:12 it says it like this: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.”  This is a person who stands still, when everything around him is whirling about. He is pausing to steady himself.  

Steadfastness is the ability to believe God is good even when every circumstance around you says differently. We deliberately choose to hold fast to Him. It means you stop trying to solve the unsolvable and simply look at the One Who is so much bigger than our problem or questions. It’s taking a big breath and taking the time to lay these things aside, then we choose to take hold of Him and His Word, and wait. We want to cultivate the ability to understand that despite how formidable something seems, God has it. Meanwhile we patiently wait to see what He will do next!

“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope.”  Psalm 130:5. Waiting means I don’t react, so eventually I choose to act as He prescribes. I believe what He said in the bible and so I put my whole thought processes into meditating on that. And I stop ruminating on stuff.  My hope is always in Who He is, not just getting an answer. The secret to being blessed in waiting is not merely waiting til the trial is over — it’s waiting to hear what He says about it in the time you have chosen to pause. That is done deliberately. Pausing is letting go and letting Him do what He wants.

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:12. These things are unattainable if we do not take the time to pause. Our un-renewed minds can easily run into panic without real, tangible, God-given reassurance. Our assurance is in the bible! Pausing helps us to learn His Ways. We learn first-hand how He handles things. How unhurried He is in a world that is often rushing here and there. Whatever is flattening our well-being slides away in the light of His Word. Standing still, waiting, pausing, remaining steadfast – all these things can help us to unravel the difficulties that land on us. Then we can see them without a whole lot of mind-busyness. Pausing releases and relieves stress. 

Moses literally paused.  He was going about his daily routine and then he saw the burning bush — and the bible says this: “And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”  Exodus 3:3. He stopped what he was doing long enough to do more than give the bush a cursory glance. He actually physically engaged his body by using his feet to find out what was happening. He immediately encountered Almighty God when he took the time to pause and wonder.  

Pausing shows the Lord we value Him and His input. It engages His attention. It says: “I am not going to rush past this moment, I will give it to You. I am curious to hear what you want to say to me Lord.” It has a parallel truth present in the Song of Songs. The singer says to His beloved: “You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.” The shepherd has been captivated, He stands still long enough to notice not just her, but her presence. He refuses to move past his beloved’s loveliness quickly. Pausing is about deliberately paying attention to something that captures our hearts.

It may not be about something unusual, it might just be we have seen whatever it is many times before, but this time it grabbed us and other things faded into the background. Then all we can see is Him, His wishes, His Way. Time stops pushing at us because, it becomes irrelevant. Like Moses we turn aside to ‘see.’ Pausing is about those moments, when the busyness of this world fades into the background and we are lost in what we’ve seen, or read, or experienced. Pausing, waiting on Him, adds depth where we might simply live in the shallows.

Pausing is about ceasing from any activity temporarily, whilst listening to and waiting for the Lord. Personally, I think if we practice learning to pause over Godly things, we will learn to live in His rest far more easily. Pausing is like drinking in the Lord’s peace, on purpose. There is such value in simply stopping and choosing to look at Him, to see what He wants to say. I recommend it. Bye. 👋

P 3309 Anxiety.

/ DVH

Charles F Stanley wrote the following. I hope it is helpful: “Anxiety is a problem we all will deal with at one time or another. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”(Matt. 6:25-26)

The Greek word for “anxious” in this passage means “distracted.” It’s a word that refers to uncertainty. That’s what anxiety produces in us. It gives us a feeling of, what’s next? It’s a feeling that the rug has been pulled out from underneath us and we have no idea if we’re going to fall, how hard, in what direction, or onto what.

The word “anxious” is also translated as “worry” in the Bible. For many people, worry has become a way of life. If that describes you, I encourage you to read again the words of Jesus. His words are not a suggestion—they’re a command. You may say,“I can’t help feeling anxious, I’ve always been a worrier.”I’ve heard that from many people through the years. My response is, “Yes you can.”

There’s nothing about a circumstance that automatically creates anxiety. Anxiety occurs because of the way we respond to a problem or troubling situation.Your ability to choose is part of God’s gift of free will to every human being. You can choose how you feel. You can choose what you think about, and you can choose how you will respond to a circumstance. It certainly isn’t God’s purpose for you to feel anxious—He doesn’t allow situations in your life so you’ll have anxiety. 

The Father may allow a situation in your life to develop stronger faith, grow and mature, or change a bad habit or negative attitude. But God doesn’t set you up for anxiety. He’s always at work to bring you to a place where you’ll trust Him more, obey Him more fully, and receive more of His blessings.

