Crisis

P 3082 I AM your oasis.

/ DVH

“Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Come to Me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis.” Matthew 11:28 TPT.

When I read this verse today the thing that hit me right between the eyes was that Jesus said: ‘I AM your oasis.’He didn’t suggest going on a 4 week cruise, or going to some spa, or theme park or even a Christian conference of some sort – the Lord says HE(!!) is our oasis. We have been misled by our feelings to think that Jesus only goes to conferences or turns up for revivals – He’s IN US – we take Him with us wherever we go! Ya might want to sit and think about that for like a millennium – I know I did – OK so it was 60 seconds … you caught me. 

You know I think we can be really bad at comprehending what the Lord is saying, most of the time. We either overstate it to the point of fanaticism and make it into rules, or we ignore it and hope He won’t mind. We can be so lax with our obedience that we only participate in extending our faith for minor things – like finding a car spot when we need one – or asking God to help us with our day. He wants to BE our day!!

He’s not an add-on. Faith steps are about things we can’t easily do by ourselves — and maybe we kind of step really quickly around things like submission, which is also a faith step. It’s like we think these things are beyond us … so we hope the minimum participation will do …”After all, Jesus knows I am weak!” That’s why He wants you to call on Him to be your strength. We go through this life trying to avoid problems or pray them away, He wants us to confront them with Him!  He longs to be our oasis.

It seems we have yet to work out that His motivation is not just to bring relief, but to usher in permanent change. Transformation of our hearts. Maybe we are hoping the Lord won’t notice because we are embarrassed with our lack of engagement with the things that matter … well guess what?? He knows, because the same Heart that tenderly watches over you, pays attention to everything else. Some problems can be solved by simply changing the way we live. Please do not misunderstand me, He is not watching over us to catch us out in our sins or errors. Instead He patiently waits and watches for us to turn our heads, even just a little bit in His direction – because He knows a better way. 

There is an easier way to live this life we have inherited from Him. But we will have to humble ourselves and submit to Him in order to fully participate in it. Everything in our world’s current view of modern reality suggests submission is not a good thing. Children don’t have to submit to their parents, wives don’t have to submit to their husbands, and nobody has to submit to anybody else’s agendas — unless they pay them well! Submission seems to be a bad word — but that word actually means we have a primary mission which takes priority over other things. Seeking His kingdom is primary – then other things get added on!

It is no wonder that we have left God’s Kingdom behind, it’s because His kingdom is a theocracy, not a democracy. Let’s daily remind ourselves that Jesus Himself submitted to His Father’s will. Sadly it seems that unless human beings can see that it BENEFITS them, they don’t give those ‘other things’ He wants to add into our lives very much attention. So many Christians have cleverly found and featured all the me-first benefits … because the bible tells us“to forget not all His benefits…” I am not sure this response is all He had in mind! 

Off-loading our burdens onto Jesus seems to be a gigantic benefit to me – but we will have to relinquish our anxiety, worry and fear at the same time. Personally, I can’t think of anything better than handing my awful pile of nasty impossible stuff to Him. However, what does He mean by – I am your oasis? An oasis is a place of water in a desert, or a place of refuge in a crisis — or even a place of refreshing. When you view that word this way it begins to make sense. The Lord is not talking about using His Presence like we would drop off our dry-cleaning and return to find everything neatly pressed and clean …He means in this life His Presence is our dwelling place.That’s an AIM – not a suggestion.

I like Ephesians 3:16-19. These 3 verses are great to meditate on because they show us what we are aiming at. 

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Being filled to all the fullness of God is another AIM. We need to remember ..these verses are a prayer … the Apostle Paul prayed it for the church at Ephesus. But the Holy Spirit Himself not only inspired it – He preserved that prayer in the bible for our benefit. Paul is praying for US too – every time you read it say Amen! And please –  read it a lot. Now we need to use our faith to believe that Christ actively dwells in our hearts, and we need His power to understand what we have been given! It is not enough to say ‘yes’ — we have to DO yes!

Then our roots go down, so deeply into His love we cannot be moved. This is how and why the saints of old gave up their lives and were martyred. They didn’t do it for an ideology, they did it because they had been internally changed, forever!! His Presence in our lives is our OASIS. Bye. 🥳

P 3067 Rules don’t reign here – Love does.

