Creative

P 3206 “Draw me after you …

/ DVH

“…and let us run together, I will rejoice in You and be glad.” Song of Songs 1:4. This is what happens to us, our Father lovingly draws us after Himself, and before you know it you are running with Him, and He has changed your life and your POV! I have an example from the bible today. Let’s watch what happens when Jesus meets a Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:22-29.  

“A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So His disciples came to Him and urged Him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.”

As you can see from reading this scripture, this woman knows who Jesus is, she calls Him Lord, and she knows His lineage. Get a load of what comes next…  He says nothing. AND!! He ignores her! …  When is the last time you remember reading about the Lord doing that in the Gospels? The only other two times He says nothing, is when He is being tried by the Sanhedrin and He taken before Pilate. This woman is an exception.

 And the story shows us that the Lord can and does make exceptions, but this lady will need her faith. Right here, in this passage, He refuses to interact with her and draws her out …and I think it is to build her faith. We all know that Jesus was sent to the Jews, not the Canaanites, and He literally pushes this Canaanite woman’s faith to be big enough to grasp what she wants and needs. What she wants is a really big ask!  He already has an assignment – and it is not her people! Jesus was sent here to die for all — yet He chose to stay within the boundaries of what His Father sent Him to do.

It is good to know where the ‘edges’ of what you are called to do are. Many people have crashed upon the rocks of presumption, thinking that their ambition would carry them through the sweeping tides of opposition that came their way. We were not called to pick up the anointing of Brother or Sister So and So, who had an astonishing ministry in the power of God, and is now dead to this world. My advice is go after God for yourself. The reward of His Presence and wisdom in your life is more than enough to satisfy anyone! (All those things are free BTW…) … back to the Canaanite lady.

“Healing is the children’s bread.” You’ve heard people say that and so have I. The reality is – Jesus is talking to that woman, in that place, at that time. I think we’ve mistakenly thought that if we do what He did, it will give us the same result. He’s God and He’s CREATIVE, follow HIS lead – don’t try to be someone else, be you! He interacts with people – He is not following a formula. In this passage. Jesus is leading this woman’s faith deeper, and He is brusque with her while He is doing it  He dealt with individuals. We have this dumb picture of the Lord as sweet, gentle and mild, patting this and soothing that. That’s someone’s imagination, not Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God!

The Man Who cleared out those temple courts of the buyers and sellers is not sweet, gentle and mild. At that time He was so filled with the Holy Spirit’s anger and a zeal for His Father’s will, that nobody dared get in His way. Sometimes, you just gotta push!  But make sure HE told you to do it. Back to the story – after insulting this desperate lady, she pushes in to grab at what she wants even harder, by saying something that implies “I don’t care what You call me, I just want my kid delivered! And I know YOU can do it!” 

We know, that Jesus is the Son of God and He saved us, but there are times when we are not quite sure that He wants to help us when we are sick. There is no formula. Press in to God, don’t follow a pattern. He may stretch your faith, but that does not mean He is saying no. Perhaps He is leading your faith into a new dimension. Our ongoing spirituality matters to Him. We need His perspectives on what is going on, otherwise we end up disappointed, and unbelief takes over. 

When I pray about stuff, I like to ask Him to remind me of any scriptures that will help me, and I take note of them. I write them down. Sometimes those scriptures don’t just bring healing in the natural, they also open my eyes to the incredible possibilities that are available to me because I took the time to press in. I often get a whole lot of revelation when I push. I hardly ever ask for one scripture, I usually ask for two or three, because the bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:1: “…every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” 

The Lord loves to draw us after Him, so we can run together. Our God is not a God Who does not care about what is happening to us. He wants us to know His Ways, so we can co-operate with Him. Bye for today, 👋.

P 2637 Be an original.

/ DVH

I sometimes live in the land of stone-cold-tea! I actually get so focussed on writing, I forget to drink it when it is hot. It is the bane of my hubby’s life having to warm up my tea all the time, so I can enjoy it. There are days that I’m such a FUN person to live with. Not. Ho- hum. ☕️ I think my record of tea re-warming is 3 times in a row. Ask hubby!  Any-hoo, the other day I discovered this great little gizmo from China that keeps a cup of tea or coffee hot for hours. I love the creative genius behind that seemingly insignificant invention!! 

