Cross

P 2183 His word has power in it.

/ DVH

1 Thessalonians 1:4,5. “Brothers and sisters beloved by God, we know that He has chosen you; for our good news [regarding salvation] came to you not only in word, but also in [its inherent] power and in the Holy Spirit and with great conviction [on our part].” V6-9 “You became imitators of us and [through us] of the Lord, after you welcomed our message in [a time of] great trouble with the joy supplied by the Holy Spirit; so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 

For the word of the Lord has resounded from you and has echoed [like thunder], not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place [the news of] your [great] faith in God has spread, so that we never need to say anything about it. For they themselves report about us, telling what kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,..” 

V13 “And we also thank God continually for this, that when you received the word of God [concerning salvation] which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its inherent, supernatural power in those of faith].”

God’s word has power in it. I’m talking about His power ACTIVE in our lives to genuinely change each one of US from the inside out. Paul talks about that kind of transformation, here in Thessalonians.

The biggest transformation in my life came from doing what the bible says – even when I didn’t want to. I simply asked Him to help me obey – and then I did what He said, anyway, in faith. He began to change the things that looked impossible in me – things like changing life-long attitudes etc. I needed His Word to change my mind, and I went on to think about spiritual things His way. That’s what renewing our minds means – we start to think about this life the way Jesus did. He totally relied upon His heavenly Father to keep His Word. Disobedience to God’s ways distances us from the Holy Spirit’s loving ministry in our lives. Repentance puts us into a position to receive again. Repentance means changing our ways, not just agreeing that we are wrong.

When I first met Jesus, in order to fit in, I modified my outer behaviour. The church frustrated me because I strongly felt unaccepted, I was not able to be myself. The reality was, I did not know my true self, I only knew the person this life had bashed about – and I thought my responses to those hard things was who I was. But now I had been born again. I was no longer the same person I was before, I was now brand new! I couldn’t just put on a religious jacket – I needed to start to live out that new life inside me by using my faith.

The Holy Spirit taught me to obey Him by obeying the bible, and He helped me to co-operate with Him. I no longer felt controlled, I felt grateful, helped and free instead: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it, labour in vain.” I had to let the Holy Spirit rebuild my ‘house.’ I knew I could not change myself, because some bad attitudes were entrenched in my old self. It was all I could do some days to simply be ‘nice’ to others!  We can’t do His work in us for Him – we must learn to accept our circumstances and yield to Him.

The book of Romans points out that Paul had this struggle too, but he had a revelation about what happened at the cross. He knew he was delivered from this struggle from his former ways, by what Jesus did. He was now a new person. You and I weren’t just saved on the cross, the potential to be totally transformed happened there too. The power to change who we were happened back there at Calvary. We really are brand new, but it’s like click and collect – you just gotta go and get your parcel! Bit by precious bit.

We are not acquainted with this new person until Christ starts to be revealed in us. And, eventually, through us. We are no longer the sum total of our sinful reactions to other people, now we have been taken out of that world and brought into the world of the Spirit that Jesus Christ lived in. Cherish His company. It is a world of loving service to others and the Holy Spirit will help us live there.

It is as if God put our new life into a bank account and gave us His faith to access it – now we rely upon His reliability – His word  – not our own efforts. When we give away the Grace we have already been given to other people who don’t deserve it – we begin to live in the same spiritual place Christ did. Now we regard other people’s needs as more important than our own.

Paul preached this good news to the church at Thessaloniki and the result was other people far away, heard about the change in the Thessalonians’ behaviour and actions. And Paul said that change happened because of the power in God’s word. Test it out for yourself. Believe you’ve already been changed and start to live that way. Start building your new life on the foundation of salvation not on who you were before. We haven’t just been remodelled, we’ve been reborn!  👋🏻

P 2171 Who told you that?

/ DVH

In Genesis, right after Adam and Eve sinned, they hid. The Lord God came walking along in the garden, like He did every evening, and the first question He asked them was: “Where are you?” The second one was: ““Who TOLD you that … you were naked?Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Genesis 3:11.

Recently the Lord put His big highlighter over those four words. ‘Who told you that…?’  was all He said, so I went away and looked that scripture up. Suddenly I realised, there is somebody who stands at our elbow whispering in our ears, constantly replaying our sins and disobedience – even after we have repented. Our enemy won’t ever remind us about what the blood of Jesus did for us, because he never wants us to live in the knowledge of our freedom from the compulsion and temptation to SIN! We were made free when Christ died. Once for all. 

I believe the Lord Himself wants to say to everyone reading this blog today – “Who told you you’ve failed me? Who told you I don’t love you? Who told you that you have to run and hide from Me? Who told you that I am angry with you? Somebody told you that … and it wasn’t ME!” …satan led Adam and Eve right up the garden path and then shoved them off a cliff of his making.

