Comfortable

P 3285 Practical stuff.

/ DVH

I want to be practical today because I have spent a number of days talking about living in the new life that Christ died to give us. So today I want to talk about how I am learning to live that way. First of all, I refuse to allow things I’ve done, or things other people have done, to remain hidden and unacknowledged. I treasure my relationship with the precious Holy Spirit above everything, so whatever He wants, I do. Pretence shoots honesty in the foot.

Theories cannot change our lives unless we actively decide to participate in them. Most people want to practice the things we are taught, so they nod and smile and go home … and try harder to meet the impossible standard Jesus set for all of us. Over the years I’ve learnt I am not capable of anything but the appearance of good. However, Christianity is not just practical, it is possible. Here’s the good news. Jesus died to give us His power to overcome our enemy, our own faults, as well as this world! And here is the bad …truth, humility and honesty are the highways we need to travel on.

We cannot expect to serve Jesus and maintain the life we already have. The whole point is for US to be changed. This point is the place where so many Christians part company with the Holy Spirit’s Ways. However, we simply cannot live with a foot in each camp, eventually we will slide back into the camp that looks after “me, mine, myself and I!’ “Mankind heads for sin and misery as predictably as flames shoot upwards from a fire.” Job 5:7.

Over to an illustration … I have been at odds with someone in my immediate family, all of my life. We both just saw things differently – we simply didn’t get each other. I tried to avoid dealing with this person by staying in their presence for the shortest time possible. Then the Lord began to challenge me about how I was treating them. The truth was, I treated them like a bad smell! I was polite … and distant. The Holy Spirit can lead us into distancing ourselves from someone for a purpose and a time, but in this case, I just plain disliked everything that person said and did, so I stayed away. I didn’t like being around them – they uncovered who I really was! 

Then He began to challenge me and I saw that underneath my hurt and pain, was resentment, hatred and bitterness. I wanted THEM to change who they were to make ME more comfortable! Anyhoo, they weren’t changing, and as time went on, things got worse. OH, how I hate the land of worse!! So I gathered up my courage and asked Him how HE wanted me to treat them, and His perfect answer sent me into self-pity, tears, and petulance. After all, everybody I knew agreed that I was much safer far away from this person. But HE didn’t. I just need to say, that if you have a problem like this one, then you need to ask the Holy Spirit what He wants YOU to do, and do it – but be guided by what the Bible says!

At that time, Jesus told me to treat that person like I would treat HIM. Sigh. I would have rather swum through shark-infested giant seas to South America, than do that. It seemed to me like I was giving them permission to continue to treat me badly. Then the Lord said this from Psalm 91:15&16 “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. …I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress…” So I crawled up into that Psalm, and clung on to it like a Rhesus monkey and prayed ‘help help!’ At the same time, I banged on my hat of salvation, picked up my breast-plate of righteousness and the sword of truth, and off I went. FYI the sword of the Spirit is not for slicing and dicing the other person – the Holy Spirit guides and teaches us how to use this sword His way.

I recommend tackling this kind of relationship difficulty, with at least 3 Holy Spirit inspired scriptures, that you’ve prayed over – as well as asking Him for His wisdom. After a while of loving on this person the way I love Him, I noticed that they hadn’t changed at all … … but I had! That sore place inside me had become inaccessible because I had stepped into FAITH. Then I realised that so much of what happened when I was with them, I had taken personally – but those things were the result of this person’s mal-formed personality. What I thought was personal viciousness, was their way of getting what they thought they needed. Their humanity was on display, and they didn’t know Jesus so it was the only course of action they had.

As I stuck with the Holy Spirit’s plan, I gradually saw a brand new person I had never met before. I still didn’t much like the way that they did things, but that stuff is not actually my business. I found we could laugh together, and genuinely express love for each other. At this point I want to stress that only someone very close to you can hurt you so badly.  Other people can come along and poke you in the scars you bear from your previous injuries. Don’t maltreat them for jumping on your hurt places.

We call it protecting ourselves, and God says “He is our protection and with Him we will be safe!” I found practicing loving my enemy – in this case a family member – worked best, when I started with the person who hurt me the most! That person could be a spouse, or a parent or a sibling, but the transformation that we personally experience, gives us the impetus to continue living this way. We get to see His power at work in our lives.

Here is a final question: “Have you ever noticed when you are with someone who hurts you, it never occurs to you that you might be hurting them at the same time, because you are way too busy firing arrows at them?” Yeah, I know… bring that up! We can become so entrenched in our own attitudes we can’t see anything, or anyone else. Let’s remember that God’s word is practical, you can stand on it.  Fixing relationships is essential! Bye. 👋

P 3236 We too can be dazzled by the WRONG side of Jordan.

