Congregation

P 3293 Hypothetical??

/ DVH

James 2:2-4: “Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”

When I read this thought today I saw something I haven’t seen before … but …more about that in a minute. The Lord often says to me: ” What the bible doesn’t say is just as important as what it says.”  It took me quite a while to figure that one out, but the Holy Spirit helped me by telling me: “That means turn the coin over.” This is a saying I have known from my youth. It means something is there but it will only be apparent when we exercise our faith, and actively press in to find out. We need to think laterally, with His help.

My point today is a bit like the parable of the ten virgins Jesus Himself told. 5 had enough oil, the other 5 didn’t. But EVERYBODY fell asleep. I didn’t see that one for years, even though I read it, and reread it over and over again. At the same time, I was keen to make sure I had “oil in my lamp”… the Presence of the Holy Spirit … so I could keep on burning, like the old song says. But the fact that the bridegroom was later than expected actually meant that NOBODY was awake and waiting for Him! 

Yeah. That’s kind of big eh? I think that means no matter how hard we try, we are still human, and our humanity will let us down. The thing was, the 5 virgins who came prepared for any eventuality didn’t miss out. Big clue there! That instantly explains to me, that near enough won’t be good enough. Let’s be so devoted to Jesus and His cause, that we will always go the extra mile. And that will probably include lugging along more oil than we think we will need!  I wonder … how often does convenience get in the way of obedience?

Now, let’s go back to James, the trip to Matthew 25 was a side thought, but still on point for what I want to say today. Be prepared for any situation. Just to remind you: “…  a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in…”  This poor man came to church. He was smelly, and dirty … a-n-d… he rolled up to church. Maybe he too needed Jesus! He couldn’t come in his best clothes because he didn’t have any. Imagine what would happen if a dirty old poor person turned up to your church and came and plopped himself in a pew, or on a chair in the middle of the congregation? Picture it. Hilariously, all I can see in my mind’s eye is that everybody else is squished up, far way, peering surreptitiously at this person. Maybe they were hoping nobody else would notice what they were doing?

It seems James had similar thoughts. “Stand here,” … as far away as we can get you from the clean people! Or  “sit there” … on a seat of the congregation’s choosing … preferably the floor! This whole idea made me smile.. It is amazing how little we know about ourselves until the situation occurs, and the smelly guy wants to sit next to me! Here’s a happy clue, BTW, if you are sensitive to smells … because street people can be very smelly — very few cities have free shower stalls available… Any-way, whack a little bit of Vicks Vaporub under your nose, it does the trick. FYI we used to serve street people for a number of years. Ya learn a lot about who you really are when you serve them! 

The reason for all that caution, in this passage, is pretty clear. The rest of the congregation won’t like sitting next to someone like that, and because the rest of the congregation are probably tithers … let’s not tick them off!However,  the nice clean rich guy might just like us, and if he likes us, then maybe he will tithe and the kitty will get fuller. Yeah. Like I said, you learn a whole lot about yourself. 

Funnily enough, without even thinking about it — Jesus took the sweet smell of heaven with Him everywhere He went! Earthly smells did not bother Him! He prayed for lepers and blind beggars .. all kinds of people. They were the people who knew they needed Him. The rest of us go to the doctor, or take out a loan. It’s a bit difficult to do that when the only collateral you have is yourself and a whole lot of grime. Being poor in spirit is a huge plus.

James is full of God’s wisdom, but at the same time, he is also full of the knowledge of how people like us operate. His advice is as pertinent today as it was back then. You see, he knows what the outcome of that kind of behaviour has, it corrupts the person who participates in it. It leads to discrimination and judgment. 

James is caring for the reader’s soul, because they were heading in the wrong direction with their attitudes. So he does what Jesus often did. He told a story. The Lord’s stories are designed to diagnose what is wrong in our lives — so they are a good place to listen and act. Did you know there are over 2,000 verses or stories regarding how we are to treat the poor? Maybe what James said, is not so hypothetical after all. Bye. 👋

P 3008 Some people need to be hugged back to life. OR …

/ DVH

…how to bore your congregation to death and get away with it!“On Sunday we gathered to take communion and to hear Paul preach. Because he was planning to leave the next day, he continued speaking until past midnight. Sitting in an open window listening was a young man named Eutychus. As Paul’s sermon dragged on, Eutychus became drowsy and fell into a deep slumber. Sound asleep, he fell three stories to his death below.” Acts 20:7,9.

Hah! And you think your pastor’s sermons are boring! The Apostle Paul had an agenda, he was leaving and needed to say everything he wanted to say. I’ve said this quite a few times before, sometimes really bad things are pre-cursors to miracles. I had a friend who used to say:  “If you want to see a miracle then you are going to have to need one —  and that won’t always be as much fun as it sounds!!” Just don’t sit in any windows OK?