I believe the Lord highlighted those words to me today, because the devil used that ploy back there in the garden, and he is still doing it now, today. he hands us the weapons for our own destruction and then clobbers us with what we’ve done after we did it. The good news is – we don’t have to take anything from him! Seriously … turn your hand upside down whenever he comes at you, refuse to take guilt, shame and the blame. Instead, intentionally – repent, repair and restore things, with the Holy Spirit’s direction and help. Don’t give him a reason to accuse you – fix things.

There were two trees in the garden of Eden. Genesis 2:9b says: “In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  In the middle of that garden was a choice! They could choose to obey God and live … or not. Genesis 2:16 says: “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”  And we all know what came next. 😵‍💫 Meanwhile did you ever wonder if Adam and Eve both lived a long time just because they actually did eat from the tree of life? That tree was not forbidden. I’m just saying is all …

Back to my point this morning  – the enemy can’t wait to hand us our sins. Meanwhile those sins are real! We do dumb disobedient horrible things, but … we don’t have to live under his lies. We can focus on our failures, or the cross. The choice is ours. Jesus Christ died to give us that choice. Now, we have access to redemption – because it has already been released. We must learn to embrace what has already been done for us … “IF we CONFESS our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

There were two trees in back in that garden, one brought eternal life and the other brought death. Jesus came here to die for all mankind. He hung on another type of tree and defeated death forever.  His cross truly was the tree of life for us! He released life for anyone who believes in Him. We don’t have to take the guilt and the shame that satan tries to hand out to us when we sin, accidentally, or not. Our enemy started that game back in the garden – but we have the power to live differently now – we don’t have to play that game with him anymore. Thank you Jesus! 👏

Our enemy will always try to tell us that we are trapped in the past, or stuck in our old behaviour – he’s a liar remember? he’s called the father of lies!  Jesus Christ FINISHED the work. We do not have to listen to the one who tells us we are failures, and that we can’t possibly belong to the Lord – the bible tells a different story!  We need to take note of who is telling us that we are not loved – and ask ourselves: “Who told me that?” 👋🏻

P 2168 Use a sure plumb line.

/ DVH

If I compare Mt Everest with an anthill, I am going to run out of comparisons ve-ry quickly. Mt Everest is far greater and beyond comparison to any old anthill! Yet human beings do something very like that, almost daily – we define Almighty God by our own thinking. You cannot compare a superior thing to a lesser one, because the greater thing defies definition. Yet we compare Almighty God to the things that we already know, and we have no idea how self-centred we are when we do it. He is the Greater One – He defines US we don’t define Him.

Sometimes people say things like: “Why would God do this and this? Why did that person die?… Those people were good people.” OR .. “Why are there starving people in this world? Why are people born to live in pain? How can God be good when bad things happen?”  Um, because human beings live here and we do bad things!?? Duh! 🙄 He is God – He does not answer to us – yet He did and He does – His permanent answer is CHRIST.

Psalm 73:22 comes to mind. “I was senseless and ignorant;  I was a brute beast before You.”  In other words I’m so dumb – I can’t even begin to know what I don’t know. Praise God we have all eternity to begin to scratch the surface of what we don’t know! But …we … have … His … book and we find HIM is in His book, with the Holy Spirit’s help.

Almighty God doesn’t do things the way we do. Let’s look at some illustrations: God made the world. He created man and woman and put them into a garden that only had one rule.“Don’t eat from that tree.”Adam and Eve ignored that tree until satan pointed out that God was keeping: “His God-ness to Himself and if they wanted to be like God they needed to eat that fruit.” We all know how that ended. Badly! Then Father God had to ban Adam and Eve from their meeting place with Him. That was His loss as well as ours, you know.

Let’s move on … because I can’t summarise the whole bible in one blog! Almighty God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to earth as an infant, and He grew up living alongside humanity. However … look closely … now God and man can walk and talk together again just like they all did in the garden – all because Jesus Christ is God come to earth and died. And that’s why satan tempted Jesus to use His miraculous power to look after Himself. Jesus is God’s living illustration for us, of how this life can be lived.

And He picked a thief for one of His disciples. He hung around with prostitutes, drunkards, sinners, sick people – all those people we avoid. What does that tell us? Jesus Christ was not afraid of being contaminated by SIN. Why not? Because there is another way to live and He lived that way right in front of our eyes in the bible. He lived His life in relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit whilst facing the same daily stuff we do.

He lived a life of unconditional Love. Christ rubbed shoulders with everyone around Him and treated them with loving kindness and wisdom, in spite of their sinfulness and rotten attitudes toward Him. He had His eyes on their destiny!Then He went to the cross and bought us the right to live like He did. Jesus Christ bought back what human beings threw away.

Disobedience expelled us from the garden of Eden, but obedience to His Will, His Way, brings us back into that same place of walking and talking with Him. The further we have all walked away from the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and Their Ways – the more corrupt mankind becomes… all by ourselves. Jesus Christ’s life and death and resurrection, gave us a Way out of our own sinfulness. Our response to that fact makes all the difference. 