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This is what I noticed the other day, when I read Numbers 32:1-22. When the Israelites came to the Jordan river, two tribes chose to stay on the east side of that river. They decided the land suited them there. However, Moses insisted that their fighting men had to come with the rest of the larger group, to defeat the people on the west side, and help them get rid of those enemies who lived on the other side of Jordan, in the Promised Land . 

Let’s be clear, the land these two tribes wanted was on the east side of the Jordan river to the Promised Land.These tribes wanted to stay there because they could settle down, spread out and make new lives. They preferred the land outside the Promised Land, it was more convenient, and invited prosperity.  

“The Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were suitable for livestock. So they came to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the community, and said, “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Beon— the land the Lord subdued before the people of Israel—are suitable for livestock, and your servants have livestock. If we have found favour in your eyes,” they said, “let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan.”

Moses said to the Gadites and Reubenites, “Should your fellow Israelites go to war while you sit here? Why do you discourage the Israelites from crossing over into the land the Lord has given them? This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to look over the land. After they went up to the Valley of Eshkol and viewed the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land the Lord had given them. The Lord’s anger was aroused that day and He swore this oath: ‘Because they have not followed Me wholeheartedly, not one of those who were twenty years old or more when they came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob— not one except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they followed the Lord wholeheartedly.’ 

The Lord’s anger burned against Israel and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation of those who had done evil in His sight was gone.“And here you are, a brood of sinners, standing in the place of your fathers and making the Lord even more angry with Israel. If you turn away from following Him, He will again leave all this people in the wilderness, and you will be the cause of their destruction.”

Then they came up to him and said, “We would like to build pens here for our livestock and cities for our women and children. But we will arm ourselves for battle and go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them to their place. Meanwhile our women and children will live in fortified cities, for protection from the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until each of the Israelites has received their inheritance. We will not receive any inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan, because our inheritance has come to us on the east side of the Jordan.”

Then Moses said to them, “If you will do this—if you will arm yourselves before the Lord for battle and if all of you who are armed cross over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven His enemies out before Him—then when the land is subdued before the Lord, you may return and be free from your obligation to the Lord and to Israel. And this land will be your possession before the Lord.” 

This section of scripture hit me between the eyes. It showed me that we too, can camp on the wrong side of the river – where the work has already been done, and we know we will be comfortable because it suits our needs. But we don’t appear to give two figs about what the Lord has told us He has given us. He gave us a Promised Land filled with everything the Lord Jesus did for us. We need to be the grateful people who want to live in the Promised land and are more than willing to fight for it. These tribes, Reuben and Gad, didn’t care about the others, because they had already got what they wanted, space for their flocks etc.

Sadly, I think this is also true of the Body of Christ today. Many of us have settled on the wrong side of Jordan –  because where we are, and what we have, suits us. I’m talking about our faith. So we stay home and do nothing. We don’t want to lose our sense of safety. There are those in this world who need our help, but few want to be part of the solution, because they might lose something! We haven’t got a dispute about land, etc., per se, instead, our dispute is about comfort and where we want to settle down and be comfortable. Plus what we choose to believe. 

These two tribes wanted to settle for something God had not given them, but Moses made it very clear — they would have to fight alongside their braver brethren or lose what they had chosen, because God Himself would fight against them. The battle for real faith, living faith, the kind of faith that loves and lives a life like Jesus did, is still in front of us. He won for us! But we are not doing our part! It seems we like to go to places where we hear stories of other people’s victories, but then we want to return to the safety of the place we’ve called our own, where ‘our kind of faith’ suits us. We cannot afford to decide we know what our inheritance is – God has decided that.

Let’s learn to fight our enemy together, so Christ can have the whole reward of His suffering. The battle belongs to the Lord, but – we cannot, or dare not abstain, simply because we think that fighting will ruin what we have already decided is right for ‘our lives.’ There is so much more on the other side of Jordan, so let’s not settle for what we think is comfort, or even be blinded by the immediate,  let’s press on for personal victories!  Bye 👋

P 3216 Obedience is not an optional extra.

/ DVH

Being obedient is the best way I know to walk with the Lord, and it can prevent a whole lot of confusion. I discovered that I needed to purpose in my heart to simply choose to be obedient. I’ve learnt to read the bible, pray and meditate on it and — do what it says. At the same time, I’ve found as I focus on loving other people, suddenly a whole lot of stuff that I needed, was added unto me along the way. “We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love He has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them.” 1 John 4:16.