/ DVH

We are not in the Old Testament, under the Old Will – now we live in His kingdom. So rules don’t reign here — LOVE DOES. It is a very limiting thing to live by rules, because there is no freedom to change or explore other possibilities! In the past few weeks I have discovered that the loss of a loved one sharpens your awareness of who you really are. The pressure and sadness bring up things that might remain undisturbed, or even unseen.

People make choices that separate us from one another. So much more of this life can be explored together, if relationships were valued more than privacy. Sadly, my whole culture values privacy! Have you ever experienced getting angry with people who do some dumb thing you advised them not to do, and when it doesn’t work out — they want you to fix it for them?  Boy do I have a word for you today. It starts with RE and it ends with PENT! We are told to bear one another’s burdens so we can carry them to the Lord for that other person, not collapse under the load!!

Recently I found piles of anger, stuffed into previously unknown corners, all over the place in my heart. Apparently, I also have a postponing habit! I see something in my heart, and think, ‘I’ll fix that with the Lord, later!’ Well, later finally came, for me, and it wasn’t a bit like Christmas! I discovered I was sick to death with being asked what I thought, only to find, lo and behold – the other person didn’t like that answer and threw it away. It wasn’t that I wanted things to be done right – I just thought they could have been done better. 

I’m an external processor. I find out what I’m thinking by what comes out of my mouth and sometimes that is a bigger surprise to me than it would be to you! It’s dangerous stuff, trust me. It is amazing how easily my foot gets into my mouth. Especially as in the natural – I can’t even put my own socks on! Stuff started coming out of my mouth that definitely wasn’t true, and so the Lord began to deal with me about my own attitude toward myself. 

I had developed a habit of thinking that if I had said what the Lord told me to say in a better way, maybe things would have turned out differently. In other words I had picked up false responsibility, which meant that everything that went wrong was most probably my fault. It’s taken a crisis for me to see that I am definitely not that clever!! Other factors have come into play.

Individual people that I care about and respect, gently began to suggest that the way I was thinking about myself was not a great way to deal with things. And then another one came along… before you knew it — I had a queue of them, that nearly went around the block! And they were all saying the same thing. They didn’t all use the same words – but what was said had the same theme. The theme was —- “punishing yourself for other people’s poorly made decisions, is unscriptural and a bad idea.”

That’s the problem with honesty … it’s great but it can be brutal when you swing it like a sledge hammer… at yourself.I had developed an ungodly attitude that was disguised as humility. It seemed to be easier to me to be self-effacing, than it was to say to someone else: “But God said.” The Lord explained to me that attitude was not humility, it was negating the gift He had given me. Then I explained to Him that if I didn’t self-efface stuff, people would not only get mad at me, they would find, and use, that big hammer on me, frequently.! He very gently said: “Isn’t that called fear?” I sure didn’t have any answer for that one. Unless you count … UM! 

But that conversation led me to one question – how often does fear stop any of us from obeying Him? I mean, think about it. We live in a world where there are no rules – because we think rules restrict other people’s freedoms. So now we’ve made rules that say that you can’t stop others from being themselves! Does anyone see the irony in that?

In God’s kingdom, wherever we have had rules — He is actively helping us replace them with His LOVE — because Love is the perfect bond of unity. We can’t get to unity with rules because all of us are rebellious – even the nice people! I can’t get to the place where I am not afraid of you, simply because the bible says “don’t be afraid.” Instead I need a revelation of how great His love and acceptance is toward me. Those rules have not been discarded, they have been gloriously upgraded in one life-changing event! Jesus died in our place.

Sadly, I can keep on doing the very things that are preventing me from growing up into God’s plan for my life – by undermining myself. The Lord wants to tell each one of us today, that there are always areas in our hearts that He is working on. At the same time, He is preparing each one of us to be ready for what comes next, because He knows when those even more difficult things will land on us. 

We can miss the opportunities He brings to prepare us, by not replenishing the oil in our lamps. So don’t tell yourself: ‘I’m just broken.’ Our God can mend anything. The rules have been replaced by LOVE and love cannot, and will not ever fail. 👋 

P 2990 The great wall of blankets … as seen from space!

/ DVH

“If we are out of our mind [just unstable fanatics as some critics say], it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit. For the love of Christ controls and compels us, because we have concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that all those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised for their sake. 