You can fall into a downward spiral of anxiety, or you can say: “Father, I bring this to You. It’s beyond my control. I feel helpless in this situation, but You have the power to change what I’m facing. You love me perfectly, and I’m trusting You to handle what concerns me in the way You see fit. I know whatever You’ve planned for me is for my good. I look forward to seeing the way You choose to express Your love, wisdom, and power.” Amen. Friend, this is the way of peace—the road out of anxiety and worry.” 

Back to my little bit for today! I think this is the stuff that haunts most people. I put these thoughts by Charles F Stanley on my blog today because so many people are under siege from the things he talks about. His writing is clear and concise and he said it a whole lot better than I can! My motivation is this:  whatever it takes to help someone else get free is useful!  

This mini-sermon was particularly helpful to me, because we are preparing to put far too many things inside our car and even more stuff on top of it!— And still fit us, in it! Plus we will end up talking to a whole bunch of strangers. All this happens as we are travelling over 3,600 kms in the middle of a petrol shortage with prices through the roof. Some generous people have already helped us out financially with the extra burden of the cost of petrol. But my point is this: hubby and I are not exempt from anxiety either, it’s an ongoing battle for all of us.

I do have one helpful hint that works for me. If anxiety and worry start to build and I end up mentally knitting, I phone a friend or text someone. I don’t always tell them the problem, I simply ask them to pray. God knows what I am concerned about. I can fall into worse trouble when I talk about the difficult stuff, it actually kind of magnifies the problem in my mind. I might end up looking for sympathy instead of explaining that I simply need to hold fast. I have to pick my battles. Sometimes there are some things I can’t solve, but I can pray.

I’ve learnt that as I relinquish my anxiety about the things that bother me, I am far more open to His passions than my own. It’s not hard to love a God who values human beings so much, that He died for them. I think anxiety is a bit like a snowball rolling down a steep hill, it gathers momentum as it rolls on, and on. You can’t stand in front of it, it will squash you flat! The important bit is to know where and when that snowball begins in your life, so you can stop it at the top and jump all over it to disperse the thoughts.

The bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 …  “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  Anxiety is our enemy’s lies on steroids.  We can pay attention to the incessant ugly noise or give our attention to the One who lives inside us. Yes, it is a battle, many, many times – but Mr Stanley offers great advice, I intend to take it. Bye 👋.

P 3242 Let’s go swimming.

/ DVH

Have you ever watched people as they enter the water to swim? Some jump in …Cowabunga! Some throw themselves in from a standing position. There are others who use a rope or a diving board – but either way, it all ends up in a big splash. Yet others e-a-s-e themselves in, bit by bit, they usually end up in the water up to their waist, but … just don’t splash them…  they are not ready for all-over water yet! Then they slowly descend, inch by inch, into water like a sinking city being overtaken by the ocean.  

I’m a descender…and I don’t go any deeper than my knees nowadays, because this old body can’t fight with moving water anymore. And don’t you dare splash me – because we will cease to be friends if you splash me! My dear hubby dives in, head first, then he comes up grinning like there is a magical secret on the bottom that I am missing out on. ‘But I don’t care. This is as far as I go!’ 

So what’s with the water allegory? Today I want to talk  about the River of God. This river is our spiritual life blood, it is our multi-directional ride further and further into His kingdom. Some people choose to jump into that river, or … maybe Jesus gives them a bit of a nudge … either way they are ruined for life! They took a risk, and  went out the front, and now they keep splashing and moving along in their little plastic brightly coloured lifebuoys. They are the noisy fun-makers. Others of us quietly ease ourselves into it, we don’t want to get out of our depth too quickly. Some of us opt to jump — but the splash never-sort-of-kind-of happens. I call that faith-stretching.

Father God doesn’t give tuppence about how we choose to get into the River, He just wants us all in it! We are safer in the Living Water of the Holy Spirit, than we are on dry land. On dry land we will become exhausted more easily, and we can forget that we belong in the river of life. We can also forget to drink! In the river of God the waves may splash you in the face and you end up with water on the inside as well as the outside… However, the Holy Spirit can’t carry us through life’s rapids if we choose to stay out of the river … and let’s not even mention negotiating waterfalls! 

The saddest thing of all, is that fear can stop us from moving forward. I’ve been scared of any body of water except the stuff that comes out of the tap! I nearly physically drowned once as a very young child, and it put me off the deeper channels where carefreeness adds to the person’s enjoyment. I’d love to ride down the river on a rubber ring, but that bad experience has diminished and drowned my desire to try. 