The Lord Jesus once asked Peter a question that determines any human being’s destiny.”But what about you?” Jesus asked: “WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?”  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”… Matthew 16:15,16. 👋🏻

P 2159 Water from the Life-Giver.

/ DVH

Because God Himself is our only source of living water – nothing else will do. Fresh water needs to move, it needs a conduit, not just a container. This means that the Holy Spirit flows through us. Into us, and out through us – like breathing. Living water needs to be able to flow, in order to keep it clean, so the Holy Spirit must be allowed to do what HE wants – we cannot organise or control Him. We need to learn to yield. Let’s not waste this precious water by allowing ourselves to have leaky pipes!

Look at Jesus. As He walked with the Spirit sometimes He stopped doing one thing to do another. He was led by the Spirit, and we need to live our lives being led too. We need that flow – a constant supply of fresh living spiritual water, in and out,  in order to sustain the life of God within us. Our active belief in Jesus creates a spring, which springs up inside us, refreshing us, and everyone around us. We need to monitor that internal spring, and check what kind of water is coming OUT of it. (James 3:11)

The way to keep this living water flowing is to let it flow in and out.  As soon as you dam water by taking it in, and not letting it flow out – you run the risk of water contamination. It is the movement of the Holy Spirit through our lives that keeps the life of God active in us, and through us, to others. We need to act on what He tells us, to keep this water of the Spirit flowing. We drink, and then we act. This process is not programmed or static.

Here’s what Jesus said: John 7: 37-39 “Jesus once again speaks of living water, saying, “’Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. ‘ By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.”

We get His living water — the life that sustained Jesus — by obeying the Holy Spirit, as He leads us. And by ridding ourselves of our own human contamination – attitudes, thought patterns, anything that exults itself against the knowledge of God. This means that we can’t carry around our human agendas, foibles and sins and stay full!  Our job is to remain empty of self, by putting to death the deeds of the flesh. Telling lies, or shouting at people, or provoking them, being critical and mean, these kind of things are the deeds of the flesh. My advice is to stop looking at what other people are doing, and start looking at what is coming out of you. The secret to staying full of the Holy Spirit is to remain continually thirsty. It means living this life acknowledging our desperate need for God Himself and His input. 

We don’t have to be ashamed of being inadequate, we just need to acknowledge that we are, and keep the channels of our hearts clean and clear and FULL of His Love with open repentance. Because repentance has fruit and that means CHANGE. Then we put aside our own ingenuity and ability, and come humbly to the Lord for fresh water. Christ’s death made this work possible, and so we must always go to the source, which is the Cross. His life’s blood and water … flowed from His side. Ya might want to think on that. 

We cannot afford to bottle or even try to channel the Holy Spirit. He must be allowed to flow as He wishes. We dare not try to control His flow either. Instead we are totally dependent upon Him. Our belief is that Jesus Himself will always give us this living water so we use our faith to be constantly filled. However, we, ourselves, must actively look after our containers, our inner selves – by keeping short accounts with others and walking with the Lord in obedience. The bible is not full of His suggestions – He is leading us into His new life.

At the same time, we get fresh spiritual bread from the living word – the bible. We need to let the Holy Spirit daily break us, our habits, our ideas – looking deeply into the bread of the Word and then eating it –  by doing whatever He tells us to do. The only effort we make to have fresh water and bread every single day, is the effort to sustain and develop our relationship with Him. I say effort, because most of the time we won’t feel like doing it – other things will intrude upon this relationship, to dissuade us from spending time walking with Him. BTW we walk with Him, we don’t just meet Him for 15 minutes in the morning. That can quickly become a religious ritual.

Jeremiah 2:11-19 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Our mistake is to expect the Holy Spirit, Who is a torrent! – to flow through our teensy weensy man-made systems.  👋🏻

P 2153 The Lord says tough stuff.

/ DVH

John 20:24-27 “…Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, My servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves Me. “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.”

Jesus said a whole lot of tough stuff that needs our immediate attention. After all. so many people alive today do not know Him – and they know nothing of His Salvation plan for mankind. And WE, you and I, are the ones who need to tell them. Here’s a couple more similar verses: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.” Matthew 16:24. That cross can be our circumstances, or even a difficult person. Good time to stop and think… Mo-ving on again… “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” John 3:36. 

You probably never heard anyone preach on those scriptures lately. They definitely wouldn’t be anyone’s first choice for verses to comfort us! At first glance they don’t seem very people friendly. But our faith is not a soft faith – it is an all inclusive, who-so-ever-will, may-come faith, which also means everybody is meant to  participate. Jesus Christ set the high standard we all must follow and He showed us by His example, that we must die, take up our cross, and follow Him. Hmmm… today’s blog is not much of a cheery one!

The Lord never ever spoke frivolously about death, He took that matter seriously. But, He also saw death as a doorway through to something bigger. I’m not sure we comprehend that completely until we have to face it for ourselves, or someone we love dearly, dies. This means we don’t talk about the backbone of our faith much … except perhaps at funerals. In all the years I have been a Christian I don’t think I have heard all that many sermons about this kind of exceptionally serious subject. We mainly talk about sin, repentance,  ministries, God’s love, benefits, and spiritual gifts. The stuff we GET, not the stuff we GIVE UP.

