Co-operation

P 3468 Check out of lukewarm!

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“No soldier when in service gets entangled in the enterprises of [civilian] life; his aim is to satisfy and please the One who enlisted him.” 2 Timothy 2:4. 

“Sow seeds of righteousness for yourselves, and you will reap a harvest of God’s unending love. Break up the hard, fallow ground of your heart. For it is time to seek YAHWEH’s favour until He comes to pour out righteousness on you like falling rain.” Hosea 10:12 TPT.

We remain in His teaching when we live the way Jesus would. The bible tells us there is no room for lukewarmness, yet that very state is almost normal today. We have excuses for the way we live that are like the Tower of Babel … they reach up to the sky. But the only thing that is meant to reach that high is our praises! It seems we’ve chosen to forget that we died the day we came to Christ. Dead people have no reasonable excuses, they can’t defend themselves, or criticise others. They can’t do anything!

We can’t afford to wait for this kind of passion to overtake us – our new life in Christ relies upon us choosing to mature and taking every bit of what He said seriously. Nobody else can make us do that – we must do it voluntarily. The thing is, let’s be aware that we can maintain a perfectly even, cheerful outside attitude, while inside we are seething with anger and keeping count of other people’s supposed trespasses against us! Actors count on their ability to deceive their audience with their performance, but we are not actors.

It is up to us as individuals to find and break up the hard fallow ground inside us. Those things are — ‘areas that have become cold, unyielding, and closed off due to old habits, pride, emotional walls, or unresolved pain.’ (Google.) The Holy Spirit loves to help us identify areas where our hearts lack true Godly compassion and mercy. Let’s choose to remember that if the eye suffers, the whole body does. 1 Corinthians 12:26. We no longer have any claim to any kind of judgment, dead people don’t.

Here is a quick test to see if you have anyone in your life that you really can’t stand, and you want to avoid them like the plague. Check out your state of generosity and love levels toward that person. Generosity takes our ‘temperature,’ and we can often ignore it. We are told to ‘do good to those who despitefully use us …’ sadly, most of the time we can settle for appearances, or avoidance, or living our lives removed from others with token, spoken care. Many people have moved from one church to another because they felt lonely in the crowd. Husbands and wives end up treating each other like opposing forces, yet they appear fine on the outside.  

Because of what the bible says, I know that Jesus has redeemed the old me, and the new me would not dream of flinging bad stuff at you! A mature person knows that any differences  are present because that other person is unique … so they don’t withhold love, or doing good to whoever crosses their path. They don’t live with a level of deception that pretends all is well when it is not, and they don’t blame others for their own shortcomings. Instead they find places of agreement, and ‘lose’ the bad memories under the blood of Jesus, and deliberately choose to remember instances where love prevailed.

Breaking up hard ground starts with acknowledgement, repentance, plus reparation … We are even prepared to take the whole blame when it is obvious to you that you have done nothing. Humility thrives. These people care more about winning their brother than winning some squabble! They don’t justify their own behaviour, and blame someone else for what they have chosen to say or do. Humility hates separation and will do everything in its power to repair things. Here’s a great incentive – Jesus lives in each one of us, when we are unkind to each other we are being unkind to Him. Let’s not care about who did or said what to whom, and choose to care about unity instead.

“Your people (that’s God’s own people) will rebuild what has long been in ruins, building again on the old foundations. You will be known as the people who rebuilt the walls, who restored the ruined houses.” Isaiah 58:12. Did you get that? Rebuilding ruins … those things that have been broken for years. But then you, together with the Holy Spirit, choose to rebuild on the foundation of what Christ said and did. We’ve made the mistake of thinking that we must agree with others for relationships to be restored. Instead we agree that other people, whoever they are, are worth the effort because Jesus died for them too. 

We are now “in the service of our King.” That doesn’t ‘turn off’ when we are tired, fed up, or even ill. Let’s not forget what Jesus did for us, and GAVE to us. Otherwise we might forget the reason the Holy Spirit is here with us. He gives us the power to overcome in spite of our difficulties. He isn’t just with us so we can feel good, blessed or comfortable – His sole task is to make us, with our co-operation … like Christ. His goal is transformation, not petting us and patting us so we feel happy, vindicated and okay. 

Like soldiers who obey orders, now we live our lives in obedience to the Lord’s will, His way. There is no room for lukewarm when we daily choose to live like that. Bye. 👋. 

P3379 What have we learnt?  

/ DVH

Let’s take a look at what happened at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:3-9:

“They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let Us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that We may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”                                     But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.                                                                      So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”

This is a difficult passage of scripture to look at. It presents what I would call, an interesting situation. Almighty God interfered with man’s plans — by wrecking their communication with each other. Hmmm… Smart phone anyone? It is fascinating how in today’s world, satan has come up with a similar way to bring about the same result. If human beings are dangerous and clever enough to do all that stuff on our own … and history proves this to be true … then …

…let’s pause and imagine what a people who choose to be connected to each other, and worship and serve Almighty God can do!