Maybe a lot of people are little like me when it comes to the River of God. Once, long ago, they bravely plucked up their courage and stuck their toe in, or maybe they even went in up to their knees — but then a speed boat rushed by knocking them off their feet and sending them under. Under is not good. Ask a surfer. Under means you may not know where UP is. This person’s trust has been damaged. 

Our God is so faithful. He will repair our trust in Him, even though we may secretly blame Him for whatever happened to us, He patiently waits for us to realise we were born for the River. ‘HELP!’ Is such a useful word. It applies to drowning, as well as the fear of losing control. I probably overuse that word a lot!  But I know that the Lord wants to help each one of us with those things that have frightened us, so that we can learn to trust Him. 

When I feel like I am drowning, even a little bit! – I call out to Him. Just like Peter in the next scripture. Then peace slowly descends upon my soul, and I can move on. Most of what I’ve managed to learn about the Lord, came this way – through His quiet, gentle and thorough patience with me. I’ve learnt if I let Him help me calm the storm inside, I can more easily walk through the storm raging on the outside. Jesus called to Peter to come and walk on the water with Him, but the Lord was already there, ON the water – He won’t make us do this alone! Matthew 4:25-32.

“Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s You,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to You on the water.”“Come,” He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.”

Jesus can stand with us in any circumstance – I don’t care how stormy or windy it looks – He’s there! He is saying: “Come to ME.” We know that Peter faltered, but our Lord is so faithful – He did not let Him drown. God will not take His Word back. When He says “Come,” we are not walking toward our doom, we are walking toward Life Himself. Walking toward Him helps us trust Him. The secret is to get off the banks of the river and start to get into the water! Trust will grow as we keep our eyes on Him.

That other guy may send speed boats, or crocodiles or alligators by to scare us, but they can’t stop us. The next step is to begin to enter the water — Jesus is right there with you … you will hear Him calling you. “COME!!”Now throw your legs out of the boat and trust Him – you are about to have an adventure. Let’s go swimming.   Bye  🏊🏼‍♀️!

P 3165 Learning to be satisfied.

/ DVH

“I’m not telling you this because I’m in need, for I have learned to be satisfied in ANY circumstance. I know what it means to lack, and I know what it means to experience overwhelming abundance. For I’m trained in the secret of overcoming all things, whether in fullness or in hunger. And I find that the strength of Christ’s explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty.” Philippians 4:11-13 TPT.

Trouble can train us – if we will just choose to listen to Him and trust in Him. We cannot afford to waste our energy running about like headless chickens looking for an exit. May I suggest that we use our energy going after Jesus instead? He’s always the Answer! Let’s learn to recognise and accept the Lord’s correction and  discipline. That stuff isn’t always fun when it is happening, but it is sent to train us in righteousness, and peace, as well as leading us into a real, viable, lively fellowship with the Holy Spirit. His correction and discipline helps us sort out our motivations. People love to hear things from Him that they want to hear, but will we listen to what we don’t want to hear?

Today many human beings think correction and discipline are bad things – which is why we have decided that smacking children is a no-no! Unfortunately, now we are reaping the whirlwind …and so are the poor kids! I’m not talking about randomly whacking your kid simply because you had a bad day, and YOU are out of sorts. I am talking about the careful and thoughtful, considered hand-of-reason being applied to the seat of learning. Kids need to learn how to monitor themselves, under your loving supervision. And with some children, saying “stop” won’t do it! Life has penalties. If you pinch a car you go to jail. It is better to teach little Agnes or Angus how to restrain themselves, when they are small. However, I admit some do learn quicker than others!

Discipline when it is too strong, and it is done for the wrong reasons, can let the enemy in and have an adverse effect. Things like: “now you have ticked me off,” are not the right reason to whack your kid. That’s because at the bottom of that sort of discipline it isn’t about monitoring the kid, and leading them into making better choices. Instead, the reality is, you are trying to create a carefree, easier, happier environment for you! The point of discipline is to learn to monitor yourself – your own behaviour – with God’s help. So prayer needs to accompany discipline – pray with your child, teach them to repent. Model it in front of them. The bible is clear, discipline and correction are part of God’s love in our lives. They are His wisdom entering into our lives through our circumstances, lovingly exposing where the enemy of our souls can get at us. 

