Dawn

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

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 2857 Fads, and fancies.

/ DVH

Some clever person has decided, for whatever reason … pick one … WHO knows? … that if the Lord wakes you up at 3.00am, He wants to talk to you. O-k-ay. Maybe the Lord wakes them up at 3.00am to talk to them – I can’t speak to their experience, nor yours for that matter. But trust me … when I wake up at 3.00am I am not thrilled. All I wanna do is go back to sleep! I love to talk to Jesus, but not-quite-so-much at 3.00am. 3.00am means I’ve probably had just enough sleep to stay awake until I have to get out of bed. When I wake up at that hour, I quite often can’t go back to sleep again.

Meanwhile, imagine what an idea like that does to a young working mother, or a mum who has her hands full? Maybe she just got her baby/toddler back to sleep? Many a night I’ve sat in a rocking chair, soothing a cranky child, rocking away, praying for people. That’s why I can see these women at 3.00am, with toothpicks holding their bloodshot, sleep-deprived eyes open, saying … “Who the what now?? This kid is going to wake up again in a few hours… Go away … tell your nice theory to someone who gets plenty of sleep!” Sometimes human beings say the dumbest most thoughtless things. Never let anyone but Jesus write on your relationship with Him. You are you, and those other people who do things differently are not-you.

Meanwhile at 3.00am I have noticed that every single idea that pops into my sleep-addled brain is fantastic! I immediately know how to change my life, or save the world. I think I have a reason for that phenomenon – I am sleep deprived! Sleep deprivation does weird things to the brain. We all think we are a genius at that hour. Actually I woke up at 3.00am this morning and I wrote this blog. Yes, I talked to the Lord, and prayed for everyone I could think of, and I ended up even more awake trying to solve problems that weren’t mine in the first place! 

That’s when I remembered Samuel was once awake in the middle of the night because the Lord wanted to talk to him. He was a kid at the time and he woke up confused too – he didn’t know it was God talking to him. (See 1 Samuel 3.)  Eli had to straighten him out. You know, that nice man didn’t even ask the wide-awake kid to go and fetch him a glass of water … you always need one when you wake up early … he just gave the boy wise advice, and then he rolled over and went back to sleep. Smart guy Eli, grossly underestimated in the realm of wisdom. 

Sometimes, Christians can have FADS. In my lifetime I have seen lots of them, they come, they go, because eventually somebody throws more light on this theory or that revelation. The bible says: ”I will arise right early, I will awaken the dawn…” Psalm 57:8. But I’m left wondering if that is the same thing as making yourself wake up at 3.00am! If the Lord wants you, He will call you. It is my hope that this fad is short-lived. And yes, I know that we all need a quiet time with Him, but that’s for you and Him to work out. Just talk to Him. He’s always there.

It’s like fasting: the bible says that the Lord chooses the fast we are to participate in. (Isaiah 58:6-11.) I can still remember when fasting was a fad, people fasted to make God do things. Fasting is a supernatural event, we are led into it by the Holy Spirit – it is not a dietary or problem solving aid! Our Father loves us so very much, and we don’t have to make Him do anything. Sometimes I think people fast because they don’t like NO!

Just recently a doctor discovered that my bones are showing the effects of age, which doesn’t surprise me because I have had them for a while. He had three wonderful remedies to cure this problem, and they all had ghastly side-effects. The first one caused oesophageal spasms, the second gave flu-like symptoms because it is used in chemo-therapy and the third one causes necrosis of your jaw bone. Strangely …I said no thank-you to His interesting options. He was a bit miffed, BUT … not every suggestion or revelation  you hear about or receive, no matter how insightful, is actually helpful to your life.

Now, if the Lord happens to wake you at 3.00am to pray … DO IT. Please!! Some saints gladly give up their sleep time to intercede for the rest of this planet – they pray for His kingdom to come, and I personally praise the Lord for their diligence. But please do not join in this jamboree just because someone said it and it sounds like a deeply spiritual thing to do. Something that just might get you what or where you want to be.. Use your faith to believe that He loves you and loves to talk to you …at any time, instead. 

I know, there are people who are in desperate situations and they need the Lord and His input — but we must remember that He actually wants to talk to us. He is not a sadist thinking up ways for us to torment ourselves just so we can hear from Him! He does not require us to jump through hoops to impress Him. We need to use our faith, not performance. Let’s not blithely subscribe to every fad and fancy that floats on by. 