Here’s another pretty good thought — I’d be careful about saying the preacher’s sermons are boring! If I were you, I’d make sure that guy is proficient in raising the dead first!  Meanwhile, ladies stop nudging your husband awake, let him snore away… you just might be missing out on a miracle —! 🤣 Lets’ continue on with this fun story and get to the hugging bit.

“Paul went downstairs, bent over the boy, and embraced him. Taking him in his arms, he said to all the people gathered, “Stop your worrying. He’s come back to life!” Paul went back upstairs, served communion, and ate a meal with them. Then he picked back up where he left off and taught until dawn. Filled with enormous joy, they took the boy home alive and everyone was encouraged.”Acts 20:10-12 TPT.

Retrospectively thinking about this subject, I have heard some sermons where I felt like I was nearly dying of boredom while I was listening to them. The bible doesn’t subscribe to political correctness, in this instance the writer says: ”…the sermon dragged on…”  So … this is PAUL preaching, right? The Paul who wrote more than a third of the New Testament – and yet he bored some poor guy into such a sound sleep he fell out of a 3 story window and got DEAD for his trouble.

You see, to my way of thinking —the one mistake this congregation made was this:  right after Eutychus died and was resurrected —  they went and FED Paul, and he got a second wind. And so he started up preaching again. I think we need a policy in place, that says — never ever feed a boring preacher. The moral of this story is don’t be boring – you never know who you might accidentally kill!

And do not, as in .. not ever!! — let the preacher guy get back into the pulpit again, because you could end up at church until dawn. Why prolong the agony? I particularly like the line that said: “he,(Paul), picked right up where he left off …” Most preachers would happily surrender their right arm to be asked to keep on going. It seems to me that there are two clear lessons for us all here. One is don’t ever fall asleep while somebody is preaching …and the second is … dead people are not a deterrent to whatever God wants to say!   Any dead people out there reading this today? No?? Good, just don’t go near any windows!

A word to the wise, for a pastor reading this – you may think your sermon is fantastic and all your points are valid … but if people start dropping out of the church’s windows like dead flies maybe you need an editor. Just saying is all … Some people need to be hugged back to life, and all the shouting and preaching at them that we can do, will not help them. There have been people in my life that I would rather have thumped on the head because they seemed pretty dense to me … but then I would need to be able to run faster than they can – so that shoots that idea down in flames.

Meanwhile, enough frivolity! Let’s get back to today’s real point … Love is always the answer. It is not an alternative response – it is THE ANSWER. Paul illustrated that practically. Love meant everyone went home from church that day happy, with a heck of a testimony all round. Loving others includes restoring them … back to life if necessary.This means we may have to stop and interrupt whatever we thought and planned to do, to love on somebody who seems pretty dead to us. The priority is always the people, not the sermon. 

Words can be blown away on the wind, and actions speak so much louder than words. Paul is the best kind of preacher because he interrupted his sermon to meet one young man’s need. Some of the people you and I meet every single day – might need someone to hold up their arms, like Aaron and Hur did for Moses, until the battle was won. … And some poor sods need to be hugged back into life. Maybe it’s time to start demonstrating instead of talking. Love in action is never boring. Bye 👋

P 3001 First floor messages.

/ DVH

When I began this blog, the Holy Spirit asked me to point something out to my readers. He and I had a conversation about the church at large, and this blog came out of what He said to me. It is the reason the blog is headed up with the title: “Messages above the 1st floor:”

The Lord said: “My desire is for My church to be built above the 1st floor. “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God …”(Hebrews 6:1) He said: “I want My people to add to the basic tenements of their faith, repentance and salvation, and start to build on the 1st floor with sacrifice, loving others, leaving behind the past and happily going wherever I lead them.

My ministers are like My builders. They build something about My Word into each congregation. Things like fresh understanding and insight. But then eventually, in many churches, they move on, and another minister comes. This new man replaces everything that has been built on the original solid foundation, brought by the previous leader, because he wants to rebuild this church according to his brand of theology.

I need my people to start building on the WIDER foundation – what went before and what I’ve revealed now. Otherwise the people of God never get above the 1st floor because the 1st floor keeps changing! It means My people don’t arrive at maturity, self-sacrifice, and obedience.”  

On the 1st floor, our devotion to Christ is not optional. On that floor we would never ever even think of living our lives the way we want, instead we’ve come to realise there is far more to God’s Ways than repentance and salvation, and we want that MORE – no matter what it costs. We’ve learnt that choosing has power in it, and that our feelings can often lead us around by the nose! However we willingly choose to lay down our lives for Him! Some of us may have lived a while and we’ve seen for ourselves that nothing much can mature in us, while we continually do the Christian ‘hokey-pokey” — today, I’m following Jesus, tomorrow not-so-much!