On that loving note, just to clarify another thing: God doesn’t make anyone sick. He does not and will not “send’ sickness to us to teach us something! However, He will take all that bad stuff and make it work together for our good, as we let Him do it! Bad things happen because satan is loose – he hates people. So if you blame yourself for illness, then you may have fallen right into satan’s cleverly laid trap. Our God loves to reason and interact with us in every aspect of our lives … He especially loves it when we talk with Him, personally. So we need to turn to His love and wisdom, and ask Him what this or that is all about, and always pray for healing! 

Whether we receive healing on the spot or not, is far less relevant than our ongoing attitude toward Him. We can’t afford to let a lack of healing stand in the way of real growth. Holiness has the smell of sacrifice on it. In the past when the Israelites wanted to restore their relationship with God, the Jewish people had to have a specific beast or bird killed, and then it was burnt — skin, feathers and all! If you have ever been to a tannery you will understand that it wasn’t the sweetest smelling BBQ in town! Let’s stop thinking that God only likes what WE like, otherwise we are shrinking Him down to our size — and that’s BAD.

If we choose to look at the Lord through the eyes of fear, we will find there is plenty of that to go around! In the Old Testament, there is the odd example of God smiting someone. But King Hezekiah once turned his face to a wall and prayed for deliverance from a fatal disease, and God heard his prayer and the king was given more time. Time to change his ways, perhaps? Let’s stop looking at prayer as a one-stop-shop and start looking at the Holy God we are talking to!! Maybe He has more than one thing going on at the time, and because we are mortal we simply don’t get it. 

I have learnt to be satisfied with praying about any situation, so I give it to the Lord, and then I leave it all with Him. This one action has created trust in me. Like I said: sometimes God is doing something else! After I have prayed, I walk away. And if I happen to get caught up in thoughts like: ‘what if’ or ‘maybe this or that,’ then I give everything back to Him and walk away again. What I am saying is this: ‘I trust you Lord to have the best answer and I am not going to mess around trying to fix something I can’t fix.’ If He tells me to repent of this or that, I don’t argue, I repent. If He wants me to apologise and make reparation, I do that.

He’s Almighty God and I believe He has the very best answers for me. I don’t always understand them …but my mind is like the size of a speck of dust in comparison to His infinite wisdom. When it comes to smarter than me – HE WINS! Let’s learn to be satisfied, and then release things, to Him. Then we can watch what He will do when we yield. We just might learn to be content, no matter what. Bye, 👋

P 3095 Trust can be cultivated.

/ DVH

Proverbs 16:3:“BEFORE you do anything, put your trust totally in God and not in yourself. Then every plan you make will succeed.”TPT. “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.” NIV.“Put God in charge of your work, then what you’ve planned will take place.” MSG. This is one of the very best ways I know that shows us how ‘to taste and see that the Lord is good.’

Please note the ‘before’ aspect of the first scripture! It makes it clear that the first place we need to go to is to Him. His ways are above ours, and He knows the future, so trusting Him is pure wisdom. We can tie ourselves in knots over something big like: ‘who should I marry? OR where shall I live?’ — But those things are not necessarily the best place to learn trust. A day-to-day experience of the Lord’s personal guidance, with His eye upon you and your life, is far better. Plus taking the time to notice what He has already done!

Trust is learnt through daily application, not just life-changing decisions! Our thirst to know what comes next can lead us astray. Our daily lives flow better as we learn to live guided by Him. Plus allowing the Lord to correct us and then deliberately acting on His correction, transforms our hearts and minds, because that too involves trust. It softens any hardness that may have calloused over our hearts in our relationship with Him, and others. Plus it introduces opportunities for humility. It’s hard to be proud when you know you need to  go to someone else and confess your faults!

My advice is this – start out the way you mean to finish. God can redeem anything, even our missteps, and He will — but, unfortunately, whatever we carelessly end up doing, can hurt other innocent people and their faith. There is so much wisdom in learning to trust Him and WAIT for what He wants. Let’s forget about taking a survey! By taking a survey, I mean asking six people to give you their feedback on something that totally affects the direction of your life. You could quite easily get six different answers! Or 3 for and 3 against! Neither of those options will grow anything but uncertainty. Trust is like a plant, it needs to be deliberately cultivated and nurtured and cared for, from day to day. 

We can misplace our trust, because we are not first honouring the One Who is always trustworthy with our actions. In order to cast all our cares upon Him so He can make our paths straight, we need to know Him, and His ways first! Regular prayer and reading the bible is a reliable way to expose us to the way the Lord thinks. Otherwise presumption will lure us away from the purposes of God Himself. The best way to cultivate trust is to be more prepared to hear ‘NO!’ or ‘wait,’ than ‘yes.’  Uncertainty is not postponement, it can be God saying wait. 