BTW the book also says this: “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for He grants sleep to those He loves.”Psalm 127:2. Amen. Bye. 👋

P 2595 Hubby found this ace place …

/ DVH

We are currently in Uralla, NSW, a tiny little town just past Armidale. We’re out in the real bush, yet we couldn’t be more comfortable – no hip-holes in the ground here! Hubby found this cottage on the net and it is really special. The lady who runs it has thought of everything … well, almost everything … some things are out of her control! The net coverage here is a nightmare. It’s kind of ironic how we found this cottage on the net, yet we can’t get on the net for toffee!

Hubby has been walking about inside the cottage trying to find a spot where the net works, so we can put today’s blog onto WordPress. We’re not brilliant at this tech stuff – we kind of get by, but we don’t know any clever little tricks. Meanwhile,Telstra seems to have fallen out of the stratosphere — or is that the information highway? Hah! Maybe they fell in a ditch!  I think somewhere out in the immediate bush around us, there is a cleverly disguised hide that houses a little man who is peddling like mad, trying to get the net to go faster. We sure are spoilt in the city. I know I complain if the net drops out at our house – I am pretty sure that country people are amazed if it drops BY. 

Right now I’m sitting in a very comfortable chair, and outside of the window that is directly in front of me, there has been a parade of birds of all shapes and sizes. Corellas, rosellas, wrens and finches, magpies … whatever!  There are Eastern rosellas and Western rosellas. Boy are the Western ones lost!! They are apparently only found in the south west corner of Western Australia!!  I looked them up – we have proof, he took pictures!! The bird above is an Eastern Rosella BTW, the Western ones are shy. The owner here has cleverly put out food so all the birds around come at sunset and dawn to eat. What a treat that is!

We are mad twitchers. No, I am not talking about us badly lacking magnesium! We simply love birds – especially the little ones. Watching and photographing them is a favourite past time. Hubby has taken over 200 photos here, so far.  Personally, I think photography is an art. My mother liked to take pictures of people, years ago. However, it was a certainty that she would cut everyone’s heads off. That made for fun family photos!  Everybody would take hours trying to figure out who was who? We all look different HEADLESS! She once took a picture of someone very famous playing tennis. She showed me the photo so proudly – hilariously the only thing you could see was an arm and a hand with a tennis racquet in it! 

To keep you up with what we have distributed etc. so far, we’ve given away 169 things in 2 days, and 60 of them were bibles. One third of the great wall of blankets has been delivered, as well as many other things to the women’s refuge in Armidale. It is such a relief to have some of the blankets gone! Hubby packed them all carefully on the roof of the car in our flexible cargo bag, and we’ve prayed away the rain that kept threatening us, on and off since Brisbane. We didn’t want to be a WET BLANKET! Well, I thought it was funny anyway.🤪

When we arrived here, we realised we had a God-appointment with the owner of this cottage. So we gave her the things the Lord told us to give her and she was teary, and happy, and excited and overwhelmed — all at the same time. In the end she quite delightfully asked us: “Are you guys prophet-people or something?” We laughed and pointed at the roof – the Lord is great to hang around with as you do this stuff – He has the skinny on everyone! No! it’s NOT cheating.

Our hostess was extremely excited about everything, but her eyes really lit up at the Darryl Lea chocolates. There are no Darryl Lea Chocolate shops out here! Then Hubby gave her one of his famous paintings and she cracked up. Those paintings ought to come with free tissues… …  I must remember to write that down.

I am still not sleeping well, so, of course, my dear husband isn’t sleeping well either, although the poor man tries!! Hmmm. You really find the fruit of the Spirit at 3.00 am when your wife can’t sleep.😱 Yesterday, hubby spent ages re-packing the car – I was amazed he could fit everything in the first time. Yet he dragged it all out again and reconfigured the boot. I assume he does that to prove the first time wasn’t a fluke! At the same time I was praying for him, inside the house — I think that counts as helping, don’t you??

So far we’ve met all kinds of people, and some of them I was really glad to wave goodbye to, and others I wanted to take home with us. You can always tell when the Lord touches someone, it is like the outside veneer slides off and the inside gooey centre shows. It is such a privilege. These moments are the reason we do this, the deeply spiritual things  that happen are mind-blowing. People share their deepest needs and sorrows.

 Well, gotta go, gotta do, gotta be … somewhere else. Catch you next time. Bye 👋

ps He just discovered the net works perfectly …on the toilet!Sigh.