The temptation in the Garden wasn’t just about being disobedient, that couple wanted to be like God. It’s just like the stuff that went down at Babel. Human beings think we can do anything! We’ve walked on the moon, see how clever we are! Almighty God made the moon … and He put it where it is with His fingers! Humanity needs to get over itself … We can’t even feed the poor that live in our neighbourhood, because making ourselves feel more important has taken precedence. 

The knowledge of good and evil is a dangerous thing in the hands of unredeemed people. They can end up making plans to rule the world! Let’s not even mention that they think that they are so smart they don’t need God anymore. And, even today, we are still busy trying to make a name for ourselves.

Right now, it seems that we talk at each other, and use abbreviations and trite phrases to communicate our feelings — with likes and dislikes. Thumbs up, or thumbs down.  What makes me sad, is that people are buying into this stuff – even our children! It seems we are doomed to continually make the same mistakes. Yet we still think we are smarter than God. 

Right here and now in this world, human relationships have again been scattered and made null and void. If we don’t like someone else, we either kill them, blow them up, maim them, divorce them or avoid them. Co-operation has gone right out of the window, and we’ve traded in true human engagement for convenience … and loneliness. Pretty soon we will all be using AI to talk to each other. When will we learn we are not in charge here? What have we learnt from the Tower of Babel?

Even in our churches, holy things have been so twisted that we don’t feel free to actually be real with each other anymore. We can’t seem to tell others what is really going on in our hearts. We are afraid that a whole lot of judgment will rush toward us, roaring down the turnpike! 

Just like it was at the Tower of Babel WE must decide – is there anything we can’t do?  … YES! … We can’t save ourselves!! And despite our very best efforts to live forever, we can’t do that either. Many people are trying so hard to preserve their lives, yet they end up looking like the Crypt Keeper whose face has been carefully ironed instead! Yikes! Meanwhile, praise the Lord, eternal life is safely in the hands of our Heavenly Father, who cannot be corrupted or make mistakes.

My point is that we are not as smart as we like to think we are. Yes, we can build the tallest buildings on the earth, and search the deepest trenches in the ocean – but we cannot save ourselves. We will continue to be a hard-headed, hard hearted, wicked, pitiless, miserly, miserable people who torment and torture each other — without Christ Himself showing us another way to live. Humanity was made to live in God’s Presence! Father God visited Adam and Eve every single evening to talk with them. Look at what we have given up! Oh, thank God, His mercy endures forever …!!

Jesus took EVERYTHING to the cross with Him. Like the bible says: “It’s finished!” God has done something so extraordinary, because of what Jesus did for us. He has given us the opportunity to walk with Him again. Right here, right now, today. We can use our faith in what Christ did for us, to rise above our past and have a truthful, fruitful relationship with Him, and each other. Jesus Christ freely chose to represent us before God’s wrath. It was the greatest work of restoration of relationships this world has ever, or will ever, see. And Father God’s goodness sent Jesus after us.

“…When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26. There will always be lessons for human beings to learn. Humility is a great starting place. Bye 👋

P 3305 The heart of the matter.

/ DVH

Sin starts in our minds and imagination, but it can quite rapidly drop down from our thinking, into our hearts where it pollutes them. Actions aren’t far behind thoughts. Meanwhile satan could care less what you and I do, so long as it is not what God wants for us! A lifetime filled with distractions, suits him! But when we take this life seriously, that’s when we will meet opposition. 

At the same time we could discover that our hearts, just like the Israelites in the wilderness, are yearning for the onions and garlic of Egypt – instead of wondering what our Promised land looks like! Have you ever asked yourself, what does OUR Promised land look like? Here and now, day by day? The Lord wants to take everything we know about Him in our heads, and drop those things into our hearts, with our co-operation. Our heart is the issue, and it needs protecting.

The bible says in Proverbs 4:23: “Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.”  What does that mean? It means we need to guard the springs of His Spirit life, the Holy Spirit is revealing in each one of us. Then we can daily draw fresh water out of that well. We drink from it ourselves, and we give this water away to other thirsty people. 

We excuse our behaviour at our own peril! We simply can’t afford to let other things take over the focus of our hearts – Jesus is our focus…not things like entertainment! That other stuff is a waste of time. Proverbs uses the word vigilance when it comes to the things of God, which means: “the action or state of keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties.” In other versions that word is translated — diligence. That is the quality of working steadily, carefully, and with great effort to complete a task properly. We need both. God’s Word needs to become flesh in us … that only happens when we prioritise His Ways.