“There’s a time for every purpose under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1. King Solomon learnt this lesson the hard way. With so many wives etc., not to mention all the children who called the king ‘Dad’ – it’s a wonder he could cope at all! But God Himself personally told this king not to marry or take foreign wives who worshipped other gods. Unfortunately, He did not trust God’s judgment over his own needs and wants.The result was catastrophic. He let his appetites rule his obedience and he treated women like sweeties in a sweet shop – “I’ll have one of those, and one of those etc. …”  Many people today are searching, and searching for the kind of permanent, idealised love from others, that only God Himself can provide. 

Trusting the Lord when everything seems to get harder and harder can be exhausting. This is when we discover how much of our lives the Lord really has under His supervision. I’ve learnt, in those harassing times, to simply lay it all down and let everything go. Let Him be God, and you just be you – that sad little exhausted puddle in the corner. “I can’t do this” is a useful prayer. Just like “help, help.” My premise is this, if we want to follow Him all day every day, then we need to live yielded lives – all day every day! And don’t forget repentance, it clears away any cobwebs. 

Trusting God means I WILL choose to take His Word over mine and that means what I want will die a little. It means I learn to shut my mouth whenever my insides are shouting – “vindicate yourself, you are being misunderstood again!” Another way to learn trust is by letting Him vindicate you. The bible clearly tells me He will vindicate me in Psalm 37:6-8. “He will vindicate you in broad daylight, and publicly defend your just cause. Wait patiently for the Lord! Wait confidently for Him! Do not fret over the apparent success of a sinner, a man who carries out wicked schemes. Do not be angry and frustrated. Do not fret. That only leads to trouble.” 

It is far better to trust the Lord to vindicate you in any circumstance. Anything that tries to push or prod us along is not God. HE leads. If we misplace trust by trying to work things out, or we chase after someone else’s opinions, or we are guided by our own appetites, that will lead to further distrust and confusion. Trusting God is like stepping out of our little boat onto the sea – it is essential that we keep our eyes on Jesus — not on whatever is going on around us! Our Heavenly Father is utterly trustworthy, and learning trust is a hands-on experience. Bye. 👋

P 3033 Love’s Way.

/ DVH

God’s Love manifests itself in a different way to our love. Human beings often hand out love to others like it is a prize for pleasing us. Or we think it needs to be bestowed upon people we really really like. That is not God’s Way. God’s Love exists far, far above our human behaviour, that is why our love will not do!  His love seeks to bring out the best in us. It does not hold grudges, or remember the past, it does not self-protect. Think about it. Jesus hung on that cross for all the world to see, yet He was totally innocent of any crime. They had to make something up to even capture Him. At the same time, He chose to suffer injustice to provide us with Mercy.. 

Every single thing that was said about Him by His enemies was not true. He IS God and what He said was not blasphemy. Our lack of understanding of what God would look like, and what He would do – caused people to misjudge the Lord. And yet He still stood there, accused and silent. He suffered through a terrible, unwarranted death, and He went through all of it unprotected by His Father, or thousands of angels, or even the men that followed HIm. He allowed Himself to be murdered and made a mockery of, for humanity’s sake. 

Peter actually tried to protect the Lord by chopping off someone’s ear, and the Lord immediately spoke to him about it. Jesus’ response amazes me, because even when He was under so much threat and pressure —He still responded with LOVE. He repaired that man’s ear, and taught Peter a lesson, right in the middle of the worst time of His life. He was suffering from terrible betrayal, by those He loved best. Jesus virtually said to Peter: “That is not the way I want you to live! You will die if you live like that!” Meanwhile God does not need our protection. A useful thing to remember. 

Love is far more powerful than revenge or hatred or even self-defence. To me, this makes learning to love the way God loves incredibly important. Otherwise my motivation can become pretty suspect because it comes from an ungodly self-centred motivation. I can convince myself that I am doing something or other for you, and at the same time, I can ignore the way I am doing it and how it hurts you. The point is —I can’t trust my own judgement! I need a Helper to help me to transform my thinking to be like His. Even though I am actively renewing my mind, my judgment can still be impaired by the way my thoughts and feelings have framed everything else that has happened to me. I need an outside reference – Jesus Himself is that reference.

Here’s a tiny bit of ?useful? info. It is not always true — however I have observed many times in my life that people do not do bad things TO you … they do those things FOR themselves. In other words it ain’t personal! Those hurtful things may not be aimed AT you … those people are protecting themselves, or ambitious for themselves etc. They could use you as an excuse for their own behaviour,  but that can mean that you have somehow threatened them. 

