Disciples

P 2617 Thinkaboudit. Prayaboudit. DOsomethingaboudit!!

/ DVH

“But how can people call on Him for help if they’ve not yet believed? And how can they believe in One they’ve not yet heard of? And how can they hear the message of life if there is no one there to proclaim it?”Romans 10:14 TPT.  Quote: “There would be no sense in saying you trusted Jesus if you would not take His advice.” (C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity.) 

Jesus Christ told us, as His disciples, to “go.” It was not a suggestion, or a happy thought, it was a direct order! The Lord wants us to go … individually, personally, and corporately. Whatever He wants us to do when we get there, is between Him and you. However, we all need to obey what He said when He said GO! And here’s a very good reason why we should go, that many people aren’t aware of…

… the plain fact is, most Christian people are stuck in a rut when it comes to their faith. They battle doubts and fear all the time, but especially when life gets difficult. And life, nowadays, gets difficult OFTEN! Jesus Himself is speaking here: “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]” John 16:33. He said, expect trouble!

Here is a fantastic secret I have discovered about go-ing. Go-ing means we will have to use our faith. Well, that seems like a duh! thing right? But it’s true. In order to obey Him, we will have to take what the Lord Jesus said seriously, and move out of our comfort zone and into the battle zone. The thing is, if we look carefully, we are already living in a battlefield every single day, anyway! However, daily using our faith makes it stronger!

satan doesn’t just want you and I to be inactive – he wants us dead. So, every day we fight for our faith as well as our lives. But, at the same time, we can also use up what little faith energy we may have developed, by striving to live in a neutral place — seeing only occasional evidence of our faith’s reality. Most of us live pedantic, sadly disappointing lives, and we never experience the joy of being in God’s right place, at His right time. Trust me there is NOTHING like that in this world. Instead of doing the same old, same old, every day – spend your life for His sake!

There is no surer way to kill off faith than to live this life only dusting off and dragging out our faith Sunday by Sunday. Or using it as an emergency cord, when things get bad. We either believe what the Lord said, or we don’t. Practically everyone I know believes what Jesus Christ said is the truth … the whole truth and nothing but the truth! But most people do nothing about what they believe. How tragic! You and I have God-given appointments to fulfil.

We all have a destiny. I discovered that there were actually things that only I could do, that didn’t involve setting up a tent somewhere and hiring an evangelist! I read in His book that I am destined to usher in His kingdom everywhere I go! So I decided to believe what I read. Now, I live this life aware of the kingdom of God in me and around me. You and I carry His life within us. All we need to do is to let His life out every day – instead of saving it for a chat around the urn, slurping on a cuppa tea at church!  We are all full of faith round that urn! There are people all around us daily who have no idea that Jesus Christ is alive – today.

Yes, it IS dark out there, but remember Christ Himself said: “The light shines more brightly in the dark.” At the same time, please, don’t let fear stop you. Fear is the antithesis of faith. Fear will make you self-involved. I’ve found out personally, that even tiny little things matter – they sure make a difference to people who have heard nothing. The truth is, people will be drawn to His light in us.  Kindness and love toward others can make a huge difference. We don’t have to give them the whole gospel in one sitting, sometimes all we need to do, is to say: ”Jesus loves you so much. He cares what is happening in your life.” Then they cry, and you get to explain why they are crying – it’s a piece of cake!

The bible says: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you …”  Along the way in my life, I’ve discovered that faith gets ‘added to’ when you use it.  Don’t let anything stop you from entering into any God-given opportunities He will send your way. Look for them, they will build your faith. Tell Him, daily: ‘Lord, I am available at any time, any place of Your choosing.”  Thinkaboudit. Prayaboudit. DOsomethingaboudit!! Bye 👋

P 2608 My final hidden gem.

/ DVH

This precious gem is about being honest with myself, as well as others. It is a gem that is hidden. Other people may notice inconsistencies, but what goes on in our own heads is only made clear when we speak or act … or both! Sadly, personal dishonesty is a big snare. It happens when we colour our own perceptions in with pretty colours, to hide any spiritual lack or laziness we have chosen to tolerate. Jesus is “…the Way, the Truth and the Life …”John 14:6. We cannot possibly follow Him and not be truthful with ourselves! John also said: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”3 John 1:4.