Here’s the good news — Jesus came to earth, lived and died, and rose again, to give us the power to have this kind of vigilance and diligence. We don’t have to do this alone. He will help us! Just like a compass points north, our hearts need course correction and focus. This is why I cannot tell you what to watch on TV for instance —  enforcement of rules will not cover it. It’s about our personal choices. It’s not a mandatory thing — it’s a passion for Jesus thing. What my heart objects to, and is influenced by, won’t be the same as your heart’s response. I strongly suggest each one of us watch TV, play video games, listen to the radio, or use social media –welcoming the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

Only you, together with the Holy Spirit, can discern what pushes bad buttons in your heart.  Please note, sometimes we can remain undisturbed because of one very troubling fact. We’ve become hardened in our hearts and fallen asleep. The best answer is to find those buttons, and disconnect them, but I don’t have enough space to tackle that here. I can only give you examples to help prime the pump, so to speak. However, we cannot tackle the insidious influence of media, without the pure wisdom that comes down from above. 

James 3:17 expounds what that wisdom looks like, as it flows out of us: “But the wisdom from above is first pure [morally and spiritually undefiled], then peace-loving [courteous, considerate], gentle, reasonable [and willing to listen], full of compassion and good fruits. It is unwavering, without [self-righteous] hypocrisy [and self-serving guile].”  You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but you can see from these blogs that I am not drumming up customers for any church, or some Christian group! I have no agenda here, except to see the Body of Christ wake up at the appropriate time with their lamps filled with oil, so whenever the Lord does whatever He is going to do next, we will all be ready.

Our enemy is a deceiver. he is called the father of all lies. Yes, even the iddy-biddy no harm, no foul ones! There’s no such thing as a white lie, or even an OK lie. Because satan is the originator of lies, imagine what agreeing with them will produce? It won’t be good fruit, trust me! he will never come at people who love Jesus and want to serve the Lord, with this kind of thought: ‘let’s go rob a bank.’ Or ‘your neighbour is a pain, let’s put poison in his coffee!’ he is far more likely to whisper that it is‘ OK to cheat on your income tax because everybody else does it and the accountant said it is legal,’ Or you could end up in a conversation with someone else assassinating a third person’s character, and calling the idea prayer points! 

Almighty God is searching for a people who will honour what He wants and likes, above what they like or honour.“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward Him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9. I know He’s searching all of our hearts, even as I write this. He’s looking for a people who are serious about loving and serving Jesus. He doesn’t care what nation we are from —  or whether we are poor or rich, old or young, sick or well. He desires a people who will do more than just say ‘Amen’ to what the pastor says. These people will go out and LIVE AMEN in their daily lives to their own hurt. 

We cannot afford to gloss over those things that will lead us nowhere and profit us nothing. Let’s choose to make strong specific God-given choices, and stick to them. Father God is tenderly looking for a people who will choose Him first, that’s the heart of the matter. Bye. 👋

P 3302 Sin.

/ DVH

Today is the day, we remember that our sin has been conquered and permanently defeated by the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us. Praise Him! I pray this Good Friday that we will be enabled by the precious Holy Spirit to understand, how wide, how high, how deep His love is for each one of us. However, we dare not take sin lightly. Any kind of sin when it is tolerated, produces fruit. Bad fruit. Sin separates us from God and others.

Let’s be clear, our devotion toward the Lord, must extend to being open and honest, acknowledging the true state of our own hearts. Poverty of Spirit brings its own blessing. (Matthew 5) Despite our best intentions, other people have been affected by our actions – or lack of them – and we can cause them to stumble. Sin affects everyone around it. The bible tells us this: “Or do you have no regard for the wealth of His kindness and tolerance and patience [in withholding His wrath]? Are you [actually] unaware or ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness leads you to repentance [that is, to change your inner self, your old way of thinking—seek His purpose for your life]?” Romans 2:4. We cannot afford to esteem what Jesus has done for us, lightly.

The purpose of repentance is change. Not evasion, or punishment, or explanations, excuses, or tears … or even self-flagellation! Repentance means acknowledging or confessing our sin, and active participation in reparation. Then we experience transformation facilitated by the Holy Spirit’s guidance. God is so kind! His Grace lifts us up, into a brand new life. Now, because of what Jesus did for us, we can look at who we really are, without any shame or fear. But the crux of the matter is this — our engagement and co-operation in these matters is essential. Prayer without repentance and appropriate actions, is just hot air. Let’s learn daily to rely on His redeeming Grace, and never abuse that grace or replace it with casual carelessness. Repentance is a serious business. 

Here is a truth about a scripture in Hebrews 4:12. Our intentions matter. But we cannot discern those intentions without the Holy Spirit’s help – He’s the One with the sword! This means our intention is not an escape clause either. Let’s choose to examine our hearts and deliberately repair things, so we can openly and honestly participate in our relationship with the Holy Spirit and others. God’s Word is our scalpel, and the Holy Spirit is the one and only extraordinarily proficient and accurate Surgeon. His Word cuts between our soulish, sinful and sometimes childish attitudes and responses, plus any desire for revenge or self-defence, to the heart of the matter. The bible indicates a clear path between our intention to harm, and our ever-present desire to avoid the truth about our motivations.