But all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ [making us acceptable to Him] and gave us the ministry of reconciliation [so that by our example we might bring others to Him], that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favour with God].” 2 Corinthians 5:13-15,18-19 AMP.

Well you could easily think that hubby and I have lost the plot…until you read 2 Corinthians 5. Then, hopefully, maybe not! It seems the Apostle Paul also suffered from the same idiosyncrasies as we do, only his case was wa-ay worse than ours! He went on the road and stayed on it, permanently. He preached in jail as well. Gee I hope we never have to check that jail one out!! And what Paul is saying in Corinthians above in a nutshell is this – if I’m nuts, then I’m nuts for God, and if I’m sane then it is for your benefit.

He knew what was important, and he did more than ask people to church next Sunday – as if!!  Or hand out flyers and pass-it-on cards, he totally left comfort behind and travelled all over the Mediterranean preaching and starting churches. He was not just saying “I have A message” — he is saying “I have THE message.”  The message of the ages…  and … you in your small corner and I in mine ... we two are off on the road again! 

If I told you everything that is in our way you would think we have totally lost the plot! The thing is, we probably have. But Jesus is our Redeemer and He can take our spirit of stupid and do something amazing with it. All we need to do is be obedient. We are going because we too know we have been given the message of the ages and we want to give it away to everyone we meet. Our wonderful God is incredible, He turns up even when we have nothing to give. Actually, I should say – especially when we have nothing to give! He truly loves poverty- stricken people. Sometimes I wonder why we try so hard to look like we are coping, when God promises to be our strength. Moving on… 🙄

The above picture is just some of what we need to fit in our wonderfully elastic car. We have heaps of medical aids for me as well – not to mention some little things … like food and clothes! Every single time we go, hubby throws his hands in the air and says: “It is just not going to all fit in the car, I can’t fit it in.” This whole thing is becoming like a well-known play – the stuff always goes in. And afterwards we say things like:“I dunno how it went in, but it did. Just don’t sneeze OK?” Meanwhile the relief we feel when we off-load blankets, food, and bibles along the way is huge. Suddenly there is oodles more room… 

We once took our only slightly crazy dog on a trip with us … just once mind you … once was enough! Her presence added a degree of difficulty we were not equipped to handle. We are never doing that again. Instead we are giving her a holiday somewhere else safe. Anyway, hubby went around a particularly steep corner and a packet of chips and the lid of a container fell on her head.  She sat there for ages until we noticed she had a new hat, and then we figured out how far back that corner was! What a patient creature she is… I know I could definitely use some of her doggie patience.

As you already know hubby and I are big fans of love in action. Love in action facilitated me hearing the gospel. I was 27 years old. Years ago a dear older lady at a previous church used to come to my front door and give me the local parish newsletter every week. She didn’t have a car, and she walked all the way from her house to mine. I imagine I was one of many people she kept up with. 

I was highly suspicious of her kindness, and barely spoke to her when she appeared at my door, because I had 3 little kids who needed my attention. However, that lady just kept on coming … and when a crisis in my life occurred she was the person I phoned. I gave my life to Jesus on that day, all because she just kept on coming, week after week after week. We don’t always know what key will unlock someone else’s heart. But God’s love through her did not give up on me. She too was constrained by the love of God.

It is good to understand that loving God and others, starts with our obedience to what He has told us to do.“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.” Romans 12:1. 

I have absolutely no idea what God could possibly want with my busted elderly body, not to mention dear hubby’s bad back! My theory is this – let’s all just live our lives presenting whatever we have to Him, following Him. Visiting our neighbours, or people in hospital or old people’s homes, shut-in mothers, plus genuinely caring for those people who work alongside us. We may never reach multitudes, but anybody can talk to one person! Let’s live this life, stuffing our cars full of blankets. ‘Cos love looks like something. Bye. 👋

P 2761 When the going gets tough, the tough get going!

/ DVH

In Nehemiah 4:7-9 it says:  “When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the repairs of the walls of Jerusalem were going so well—that the breaks in the wall were being fixed—they were absolutely furious.They put their heads together and decided to fight against Jerusalem and create as much trouble as they could. We countered with prayer to our God and set a round-the-clock guard against them….