Let’s look at what happened to Jesus. The ruling religious people could not find fault with the Lord’s behaviour, but they were scared witless that what He taught and did, would take away their own little world, where they felt important … They were scared and jealous. They recognised that Jesus was SomeOne with more authority than they had, and He was able to do the kind of things that grabbed the attention of the people. Meanwhile fear only produces chaos and we can’t afford to give in to it. We must voluntarily choose to learn to be perfected in Love.

In difficult situations  when we can’t easily sort things out, look for the fruit produced by what has happened. Don’t look at what someone else said or has done – review your own behaviour. Look for the log in your own eye. What is, or what has been the result of the situation? Do people love each other more? Do they trust each other more? Instead of excusing your own behaviour, and accusing others — look for opportunities to give Grace room to show up! All sorts of nasty little minions hide under the heading of FEAR. The good news is His perfect Love throws fear out and He replaces it with Himself.

The cross released a flow of Grace and Love that is still flowing today, 2000+ years later. But we need to choose to jump into that river and let love win. We need to stop standing on the banks of all that living water, telling each other “isn’t that lovely, doesn’t that look pretty?” Christianity is a participatory lifestyle not just a collection of pretty, sometimes useful thoughts. It is a WAY to live — and that Way is called the WAY OF LOVE.  

The Lord Jesus showed all of us how to live that lifestyle. You never turn it off! And the Holy Spirit will walk with us and remind us of how love thinks and behaves. Every circumstance is an opportunity. As we move on through this life we cannot afford to have a thought in our heads that Jesus would not have had in His. That means, especially for me – I’m going back to school, even at my age, because I simply must learn how to live by LOVE’s Way. Bye. 👋.

P 2930 Our living expression.

/ DVH

We can all quote stuff from the bible, sometimes without exactly understanding the meaning. Probably because we don’t speak ye olde English, anymore. Possibly some of us never did!  There are times we can be so enamoured with the poetry of the bible, that we miss the opportunity to look for things to learn about God Himself, and His ways. Actively seeking Him, for Himself, is our imperative. At the same time we need to stay on the alert looking for stuff for us do. Today, what are the following words saying to us?

“In the beginning the Living Expression was already there. And the Living Expression was with God, yet fully God.”John 1:1 TPT. Hmmm. What does that mean? Look, I don’t know about you but if I don’t understand what something means then I have a terrible habit of skipping around it! Sometimes I can be a teeny bit hopeful that I will discover the meaning from the words surrounding whatever it is, but in this case — not-so-much. The Apostle John has a great deal of awe and wonder in what he says. I think He wants us to comprehend God’s bigness… 

It is far more important that we take the time to understand and listen to what God is trying to say to me, today, than it is to get 100% for word comprehension! Here’s what I think God is saying through this verse… “I have always been. I became a man, and this means I understand whatever you face daily. Every fear, every bit of nastiness, every lack, every need for comfort and consolation – I know the way through all those things, just follow Me.” 

Jesus was with God before this world was created, and He is God Himself, come to earth to be with us. He was there at the time Almighty God spoke and the Holy Spirit created this world, and everything in it. When it came to MAN, God made an exception, unlike the capybaras, we were made in HIS image. In the Gospels we can see that Jesus was never concerned about mud and dirt, so I like to think He got His hands dirty in the process of creation, but that’s just me. 

So what does the above verse tell me about Him? Jesus is God’s word in human form. He is what God ordained to be written down – in the bible, per-son-ified. That’s why Christ is called the Living Word. When we look at Jesus —we are looking at God as a human being. He had to put up with the kind of stuff we have to put up with – He “gets” us. Jesus came here to help mankind find its true destiny. Part of our destiny is to BECOME the bible for other people to see – just like the Lord did. 

Jesus is part of God’s continuity. He was there in the beginning, knitting you together in your mother’s womb, He is right there with you now, and He will be with you until the end! “…and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—REGARDLESS OF CIRCUMSTANCE, and on EVERY OCCASION even to the end of the age.” Well that pretty much wraps that lot up and sticks it into the reality file. Jesus is an ALWAYS there, always present, human revelation of what God has said and what He wants.  Boy is that a good thing to know. Here’s another pearl:“If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I go down to the grave, You are there.” Psalm 139:8. We can’t lose Him!

Our living expression of God Himself said this: “I am the Alpha and the Omega [the Beginning and the End],” says the Lord God, “Who is [existing forever] and Who was [continually existing in the past] and Who is to come, the Almighty [the Omnipotent, the Ruler of all].” Revelation 1:8. He is always ON, He was always ON, and He can’t ever be turned OFF — because He is ETERNAL. And eternal doesn’t just mean forever and ever — it means something WA-AY bigger than that.