“For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energising, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  Hebrews 4:12.

We need His wisdom to show us what our intentions really are! Is our attitude spite, or hurt? Regret or Godly sorrow? This work the Holy Spirit does is so fine, so careful, so intricate—He can lovingly expose the very things we do not want to face about ourselves. I believe we need the deepest parts of our nature exposed, because we often settle for less than God’s glorious ideal as our standard. His standard is His Son, Jesus. I’ve found it useful to prayerfully look at the things I have done, or the things I am still doing! … and then I ask the Holy Spirit for His help. He also helps me to repair things.

Let’s remember that the Lord does not divide our thoughts from our intentions, to make us feel guilty, or stumble, or fall away. His incredible kindness wants us to be free to become more acquainted with Who He is – because in that knowledge lies our total transformation. Sometimes, we may need to know why we did what we did, so that His Spirit can transform our hearts at the cellular level. That’s when we begin to want and long for what He wants. After that we can quite easily identify within ourselves, any malicious judgment and intent to harm, and separate it from just plain carelessness and a lack of awareness of others and their lives. 

King Herod finagled a way to kill the infant Jesus – He killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem! “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.” Matthew 2:16. This is an example of a wrong heart attitude. Another one appears in Acts, with Ananias and Sapphira, who were strategising about cheating the Lord, and their brothers and sisters. This matter was dealt with swiftly and thoroughly because it happened in front of the entire fledgling church. This couple’s plan abused God’s Grace! It was not about money – it was about the intention of their hearts. 

Sin occurs when we dismiss the intention of our heart to harm, callously calling it — “only natural under the circumstances.”  Let’s call sin, ‘sin’ and repent from it. Our focus in this matter is coveting a closer relationship with the Lord Himself. No amount of pretty words can cover up sin. It is poisonous to all of us. Bye. 👋

P 3076 Road building.

/ DVH

“And how blessed all those in whom You live, whose lives become roads You travel; They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!” Psalms 84:5-7 MSG. 

“One day spent in Your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches. I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God than be honoured as a guest in the palace of sin. All sunshine and sovereign is God, generous in gifts and glory. He doesn’t scrimp with His traveling companions. It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.” Psalms 84:10-12 MSG.

I’m a word person. I love the Word of God, but today I’m also talking about the way words are put together. For me, words paint pictures in my mind. They take ordinary things and endow them with the Holy Spirit’s thoughts and beauty. We’ve travelled along a lot of roads – bumpy ones, dusty ones, gliding highways and roads with beautiful scenery, as we take bibles all over Australia. So I feel like a little bit of an expert on roads.

In the first part of Psalm 84:5-7, the words take me into our car,  winding our way through beautiful scenery, watching for what will appear when we get around the next bend. I dearly love to go on roads I’ve never been on before. Occasionally as we’ve travelled along, we’ve taken a side road – just to see what was at the other end! The picture at the bottom of this blog show you what we found at the end of quite an ordinary road. It was surrounded by cane fields. (Lucinda,Qld.) 

However, the bit in this Psalm that captured my heart is the very first verse. “And how blessed all those in whom You live, whose lives become roads You travel.”I would love to be a road the Lord travels upon to reach out to others. The kind of road that takes people from living in the same old same old, into the bright fresh land of daily discovering Jesus. I pray that other people can see Him in me, and enjoy the view, and maybe they will want to know Him for themselves. We can often think about witnessing as speaking etc. but enjoying Who God is, in the middle of this crazy upside-down, often scary life, can be the greatest witness and worship of all!

This Psalmist values God’s Presence more than the supposedly fine things this world can offer us. I’ve sat on a Greek Island, and their beaches are very pretty.  The sea around those islands, is the most beautiful colour. But the writer tells us that they would rather be scrubbing God’s floor, than be in any place of this world’s natural beauty. Anywhere our God IS, is a far more beautiful place than this world can offer.

I love to sing and worship, but I also love to sit and listen to worship as well. Listening to worship lifts my heart and thoughts above this often cranky old world. We all need that refreshing, so we can keep God’s highway in our heart OPEN. Worship makes us bigger inside, and more open to whatever He wants to do next, and it also positions our hearts to hear Him. The thing is, I don’t just think of worship as singing, or playing an instrument. I see it as a life-laid down, together with the way we love others. Surrender, is worship to me. 

Jesus travelled along a lot of dusty roads as He ministered, and distances never seemed to matter to Him. He sometimes went off the beaten track for just one person. He saw broken roads all around Him. His whole life was a highway into the Father’s heart, for mankind to travel on. Now that’s worth pausing and thinking about! 

In another version it says the first verse like this:“Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.”It is our strength and belief in God’s goodness, when we are under the pressure of highway creation, that makes our road solid and straight. This highway is not just a theory, it can make our lives with Christ accessible – but like any highway, the road to Zion comes at a cost. This cost exists, because quite beautiful, even seemingly useful things – that do not seem to be harmful – have to be removed from our lives if we are to become His highway.