I have learnt over the years to appreciate human diversity and our individual ability to see the same thing in different ways. People are truly amazing, and our God made us that way, on purpose. Ya gotta love that!! It also means that when I look at you, I can see Him, in a totally different way. WOW!! It is a shame that religion aims at everyone being the same — yet God celebrates our differences. They are part of His creativity.  In my heart I believe that each person has a unique expression of Who He is to share with the world. In other words we are all richer because He sent YOU here! Thank you Lord – You really do give good gifts!

“God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display His wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 3:10. We have this lovely lady, (she’s God’s gift!), who comes into our house once a fortnight to help us. She cleans the floors for us. I had to give up floor cleaning years ago!  Hmmm. I wish I thought that was a bad thing … but I don’t!! Tee hee. Ya win some – ya lose some. Maybe that’s one of the Lord’s benefits I’m not meant to forget!! 😂  A-ny-wa-y … this lady is the dearest Irish-born-Aussie person and having her around is a joy when you are mostly shut-in. Some people celebrate who they are, don’t they?

When she came to help us last time, she shared the above picture with us. Somebody had carefully chalked thought-provoking things about the Lord on a jogging track. There were a lot more chalk sayings that I could put here!  However, the minute I saw them, I was gobsmacked to see how this person had found such a non-threatening, original way to speak to people. I can’t begin to tell you how much that blesses me. I just adore to see people being themselves and loving Jesus and sharing His truth… all at the same time. 

Each of us has a unique way of expressing His love to others. The thing I have personally learnt lately is this — unless we are doing those things that make us feel a bit vulnerable, we are probably staying within our own comfort zone. That comfort zone is a poorly-made construct that we’ve allowed, it is used to hide us. And it will restrict our efforts to shine for Him if we are not aware of it. So we will have to learn how to be “strong and courageous” — like Joshua said. That’s what faith does. It tackles the difficult things as well as the unknown ones simply because those things can be a tourniquet on the life of God within us. 

We can sometimes hesitate to remove those restrictions that we’ve adopted into our lives because they protect our inner selves. Maybe somebody else thought that was who we are – or who they wanted us to be. Or we can use our weaknesses to our own advantage, because remaining unseen seems safer. But Jesus cheerily says: “Don’t be afraid, death is not your enemy – a lack of real life within you is!”  None of us are finished yet, but the Lord wants us to be established in Him daily, within our ordinary lives. If we yield to Him, we will have enough strength to withstand the bigger storms and dark seasons of this life. The way through difficulties is to trust in Him more than we trust our own judgment. 

I love the way the Lord is been removing those badly made constructs around our lives to expose the great work He has been doing inside… Even when we weren’t looking! Personally, I think if we had seen what He was doing with some of us, we might have meddled with it or tried to help Him! But He works in, and on our hearts in secret and brings out the very best of who we really are, and He doesn’t do His big reveals about us until His project in us is established. Our God is a master builder, and unlike the world around us, He knows how to work with stone to bring it to life! Praise Him!! 

Years ago there was this dumb riddle …”Which came first? The chicken or the egg?” The minute I heard that riddle I thought:  ‘how silly, God would never leave a little vulnerable egg all alone to raise itself!’  Then I realised that my faith is in God’s judgment, not in what seemed right to me. It was meant to be a clever puzzle but my knowledge of Him made the answer into a fact!  BTW, please don’t ask me why that stupid chicken crossed the road? As far as I’m concerned that chook deserves whatever it gets when it is challenging cars! Like I said, be an original, we need your POV.  Bye for today, have a good one. 👋

P 2489 Allow His beauty to inspire us.

/ DVH

“Discover creative ways to encourage others and to motivate them toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love. This is not the time to pull away and neglect meeting together, as some have formed the habit of doing. In fact, we should come together even more frequently, eager to encourage and urge each other onward as we anticipate that day dawning.’Hebrews 10:24-25 TPT

We can concentrate on relating to others, by nagging away at someone else, and doing our best to get the other person to understand our POV. The objective of that idea is that the other person will change. OR, we can help motivate the people around us further in God, by encouraging them to be bigger!  One way leads to war, and the other leads to expansion. Personally I think that winning in any conflict is hollow. We simply must decide to learn to speak life, not criticism. But maybe we got our feelings hurt by somebody else? Boo-hoo! Move along please … you and I aren’t meant to be living in our feelings in the first place! We.Walk.By.Faith.

Will we grow our faith, or will we invest in our flesh, our feelings, or our supposed needs, and allow those needs etc. to grow stronger and even more demanding? Let’s not be the generation the Lord has to pass over to get to the next one coming after us! Right now, it is our turn, our time … on the stage of life to shine forth His light and motivate this dull cranky and crabby old world into better things! Having come so far, we cannot afford to quit on this faith life now!! At the same time, we can always inspire each another. Because of Jesus, we are the broken who can be made beautiful.