I personally think sin actually starts here, with what Jesus said about the way we live our lives. We are either all IN, or we are all OUT, but we must be learning, daily, to count the cost. In truth there are no part-time Christians in the bible, and there is no room for paddling in the shallows. I believe we have divided Christianity into two separate categories in the Western world – being born again, and … hopefully, one day, ev-en-tu-ally ….getting around to … dying daily. But … maybe not too quickly!

Basically, I think Christians see this dying daily stuff as an optional extra. And it isn’t. Jesus didn’t see this subject that way … read the book! Paul had quite a bit to say about it as well. It seems to me that sometimes we try to get away with as much as we ‘legally’ can, and then eventually we have to repent to ‘fix things’. Plus we make excuses about not having any power to change … so we can’t help it. Like the cross Jesus died on was devoid of power! Having said all that, there are a select few people that I know personally, who really do actively try to follow the Lord’s teachings. And boy do they have a hard time of it!  Most of their problems come from the paddlers at the edge of the pool, throwing rocks at them.

Let’s pretend for a minute. Let’s pretend that we ALL live to die daily, simply because the Lord told us to do it.  Let’s imagine that we have to practice these skills in order to understand what Grace and faith really are. I think that if all of us live the way Jesus did, following His instructions, satan is going to be a whole lot busier than he is when we treat these scriptures as optional extras. We belong to the majority. Jesus and me are a majority. So why don’t we live like we are the majority? Um … we like our own way too much? 

Like I said, this blog is not cheery or comforting unless you have dealt with, or are dealing with your old life minute by minute, day by day. If that is the case then right about now, you are nodding your head at what you are reading! The problem we have created, is that we tell people they must be born again … and we omit to tell them that this new free life Christ died to give us, actually has a cost. The cost is our old life for His new life. Now, I could list all the benefits of this new life in Christ here today, but Christianity seems to be pretty good at finding the benefits all by itself. It’s the cost we get stuck on.

There is only one way to heaven. The blood of Jesus. Now, we exchange our old life for His and live for Him. Ya might want to think on that while you are earning your daily bread … which actually comes from Him! That’s tough stuff. 👋🏻

P 2150 Shame is no longer welcome in our lives.

/ DVH

Some of my very favourite people on this planet are perfectionists. Oh boy! That kind of trait will dig a hole and bury you in it!  Unfortunately, when you can’t meet your own inner standards, shame can be a constant companion. Shame damages the recipient and accomplishes nothing, spiritually speaking, because it has its roots in fear of failure. Actively absorbing perfect love will chuck all sorts of fear out of the window!

Shame also makes you disappointed and angry at others, because many other people give up their efforts to change, w-a-y too quickly, and people driven by shame often struggle with making comparisons. We are adults, and we are responsible for our own actions and choices, so we need to watch out for shame, resentment, anger, fear, pride etc. before they grow into trees with bitter roots. Meanwhile, any perfectionists I know are always pushing themselves to meet some sort of imaginary impossible target, and wondering why they feel exhausted every day of the week.

Sadly they don’t make any room for their own weaknesses and humanity, and they end up feeling disappointed with themselves, out of sorts, and wondering where their God-declared peace went! They can get cranky at this person or that system. They are the kind of people who would easily score 100% on a test and wonder why they didn’t get 110%! 😱 They are most probably fans of Superman because he can do anything! Yet the very thing that pushes them on, is also their kryptonite.  And that is  … shame. The shame that assails them with ‘not good enough.’

This trait is one of the larger blights on Christianity because in the past the church has used – and sometimes even still uses – shame, to change people’s behaviour. Transformation comes from renewing our minds, and staying in a close relationship to the Lord – not from hating yourself – that BTW is the other guy. 

Perfectionists like to accentuate perceived faults and ignore the normality of humanity’s weaknesses. These people may be tough on you – but, believe me, they are even tougher on themselves! You will never feel completely satisfied with anything when you walk with shame. It can feel like self defence when you attack others for no reason. I’ve read a little bit on this subject over the years, and I found that people who allow shame to push them around can have a form of inverted pride. That’s a big clue with dealing with this issue. You can repent of pride, inverted or not! Pride, BTW, refuses to accept reality, which is we are all sinners saved by His GRACE. The only Person who is totally right is Christ and He gave us His rightness. (Or righteousness) We live there by faith.

We can get rid of those things that mess with our mind like these things do – stuff that easily weighs us down – (please note the word easily). We do that at the foot of the cross. At the cross Jesus bore all our sins, burdens, shame, hypocrisy, spite, pride and anger … just to mention a few things! The point is to off-load them there and leave them there, then exercise your faith that what He said He did He did. And then, we REPENT – we cannot leave that bit out – so with His help and guidance, we choose to challenge and change our behaviour.

