Deer

P 3495 Don’t let the mountain be bigger than the Lord.  

/ DVH

In a lifetime, most of us face a great many spiritual mountains, and also some valleys. Some of these things seem easy, we just follow Jesus up the mountain of difficulties we face, and then stand at the top, arms uplifted, and grateful that we managed to survive that one. 

But then suddenly we might find ourselves facing a mountain that seems insurmountable. We know that He has led us here but we don’t understand why? For some reason, we can’t seem to find Jesus on this mountain. First of all, this situation is not about sin, it is about growing our faith. However, our question could easily be… are we on the wrong mountain? Are we facing something that was not ours in the first place? Is it possible we somehow staggered blindly around, with the sound of the last victory in our ears, plus the sweet smell of success yesterday still present … and we got lost? No!

Here is a scripture to think about carefully. “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He MAKES my feet like the feet of a deer, He ENABLES me to tread on the heights.” Habakkuk 3:19. Without Jesus we can’t and probably won’t, try to face things. He knows that better than we do. So the first thing we must do is to remind ourselves that He will never leave us or forsake us, and then we have to move. It’s time to take a tentative faith step forward. Be like that deer, who just leaps about knowing it can manage the terrain. This is how faith grows. First we hear the word of God, and then we act on it. So we take our wobbly little foot and plant it in front of the other one. This is how we move up bigger mountains — prayerfully and carefully, one step at a time.

New things are scary. It is so easy to rejoice in everything He has already done, for us and in us, but then we hit that wall of … I’ve never seen this before … then we can feel flattened and frightened about what might come next. Why would the Lord send us here? … To strengthen our faith. If we already know what to do, then we don’t need to lean on Him, and we will lean on what we already know. Faith is a journey that requires ever increasing boldness, and a big heart that keeps going despite the circumstances. 

‘Faith that is not tested is not faith, it quickly becomes something unstable.’ Listen to Peter in 1 Peter 1:6,7. “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  

So-oo-oo-oo, this stuff has happened to prove our faith is genuine – it is not just fair-weather, waiting-on-the-answers-to-our-prayers, faith … We want genuine faith that desires God to get all the glory for the great things He has done in our lives. Here’s a big thought. Dead people don’t need applause – living ones thrive on it.

This whole issue, every time it happens, reveals to me that I am not all dead yet. If I cannot hold fast when I cannot feel Him, see Him, or even hear Him, then my faith needs further perfecting. My faith is not about what Jesus does, it is about Who He is. What He does deserves our praise, acknowledgement and worship. Who He is, reminds us He is our living God embodied in a Man, for us to praise, worship, look at, learn from, and follow. 

Sometimes our grief and inability to believe, clouds His faithfulness to get us to where He said He will take us. When you find yourself staring at something so big you can barely comprehend it, then you have entered a possibility. When we read Hebrews 11 carefully, we will see that everyone mentioned in that chapter had faith that God would carry out what He said He would do. But most of them died before that promise the Lord made them was fulfilled. Faith is not about claiming promises, it is about taking God at His Word. It is not about the strength of our ability to hold on, it is about His ability and strength to hold us! Praise God we have a book full of His life-giving Words!

Bigger mountains mean that Father God has pruned, fertilised, watered and fed us, and now He is trusting us to press forward into what comes next without visible evidence. We are ready, whether we feel like it or not. Like Hebrews says, the seeing, the evidence, comes after we use our faith, not before it. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things NOT YET SEEN.” Hebrews 11:1. Our faith in action proves God is Who He says He is, and that has become our aim – not just our answers to prayers.

If you feel lost and that mountain seems too high, remember, God is calling you to unknown places – things you have not even thought about. Now is the time to focus on the fact that He’s good! This calling we have is not about miracles – or looking clever or even knowing what comes next. It is about finding out how much we love and trust Him. We take these steps because He asked us to. “Faith learns to see beyond the moment, to the work of God unfolding within it.” (Anonymous)

Don’t let the mountain be bigger than the Lord – He knows you can take that next step. We all love to follow Jesus and He climbs mountains every single day. Bye 👋.