There are people who are leaving churches because they are not happy in their current church – their focus has gone off others onto themselves. They have stopped contributing beautiful things, encouraging things, and started to focus on “how hard MY life is.” Join the club, nothing is easy for anyone nowadays!  Spreading around His love and kindness is a high AIM, that sort of thing can be harder to do when we don’t practice it. However, deciding to do positive things and making them into a lifestyle… changes us. Always remember, we have a Helper!  Plus what we focus on grows bigger in our minds. If I focus on your faults and mistakes those things will eclipse any good stuff you might do… Just saying is all …

Going to church has become difficult for many people, for all sorts of reasons, but that is not a reason to stop going. We need to meet with others in order to receive the kind of understanding and encouragement that comes from talking to other people who want to live a life of faith like we do. It isn’t about bragging on this spiritual exploit or that – it’s about our kindness and mercy helping others to press on, and prevail, against those pesky difficult things that stop growth. Other people’s stories, their testimonies … even their struggles can be used to reassure us that even though our lives may be topsy-turvy at that moment, the Lord is still busy on the Body’s behalf.

“You know God has bigger plans for us than we have for ourselves.” (The director of the movie “Journey to Bethlehem” said that.) It seems to me that we all need to stretch and decide that internal growth is not a great theory, it’s a lifestyle. When we focus outwards, on others, on blessing and encouraging them … the things that bug us daily shrink back to normal size. Self-focus is self-limiting.

In our everyday world, art, nature, literature and such things can inspire people to appreciate beauty. In the world of His kingdom, the things He does, sometimes silently – almost unnoticed, those things need to become our inspiration. If we don’t talk to each other, the little things that He does, will come and go and we will all have missed the opportunity to be grateful for those blessings. What are we here for if not to appreciate the One Who saved us, and the One Who is continually helping us transform our lives?

As I read this scripture today, I wondered, what “beautiful works as expressions of love,” look like! Thankfully, I have dear friends who love to let me know how God has blessed them, even in a small way, so I can give thanks with them. I have a pastor who produces the loveliest tracts with reminders of the things He preached about recently. I know those things that he makes take time, and effort and research, so I think that qualifies as a beautiful expression of love. 

But then I began to wonder what do I do, that would qualify me. And that led me to write about this subject today. Sometimes in this life, one day follows another with almost alarming similarity. There is a lot of same old, same old in our days! I think that is why I like to make bookmarks etc. I feel like I am investing in someone else’s future, in their opinion of Who God is, and helping them to see Him in a unique way that is unchurch-ified. 

Today, I want to leave us all with a challenge for this coming year — are we going to let the darkness hide everything God has done and what He is continuing to do, all over this globe? I think we need to let the beauty of Who He is inspire us to grow and encourage others even when things are tough. Bye 👋🏻

P 2329 Our God loves beauty.

/ DVH

Exodus 37:17-22 “They made the lamp stand of pure gold. They hammered out its base and shaft, and made its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece with them. Six branches extended from the sides of the lamp stand—three on one side and three on the other. 

Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms were on one branch, three on the next branch and the same for all six branches extending from the lamp stand. And on the lamp stand were four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms. 

One bud was under the first pair of branches extending from the lamp stand, a second bud under the second pair, and a third bud under the third pair—six branches in all. The buds and the branches were all of one piece with the lamp stand, hammered out of pure gold.” Exodus Chapters 36-39. 

I would like to start out today by saying that this entire tabernacle was built from a design that was in the heart of our Heavenly Father. It is a copy of the one that is already in existence in heaven. You know, it is way too easy to get caught up in the practicalities of our faith, and totally walk blindly past the fact that our God is beautiful, in every aspect of His nature. Worship flows from such moments.

I think we ignore His creative beauty at our own peril. Imagine, for a few seconds, a world without light. Everything He made was dependant upon it being seen. Stars, rainbows, a single sparkly drop of water, green grass, starfish or lightning slicing the sky. All this glorious, fascinating world we live in, was inside Almighty God’s heart and His being. BTW, light was a great gift all by itself, because it revealed everything that came after it! 

Or just for a moment, imagine a world without sound. Where would we be without birdsong, or the sound of the ocean? Personally, I love the sound of rain or the whoosh of the wind in the trees. Or a baby’s delighted gurgle, or an older person’s spontaneous laughter. These things are ordinary everyday things. Things we are often too busy to appreciate, and yet all that beauty came from inside Him. Good place to be inspired with thoughts of your own.