I believe that the depth and purpose we desire to love the Lord, appears when we intentionally, continually apply our dedicated obedience to His Word. Father God doesn’t need our mental agreement with whatever He has said, Jesus and the Holy Spirit agree with Him and that’s a majority right there!! This is what Jesus said about obedience in John 14:15-17. “If you love Me, you will obey My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper Who will be with you forever. That Helper is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it doesn’t see or know Him. You know Him, because He lives with you and will be in you.”

The Holy Spirit is our Helper, and Jesus specifically asked the Father to send Him to us – to help us to obey the Father. At the same time, the Lord expects us to treat the Holy Spirit with reverence and respect. The Spirit of God is gentle in His heart, like Jesus is, and we need to respect that He will not cannonball all over the place, or even push us along. He clearly knows what truth is, and it is unfortunately quite evident from the above scripture, that a lot of the time, we do not! 

My favourite times with the Holy Spirit happen when He shows me what the truth is, in whatever scripture I am reading. It’s like someone turns the light on when I’ve been sitting in the dark trying to puzzle out what God wants to say TO ME.The precious Holy Spirit will not show us His heart, or what He wants from us, or even share His secrets with us, if we have no desire to be obedient. What would be the point? 

Let’s look at Jesus’ own personal lament over man’s lack of willingness to live their lives close to God. It is recorded in Matthew 23:37, where He says to Jerusalem:“How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” Have you ever tried to cuddle a child that didn’t want to be cuddled? They are all wiggles, arms and legs and cranky with it. That’s what I think about when I read Matthew 23. God wants to love on us, but we want to hold ourselves far enough away from Him so we still have a say. Or we try to wrestle ourselves out of His grasp, as we go as close as we dare to — but no further.

Here are some more specific scriptures about being obedient: 1 Peter 1:14 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,…” Acts 5:29: “But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” Psalm 1:1–2: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.”  What we think about matters. The problem seems to be this — when we think about obedience long enough — if the change in our life is going to be hard, we postpone it, or try to go around it. 

Human beings keep their minds busy, trying to figure out this life so we feel more comfortable. So we problem-solve. Many times our minds will keep on returning to the difficulty, trying to figure out another answer, because we don’t like the one we have! The Lord has taught me to give things to Him. He told me to put every problem down, at His feet, and refuse to pick it up again. I give my problems to Him and He carries them for me. 

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” That burden we worry about all night might never happen, and even if it did, what can we do about it? Our King promises to intervene and teach us how to get through things, AS we learn to rest in Him.

Years ago, I kept getting stuck on the way other people I knew were living. What I thought they should do. All that stuff meant I was not meditating on God’s goodness to me! Instead I was whining, grumbling and complaining because my feelings were engaged in things that weren’t anything to do with me. At other times I wanted someone to help me, but I wanted them to do it my way. I didn’t want to consider God’s answers in case I was convicted of sin and I needed to change my attitude. I blamed those other people, because they wouldn’t change their way of doing things, and … make my life easier for me!  Yeah, you heard me! Oy vey!

Luke 6:46: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”  I kind of think I might know why we do this… we want all the lovely benefits—but not the training in righteousness. We want a maid, or a butler, or a personal trainer following us about doing the hard yards for us. Jesus did all those the hard yards for us, long, long ago. But now, today, we must enter into the battle of all battles with our old self! The battle to think like He does! 

Obedience is not an optional extra, it’s the narrow way mentioned in Matthew 7! It is designed to reveal His heart to us, and our hearts toward Him. Living for His sake is always a choice, but it is also part of our ongoing salvation. Bye. 👋 

P 3103 Historical faith!

/ DVH

Our faith is meant to be living, it carries us from day to day. We look at trouble and say to Him: “How are You going to get me out of this mess please Lord?” Prayer, is walking around aware of Him, it is not meant as a last resort. It is as natural as breathing. We refuse to toss what we believe out of the window, just because things get rough or we get disappointed. This new life we’ve been given is not lip service, it is the thing that nurtures the biggest part of us. Our spirits! Every single day we too, are writing His story into our world around us. Let’s look at Luke 24:13-35:

“Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.  As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognising Him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked Him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”“What things?” He asked.“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He WAS(!?!?!) a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 

The chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him; but we had HOPED that He was the One Who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find His body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said He was alive.Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?” 

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if He were going farther. But they urged Him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So He went in to stay with them. When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

This is a big chunk of scripture today, but I put is here because I want to talk about how easy it is to let our faith become historical. Faith from yesterday is not the same as the faith we use today. We are growing fruit, and we really need personal intimate times with Jesus Himself, otherwise – like these two men – our day to day sadness can overcome the fact that, HE LIVES!! Jesus explained to these men that all the prophets had pointed toward Him, and these old saints foretold that the Messiah would die. These two men had already relegated the Lord Jesus into their history. BUT … He was present – right there, with them!!