The thing is, people do odd things like embracing this particular theory, or that doctrine – simply because they like what is being said,  because it tickles their ears. So they don’t bother to check it out for themselves, or read the scripture in context. We personally know that we cannot be a devoted people without His help to change and grow. This means we need to stop adding Him into whatever we choose to do, and start asking Him what He wants us to do, with the time He has given us. And then we do it – no matter what the cost is.

On the 1st floor we are ready to die for our faith, and that is not just about someone shooting, or stabbing us, or blowing us up because they don’t like what we believe — it is about putting aside what I want, and picking up what He wants, every single day. We move from away from being a sometime-follower, to being a sold-out disciple. We’ve learnt to personalise the Gospel and act on it. Fads may come and go, but we doggedly march on, following the Lord wherever He takes us. Praise God we don’t fret if we don’t see signs and wonders all the time — we just want to be obedient and see where that takes us.

“Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell Him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ.” Philippians 4:6-7 TPT.

These ‘sold-out to Jesus people’ lay aside their need for an easy life, because He’s looking for a people who will gladly give their lives away, Not just on Sunday, but every day. No matter what their circumstances are, they rejoice, simply because they love serving Him. His unending love is the greatest reward they could ever have. These people know the road they are on is narrow, because it has squeezed them tightly many times, but the wide road is never going to be an option for them. They fell in love with the Man God sent to transform our way of thinking, living and being. And now they follow the Holy Spirit because He is their everything. 

Passion is not just a word reserved for the movies, Lovers of Jesus know an even greater passion – they are passionate about God Himself. They love to see Him get what He wants. Finally today, I want to pray for you something Paul prayed for the church at Philippi:

“I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this gracious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!” Philippians 1:6 TPT. Amen! Blessings! Let’s all do our bit to build God’s house above the 1st floor! 🙏

“Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvellous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God to be His sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights His heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.” Romans 12:1 TPT.

P 2713 Learn to BOW low.

/ DVH

“IF you bow low in God’s awesome presence, He will eventually exalt you as you leave the timing in His hands.” 1 Peter 5:6 TPT. Now here’s the rub, we cannot ‘bow low’ and have a secret expectation that at the end of our so-called humility we will be exalted. I think we’ve been reading many, if not ALL scripture promises, with the expectation of ‘what’s in it for ME’ — and we can become disappointed when we think that God has not honoured His promises. Bowing low is not necessarily a physical position – it is the position of an undivided heart.

Those verses we grab for our own benefit are revealing something to us about Him – and we are missing it. Yeah. And aren’t you glad I pointed that out?! For instance, the verse: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”tells us something about the Lord and what He is looking for from us – our participation. If we want to be close to the Lord we will have to go after Him first. I call this type of verse the “if” verses. If I do this then He will do that. And just who is in charge of that scenario?

In the past, many well-meaning people wanted to be seen and heard, perhaps because in their mind, it meant that others would hear or see what the Lord wanted to teach others.. They believed that meant that they would have a bigger stage to stand upon to speak His truth. Wrong! “For honour does not come from the east or the west or from the desert. But God is the One Who decides. He puts down one and brings respect to another.” Psalm 75:6,7. Recognition for us is God’s choice, not ours. We dare not manipulate others or even take advantage of situations, no matter how great the cause seems to be. Manipulation is not His Way.

Almighty God is interested in a great deal more than just our promotion and fame! Our new way of life is a spiritual way of life, it is not showy or competitive. Popularity or influence are not worth a hill of beans to the Lord. The Holy Spirit is the only influencer with a pure motivation, and we must learn to follow His Ways. It’s always our hearts that matter .. not popularity or influence. We can have thousands of followers on Instagram, or Facebook, and still have an impure ambitious, or even perhaps a needy heart. Philippians 4:19.

If I put one drop of poison into a glass of fresh, pure, spring water – would you still drink it? A pure heart wants what He wants and they are prepared to die to see that He gets it! That’s called devotion. But general applause, or even the size of any one congregation does not matter to the Lord. Jesus had hundreds of people who volunteered to be His disciples – yet Almighty God told Him to choose twelve. And one of them was not going to make the cut! 

Jesus trusted His Father and the Holy Spirit’s choices, that the men He chose would be the ones who spread the Word about God’s incredible love far and wide. And they did. Judas was the only one of those men with a divided heart. We are not told why he was like that, we are simply told that he handled the money somewhat carelessly. This is what I mean when I talk about having a divided heart – one of our regular prayers should be about not having one!

We cannot afford to let even little sin reign, even if it seems to be in a good cause … because sin will eventually drag us under and flavour everything around it. However, we always have a Way Out of sin. “You are my dear children, and I write these things to you so that you won’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we continually have a forgiving Redeemer who is face-to-face with the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One”. I John 2:1. Silently waiting for our spiritual abilities to be “discovered” is still an agenda! Our only aim needs to be to that others see Him.