In these verses from Exodus the creative genius of our Father is seen through ordinary men. Please note that no detail is too unimportant or too small. At that moment those men who were making these lamp stands were following in the footsteps of the Holy Spirit. In the beginning our God spoke – “Let there be…” and the Holy Spirit took that beautiful thought and gave it substance. 

We are currently standing on something God spoke into being, and then the Holy Spirit created it all … out of nothing more than the power contained in those words. In Exodus, those divinely inspired craftsmen took God’s plans and gave them substance under His guidance. When I see their example my immediate response is: “Oh, do me like that Lord please!!” Amen! 

The Holy Spirit, via Moses – wrote these things down in Exodus for us, so we would know what they looked like. This kind of detail is incredible – so was the God-given skill! He hasn’t stopped speaking, so why are we not listening to Him?? When people talk about divine inspiration today, they talk about breaking away and doing a new thing, leaving the supposedly old-fashioned church to create a new more enlightened one … 

…God doesn’t break things, man does!  Honestly I have no idea why we have been reduced to dreaming and expanding our hearts according to Hollywood, and not the Maker of heaven and earth! Why are we aiming so low? HE TOOK DIRT AND MADE PEOPLE! Who knows what He has for us, if we would just take the time to listen to Him? Forget your own predictable clever ideas …go for HIS! 

The bible says in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Let’s stop telling Him what we want and think, and start waiting on Him for a download of His precious plans! He has such beauty inside Him, and He can’t wait to share it with people who will take the time to listen. 👋🏻

P 2296 It’s not just Arts and Crafts.

/ DVH

Exodus 31:1-5 “Now the Lord said to Moses,  “See, I have called by name Bezalel, son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.  I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and skill, in understanding and intelligence, in knowledge,and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze,  and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, to work in all kinds of craftsmanship.”

If we are not careful we can be quite dismissive about the decorative and creative arts. Just because our enemy has perverted this medium that does not mean these gifts and talents cannot be used by the Lord. This man Bezalel was anointed by God, and his incredibly diverse skills were given to him for the Holy Spirit’s purposes.

This man was gifted by the Holy Spirit in a wide range of things. Things that many Christians treat as quite unimportant. Oholiab was gifted as well, and these two men planned and supervised the construction of the tent of meeting and the most Holy place. They created the place that God ordained for Him and men to meet. I find it fascinating that these craftsmen, and women, were skilled in hobby-type things like wood carving, embroidery, and precious stones. The things we see as a diversionary past-time …not a real job. 

Art, music, literature, theatre, all of these things can be used by the Holy Spirit powerfully to go around our minds and target hearts. We desperately need these talents, please do not dismiss them lightly. They can be used to fling the closed doors of anyone’s hardened heart open. And suddenly we become aware that whatever is going on is GOD, not just some tickle of our fancy or something we find emotionally appealing. There are also times, in this world full of all kinds of words – words that have been abbreviated, reconstructed, or corrupted into parodies of their originals —  that we can become so hardened by superficial things, that even beautiful, meaningful, deep words can bounce off us. Familiarity can breed contempt. 

But a Holy Spirit painting or similar work of art can go right around our minds and logic, and breathe His life and light into the viewer. I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes. I’ve watched someone receive one of my hubby’s watercolour paintings and they went from well-held together human beings to a puddle of water … in a heartbeat. It defied logic. 

We must not, we dare not, despise the day of seemingly little things. It is time for us to use everything that is in us to bless and praise His holy Name. Our God is a creative God, and creativity truly does unlock hearts. 

I believe that many the problems of mankind can be solved by our creative Father and His obedient listening servants. He decorated this world. He didn’t put Adam and Eve in a lovely house or even a beautiful boat, instead He placed them in a garden, a garden HE designed … with animals and birds and all sorts of incredible creatures. And they all came out of His enormous, boundless creativity. Our God sees creativity and design in a far deeper more profound way than we currently understand.

So don’t give up your hobbies, or occasional past time, or dismiss these things as ‘not spiritual.’ Instead give those supposedly ordinary talents to the Lord.  Ask Him why you have them. Then wait on Him for guidance. We are currently living limited, tiny lives, when our lives are linked, right here, right now, by Christ’s completed work to the limitless One. Submit your abilities to God and to the body of Christ, and hold onto your hat, you never know where they might take you. Finally – infuse everything you do with Love, and He will infuse it with Himself. 👋🏻