13-14 So I stationed armed guards at the most vulnerable places of the wall and assigned people by families with their swords, lances, and bows. After looking things over I stood up and spoke to the nobles, officials, and everyone else: “Don’t be afraid of them. Put your minds on the Master, great and awesome, and then fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes… V15 “Our enemies learned that we knew all about their plan and that God had frustrated it. And we went back to the wall and went to work.”

Having done all they could, that’s when these guys STOOD! Just like it says in Ephesians 6:13 “Therefore, put on the complete armour of God, so that you will be able to [successfully] resist and stand your ground in the evil day [of danger], and having done everything [that the crisis demands], to stand firm [in your place, fully prepared, immovable, victorious].”  

We don’t just need to learn to how to tear up the hypothetical ceilings in our lives, and in the lives of others;  we also need to know HOW, AND WHEN, TO STAND STILL. We simply must learn when to do what. And at the same time, when it is good to ignore the yammering threats of our enemies, so we can keep on going with the work God has given us to do for as long as we can.

I dunno about what is going on with you, but lately I have been reflecting on how soft I have become since I fell down the stairs. My arm and legs weren’t the only thing I injured! I think I bumped my faith badly as well! However, I praise the Lord that my dear hubby has taken us both out into the field, to talk to people about Jesus, anyway. Because otherwise I think I might have packed up my little travelling bag and quit. Physical disability can be very discouraging, and the older you get, the harder it is to pick yourself up and go again!

The point of today’s blog is this:  when you are fighting the enemy don’t cede your ground. Just stand still and wait for God. Even if you have to have your sword in one hand and a trowel in the other to help you rebuild your life. Are you physically dead yet? No?? Then it’s not too late to get up after your rest, and run again.Refusing to quit is the way forward. It leads to perseverance, and that makes us stronger spiritually. Let the weak say:‘I am strong in the Presence of the Lord.’ Even if I hit a wall, or in this case the floor! I am learning to shake myself, get up and go again!

I found this great little song by a group called One Republic, it’s not new (2021) I think one of the guys is a Christian but who cares?  The rocks cry out all the time! Meanwhile the words are so catchy, that they repeat themselves over and over again in my head. Here’s the chorus: “They tell you that the sky might fall. They’ll say that you might lose it all. So, I run until I hit that wall. Yeah, I learned my lesson, count my blessings. Look to the rising SON and run, run, run.”  Yeah, I changed one letter, because WE always look to Jesus – Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. We are all in this race.

Some days, I’m not physically up to running again, or even maybe rebuilding huge walls in the face of satan’s jeering  — but I’ve learnt that I can still stand …  even if I have to lean on something!!  (Proverbs 3:5,6.) I’m going to lean on Him because the bible says I can! I also love the bit in this song that says ‘I run until I hit that wall’ ‘cos I kinda did, and that’s when I found out that I can count my blessings from any position. The fact that some things still cause us pain proves that we are alive and present on planet earth! 

‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.‘ … But they just might need a cuppa tea and a bit of a lie down first!  Meanwhile music helps me with motivation. Sadly, sometimes Christian music can be a little bit too drippy and wordy for me. I feel like I am singing a saga, not a song. Some Christian songs have a million words, and every platitude ever written – whatever happened to catchy?? Back to the point … rebuilding the walls of your life can be tough. It takes guts – sorry, internal fortitude 🤪 – but God isn’t scared of old, decrepit, or even broken people. He promises to be their strength instead!

Our God is the Ancient of days. Nuthin’ scares Him!  Some of His best friends were OLD. Think about it. The thing that’s good about getting older is this – if you choose to let go of your pride, you can learn stuff. Good stuff, stuff worth learning. And you get it by bumping your head a lot, or some times you get it by falling down the stairs. It’s time for everyone to toughen up, and get going!  We will need every single saint for what lies ahead of us. Bye 👋

P 2484 He is always with us.

/ DVH

“… for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]”Hebrews 13:5.

The sun is still always there in the sky, even when we are surrounded by lightning and thunder and overwhelming circumstances. Despite how we feel, nothing has actually changed between us and the Lord. Perhaps, something ugly and overwhelming has just pushed its way between us and the One we love… but His truth does not change. His love is unchanging. And the sun is still shining above those dark roiling clouds that are producing fearful storms. It will return. Breathe … and hold on. 