‘Bowing low’ is our way of life. It means whether others think we are right or wrong – we bow down to the Lord’s wishes and let Him exonerate us when He thinks the time is right. People with a heart like this don’t care if our only service is putting out the chairs at church! We do what we do with all our hearts as though we were putting out chairs for Jesus Himself!

I have known totally devoted, utterly beautiful chair-putter-outer-ers! 😂 They did not see this task as a tiny task, and it was not menial to them. Instead they prayed over each chair that each person who sat on it would be blessed, healed, delivered and discover more about Christ. They treated that  task like the pastor treated His sermon – as devotion to Almighty God!“Whatsoever you do, do it with all your heart as though you were doing it for the Lord.” This BTW, is now one of my new all time favourite verses!

Let’s remember that pride took lucifer out of a realm of honour, and put him into the unenviable place of being a permanent enemy. And the best thing we can do when we discover any sort of pride is to humble ourselves before God, and others, as well as confess our faults. The true diagnosis of a proud heart is that they have secret agendas.  They have a desperate need to always be right, and other people’s needs are secondary to their own.

Bowing low is not just an outward action, it is an inner stance of our hearts. Bless you as you serve our King! 👑

P 2643 We all have the power to touch many.

/ DVH

John 6:5-13: “When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do. Philip answered Him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” Another of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up,“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, He said to His disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.”

This is a story that we all know well. Especially if we went to Sunday School, or Children’s Church! It was probably one of the stories that we heard because those concepts were suitable for kids. Back in the ark I told it with flannel graph. (OK, you never heard of flannel graph, it’s a thing, look it up!) There are many things that stand out about this particular story — I love the fact that this little boy was not intimidated by how many people there were, instead he was prepared to share the little he had with everyone. He was generous. Ya might want to think on that for a couple of years.🤔

I believe that this scripture illustrates that nobody’s life is too small, or too insignificant for the Lord to use. The only secret to living a godly kingdom life, is in giving that life to HIM! That child surrendered his lunch. Which BTW, also meant that he no longer had it!  His lunch wasn’t much by this world’s standards. However, we are kingdom people so we do not have to live by this world’s idea of faith! Christ came, lived and died to show us that fame, money, expertise, and influence mean nothing. After all, Jesus Christ, His life and ministry could have been just a tiny blip on the radar screen of this life. But the Lord changed everything, because He surrendered all He had to His Father … to the death.

Your life is not ordinary. The minute you gave your life to Christ, your potential increased exponentially like that little boy’s lunch. That child’s lunch fed 5,000 people … and … let’s not forget the leftovers … because they matter. One basket left over for each disciple. One basket of proof that God Himself was there with them! Meanwhile, I note that there was no left-over fish, and a good thing that was too! Imagine the smell!! … Moo-ving on …

I dunno why, but in the church in recent years there has been this big push on producing, teaching, training and using people who have been given incredible powerful gifts from God. We advertise these people like rock stars. Sadly often the fame and pressure can lead to them acting like normal human beings and falling on their heads and doing some ugly thing or other. A gift, is no more a sign of perfection than that little boy’s volunteered lunch was a sign of a miracle. The power fell when Jesus Christ accepted the gift and broke it, gave it to His disciples and they distributed it to everyone else.

There is a weird reaction to the phenomenon of the famous Christian — the rest of us trot up to church to sit in a pew or a seat and watch that person do their spiritual thing. Well, that’s just dumb! Why waste the potential of the people who are sitting down? There are also times when we ask other ‘gifted’ people to pray for people in the prayer line etc. That’s even more dumb! Now we are telling everyone else it is OK to be a needy passenger, not a pro-active participant! Thinkaboudit. 

Just stop for a minute. Imagine what this world might look like if everyone who names the Name of Jesus as Lord and Saviour lived this life the way Paul describes in the Epistles. Wouldn’t that blow your mind? 🤯  We can get so busy growing big churches we forget about developing the unseen potential of the person warming a seat in the middle of the congregation. Instead we go about looking for the bright shiny ones, the ones who have an anointing. 

PS The bible says we are all anointed ones!! 1 John 2:20 “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.” Sadly those super stars can get knocked over by our enemy because they stand up there in the spotlight ALONE. Or even worse, they stand up there with people who tell them what they want to hear, because ‘you mustn’t touch the anointing.’ 🙄 So instead people just go away and bad-mouth them and complain about them behind their backs. Now there’s a smart move …!!  😱

Here’s my advice to you dear reader, take your little lunch, your only lunch … your only life — and give it to Jesus. Then start behaving like He did, loving people everywhere you go. I’m talking about living your ordinary life, the only life you have, free of the encumbrances of day after day after day of the same old same old! Because your life has a purpose. Trust Him to help you to touch many for His sake. Bye 👋