The bible says they had been prevented from seeing Him. However, I do think they recognised His hands as He broke the bread, because they had seen those hands do that before! Here’s my little opinion. They were in the same position that this world is today – Jesus had become part of history. They thought of the Lord in the past tense. The Lord wants us to live by faith today – present tense! Faith IS… the substance of this new life we have with Him, and head knowledge is no substitute for the reality of His Presence with us.

Jesus indicated to the disciples that He was going to continue to walk on … and the men had to ask Him to stay. Daily, we need to recognise He is always with us, so let’s ASK Him to stay with us, and watch out for the things He will do. The Lord is actively looking for the hungry, those who want to be with HIM. He needs our YES! Let’s refuse to be distracted by the stuff that flies around in our daily lives, and remember that the Lord is our everything. Nothing will make sense without Him.

Jesus knows humanity, personally and experientially, as well as our penchant for mediocrity. We need to choose to move on into the next phase of our faith lives with Him. We must go beyond our daily commitment to pray, or read His Word, into daily depending upon Him and His deliverance from sin and evil. These two disciples had walked, talked, eaten and watched and listened to Jesus constantly. But, they did not recognise Him because they were not expecting Him! There must be expectancy in our faith. These men thought He was dead and gone.

We can fall down the same hole that swallows our faith because the Lord doesn’t appear to be with us. Especially when we pray and the answer we want does not happen. In our own daily lives we can become preoccupied with day-to-day mediocrity and we forget our main purpose – His will is our main purpose. He is always alive within us. If we have no answer to our prayers, then we need to hand whatever it is over to Him, and ask the Lord to reveal to us what He wants us to do next. We can get so tied up in making our lives comfortable, that we forget that we are a people with a mission. 

Christians love to pray for revival, but revival starts with ME … being obedient to what He tells me to do. Let’s not settle for historical faith! Every minute I postpone doing what He says to do, is a minute of my life I am wasting. Our obedience to Him, will usher in personal revival. Bye. 👋 “Here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Don’t give up; don’t be impatient; be entwined as one with the Lord. Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope. Yes, keep on waiting—for He will never disappoint you!” Psalms 27:14 TPT

P 2964 Offence.

/ DVH

Offence puts a fence between us, other people, and the Lord. That fence often means that we’ve gone back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and taken a bite out of that life-killing fruit again. Someone has hurt us, and now we are pushing them away so we don’t have to deal with how we feel. Offence is about indulging and expressing the old self, our flesh.

Bless the Lord, because of Jesus, we don’t have to live like that now. You and I have access to the tree of life! ALL THE TIME. The fruit on that tree nourishes us, and our spiritual lives. This means as we talk to the Lord, (in prayer), and read and apply His book (the bible) into our lives, we major on what is really important. Things like: Doing what it says! … Offence can also rear its ugly head because someone has pointed out something we were hoping nobody else saw, and we feel our mistakes have been uncovered. Actually, this means we’ve lost or not valued our LOVE covering. Jesus loves us and that love covers our lives. His Love is our all purpose, everyday garment.

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8.“He has brought me to His banqueting place, And His banner over me is love [waving overhead to protect and comfort me].” Song of songs 2:4. 

“Beyond all these things put on and wrap yourselves in [unselfish] love, which is the perfect bond of unity [for everything is bound together in agreement when each one seeks the best for others].”Colossians 3:14.

Without living under, and releasing His love to others, we will quickly go back to eating the wrong fruit from the wrong tree, resulting in judging others and their actions. We can call it discernment, to make it sound better – but that is actually a lie. Real insight stands between the accused and the accuser – Jesus showed us that..We can’t possibly know why someone else did what they did – only God knows their hearts. Meanwhile, I must say from my own experience, that at least some of the time WE don’t even know why we do what we do and say what we say!

Remember, that human judgment began with Eve’s bad decision, she made a terrible judgment call. She trusted her own eyes and her understanding. And let’s not leave out that snake! She deliberately defied the Lord’s specific instructions.We can easily do this ourselves, when we can’t be bothered to ask the Lord about something. Maybe we don’t have time to pray. (How hard is it to say: ‘help?!’) Maybe we excuse ourselves because this decision is not all that important — after all God gave us a brain and He means for us to use it! Actually, He means for us to be obedient to the Holy Spirit because Jesus sent HIM back to help us – right here, right now! 

At the same time human beings can get offended with God. This can happen when He doesn’t answer our prayers the way we thought He should. We quote this verse and that situation and demand that the Lord meet our expectations. Prayer can be bold, but it also needs to be humble. Almighty God is the Greater One, and He deserves our reverent respect. Otherwise we can get offended with Him when we think we know the answer better than He does. There are times when things get difficult, because He is doing something else.