So today I have a couple of diagnostic questions. If you were to look at Jesus what would you see? Would you see SomeOne Who did everything perfectly and set a standard you cannot possibly attain … OR …

… would you see the CROSS first? Ya might want to selah on that for a couple of months or so. 🧐

The Lord’s death took care of our weaknesses and infirmities, and I believe that shame etc. is both a weakness, and an infirmity.  “Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].” Isaiah 53:4. So please don’t be ignorant when you look at the cross! Understanding what happened there will absolutely change your life. An exchange was made. Our sin for His right standing in the Father’s eyes – it would be a shame if we knew that but never lived it out. Please excuse my terrible pun!

Jesus took shame and everything else to the cross by hanging there naked, subject to everyone’s inappropriate, self-serving lies and abuse. People misunderstood His very motivation. They attributed evil things to His Godly, passionate, unselfish act. He finished the job that day, so we don’t have to carry shame for our past, or even what we did yesterday – or who we were before we met Him. Today is a brand new day and His mercies are new every single morning. We have no excuse however, for not seeking and pursuing change, because what Christ did made permanent, life-time changes freely available for all of us. We were reborn to be transformed into His likeness.

When Father God sees us now, He sees us IN Christ, covered with the Lord Jesus’ blood. Our part in this new life is to realise Jesus’ blood was costly to the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Sin, shame, weaknesses are not stagnant things, they grow like fungus and mould. So let the light and fresh wind of the Holy Spirit blow across your mind, will, and emotions, every single day!  On purpose. Let Him stop you in the middle of a sentence if that sentence is not helpful to your new life in Christ. We will stagnate spiritually if we do not pay attention to what is happening inside us. That’s where things like shame grab a foothold. 

You and I have no excuse for staying in the past, or letting it control us, and we have no excuse whatsoever for allowing the past to dominate the present. We have a Saviour Who conquered all the stuff that seeks to trip us up. We simply must watch where we put our feet and give our enemy nothing to stand on – like Jesus did!. 👋🏻

P 2146 Transformation comes through participation.

/ DVH

“Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at My saying, ‘You must be born again.’ ( John 3:3-7)

Because of what Christ did for us we are now in the process of being re-made (present tense) in His image, when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. We can either fight the difficult circumstances in our lives, or look at hard things as potential for change – including our reactions! Every single time you and I co-operate with the Spirit of God and do what He says: transformation takes place.We receive the potential to follow the Holy Spirit at the moment we are born again – we cannot be born again without HIM, plus, we cannot SEE His kingdom. 

It is the same as when we value the bible and act on it just because it says so, again – transformation takes place. The bible is the greatest revelation of Who He is and What He did that we have. In the eternal NOW, where Father God is, we are already transformed by the blood of Jesus, but from day to day we are working out our salvation with fear and trembling, by living our lives the way Christ lived His … loving others. Including the people who drive you crazy!

Any conflict we experience takes place when we indulge ourselves in our feelings, our flesh. EG: We feel bad, we feel like others were deliberately mean. We feel rejected, so we get angry …our flesh has … feelings!  Our feelings can be affected by the weather or the kind of day we had or the grouchy person we bumped into. When we give in to our flesh, instead of trusting in what the Lord said in the bible – to us as well as about us, we have limited our spiritual growth potential.

The more you and I rely upon the Holy Spirit to help us grow and accept change, the more our POV will change. We come alive in the spirit. This is how we gain spiritual eyes to see His kingdom all around us, like Gehazi did in the Old Testament. (2 Kings 5:20-27) It is incredibly unfortunate that many human beings want to see the results before they have actively invested in the process. We die in that process.

The Lord did not save us for us to continue behaving the same old way we always have. Yes, we can always repent. But I’ve learnt personally, that if I find myself repenting more than I am changing, I need to know the reason why! Some good guidelines come from the way we treat other people. If we end up continually hurting the people we live with, or the people around us, then that’s a big sign that it is the time to listen and ask the Holy Spirit to help us to find out why, and deal with it. We will need to change our ways. 

However, that process does not mean we can blame the Holy Spirit for our lack of transformation, especially when we are choosing to maintain the very thing that is alienating others. Meanwhile I don’t care who did or said what – it is our responsibility to fix it! Sincere repentance and a will to change, plus paying attention to our faults more than theirs, helps our spiritual walk. Our faith gets stretched in this process.

Human beings tell themselves; “It is not my fault, I can’t change. My parent was like this and I am too.” We now have an attentive Heavenly Father, and He raised a fantastic obedient HUMAN Son! When we think we can’t we are half-way to defeat, and we are denying the power of God given to us when we were saved. In effect what we are saying to Jesus is this: “What You did on that cross was not strong enough to change ME.”

Um… good luck with that one! 🙄 You and I can change anything we want to – it is our motivation that is lacking, not His power in us to change us. Whatever the Holy Spirit says – such as repent, humble yourself, confess your fault to the other person ..THAT is our new current point of faith. That’s the place where we do whatever we don’t want to do, anyway. Purely, as Peter himself said: ‘at Your word Lord.’ And that seasoned fisherman threw in his empty net in the sea, where he was told by the Lord to do it.

