Demonstrating

P3376 He takes us seriously- let’s take Him seriously too!  

/ DVH

Colossians 3:1-4:“So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, ACT LIKE IT. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from His perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.

I love it when the bible gives us such clear instructions – don’t you? Do this, don’t do that … be this, don’t be that. The best response is: Let Jesus preside over every little thing! When I decided to choose what I should bother the Lord about, I ended up not being able to figure out what was important and what was not – so, in the end, I just gave everything to Him! I recommend dragging your eyes, ears and heart away from the demands, the yammering and hammering that invades everything, day after day. The enemy wants to use those things: the problems, the trials, the time wasting stuff, to exhaust us. he wants to make us too tired to give Jesus our all. 

I decided today was a good day to take a few minutes to notice and remember the things that Jesus Himself found important. Strangely enough — buying things we don’t need, focussing on the things we can’t change, even stuff like being entertained — isn’t on that list. Yet, in the middle of what we might call “ministry” the Lord Jesus still managed to enjoy other people’s company, plus He was not against people enjoying themselves either. I think He loves to be around US. 

From around the time when I was born, mankind seems to have gone rapidly downhill … I do hope that wasn’t me! 😂 Nah! I’m not that important or powerful – I can barely put my shoes on! Sadly, mankind seems to be treasuring transitory things, or situations, far above other people. Let’s face it, even money – no matter how much you have or don’t have – comes and goes very quickly! And other things like applause or acclaim can change on a whim. Almighty God put Himself into an obscure little Jewish family, in a tiny little town. He was  known by His parent’s names, and where He currently lived or where He was born. 

The bible tells us the Lord knew He had been sent here by His Heavenly Father — but that fact was never used to create notoriety or generate success. Especially the kind of stuff this world thinks of as success. Jesus always had the ability to do the things we call miraculous, but He valued His Father’s opinion and timing far above His own. For the last 40 months of His life, our Lord was far too busy demonstrating God’s love to others, to be at all concerned about what this world thought of Him. He knew what was really in mankind’s heart was unstable.

God’s book gives us the very things we need to hold onto and take seriously. However, this world will continue to bombard us with all kinds of motivation to be distracted from the very reason we are all still here. To serve Him!! Philippians 4:8 tells us: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

To live like that we may have to drag ourselves away from the 91st episode of some soapie, series, or some fabulous sport or other. Meanwhile – the church is chasing rainbows and trying to remain politically correct – and too many human beings are falling off the edge into hell! Jesus wasn’t rich. The only things Jesus left behind Him were the clothes He was wearing. And people still managed to fight over His tunic! Here’s something to chew on from Luke 12:27-31:

“Consider the lilies and wildflowers, how they grow [in the open field]. They neither labor nor spin [wool to make clothing]; yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory and splendour dressed himself like one of these.  But if this is how God clothes the grass which is in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You of little faith! So as for you, do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink; nor have an anxious and unsettled mind. For all the [pagan] nations of the world greedily seek these things; and your [heavenly] Father [already] knows that you need them. But [strive for and actively] seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”

Yeah, I know! Bring that up! However, it’s great advice, and it can be necessary for calming an unsettled, distracted mind, as the world around us descends into ME first. It is time to ask yourself: “What am I chasing after today?” Sometimes we fume and fret, and waste our God-given time running after the very things we cannot change. The bible instructs us about how we can fight this trend, we need to chase His kingdom … Let’s think about how incredibly expensive our lives are to God and spend them chasing Him instead. Let’s take His Way of life seriously. Bye.👋

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 2936 DEMONSTRATING.

/ DVH

“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. Sometimes one word changes everything! God demonstrated His love toward us. That freely-given love was His choice, based on what Jesus willingly did for me. It is extremely clear that His love was not about my performance. Almighty God loves all of us and He didn’t just talk about it – He visibly showed us.

Now, let me try to qualify what I think that sin is, in His eyes. I think sin is anything that is outside of His own pure nature. The bible itself helps us to see sin and the cross as the most glorious demonstration of love this world has ever seen or known. So is learning about Who He is, from the bible — what He did, and who He loves, what sin means to Him – all that helps us with our own lives.

In the past the church has fixated on what they see as big sins, and sort of swept the other supposedly ‘little stuff’ under the carpet as normal human stuff.  However I think that sin is anything that hasn’t been born out of love … and I’m not talking about feelings. God Himself is the only One Who can define love, because He is pure loving goodness, through and through —it is His nature. He didn’t just talk about loving us, He gave us a personal demonstration of that love. We get into difficulties when we try to define Love or Who He is through our own filters, because His love is not at all like ours, His love is a choice. 

This means we cannot use our own perception of love, or anything gleaned from our own families — their rules, habits, background, even our lives etc.— as a measuring stick. That standard is not the one God reveals to us in the bible, and it is His standard we need to use. Jesus is His standard – and because of His obedience, Christ demonstrated what God’s love looks like to us. God’s love LOOKS LIKE SACRIFICE.

Our biggest daily challenge is to live a life of love and demonstrably forgive those who trespass against us… not in theory but in practice. It is a choice we make and live by, in our own lives every single day. I don’t imagine Jesus felt like forgiving the people who chose to cause Him all that torture and eventually killed Him. When we choose to love others we are deliberately demonstrating our love for Him and others, because we die to self in the process.

This is how I do that: I ask Him HOW to love the person who has repeatedly, and endlessly done things to hurt me. I ask Him, because the real truth is this, I don’t know how, and by my own efforts I will end up even madder at that individual. By the way, never ever forget that there is an enemy of love loose. It is a good thing to recognise that the other person isn’t our enemy even though they may be inadvertently serving him. A change in my attitudes all came down to my willingness to die for them.

You know, if someone continually hurts me it is all too easy to grow suspicious, and start reading their behaviour from an internal observation list. I’ve found if that list gets long enough in my head, I won’t bother consulting it anymore, I just add the person’s new transgressions to the pile of old ones! My list-taking can be influenced by my personal experiences in this life, and if that other person sounds like, or acts like someone else who has hurt me – they will probably face a bad reaction. Then love goes right out the window – my love-of-God demonstration is short-circuited.

My advice is to chuck any lists we have out! Getting rid of our lists is part of dying to self. They don’t help anyone repent or repair anything, instead they are a tool of the enemy to keep us enslaved to our unresolved feelings!  By the way, going over and over someone else’s sin makes loving others harder. I had a situation just like this, with a person particularly close to me. They just kept piling up things they were doing that hurt me. Every time I saw them I walked into what I perceived as abuse. 

But I was the one who was actually held captive! The other person in this little drama was just bubbling along being themselves. One day the Holy Spirit said to me: “How long are you willing to be held captive to your shared past with them? Forgive them and love them the way I told you to. Start demonstrating My love toward them by choice.” So I did what He said as an act of my will. And boy did it hurt -it was like giving up an old trusted friend who protected me. EW! Any-way, I gave up retribution and vindication, and inward disdain, and forgave them, once and for all. I did it for HIS sake.

Quite quickly I became surprised to see that there was no longer the same power behind what they said or did. that stuff did not have the same impact on me anymore, because I had put our shared past under the blood. Then I prayed and discerned what they saw as love and started doing that for them, using my FAITH.

Even though my emotions and thoughts screamed at me that I was making a mistake.

“Owe nothing to anyone except to love and seek the best for one another; for he who [unselfishly] loves his neighbour has fulfilled the [essence of the] law [relating to one’s fellowman].” Romans 13:8. Love needs to be demonstrated.

Bye. 👋