There are times that I can see the precious Holy Spirit with His front-end loader, bulldozers, excavators, and graders, asphalt makers and road rollers continually rumbling along through my life, under the Lord’s watchful eye! All that equipment working on us is represented in our lives as situations, or other people. We all have difficult people who become implements in His hands —they are used by Him to make our road straight and strong and available to God and others. Road making is intense! It requires co-operation with the Lord, and a vision for a better, more available, ME.

We all want the King of Kings to travel down our highways so that other people can come out of the roadblocks and broken highways they are living in. Road building is a worthy calling. Bye. 👋

P 2901 Walking in love means …

/ DVH

… that I will probably never get my own way! According to 1 Corinthians 13, this kind of heart attitude is now my NEW priority… Now I will need to rely upon God to help me be patient in the middle of unpleasant circumstances. The Lord has promised He will help us. There is no reason to be envious of your fruit, because I’m way too busy growing my own! At the same time I will cultivate a caring concern for your well-being, while I’m putting my own needs on His altar. Also I no longer want to keep records of all the dumb things you’ve done!

Pardon me a minute, now I need to dash off and look in His mirror, (His Word) and see if there is any chance my reflection there backs up what I just said! Meanwhile, fake fruit looks a lot like the real deal nowadays, until you take a bite out of it! Here’s an interesting side note: fake fruit is too shiny. Just like those fake plastic smiles we slap on when somebody has stepped on our heart for the 15th time and we lie and tell them, “Oh I’m OK, really!” It’s a wonder that my nose isn’t longer than Pinnochio’s. Why do we do that? Here’s my answer … a lack of humility. An aversion to correction and connection, plus I’m deathly afraid you will continue to tell me the truth about myself … and… I don’t want to hear that, thank you!

Here is my point for today, this life is constantly taking bites out of us – our response to those bites is a much better thermometer or diagnosis, than even any reflection could be. Instead, now we want to make His Word flesh in our lives – that happens when we do it to obey Him. Living like Jesus’ told us to, means we learn to be quiet when someone else is utterly wrong and we can prove it to them but instead we choose not to do that. We won’t even brag about the fact that we’ve resisted temptation, because we know, that the Holy Spirit helped us through it. 

Let’s be clear — it is not our behaviour that is at fault – it’s our belief system. We use our experiences to validate what we believe, instead of His Word. This side of the cross we need to believe in His love IN US more than we believe the lies that flourish around us. I can’t do anything without Him, because I know I will dive straight back into looking after ME. I can make pretty good excuses for doing that. Sadly, sometimes we keep right on using our own understanding, instead of acknowledging Him in all our ways.

We must continually revisit truths from the bible. looking for things for us to apply into our lives. Jesus did all this work for us, all by Himself, at Calvary …once and for all! If I give you a brand new house with everything you ever personally wanted or needed in it, and you still chose to continue to live in falling down rented digs – because you are too proud to say “thank you” — whose fault is that? The Lord has already deposited everything we will ever need to be transformed, in our forever account.We just need to learn to live in forever, instead of the immediate. Otherwise the immediate takes over.

Romans 4:20–25: “Yet he (Abraham) did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for US, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” 

Those words: ‘fully persuaded that God had power’ …matter. We’ve met SomeOne Who is not like anyone else we’ve ever met. He doesn’t just tear up any record of our sins, at the same time, He deposits His love, righteousness, goodness, compassion, mercy, loving-kindness etc. inside of us. We already have whatever we need for this way of life. Jesus did not just empty out the bad, He is in the process, with our co-operation, of loading in the good. Abraham believed God and He acted on His belief, and God said: Now that’s righteous.”

Now we choose to stop doing things the way this world does them, and we ask Him how He wants us to handle everything that comes our way. Loving others is our permanent focus. Instead of asking the Lord to make you patient, (generic wish thought) you and I ask Him – ‘Who am I being impatient with, Lord?’  (Specific attitude check.) And we don’t argue with whatever He suggests, even if it happens to be someone we can’t stand! We go to them and humble ourselves. If we wait for that other person to deserve it … it will never happen! 

LOVE ACTS. It is unafraid of the consequences. Walking in love means my whole life changes! Bless ya 👋

P 2818 More Treasure … Part 2.

/ DVH

“Jesus answered him, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you.’ This is the great and supreme commandment. And the second is like it in importance: ‘You must love your friend in the same way you love yourself.’”Matthew 22:37-39 TPT.

Let’s put this verse in context. An expert in the law went to speak with Jesus. This man was a serious God-fearing sort of man – but his ultimate aim was to test the Lord’s right to claim who He said He was and do what He was doing. Chapter 23 of Matthew shows Jesus interacting with the religious leaders of the day. These men regarded themselves as the keepers of the true faith, so they stood against anything that appeared to be new. They took their faith very seriously.