Sadly there are also times that we analyse the advantages for us in a situation, and decide ‘this will be good for me,’ OR even: ‘this is NOT good for me.’ Often we do that from our own unrenewed mind. That’s called ‘leaning on our own understanding.’ The way to lean on His understanding is to read the book, and then OBEY what we read, whether it is convenient, expedient or not!

I ask Him while I’m reading the bible: ‘Do I do this?’ I don’t want to excuse myself, because I value my relationship with Him over everything else. Plus I don’t trust my own understanding – my understanding can be my flesh protecting itself. Sometimes my mind is guaranteed to try to find some loop-hole or other, so I can continue to distance myself from difficult situations and stay comfortable. 

At the same time, I’ve learnt that it does not profit any of my relationships when I offer conditional apologies, and say things like “IF I have offended you then I am so sorry, please forgive me”- “IF” implies doubt. Um …if the person in front of you is angry, then there is no doubt at all that you have offended them! Duh! Whether it is a misunderstanding or not, it needs to be sweetly and gently sorted out, with the other person – with His wisdom and humility as our guide. Who knows? You might learn something, about yourself and each other.

Offence separates people – sometimes whole families. It breaks friendships, and it can destroy churches and start wars. It can mean we are not prepared to let the other person tell their story, because we have hurt feelings or we have been physically hurt. So now we want to stay mad as some sort of protection against that person hurting us again. Offence is always a stumbling block to learning love the offender. Bye 👋

P 2941 Ready or not.

/ DVH

You know, I think we need to scale back on preaching at people, and go out there and just be the bible. When I write this kind of stuff, I’m pretty sure a whole lot of people probably get mad at me! Boy, I hope so — mad is wa-a-a-y better than apathetic. Our faith is not meant to be private … real faith is going out into this world deliberately, on purpose, loving others, caring about their lives, while we are introducing them to His kingdom. Our challenge is to live that way – all the time. Laying down our lives so other people can learn how to find a new life with Jesus. 

Here’s one of my optional ‘make you think’ questions: what part of your new life in Christ makes your life look different than it did before you met Him? I know all the pat answers — we go to church. We pray. We read the bible. However, the reality is, because we choose to remain inactive, unfortunately sometimes guilt drags each one of us around by the nose — we know there is more, but we can’t seem to find it. To do that we need to give up our undercover, ordinary people disguises, and lay down this life we’ve planned for ourselves. Let’s stop running about looking for healing for us, and introduce others to the Healer of mankind. 

The body of Christ has unfortunately become engaged with what this world says we need. People who are DEAD don’t care what they need — actually, they don’t care about anything at all! But the people who know their God want to spend their life for Jesus’ sake. Will it hurt? PROBABLY!! But pain is an opportunity to wait on Him, and press in deeper. I have a theory, I believe that many people lead mediocre lives because they think this life is the only chance they will get to have what they want. But man was made for eternity.

We’ve been born again to do what He brought us here to do. That includes what the bible says …and then, after we do it, we leave the results to Him. We throw our miserable human excuses into the bin where they belong! Man has been making excuses for centuries. Many of those excuses some people made right to God’s face!! That thought makes me shake my head. I know I have been incredibly disobedient, and if God is not Who He says He is, then I’m sunk. I cling to His promises like a barnacle clings to the bottom of a ship.

Let’s just pause, and think about God’s patience with us. He has put up with mankind’s junk for centuries. Not in a mean, stand-offish unloving, uninvolved way, but in a proactive creative winsome way that calls us all up HIGHER. You can’t get more involved in humanity than He did, by coming here, living amongst us, and then letting people kill Him! The people in today’s world need to experience, personally, what the bible says:“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” We are meant to be someone else’s first taste of God in human form, and we are the only Christians some people are ever going to meet! If that doesn’t serve you up a big dollop of “Oh, my gosh!” I don’t know what will!

Sadly, other people are probably going to take a big chunk out of you and I, regularly. It’s a TEST. It is up to us to decide how we will respond to their actions. Jesus has left us in this world to be a people who not only know their God, we are now His interactive advertising. Just tell others the kingdom of God is near, because He lives in you! Like me, you may have been dreadful advertising even ten seconds ago  … so … REPENT. Pick yourself up, fix what you can, use your faith and keep on going. God is not finished with any of us yet. 

Get over the idea that this life is meant to be easy for us – ‘because we are so special’ – and realise that “a disciple when he is fully trained, will be just like His master.’ They treated Jesus disrespectfully and badly and then they viciously killed Him … so-oo-oo-oo … You do the sum.