2 Corinthians 4:16-18: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

There are times in all our lives when we feel assailed on every side, and overwhelmed by circumstances beyond our control. Even beginning to know what to do next, seems so far away – and right now it is buried under the weight of trying to hold onto what we desperately need to believe. I hate that feeling of waking up into a brand new day, only to have the memory of some darkness or other crowd out His light. 

However, the Lord is so precious, even when we let go of Him — He will not let go of us. His goodness is always flowing toward us constantly. Like a heartbeat. There are no easy ways through dark times, no magic words to say … instead, it seems our worst fears have exploded into despair and destruction … but we are always His, and partakers of His unchanging love. Hold on. 

The first thing I would like to contribute, something that I’ve learnt myself, is that when desperately hard things happen, don’t ‘should’ on yourself. What I mean by that is don’t start counting up things you think you should have done, or should not have done. The past is the past, all the regret in the world cannot change what has already happened. Now we are waiting for redemption – not a rewrite.  

Even if we have what we think is evidence proving that we have accidentally contributed to our dire situation, don’t let the enemy of your soul use that regret to throw you into a sink hole. Fight for your right to believe in His goodness and then grab hold of Jesus’ hand. We don’t even have to pray, just grab hold of Him and hang on! Some prayers don’t have words! But do yell if you need to … our emotions are never too big for our precious Saviour to handle. 

Despite the temptation to continually think things through to try to somehow find a different ending, just let finding the answer, an answer, ANY answer … go. This is not the time to revise or review things, this is the time to REST in what we already know about Him, not change our theology or methodology. There is no easy way through the rivers that have risen above our heads, or a fire that threatens to burn through our very existence. There is no quick quote, no scripture, no quick fix when our faith is being severely shaken by overwhelming circumstances.

The things to bring to mind are things like …God is always good. He is still on His throne. Jesus died for this too plus the Holy Spirit is ever with us. These awful circumstances are not punishment – He took ALL our punishment onto Himself.

I can’t even try to begin to explain why bad things happen to people, I just know they do. In my limited experience sometimes the people who love Him dearly, have hell thrown at them, and there is no rhyme or reason to it. And I know, that I know, that HE hasn’t caused it. I also know, that blame of any kind, is always deadly – it poisons the soul. This trial, this suffering or sorrow, is not something that Almighty God thought we deserved – it is simply what life looks like in a fallen world. 

Sometimes the way through difficulties is one step at a time, so do what David did. He used his awful times to remember the goodness of God. “These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.” Psalm 42:4. Remember how passionately you feel about your faith, even though those feelings may have disappeared at this time. Our faith is so much more valuable to God than gold or diamonds or precious stones.

In these times, we particularly need to do our best to take care of our bodies. We are not betraying anyone else if we take care of ourselves. When a crisis happens, each day can bring its own troubles, and we are going to need strength to face things as they come at us. Read scriptures that have great meaning to you, over and over again, when you can. Say them aloud, so your ears can hear them. And let the Body of Christ send love to you, in whatever form it comes. I pray, today, that whoever is needy, will find comfort in Him. He is always with us, even in this life’s darkest valleys.  Bless you. 😢

P 2346 Be a conduit of comfort for someone else.

/ DVH

“All praises belong to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He is the Father of tender mercy and the God of endless comfort. He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 TPT

What comforts you? Seriously. 😶 Do yourself a favour, don’t pretend – be truthful. In your little list of comforting things you could find family, potato chips, hugging your pet/kids, having a proper job, or enough to eat, perhaps somewhere warm to sleep, yummy chocolate, or maybe just a hot drink on a cold. 🤗 First of all I want to say that none of those things I’ve mentioned are inappropriate or wrong but … if you want to be truly comforted inside, where you feel so broken, or even give away true comfort to others – you will need a whole other source. God Himself.

Yeah … I know, Almighty God is kind of hard to get on the phone in a crisis. 😳 Yet it is astonishing how quickly human beings call out for Him when life presses in on us hard. People who say they don’t believe in Him start crying out: ‘God help me!’  We’ve been designed with a need to have God Himself as our primary source of comfort. And, as the scripture says, we will have nothing lasting to give others, that will still their spirits and bring them fresh hope -except God Himself. Whether we believe it, or even feel it, or not – the reality is – we are God’s chosen method to reach out to other people.  Please note the Lord does not push His way into anything – He loves volunteers. 