‘Eternal’ is not just about time, it is about the blow-your-mind glorious reality of God’s Being ever-present. We know that an incredible Person, came here and walked about the streets of Jerusalem etc. and yet He is with us as well, here and now.  He was there at our beginning and He will be with us as we walk on into Eternity. Jesus Christ is the very best demonstration of who we can be. He is the living expression of what God does, thinks and says about humanity – He is our potential.. 

What these few thoughts mean to me, personally, is that He is always watching over me, protecting, correcting me, loving me in ways I may not yet understand. I don’t mind that He is far greater than I can comprehend, because He has life in Himself, and He shares that life with me. I become who I was destined to by walking with Him. Jesus is the ever present, all knowing, totally-in-love with each one of us – SAVIOUR.

So, what He said in John 1:1 – how does this affect me, my life? This scripture shows me that God is always ON. I can’t turn Him off. His Presence doesn’t rely upon my feelings or lack of them. Because of Jesus, now I have His promise. Jesus said, and the bible says – our God is faithful. Then Christ, God’s living expression, demonstrated God’s faithfulness under extreme pressure. Jesus is God’s living, breathing, personal expression of God’s Word in action. He shows us how much we are loved, how faithful Almighty God is, and how constant and consistent His love will be – always.… Bye. 💕

P 2911 LET.

/ DVH

‘Let’ is actually a really big word despite it only having 3 letters! God clearly tells us: “I will LET you learn.” The dictionary says this about the word LET… not prevent or forbid; allow. As we deliberately pick up His yoke, He has promised to teach us everything we will need for our new life. But the Lord won’t push us, we still need to choose what He wants. So … let’s move on and look at a few of the many blessings of ‘letting’ …

“Let us gaze upon Jesus, as the Author and the completion of our faith,…” Hebrews 12:2;  Looking at our failure kills faith, but looking at what He did for us, opens us up to learn His Ways.“And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds…” Hebrews 10:24. WE set the pace, we choose our growing edges. God is always waiting and willing to teach us.“Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not …” Galatians 6:9. If we get tired we can ask for help, that’s how we will learn how patient He is, how ready to help us. 

“…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus,…” Hebrews 12:1.We need to let Him guide us, and teach us what we need on our journey with Him, His book is a revelation of His will. Some things are weights, so we can get tired if we don’t  leave them behind. We need to choose to confess our sins, and receive His forgiveness, be-ca-use … “IF we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.

So much is available to His kids when we chose to deliberately learn His Ways and practice them! Jesus said: “…Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:29a&30. The Lord allows us to learn how Grace works, as we read and put into practice what He said in the book. This is how we learn to trust Him, because what He does can be seen unfolding around us.

His overflowing Grace is always there for us, and we have more than enough to give away. That’s because we have a more-than-enough God Who is rich in these qualities and HE LOVES TO SHARE!  A.S.K. and … keep on asking!  Jesus gave this world an inexhaustible supply of Grace. We are encouraged to learn how His Grace impacts our lives and the lives of those around us, with His help, by using our faith. We are now grace dispensers.

Grace is our all day, all night, in every circumstance – enabler of good! It’s the Holy Spirit’s forte. He is so-oo good at it! Sometimes I have been as dumb as the dirt I came from, but HE knows how to do anything and everything – well!  When His Grace is present it means my focus is on Him, not just any pain or circumstances. I deliberately choose to put my focus onto the Lord and His eternal provision, and at the same time, I understand that He is teaching me about Himself. Then: “having done ALL I stand!” … until I hear from Him again. The Holy Spirit helps me, and praise Him, He will help and allow His kids to learn LOVE in all its forms.

We can gladly embrace the Love God has for every single human being, because our focus is not on what they have done, or did or didn’t do — it is on Who He is and what He already did! As we let that kind of love in, using our faith — it opens us up to the infinite possibilities of His Kingdom. He helps us by pointing out where we are falling down … so we don’t have to fall down next time! He lets us learn His Ways with His loving Eye upon us. Our God is never an absent God – He can be silent – but He is never gone!

You and I are a part of Him now, because we are His Body. We know we will always be received and He loves to help us to be ministers of reconciliation.. We need to make Him welcome, as our personal tutor/teacher/helper/guide/interpreter. We just need to A.S.K. I am so grateful that He lets us learn. I’ve found that the action of letting Him, or allowing HIM to take charge, is a HUGE thing.