Sometimes we become so obsessed with being comfortable and comforted, because this life is difficult, we forget what we are here for. If we want to know Him intimately, we will need to live our lives like He lived His. Unselfishly, altruistically! We are assured that His faithfulness under all kinds of circumstances, is out of this world! Nothing can, or will separate you and I from His love … because Almighty God promised.

It’s time for all of us to step up to the plate and take a swing at the ball! Never lower the standard just because you can’t meet it – Jesus Christ met it for us. Pick up your faith and go again. Our only job on this planet, is to RE-present Jesus Christ to the world around us … by living like He did. Let’s hope the next time someone takes a bite out of you or I, they bite into something sweet!

Jesus once told a parable about a rich man, who kept walking past a beggar at his gate. What that rich man did in this life eventually caught up with him. I implore you … don’t postpone change. We need to be ready for anything and He is always our ever-present help in time of need… whether we are ready or not. Bye. 🙏

P 2921 Running over!

/ DVH

“Overflow with mercy and compassion for others, just as your heavenly Father overflows with mercy and compassion for all.””Luke 6:36 TPT. That verse doesn’t sound much like a suggestion does it? It sounds like a constantly ever-expanding instruction to me. So the real question becomes…how? How do you overflow with mercy and compassion for others, the way Jesus does for you … ? Sacrificially that’s how.  That, by the way, is the same loving attitude He has toward everyone on this planet!  

Well, the first thing to remember is this, nobody can think their way through this one – our brains just can’t take in the magnitude of God’s love for people. We will always need His Spirit to help us. The Holy Spirit can and will expand our capacity for love and compassion as we allow Him room in our lives — the more room, the bigger the expansion!! It is worth also saying at this juncture that as we renew our minds, the easier it will be to know what the Lord wants from us! So we have to stop skipping over the bits in the bible we think we can’t do and start asking for His help to do them.

This is why we cannot afford to hold grudges, or cheat on our income tax, or walk past a poor person who needs help, or break the law by excessively speed along the highways. Those are dumb examples of an all pervasive current attitude toward this life. When will we decide we have more than enough and start to act like it by helping others? We simply must move away from greedy, grasping, looking after ME,  into gloriously generous, overflowing giving, looking after OTHERS.

This is one of our Heavenly Father’s characteristics … He looks after us daily. Look out of your window – did the sun come up again? Then His mercy is brand new again today. If we want to look like Him then we will have to walk down the same pathways Jesus walked. It was not a mistake that Christ was born into a poor ordinary family… rich people have a hard time with FAITH. That’s not my opinion …Jesus said so!

Speaking for myself, without the Holy Spirit’s help there are many times I want to say to someone who wants even more time than I can give: “Just go away will you? You are disturbing my nice image of myself!” But we can’t actually successfully think our way through spiritual things like this. The things of the Spirit belong to HIM! It isn’t helpful to berate yourself for not having the fruit of the Spirit either. We quite simply need His help, so we throw ourselves on His brand new mercy today, and take a leap of faith. First of all, how we feel needs to become wa-ay less important than His WILL. He will lead us, He will guide us, He will show us where we can be His hands and feet.

Compassion includes action.Not just sympathetic remarks, kindly meant and said. Love actually looks like something! Now here is the rub, the Lord doesn’t just say, ‘have compassion and mercy’ — He said OVERFLOW WITH IT! Yeah! Good one. Overflowing means there is more than enough, not just a little bit kind of oozing out the edges. I often drive other people mad, because I take things in the book, so literally. I can tell you that this whole overflowing bit is supernatural – in other words you can’t manufacture that lot by yourself! And you can’t talk yourself into it either – you either got it or you don’t, and if you don’t ASK AND THEN ACT, using your faith, and then just keep on doing stuff.

We can get so tied up with ordinary everyday things taking away our valuable time, that we don’t think to ask Him in to help us with whatever is going on. He wants to be part of every bit of our lives, not just delegated to an hour every day and four on Sunday. He will show us His compassion as we learn to rely upon Him. We need to know that He is gracious and compassionate, personally. Our theories aren’t worth a kilo of bananas! To learn things like that we must LET Him help us through our own difficulties, by choice – on purpose! 

The bible tells us that our God is a compassionate God: “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” Psalm 103:8.  I just want to stop here, and say that the bible uses lots of effusive words. Like ‘over abundantly, abounding, overflowing’ … these are all greatly excessive words. They aren’t excessive words for nothing! Don’t just settle for a little dab will do ya! Go for the gold. Be like Joshua strong and courageous … and then stay and wait in the tent after everyone else has gone home! Press in. It doesn’t take a lot of words to press in, it just takes confidence in His loving nature and the ability to believe God is good.