It is way to easy to excuse our behaviour sometimes: “It was a bad day, bad things happened.” But when we live like that, then we are insulting the Helper. He is not an optional extra, He is the One Who knows us inside out, and He is utterly equipped to reveal to us where we are believing a LIE. Our task is to embrace the Person the Lord valued so much, that He sent Him back to help us live this life like Christ did! The Holy Spirit knows the way through stuff. The flesh has to die, and it doesn’t like it very much. 

Christians are not powerless. They are either being wilful, or they have been deceived. Either way – the problem is our end, not His! It is OK to try and fail, but it is not OK to half-heartedly try and then give-up when it gets hard. Let’s not live out our lives implying that the blood of Jesus is not enough to conquer our sinful attitudes. Maybe there is a demonic stronghold and we need help. So, go to your pastor, humble yourself and confess your fault and get their prayerful support and advice. It is not Godly to make everyone around you live in hell while you continue to indulge your flesh and feelings.

The largest problem in Christianity today is not on God’s end. It is OUR FAULT. We have tried to pray away, or even ignore the very things He gave us the power to change. It is as simple as ‘asking, and keeping ON asking.” After that we need to go and do something concrete about it.

The best thing to start with, I’ve found is to ask Him ‘to set a watch over my mouth.’ Seriously. People get in the worst difficulties with what they say. It is so much better to be silent when provoked. Sadly, I’ve learnt this truth from personal experience. Transformation comes from participation – not just knowledge. 👋🏻

P 2141 Mercy and compassion

/ DVH

You and I know all about mercy, it’s that thing we sometimes want from the Lord  when we need Him to be compassionate toward us! Even though there are times when we actually don’t want to give those things to other people. One of the hardest things about being human is that we think we have very good reasons to be hurt, angry, bitter and resentful. And, sadly, if you were to ask us, we can tell you all about what happened to us because we have a list. Hmmm. What part of that sentence sounds biblical? 😶

Today, I want to talk about two important Godly Graces. They are personal expressions of the Love of God in action. Please feel free to pray that God enlarges the boundaries of my own tent in these things because I will always be grateful for more. My own heart desperately needs this kind of stretching and exercise. When you are older and ill – you can easily get wrapped up in your own needs. However, mercy and compassion are God-qualities – they are His Grace in action for those who are undeserving, and those who are trapped. They have nothing to do with the health and well-being of the one called to minister to others. The body of Christ today needs these qualities because they are so powerful – they can heal other people’s hearts quicker than we can say: “Be healed in Jesus’ Name.” 

There are even times when the-people-who-do-not-know-Jesus-yet, can display them. We must stop thinking that God only speaks to this world through the church. Ordinary human beings who don’t know Jesus, leap into the ocean to save a stranger, sometimes they die trying, or they run into burning buildings and save other people’s lives, every single day! The bible says that the Lord once used a donkey, and a whale to save people! Our God loves human beings so much even dogs and dolphins have miraculously saved lives. That is how important these Graces are!  

Mercy and compassion aren’t just about feeling sad for someone else’s suffering, or even trying our best to help them. Those feelings can occur when we have distanced ourselves from the people we know who are suffering. Instead mercy participates in situations, not caring about its own welfare – it runs into danger or difficulty for the benefit of others – even the people who hurt us. ‘Mercy is forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.’ (Dictionary definition.) Hate kills, mercy and compassion bring life.

Compassion isn’t just about thinking: ’oh you poor thing,’  Actually that’s called pity. Compassion has feet on it! “Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering…” (Dictionary) The bible says that Jesus Himself always had compassion for the suffering people around Him and He showed them mercy. IF we allow our bad circumstances to teach us, over and over again, that we need His Grace, then we will receive something that is real to give away.

The Lord wants these qualities to flow out of our lives like an endless river of His Love  expressed through us. Meanwhile this also means that whatever He does for any of us, is done through His endless mercy and compassion. That love is not forced or coerced – it is given freely to us – and we have been reborn so we can give those things freely to other people. We are no longer of this world – we have qualities they often don’t have! Mercy and compassion voluntarily run toward suffering. These two things in the church are often represented by giving money, or time, but Christ came to us in Person. 

Sometimes I think we would rather pray at a distance than go to the bedside of someone who is desperate and suffering. We can get so obsessed about using His miraculous power to show others how spiritual we are, we forget that we have been given this power to bring healing, reconciliation, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion to others. Those things are not mutually exclusive they are inter-reliant upon each other. Helping someone else who doesn’t deserve help, as He leads us, marks US as His people. Taking other people’s pain personally is part of flowing in His love.  

Mercy and compassion are incredibly powerful – those qualities led to feeding thousands of hungry people, on two occasions. Mercy even forgave a sinful man hanging next to Jesus – while Christ Himself was suffering incredible pain! Any Christians who represent Him have eyes to see, and ears to hear – they always see or hear the one with a need. And in the Lord’s personal earthly ministry – those qualities in Him, also responded to the suffering of the friends and family around the patient, or the one tormented.