Despite this word’s actual size, it is incredibly important. It has opened the door to a whole other way to live – in another Kingdom – His! Bye. 👋

P 2768 Religious wrappings.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 2597 A funny thing happened after I wrote yesterday’s blog.

/ DVH

…Like, at this moment I’m revisiting my own words. That didn’t take long … 🙄 Let me set the scene. Before we leave home for a bible run, the precious people from our church gather around us and pray and prophesy for miracles and souls to be saved. Their faith is fantastic!! After I’ve heard all their prayers I often start to wish they’d go instead of ME. You see, I know what’s out there … and even worse … I know what’s IN me – those two small things can sink my boat! Without Jesus I’m sunk. Moving on…

Actually, I need to be very real here or you will miss my point. Let me share with you what we’ve learnt over the last 19 years. God has a plan for each of us. We have each been given kingdom work to do, and all of it is a part of God’s MUCH bigger plan. Personally, I don’t think the Lord is looking for the next Billy Graham coming down the turnpike … 

… I think He is looking for ordinary willing people, like you and me. People who will believe they really did give their lives away to Him, and bravely stick up their hands and say: “Here I am Lord send me!” And then they go and do what He says. If anything good has come out of the last 19 years we’ve been travelling all over this country — it is because GOD IS GOOD – and He’s not fussy who He uses… sometimes He uses donkeys and whales … 😂 Hubby and I know we are both totally incompetent without Him. To be frank, without Him we’d probably give up when it gets too hard.

You and I, are a tiny part of His kingdom, and in that kingdom some people have heaps of stuff to contribute and others take their two little coins – which is all they have … and put it into His treasury for His glory! Yes, I know I just shoved two very different concepts together … hang on …  my point is that hubby and I are two normal people who dared to believe God is much MUCH bigger than our fears and we go and do it anyway – trembling most of the way.

Speaking of that … trembling I mean … the other night we sent out a frantic text to our prayer support explaining that we had suddenly discovered the next stop over on our trip is a dangerous place. That info is on Google, so it must be right! And we are staying there for two nights. It is one thing to talk about letting perfect love cast out your fears, and totally another to do it – right here, right now. We are on the coal face … so we are facing that fear. We are back in the place where our theories are going to be tested, again.  It is time to remember our peace is in HIM – not the circumstances.

A nice Indian man, who is our host at this motel, doesn’t seem thrilled with us. His spirit of kindness and co-operation flew out of the window. So, no to bibles, no to stuff for his kids, no to practically everything – including putting our food in his freezer. There are rules pasted up everywhere. To get to this outback place, we drove down appalling roads  and … …we just drove through a local locust plague. That was interesting!!

Plus, also on the road yesterday, a car driving along in front of us suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, in the 110km per hour zone … presumably to look at a great view! Another one nearly cleaned our clock in a local supermarket carpark doing 60 km/h right behind us as we were quietly reversing out.  Let’s not kid ourselves, this stuff can be hard work. Right now, hubby needs a cuppa tea, an aspirin and a big lie down!

However God is so cool, before we left home, the Lord told me to make a bookmark with an elephant on it, for an Indian lady I was going to meet. That unhappy Indian man’s wife LOVED the bookmark – even though her husband wouldn’t let her take another thing – she kept it. And the Lord did that ‘sneaky Pete’ thing He sometimes does and snuck under the radar, again. Nevertheless, there is no grace and power to do anything, unless the Lord gives it to us – you run out of manners pretty quickly!

Hubby and I have a habit of valuing obedience over everything else. We’ve learnt that if we want to see greater miracles we will need to face greater hurdles. You know … I really don’t remember signing up for some of this stuff.  I do however, remember praying … when I had no clue what was in front of me … ‘here I am Lord send me.’ Sometimes doing the work of the ministry is not as exciting as anyone might think — a lot of it consists of slogging on against opposition. 

On the plus side, living this life has taught me to throw away my always-be formal meter. Those things have gone right down the gurgler (drain), and now I have no trouble being truthful about the difficulties of this life we encounter along the way. Jesus Himself said:“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]”  John 16:33. My advice? BELIEVE HIM.

So why should any of us be overjoyed when doing stuff for the kingdom stops being fun and becomes life-threatening? Because joy is another point of obedience. Jesus didn’t say feel like it – He said do it! I have been laughing while writing this blog today because everything in it is just so true for us currently. Almighty God doesn’t get glory because we are trying hard to be stoic – He gets ALL the glory because HE IS GOD. ← And that’s a full stop right there. 👋