Let Jesus be the One you run to, when stuff happens. He wants to be closer to us than a brother. That means we will give our time, it means using we will use our faith. It means giving out of the abundance of the knowledge that our God is in charge – so I will not diminish ME if I give something to YOU.I will care if your life is tough, not just in words but in deeds. If we want a pressed down and running over kind of life where we can spontaneously and generously give to others, we will have to change the way we live. 

It will not be comfortable. What part of Jesus’ life was comfortable? If I want ‘running over’ with compassion and mercy  I will have to stop thinking of my life as mine and start thinking about it as His. Bye. 👋

P 2850 Risky living applied.

/ DVH

“We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love He has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and GOD LIVES THROUGH THEM.”1 John 4:16 TPT. We can easily breeze through this life unaware of what God’s love looks like – perhaps because we unfortunately measure love by this world’s standards. This verse is a great measuring stick, one of many we have been given. The New Testament and the Gospels are filled with measuring sticks about what the Love of God actually looks like.

Are you living in love? Maybe your reply might be … “Well, of course… I love my kids and my spouse … most-of-the-time, and my church friends, my immediate family etc. YES! I am living in love!” So, Whose definition of Love are you using? There’s the rub. We tend to use our natural human feelings to tick that box. Here’s another box for you: be honest — who don’t you love? “Well, I love everybody, but there are some people I like more than others.” Right. 

So if you had a blind beggar who stole things, and he camped outside on your front lawn, would you take him in and feed him, and help him before you sent him on his way? Or maybe you would give him a couple of dollars to help him out? Hmmm? God utterly wrecked my life when He showed me my hidden hypocrisy. He did that by introducing me to HIS kind of people. People who utterly would, and DO, take blind beggar/thieves into their homes. You know, most homeless people do not do nice things, especially when they are starving and needy. And no, avoidance is not a good idea. Loving others this way, is not just someone else’s ministry. I took that excuse out for a walk and it crashed and burned. Because of what Jesus has given us, living like this is utterly possible.

One of these precious, always challenging Christians said to me: “What if the homeless poor came into your pretty house and, accidentally or not, smashed up all your lovely china, and pinched your special things?” Well, that whole thought was a big fat reality rush. I realised that I had a truck load of excuses for the way I was living, while so many other people in this world have to steal or scrounge in order to live. Feeling sorry for poor people doesn’t help them much, even if you do shed a tear. Love always looks like something. It looked like sacrificing His life to Jesus!

Our sensibilities fool us. They tell us that it will be OK to do this or that. So getting rid of thieving blind beggars is the responsible thing to do. Call the cops, let them sort those guys out! But, what have we done to our hearts when we act like that? Because it is our hearts that matter to the Lord — what are we doing with our hearts when we ignore the homeless poor at our doorstep, the needy in our own families – as we drive by in expensive cars that could feed them for years. Is that love? Is that the kind of love the Lord means? Is it even what love truly looks like? You know, we cannot stay comfortable and still follow Jesus …that’s not love, it’s fooling yourself.

The Lord Jesus didn’t live a comfortable life. He shared His life with the downtrodden, poor and hungry. He used His faith to feed people. He set the kind of example that we can easily attribute to others — the more spiritual-people-than-me Christians. He talked to and explained salvation to anyone, even the people He wasn’t sent to, and shared the gospel with them. Love does that! And He specifically taught us to love our enemies. Remember, to Jesus — loving means we will DIE – one way or another!! Our response to this kind of radical advice, is to mentally eliminate any potential enemies with a pretty feeble bunch of excuses that fall over instantly when the Lord turns His eyes on them.

I am not saying that we should sell our houses and live in a shack! But please never forget that other people are our responsibility. Jesus had no home of His own. No fancy place to lay His dear head from when He was born ’til He died. And even then, He had only the clothes on His back. When we care for others it is like we are doing it for Him. Think about the state of the world around us, there are the rich, and then there are the desperate. – is there no middle ground? Is there no way we can live more simply and help those who have no way to live at all? Or are we going to leave ‘that kind of stuff’ to the evangelists and missionaries, because we think it isn’t ‘our’ ministry. Ya might like to rethink that thought!

This world is not going to believe in a loving, kindly, merciful, gracious Saviour when His so-called family all live comparatively comfortable lives, and only give away what they think they can afford! That’s not Risky Living – it’s hypocrisy. No wonder people don’t want to join us, they are too busy scrambling for their next penny. There are times when we even fail to properly care for our church families. However you look at it, obedience to His Word means we open our doors to loving the kind of people we would normally walk around.