True comfort is very lacking in our modern world. Instead, the people around us stuff all sorts of things, like excesses of gambling, drugs and alcohol, other religions, even strange relationships, into the deep parts of their hearts hoping to alleviate their pain and ongoing suffering. I’m not going to comment about whether that actually works or not – because today I am talking about US passing on something we have already received from God Himself on to someone else in need. 

It almost goes without saying that the reality is, we have nothing lasting to give if we do not trust our Jehovah Jireh our Provider, as our Source to be there and help us. So how do we do this? We begin by renewing our minds as a priority, so any rumour or innuendo or inaccuracy will start to kind of slide off us, because our first response to something that is a bit ‘off’ is this: ‘I don’t remember reading that stuff in my bible!” And then we go away and check out whatever it is, in the book. And THEN we believe what the book says, above what we think or feel. 

I have seen God comfort someone else with the dumbest, weirdest scriptures. Things that appear to have absolutely no relevance to this person’s situation AT ALL and yet, comfort entered into them immediately. I literally watched it happen. I didn’t even give them the scriptures that the Holy Spirit had used to comfort me in the past. I just did and said what He said and watched Him move.  At that moment, I became a conduit for the Father’s loving comfort to flow through me. 

This is our destiny – yours and mine – to give away what God gives us. Not just good advice or even scriptures we know off by heart – unless the Holy Spirit highlights something in particular to us. Our response comes directly from the One Who used His word to comfort us. These times are also opportunities for us to experience ‘God’s love for me,’ personally. People can get caught up in seeking after experiences, but at times like this a scripture can jump out at us – almost with flashing lights. Just as clearly as a sign flashing in our heads, it dawns on us that God Himself just spoke to us. And that’s comforting. Not only does Almighty God know … He cares and we have proof.  These things become our own personal memorial stones.

Maybe a phone call comes unexpectedly, and a loved one, or a brother or sister in the Lord, has been moved by Him enough to call to see how we are doing. To comfort someone else with that kind of supernatural comfort, all we need to do is pray, listen, and OBEY.  That’s all it takes to make us a Godly conduit of comfort for someone else. 👋🏻

P 2293 Sound advice.

/ DVH

“Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping.” 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (MSG) When I read this today I thought … brilliant. This verse is simple, concise and extremely clear.  Sometimes our biggest hardships occur when we overly complicate things and in the end we have so many things to remember, the truly important things get lost.

In my case they seem to fall out of my ears despite my hearing aids! More’s the pity. Keeping it simple stupid works best for me. I love to remember those bible verses I first fell in love with – back then we had pure scripture in song. When things get tough those versions flood back into my heart. These older versions remind me in the heat of battle of the reason why I live this way. 

I don’t know about you, but under pressure from the really high and low tides of this life, plus the normal everyday wear and tear and daily grind, my little faith boat sometimes slips its moorings and starts floating away. That is not good in a crisis. Then we need something sure and solid to hold onto, and the bible has such strength and stability in it.

Ideally, because His book says so, our faith should have substance to it, and not just bob about on the sea of life getting tossed by this and that. Otherwise it is unfortunately far too easy to feel like you are nearly sinking all the time. I know that faith can have its highs and lows, but in the main, our faith needs to be a slow steady progression upwards. We should literally be able to see our faith grow over a prolonged period of time, especially when things have been rough. 

In those times this is where we need to learn to cling to the Lord and His book more tightly. However we must remember, no matter what season we are in – GOD IS FAITHFUL. HE WILL NEVER EVER LET GO OF US! Even when we are faithless, He is always faithful. 

The above scripture from 1 Corinthians 16 doesn’t actually sound like it includes ‘time off for good behaviour.’ There are no holidays from being His kid! When stuff gets tough cling like a limpet to the Rock of all ages!  This particular scripture is both directional and instructional. ‘Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping.’ 🤔 There is order in these instructions. The easiest place to end up defeated is in our HEAD. This is where self-talk, from the Word, is a strong rope keeping us moored safely. It directs us so we know what to look for, and how to do it.  You may need to pause and think about that. I did. 

And this verse is definitely correctional, because the absolutes in it are not muddy or unclear. I personally love it when the bible is like that. I definitely love the stories of people just like me and how they succeeded in spite of themselves. Or even how they got it wrong, and God rescued them because He pitied them. But I also love this kind of clear directive. Forget the language, look for the instructions.