P 2917 A peek behind the curtain – OR – trouble is part of the process …

/ DVH

I am no longer what I would call a small person. I was, before I had 35 years worth of steroids etc. but now, not-so-much. It can be difficult for people of my size, because this world is not actually designed for bigger people. We often have to hire Barnum and Bailey tents if we want to go out and still be decently covered! Those ridiculous things are often covered in very large, bright red hibiscus flowers to make sure bigger people don’t get lost in the crowd. Ho-hum!

When we go into caravan parks to deliver bibles etc. if I go with hubby he has to get the wheelchair out, help me into it, and then drag me across the many stones that often inhabit country car parks … all that makes for a great massage, and a few bruises! We do this kind of thing a few times a day and so now I’m the designated prayer warrior in the car. This means I don’t actually meet many people.

The places we stay in are not always advantageous to the disabled either. When we travel — chairs, toilets, even beds are all too low. I can get INTO them, but then I can’t get OUT again — not unless I want to break hubby’s back, and that seems a bit extreme. So he packs a heap of extension lifts for the “I’m almost sitting on the floor furniture.” Even disabled units don’t seem to have been designed by disabled people. There are toilets where your knees almost touch the opposite wall – it can be a bit squishy.

In a home shower you may notice there is quite a nice space for one person, or even for a couple of little people. But, it is a whole other ball game to fit in a quite chubby person, plus a carer to help them, plus a shower chair … it’s a bit like trying to shower in a thimble! The taps in the shower are always in the wrong place, and someone’s back will eventually end up bumping into the hot and cold controls.😳 Bathrooms are always much too small and then there is that dratted slippery shower floor… sigh…

I don’t much like slippery floors because I am not a fan of falling down. I did that last year and it was an abysmal failure. Getting up again is a whole other tragic long-winded story, that very nearly involved a crane! Meanwhile the car we’ve hired to tour about in, is like … ten centimetres off the ground, but it does have wheels and an engine … a-n-d  — did I mention that the seats are almost on the ground?!? Yes really. Another inch, Mr Manufacturer, would have really helped! I think I could have managed if the car was a Lamborghini.. but… alas!! Anyway a low-slung car makes getting in and out quite a laugh-riot for the disabled and their knees.

The other day we needed to use a McDonald’s toilet – they are always clean and tidy. We had to wait five minutes, with me propped up against a wall, because an able-bodied person had decided it wouldn’t matter if they used the disabled toilet. Hmmm… ! Meanwhile, it looked like this toilet had suffered from an internal explosion. It seemed to have had a fit, flinging toilet paper etc. everywhere. Fortunately we managed to find some that wasn’t floor decoration. 

One town looked rather like its primary industry was producing angry and aggressive youth. And their fav hang-out was … that very same McDonalds – lucky us! We smiled, and-moved-on-very-quickly.There were about 50 young people hanging around. So I’m prayer-thinking to myself: “I’m gunna have to run, but I can’t run, so please protect us Lord. Dear God please help these kids to find jobs and end up responsible citizens!” Amen! By the way, the disabled park was light years away from the actual building. Not quite sure how that one works.

However, the place we have been staying at for a couple of days, is very scenic. I don’t remember when we have seen so many cockatoos, mobs of kangaroos, deer, ducks, and all sorts and varieties of other birds. Even though there has been a bushfire through here recently the scenery is pretty. Apparently visitors don’t enjoy burnt  Aussie bush for their surroundings on their holidays so this park is almost empty in peak season. Sad for the owners, who want to make living. It is also very, very quiet. We have little WiFi or TV service so you get to sit about in silence a lot! 

Stuff happens to us all the time — and it prompts us to live by the scripture:”I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.”  But depending on the day and how we got out of bed …we can choose to whine and whinge!  Thank you Jesus for helping us all! May God truly bless all the lovely people who are praying for us. My point is simply sometimes you will learn to suffer long. Remember – Jesus slept by the roadside and went without food… He was so tired once … He slept in a violently rocking boat!

If you think you might want to be a missionary, and let’s face it, it is not the most popular job ever — then you need to be aware that heaps of untimely, inconvenient, annoying stuff is guaranteed to get your old self rumbling away. But, bonus buy, those things will help you to learn how to rely upon Jesus! Finally, I wanted to make it clear that living for Him is always costly, no matter where you are. So, if things are hard at your house, that does not mean you are doing it wrong —trouble is often part of the process… Bye for now 👋