We need to remember that Jewish people, even today, are living the way they do to please God and they’ve been living this way for centuries! I found that they have 613 commandments in their faith, and these precious people do their best to obey them … to the letter of the law. That’s devotion. I am not going to comment on what I think about the way they live, I simply want to point out that Jesus took all those commandments from that time, and summed them up in TWO.

It must be very clear to anyone reading this blog that I am not an expert in these matters, as a matter of fact I have no information about what laws were current in those days, I just simply want to say this – I guarantee you that what Christ said — covered them all!  Please do note, that the Lord said the second commandment He gave was like the first. This is my point today, He gave that second commandment weight and importance by what He said in that moment. 

I wanted to write about heavenly treasures today, because I think it is an error to push our families, or the even people around us to one side, and simply say: “I’m going after God first.” Paul himself said we’d be better off not married because marriage produces divided loyalties! When we go after God we may be doing our best to obey the first commandment, but if we are not careful we could be going after the letter of the law – but not what is at its heart. Using the bible to prove any point is like using God’s word as a sledgehammer. His Word is like pure clean water and soap – it is not an implement to bash people. Remember, at the heart of God’s law is always LOVE. And we have a great checklist in 1 Corinthians 13 – so we know what love looks like, and what the Lord Himself is looking for! 

I said all that to explain that we can’t use obeying God as an excuse to dodge our responsibilities. EG: If your kid has blood pouring out somewhere then that kid needs to be your priority. Nor can we gloss over our responsibilities as a spouse or a parent, by making prayer meetings, etc. more important than they are. We cannot let rules discount genuine human needs. And yes, that means we must ask the Holy Spirit to help us …all the time. Sometimes, we may even need to protect our spouse from themselves, because they may say, in a spirit of co-operation … even though they are ill: “I’m OK really – you go.” Think about this subject like this, who on earth can compete with this statement: ‘God told me.’ (??)

I like that word ‘neighbour’ better than ‘friend’ and in some versions it says ‘neighbour.” You can choose your friends, but you can get stuck with your neighbours. Obviously, one of those two things will test us more! And now might be a good time to remember that the word ‘love’ is a verb not a noun! Love looks like something. It looks like food to the hungry. Being included to the lonely. Comfort for the grieving. Undeserved kindness. Love doesn’t have to constantly look after itself because the Lord watches over those who live in Love.

Love also looks like a listening ear, and a big box of tissues to the heartbroken. We must learn to treat people as valuable, because no matter how broken they are – they are incredibly valuable to Him. We don’t get to choose who God will love and redeem … that’s His job! Jesus put a price on mankind that was extraordinary – we are worth His life! His choice increased every single human being’s value.

Faith is personal. That means somebody else can’t give it to you, all they can do is give you an opportunity to embrace it. Everybody around us, on the bus, in the shops, at the beach, at school, at work – every single person is a  treasure to God.  That’s why Jesus emphasised loving our neighbour like ourselves. And I think that’s why He told the story of the Good Samaritan … but that’s for another day. Bye. 👋


“If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates (works against) his [Christian] brother he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” 1 John 4:20.

P 2703 Even if we die, WE WIN!

/ DVH

Right here, right now, we have been re-born into something new. To start with, we are now risk takers. We take a risk every time we talk about Jesus to someone we care about, or even somebody we don’t know. People have been punched on the nose for less! It’s always a risk. I’ve learnt to do whatever He tells me to do — but, at the same time, I figure if I heard Him incorrectly, Jesus can redeem anything! So I ask Him to redeem whatever I did that missed the mark.  Plus I carry lots of hankies, and bandaids! … only joking.🤣

The bible teaches us to love other people, but the reality is we have no actual guarantee that whoever we love can’t, won’t, or don’t love us back. The best answer to that unfortunate dilemma is to focus on how much HE loves us! Sadly I think most of us are ignorant of that particular fact. We let the fact that other people don’t love us dissuade us from the reality of His eternal, passionate love for us.

So it is good to make that error our prayerful starting place. It is way too easy to start in the wrong place. Sometimes we start by doing our best to love others – but we actually need His power to love others. Sooner or later, everyone is going to annoy us, and there goes love out of the window. Instead, ask Him to reveal to you how much He loves you.

At the same time, it is not good to sit around waiting to ‘feel like He loves you’ to fall on you – instead, deliberately choose to decide to believe the book! Then begin to live this life the way we have been taught by Christ’s own example. One step at a time, always walking with the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t leave us, we may not be aware of Him – but He is there. If we fall down and do something that breaks our connection with Him, then we repent, repair and get up again. The whole point of Christianity is selfless living!  Sometimes, because many of us are needy one way or another, being selfless can be risky. Actually, some days it can look downright stupid!