Things like the word pity, in any language, is not common today. That word is like …’feeling sorry for.’ But God actually pities us and has mercy on us, because He remembers we were made from dirt. He knows our frame and He knows our weaknesses, and He never despises us for them. To top that kindness off, our Lord Jesus came and walked through this life as a human being, subject to the same temptations and distractions that we are, and He did it without sinning. It demeans His total reliance upon His Heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit, to think that this life was easy for Him, because we think He somehow had a special advantage we don’t! 

Actually, we have exactly the same advantage He had, the same Helper He had, the same Person Who would’ve held Him fast to His purpose – holds us. The one thing I admire about the Lord Jesus is the only time we see any outward struggle is during His time at Calvary. All of time this everyday stuff was totally settled for Him, He knew where victory lay. Victory lies in obedience.

His purity of His purpose is our benchmark, plus it is also a place of wonder and worship. Remember, the Lord knew irritating people too! He walked around with people who didn’t understand His purpose and started trying to enforce their own agendas. It kinda reminds me a bit of politicians, who start out enthusiastically wanting to help people, and quickly discover there are an awful lot of hurdles in the way! Jesus made that complicated process extremely simple, He loved the person in front of Him. He treated each person in front of Him with God-inspired attention. It totally fascinates me that He didn’t give up under pressure, which is where I sadly fall over.

Thank God we all have His righteousness undergirding us, plus His grace flowing freely through the open channel of our lives, as we give away His love for us, using our faith. One resolute step after the other, in good times and bad, is the only way to follow Him and remain steadfast. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2226 Jesus helps me to keep going.

/ DVH

When I sit and read about the Lord, and think about what He did while He was on this earth, and how HE struggled with facing His own death – it helps me to keep going every day. First of all, let’s look at the fact that the Lord needed to pray 3 times in the garden of Gethsemane. He needed to pray what He was facing through, and He waited on God for the spiritual strength to carry it all out. Jesus prayed until He knew the job was already done – spiritually speaking. His total surrender, in those awful moments, gave Him the power to endure what came next. He died to Himself in that garden and it was a terrible battle. 

This scene shows me that it is OK to struggle with spiritual stuff – it doesn’t mean I’ve missed His will, or I am going the wrong way. When things are hard to do – we need to press into Him. Jesus spoke a great deal about His death in the days before the crucifixion, so He already knew this time was coming. Yet He still prayed for that destiny to be taken away! He struggled with God’s Will. Praise the Lord, because Jesus is my visible illustration of God’s Will in action! It’s OK to struggle – remember to surrender and then go into trust. Push on past your fears etc.

Let’s look at this in Matthew 26: 38-46 …“Then He (Jesus) said to them, (His disciples) “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.” Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Then He returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with Me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

“He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done.” When He came back, He again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So He left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then He returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners…”

Jesus allowed Himself to feel the total appalling impact of what was coming toward Him. He didn’t hide from it, or  have a stiff-upper-lip mentality, nor did He deny the reality of what He was facing. It’s OK to hurt, it is OK to be disappointed or even grieve about whatever has happened to us. But, at the same time, we need to remember that we have HOPE – His Name is Jesus … He is our anchor. If someone you love is suffering then pray that God will give them real HOPE in the face of adversity.

Jesus was very hurt with His disciples, for not praying with Him. I think He was also disappointed for their sake. Getting in touch with God in a crisis is the only way to get through whatever is coming next. The biggest test those men had ever faced was hurtling toward them… and they were vastly under-prepared for it. He was still caring for them on the brink of His own pain, suffering and death.

Lastly, the Lord Jesus helps us to have courage because He did everything He did for all of us. Our failures, fears, sicknesses, disappointments, sins, those things were all dealt with as He struggled with the concept of being a substitute for us. He was about to be separated from God’s bright Presence and He did that deliberately for our sake. He became our separation so we don’t ever have to be, or go anywhere without God’s Presence again! 

In times of despair difficulty and trial – I think of the Lord Jesus saying, with such incredible faith: “… Your will be done.” That was a faith statement. Christ had never physically suffered to the point of His own death and He had to rely upon the Holy Spirit to bring Him out of that grave. Jesus knows how hard it is to have faith in times of crisis. His vulnerability at that time helps me keep going when stuff happens in my life.  Praise Him. 👋🏻