The point I want to make is that the closer we get to the Lord, the more mercy and compassion will leak out of us onto everybody around us. They are HIS qualities, not ours. Hang around the cross! We will find loads of mercy and compassion when we hang around it. Jesus loved, and died for the people who killed Him. That’s pure mercy. Forgiving people who do not know they need to be forgiven is not about obligation – it is a quality that flows from a heart filled with love – that heart treasures what it has been given so much, it can’t wait to give it away.. And it is the same with compassion. Compassion stooped down to write in the dust for a woman who had no hope of a reprieve, and Compassion walked across the city, to the mat of a man who had lain ill for 35 years. 

These qualities are part of the activities of love in action, and they are seeable. They are not just a passing sad feeling, or hoping someone feels better – they are love in action. Mercy and compassion engage in the disease ridden soil of mankind’s sin and the results of it – with the aim of bringing healing. With no strings attached. 👋🏻

P 2140 I will show you THE most excellent way….

/ DVH

I Corinthians 12:31”Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.” 1 Corinthians 13:1 “And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”

The most incredible thing about those two separate verses is that Paul previously described some of the most important gifts God ever gave the body of Christ, in them. I mean apostles, pastors, teachers, prophets etc. etc. These roles are a show case for the Love of God through His people! They are gifts from God Himself. And Paul says we should eagerly desire them. There is no shame if we want to bless God’s people with the gifts He gave us. Unfortunately sometimes we’ve elevated those gifts to rock star status, and we’ve forgotten Love is our catch-cry!

Absolutely everything hangs on the phrase ..  without love those gifts are rendered useless. And worse still … unfortunately the vehicles God designed to showcase His Love, have sometimes become instruments of control. That ought not to be so. Sometimes I think we are like children in a toy shop, we want the bright shiny brand new ‘IN’ thing, not the thing that will last, and truly bring heaven to earth. LOVE LASTS. Everything else will fade away. Only Love will remain when this world is rolled up like a scroll.

Love is described as the most excellent way, and it is not a feeling, because Paul goes on to tell us what it looks like when it is present and none of those things are feelings. Instead they are bodily actions and attitudes in our hearts. A number of years ago the Lord taught me to turn the coin over whenever I read the scriptures. That process looks like this to me – if it fails then it wasn’t love. We all might want to take a seat and think on that. 🤔 The thing I have learnt about HIS kind of love is that it knows the way through any and every problem – and everybody will get blessed … except for the devil. Sometimes when His love comes, because we don’t understand it, we don’t see it.

I just want to pause for a moment to be clear, sometimes things in our lives LOOK terrible, but afterward .. suddenly we get a glimpse of what was happening. God was working everything together for everyone’s good. The cross is an incredible example of that. Christ warned His disciples, over and over again that He was going to die, and they definitely didn’t like that teaching!  They were shattered, so much so that when they were told Jesus was alive after they had seen Him dead – they didn’t believe what they heard. Like I said, feelings aren’t the whole story. Sometimes feelings don’t even enter into our FAITH stories … 

Jesus taught many hard things, and even His own disciples didn’t understand what He said, and they didn’t like it either, until afterward… After He had left them … then they thought about everything He said. That’s because God’s Ways are not our ways. No wonder Jesus stood up at that great feast and said: “I AM THE WAY.” But since the dawn of time, human beings have kept right on looking for alternatives  … even when God Himself handed us HIS way to relate to Him, we ignored Him. It seems all we care about is our own pleasure. You know, Eve thought that fruit looked and smelled pretty good!

Over the years, we have mistakenly thought that whenever God is speaking to us – we are going to love it.  So we dismissed any of the things we didn’t like, as things that didn’t come from Him. He had to invade our space to change our minds. The bible clearly shows us the way God loves: “the Lord disciplines those Whom He loves..” (Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:4-11) EVEN HIS SON! So God’s idea of love is absolutely different from ours. Especially in this permissive, anybody-can-do-whatever-makes-them-feel-good, age! However, right now we have an opportunity to learn His ways.  Maybe we need to revise how we see Him, as more light comes to us – instead of steadfastly maintaining our man-made traditions.

It is unfortunate that the church has decided that something that is GRACE, is only meant to be an outward appearance. The Lord could care less about appearances – He wants the things we do to come from faith expressed with love. And we can’t pretend His kind of love, no matter how hard we try. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us to help us. Thank you Lord!  I practically wake up saying “Help Help!” I know I’m going to need His help at any given moment! The Lord Jesus is the embodiment of this passage, check it out for yourself. He had infinite patience with His disciples who didn’t listen to Him,  He was kind to everyone and met their needs. He never boasted about Who He is or where He came from, and He never even spoke badly about His enemies.