To live like Christ did we need to engage in Risky Living and start loving others … which, BTW, is called living by faith in the bible. We need to do the sort of stuff that is way outside of our comfort zone. Otherwise we will one day exit this world still protecting what is supposedly “mine.” Our personal thoughts about comfort and money shouldn’t ever stop us from caring for others. Changing our lives is not impossible – the bible shows us that. Bye. 👋

ps. Our precious family member has gone home – his race was run. Heaven is rejoicing.😢

P 2749 Don’t settle for less than on fire!

/ DVH

I’ve been listening to a number of different things lately, all made possible by YouTube. I discovered Project of Love this morning. It consists of verses from the bible in spontaneous song. Featuring books like Isaiah, Psalms, Habakkuk, Mark, and many more – about 22 so far, and these Scriptures set to music are accompanied by the really powerful images. It was a breath of fresh air.  Xander, the guitar playing singer, heard the Lord tell Him to pick up his guitar and sing what He was reading from Isaiah.

At that time, Xander did not know God, and he had been deeply depressed, he was on suicide watch. He was saved on the spot! After watching this man’s joy in action it really convicted me that it is easy to get stuck in the ways of the past. In the days to come I think that the Lord will bring out some extraordinary gifts from ordinary people, in whatever He is going to do next. Meanwhile, maybe we’ve made worship or teaching about having musically experienced leaders, and competent musicians. In other words we look for the people with the best voices or those who have been trained. But we sing to help US focus and to bless His heart. Ephesians 5:19 – “Speaking to yourselves, in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” 

This thought meant that I asked myself some questions …  why should worship be about the sound, and not our hearts? The danger for all of us who know exactly what to say and do, is that worship can become a routine, and everything is left to the leader out the front. Yet I think we could see a day when the Lord might take members of society that the church would reject, or maybe pass over, because they don’t meet some sort of ‘ministry’ standard. He wants them contribute.

Personally, I believe God is going to gift some people in extraordinary ways, like our friend Xander! But because the people outside our churches are ‘unchurched’ they will not have the inbuilt agendas most of us cheerfully adhere to. 

Sometimes it seems that the church at large has accepted fear as a subtext, accidentally. It seems that we are afraid of wandering off into error. However, that’s when we can unfortunately trample on the very gifts God wants to raise up! It is much too easy for us to get stuck in the way that things have always worked in the past.

Here’s a thought: … muscles are developed when they are gently but regularly stretched. Maybe the Body of Christ needs to do some heavenly stretching! Is our collective faith big enough for what He wants to do next? Our trust in His ability to care for us in any circumstance, seems to have given way to the fear of making mistakes or being misled by enthusiasm. Are we settling for the known and the comfortable, the routine and predictable, because those things are regarded as being normal and controllable. Our God is bigger than that. When Jesus came into this world, He challenged the norm by His very Presence!

Does our preaching and teaching rely more on expertise and knowledge than passion? I heard someone preach the other day and they were all over the place like jam, and yet they still managed to challenge me! Is strict adherence to conformity the very reason the church has settled into separate denominations? In many churches we go along with the same old same old, because somebody more senior and knowledgeable in God sets the rules and now we just blindly follow them. Maybe this is why some people continually hop about changing churches like the pop-up moles in Whack-a-Mole? Perhaps we are shopping around for churches that make us comfortable? Who are we here for again?? HIM or us?

We all know that I’m not the biggest fan of jumping around between churches –  yet in my denomination that seems to be almost expected, as well as accepted. But it is extremely important to remember that the Lord will choose the setting He wants to place us in. A new church is not like choosing a new shirt – for us to reach our full potential we need to rub up against people who are going to annoy the living daylights out of us! If we choose our comfort over His opportunities for our growth – we will stay babies and toddlers. 

Growth occurs as we discover our own hearts have deceived us and we are convicted by our sinfulness. So, do we  avoid change because it is inconvenient or we don’t like it, or we don’t think it is necessary? Maybe we even know we are stuck but we keep waiting for the Lord to turn up and fix the mess we’ve made?  Our job is to repent, and work with the Holy Spirit — to challenge ourselves and face up to the things we don’t like. Then we need to prayerfully revise our attitudes. Change is not just agreeing with the bible, change is when we look like Jesus and act like He would.

As Christians we cannot afford to settle for anything less than being on fire! Let’s reject the comfortable same-old same-old status quo, and press in to make sure we please His heart as well as continually press in to expand our love for Him. Bye.👋

“Don’t you realize that together you have become God’s inner sanctuary and that the Spirit of God makes His permanent home in you?” 1Corinthians 3:16 TPT

P 2632 Will you yield?

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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