However, we are now playing the long game, because this life we lead is eternal. We aren’t interested in a quick return on our investment, because we’re choosing to live this life invested in heaven. That’s a long term investment that holds countless treasures beyond our wildest dreams – some we will see here, some we will see there.  It won’t be hard to be nice to difficult people in heaven – it won’t even come up! That’s because we will ALL be changed. Interestingly enough, maybe the people who bug us won’t be changed at all, but WE will! And if that sentence grated on you – maybe you still have issues. PRAY SOME MORE. 😂

Jesus Christ sealed this incredible provision in His blood. He has made it so we can’t lose – the only thing we can do is to default on what we have been given.  We simply follow the precious Holy Spirit’s prompts and be prepared to die to self. Now, that’s the knotty bit … that’s when we find out who we really are, and polite falls off! Here’s a whacky thought, maybe we can’t get along with some people because our unchanged attitudes have corrupted our POV. 🤔 We can say that we will die for the ungrateful, the unkind, the deliberately wicked – BUT!! When that turns out to be somebody close to you … meh! Not-so-much! 

Here’s another thought … when we change our response with His help, then the unhelpful people will be wasting their time. They can say or do whatever they want, but we will have moved! The Holy Spirit is powerful, He just needs our co-operation. This is how we learn what the power of God can do, when we see ourselves leaving stuff behind we thought we had to have, and we step into Christ’s shoes.

It is how we become those people mentioned in Psalm 91:8-10 “Only a spectator shall you be [yourself inaccessible in the secret place of the Most High] as you witness the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place, There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent.” Every time we choose His Way, over our way – we enter into His protection, His kingdom. That ugly stuff can’t hit us in there. It just kind of lies about on the ground looking pretty silly.

Try it out. The next time someone tells you you are stupid, dumb, ignorant, difficult, grumpy, talk too much – just tell them, ‘ Yes! I know I am. BUT! I have a Saviour and He’s changing me.’ Duck those punches and pretty soon you will start to see them coming, and head them off before they hit you. That’s when you king hit them …. WITH LOVE. His Love is a collectable. It accumulates. The more you partake of it, and freely give it away – the more you have to give. Joy pops up fast on the heels of love. It’s hard to be unhappy when you know He loves you.

I am often astonished at how the Lord can take the worst situation, and He not only changes it – He utterly transforms it into something I’ve never even dreamt about! That’s the power of God in action. We’ve all been reborn to be risk takers – walking with Him means even if we die, we win! 👋

P 2356 We are filled with fresh oil, to burn.

/ DVH

Exodus 40:9-15 “Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy. Then anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils; consecrate the altar, and it will be most holy. Anoint the basin and its stand and consecrate them.

“Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water.  Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest. Bring his sons and dress them in tunics. Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue throughout their generations.’

Christians worship and serve our King in various ways, it is part of who we are now. Some of us have less seen roles —and others, just like Aaron’s oil-saturated garments, are more visible. It makes no difference – whether we are a utensil or a High priest’s tunic – like it was in the days of the Tabernacle – everything and everyone who serves Him needs His anointing. 

In the same way as the altar, the furnishings, utensils, Aaron, his clothes, and his sons;  WE need to learn how to live our lives in co-operation with His anointing. The oil mentioned here is a type or illustration of the Precious Holy Spirit – how He facilitates life and worship, repentance and celebration. We cannot possibly expect to live this new life God has given us, for free — without the Holy Spirit. 

The secret to living in His anointing is to live a life of totally yielded and surrendered love. There is no law against LOVE. You may need to read that last two sentences again – I know I did! That sounds and looks like this – ‘Wherever You want me to go, I will go, whatever You want me to do, Lord,  I WILL DO IT.’ But I won’t just accept every circumstance I find myself in, instead the Holy Spirit and I talk about everything together. Personally, I find that comforting not intrusive.

In Matthew 25:1-13 – in the parable of the Ten Virgins – we can see what happens when we treat the Holy Spirit carelessly. Some of those women did not value Him enough to be able to have continuous supply/fellowship with Him. What Jesus is highlighting here is our need to be ready whenever the Bridegroom calls us. – this parable is not just for the end times – we need to be ready day or night. That’s what it is saying. And to do that … we need to value Him more than our own convenience or comfort. 

The oil of the Spirit … how incredible is the fact that we can partake of such a wonderful Person! The same oil that flowed over Aaron and Co. plus all the utensils etc. in the tabernacle, is to be a part of our lives. And what a privilege we have to be able to know personally such a wonderful treasure. Because the Holy Spirit IS our ever-present treasure, He must not be taken for granted. That’s the point of that parable, the Bridegroom was so important to these five wise women they did whatever they could to be ready for Him.

Yet still every single one of those virgins also fell asleep. Where the foolish virgins fell down was that they did not allow for unforeseen circumstances. They had a shelf-life to their devotion. The wise virgins had the sense to understand that the Bridegroom will come whenever He comes! It was simply their responsibility to stay prepared.