As a human being He felt the pain of betrayal and rejection, as well as the whip of jealousy and hatred, like we all do. At any given moment in all that suffering, Jesus could have left us to our own devices. Instead, He took ALL our records of wrong with Him, and nailed them to that cross through His own body – never to be seen again. Evil broke His dear pure heart, because Christ loved truth. He IS truth personified. And Love is an action – we can see it over and over again in the book. Talk is cheap and it fades. Love remains forever. 👋🏻

P 2137 Obedience is always the best option.

/ DVH

So today, I want to talk about obedience. Jesus taught us very carefully throughout the gospels how to line up with God’s will and live our lives His way. Obedience is not an optional extra – it is essential. WHY? Because all by ourselves, leaning on our own understanding, we will wander off and do something ridiculous, that’s why. Before we know it, then we are rendered deaf, dumb, and blind spiritually and our faith in God seems to drift further and further away. We become like sheep wandering along on the edge of a cliff … with no fence and no sense. Obedience to what the Lord says, and has already said, is the fence that keeps us away from the danger of falling off that cliff. How often did the Lord say to the Israelites? – “If you would only heed My voice.” ?(170 times FYI.)

Everything in the New Testament points to us obeying what He tells us to do, as well! Jesus taught over and over again, how to avoid the very deep pits the enemy digs for people and obedience is the key. To be honest, many people would rather worship for hours on end, than obey what the Lord has already asked them to do. (Like love our enemies?) satan means to destroy us, and obedience is the way to avoid drifting along mindlessly in our faith. We need to remember, that the other guy is a total snake – he starts in on us when we are too little to defend ourselves and tries to whittle away at our confidence that Jesus could ever love us. Eventually, when we reach maturity we think that the person we see in the mirror, with all those hopes and dreams is actually who we are. Mainly because we are used to the way we think. I exhort each one of us to learn to be flexible in all our opinions, even about who we are. There is a brand new YOU waiting for all of us! And it starts by renewing our minds, by listening and obeying.

The thing is, the way the Lord Jesus wants us to think is described in detail in the New Testament. That’s our guidance system. Not how we feel, or the odd thoughts that float about in our heads, or what other people say, or they have said, about us. God took murderers and made them part of His history with man – it seems to me that we have very little idea about the Way He thinks! We must also be aware of what we’ve been taught to think by those who were in authority over us. I am still constantly learning who HE says I am. However, there has never been a better time for us to change our minds, because each one of us has been bought with a price and sent here to fulfil His purposes. We are living in times of change and this is what the Lord is doing right now – He is changing our perception of who we are and WHO HE IS.

Now we have to learn to agree with Him. Otherwise we start thinking that maybe we are the exception to what He said and His instructions and blessings aren’t really for people like us – they are for more spiritual people, who do mighty things! When we think that our personal spiritual experiences aren’t lining up with what He said – we immediately diminish the power of God through us – and we allow our experiences to take charge instead. It is inherent in human beings to go by their own understanding and it is often greatly encouraged by others. We’ve been taught to do what feels right to us. Personally I hardly EVER feel like doing what He asks me to do – I get too scared!  It takes effort to change the status quo in our own lives, as well as the way we think. 

When I say it takes effort, I want to make sure that I am being clear about that – there are many times that denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following Him will go against everything that seems reasonable, comfortable, and popular. Humanly speaking, we all seem to like the easy road best. But our Saviour taught us about obedience through His own example, and He obeyed His Father to His death. Obedience positions us for what is happening now, and what lies ahead of us. When Jesus tells us to obey, it is for our own good not for His convenience.

Obedience takes humility. We have to admit to ourselves and others, that we can’t, or don’t even want to do whatever it is. Personally I think that that is a great starting place! The bible clearly says: “Blessed are the poor in Spirit …” When we acknowledge our spiritual poverty, we are positioning ourselves to be rich in His Grace, because “His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses.” Instead of hiding or giving up, that’s the very place the Lord chooses for us to step out in faith. Sometimes we don’t even see the results of our actions and prayers, but obedience is about us drawing close to Him, voluntarily. It is about Him being more important than what we feel or think, or our fears and hurts. Obedience is about putting Him first.

Maybe you learnt human obedience the hard way – I did. In the past I let how I felt about discipline lead me around, because I had learned to obey out of fear. Any disobedience in those days was more about me needing to be accepted and made comfortable. Even when I became a Christian, I still had a deep need for people to accept me etc. We must press on, beyond blaming imperfect human beings as the source of our anguish, because at the bottom of these things is the enemy. It is never the Lord.But sadly many people are easily influenced by worldly things, as well.

In God’s wisdom, the confirmation of what He asks us to do for Him, often comes after our obedience. I can’t count how many times hubby and I have been driving away from something the Lord asked us to do, jumping up and down in our seats, because we could not believe what He did with the little bit of effort we gave Him. He multiplies EFFORT, as well as loaves and fishes!! This is my last thought, if we are willing to obey Him even before He speaks, we will attract His voice. Why would the Lord speak to someone who is going to ignore Him? We might want to think on that. 👋🏻