Jesus is telling us here that we cannot make a last minute trip or effort to be in tune with the Holy Spirit, fellowship with HIM has to be our purpose. Staying ready and filled is our responsibility. Our hearts are meant to be looking for Him – no matter what time of the day or night. We need to do whatever it takes to keep our lamps burning with His fire and passion for Christ. Remember living in love with Him and others is the key to walking with Holy Spirit.

It is simplistic to say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love each other with kind of a lovey-dovey hearts and flowers kind of love. Their love for each other is an overwhelming life-changing FIRE! And we’ve been asked to participate in that kind of relationship with all three of Them. Why would we ignore that kind of invitation? Don’t wait for tomorrow – our heart’s cry daily needs to be ‘fill me now, I need more! I need to burn!’ 👋🏻

P 2354 CULTIVATION matters …

/ DVH

We need to pray, then ACT as well, that’s the cultivation. And that is the hard bit. The power to overcome comes after using your faith. However we often do it like this: “Dear Lord please help me with my quick temper,” Amen. Sadly, we’ve learnt to walk away, literally not looking back, because, after all, we’ve asked Him for His help;  and it says in the bible to ‘ask and keep on asking’ — so if He hasn’t answered that prayer then maybe we need to just keep on asking! Tell yourself over and over again – He is looking for us to ACT in faith. In this instance by shutting up and dealing with our own emotions and asking for His help! God is looking for ongoing, involved, relationship. 

Of course we also understand that the Word says we are to be slow to anger – and every time we read stuff like that in the bible we probably feel bad, but if we pray another quick prayer then that should sort of cover our end of it! After all, we know for sure that we are praying His will and now it is up to Him. And if He doesn’t fix it then maybe He understands that we just can’t help it!

Yeah. HOWZAT working for ya? It does not work for me at all. All I know is that many of us use our inability to humanly change stuff, as an excuse to dismiss anything we don’t like or we can’t face about ourselves. We avoid the issue. BUT!! NOW WE HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. And He’s here to help us do wa-ay more than participate in miracles, speak in tongues, and multiply fish and bread! HE’S HERE TO PREPARE THE BRIDE!! Working in co-operation with Him is the best way to facilitate our total transformation – not just feeling good after being prayed for when we fell on the floor!  

Lying to ourselves, or pretending stuff is not a problem for US with regard to our faults – (we all have them) – cements those things further into our lives. Meanwhile, bad luck about anyone else who happens to live with that stuff and US doing it!!  Plus we will totally miss out on working with the Lord personally, in ways we can see for ourselves. We can see what He can and will do in our hearts when we stop pretending we don’t have any faults! There is nothing like suddenly finding you have strength in an area where you know had none – as in … bupkis, nyet, nil, denayda! 

I find this kind of stuff that I can’t personally change, even with super hero effort – often … like ten times a day … and that’s on a good day! That’s when I remember that I am up for cultivation. In the story about the vinedresser and the vine (John 15:1-5) we get some clues about how God cultivates us. He prunes some things and gets rid of others completely. (Matthew 7:19-23); (Luke 13:6–9). 

John shows us in his parable about the vine that the Lord prunes for more growth, and eventually for fruit production. We can all totally rejoice about that – because this world needs more GOD-fruit. We must remember that our God is always so careful and mindful of our potential – so He will not remove stuff that has within it the potential to bear fruit. This means if a branch etc. disappears — then we didn’t need it. Bear in mind the fruit that eventually comes from the pruned bits is the Holy Spirit’s fruit and His fruit lasts.

Fun fact to remember, if something gets chopped off then it was going nowhere. There is no point in mourning it, we are better off rejoicing because these scriptures show us that He has a purpose in all things and we need to trust in His purposes! Conversely, if something quite weak and wobbly still remains, then He intends for the sap of His Spirit to strengthen us, because ‘His strength is made perfect in our weakness.’  So we now have an opportunity to experience His provision and power personally, for ourselves. But first we need to recognise what is actually happening – and let HIM help us.

Finally, fruit production needs fertilisation, water, sunshine and clearing away any weeds that spring up around the tree. Obviously we are fed and watered daily by His living Word. Simply reading the book without applying what it says into our lives does not water or fertilise our fruit tree. We also need to take the time to bask in the sunshine of Who He is, and what He has done for us – not because we want or need something, but because we need to be near Him – just like our ‘tree’ needs sunshine. 

The weeds around our tree are our responsibility and they can come from a lot of places. Weeding is part of cultivation, and ignoring weeds means our little tree will be malnourished. We can get some weeds by authenticating behaviour Jesus would not authenticate. And if someone is unhappy with you about this or that fault, remember – whatever that thing is – it is holding up fruit production. Time to ‘confess our faults’ and aim for humility – I tell myself ‘everybody else has to do this stuff so why not me?’  Plus it is totally worth it to walk around with Him.  👋🏻