Let me explain. We can convince ourselves that in order to serve God we need to be a/ ready;  b/ equipped;  c/ doing really well spiritually. Rhubarb! It is not good to allow that kind of escapist thinking in our lives. Yes, I know that’s a bit harsh, but just like a child needs correction, or it will make up its own rules …  adults too use evasion far more than we realise – simply to escape from the very reason we were saved.

Now let’s look at a/ being ready. Have you read in the book that Jesus is coming back? To be accurate, actually, He’s ‘coming READY or NOT!’ Ya might wanna Selah that for a second or two. And here’s another nifty thought! The people who said they couldn’t come to the beyond-our-dreams wedding feast – missed out. (Matthew 22.) Just saying … 😶 …You know God doesn’t want you and I to be the whole ballgame, we are part of a team. But the people who don’t join in with the team usually end up on the bench.

On to – b/ equipped. Jesus sent His totally untrained, undisciplined, haven’t-got-a-clue disciples out to do what He did. (See Mark 6:7-13; Luke 9:1-2.) Um … now let’s see what He told them to do … He sent them to raise the dead, heal the sick, cast out demons and announce the kingdom of God has come! Without any training or anything!! Not even a conference! And guess what? They didn’t have the bible either! They simply took Jesus’ word and His Name and went out and did it. Training is only ever useful if we apply it.

And c/ our lack of spirituality. Christians give up their desire to truly embrace the Christian Way of life with the feeblest of excuses. We lack honesty … which is kind of criminal if you think about the fact that we pay incredible attention to appearances! We look at others as being more spiritual than we are, or more qualified, and use that as an excuse. “Oh, those people see angels. They prophesy. They are missionaries. That group over there pray in tongues.” Instead of finding excuses, why can’t we find reasons to try?! The short answer is – we don’t want to, it’s too hard, it is inconvenient. But the Jesus Christ that lives in those other more spiritual people, lives in you and me, and HE has never been, nor will He ever be … inadequate! There are things that we will never experience unless we’re prepared to take a risk. 

EG: there is no need to walk on water if you have a ferry standing by. We will need to walk on water when there is no other way to get to the other side! At the same time there is no need to trust God for food when the supermarket is down the road, and you have money in your pocket. We simply must understand that our lack of total honesty with ourselves is crippling our faith. We would be far better off to say: “I don’t want to,” than we are to say: “I can’t.”  “I don’t want to,” can be repented from! Let’s get that rebellion out in the open where it can be dealt with.

Other people tried evasion and it failed because God didn’t take any notice of their feeble excuses. (Moses, Gideon, Jonah, Jeremiah …I could go on!!) We have plenty of examples in the Bible of people who had huge excuses as to why they couldn’t possibly do what the Lord asked them to do and, you know what? He said … “Do it anyway.” 

Human beings have been making excuses since the garden of Eden! Every time the Lord Himself helped people do what they were asked to do, but there were also times when He said “Use your faith!”  And once or twice He said: “Where did your faith GO?” Why do we leave so much work to a half a dozen people, when what needs to be done needs an army?! An army functions because every man does the job he was given. And experience thrives when we simply turn up and get going! Experience is another way to know Almighty God for yourself.

Christianity was never designed by God to be a part time job. Jesus, Who is our Perfect Example, did not do the work God gave Him to do part-time. Jesus Christ was always ALL IN. He was always on. Honesty with ourselves and others is a hidden gem, it is a key to opening new doors in our faith that have remained firmly shut.  Bye. 👋

P 2607 A vastly underrated Gem.

/ DVH

In the middle of a very ordinary rock of circumstances  – I found a rare gem, biblically speaking. There are books and books on the subject of faith, so what I am writing here today is just a tiny speck on the windshield of our lives …  It’s my own personal experience…. so far. My faith has often been badly dented by the fact that I have been chronically sick in one way or another for most of my Christian life … over 50 years. An overall observation of my experience of healing faith is this … my faith in healing seems to work much better when I point it at YOU – rather than at me!

Over the years, I’ve stood in more queues for healing prayer than I can count. I’ve been prayed over by mighty men and women of God, and went home, full of hope — only to find nothing had changed. Of course, after that prayer, I felt more joyful, more in love with the Lord. Only to have those feelings fade because I still had the physical problems. Meanwhile, over the years I also learnt that my body doesn’t react well to any sort of self-bullying. It ‘explains’ to me  – via pain and physical illness – that pushing hard on those supposed ‘faith’ edges is a bad idea.

In Luke 18:1. 8b Jesus said: “Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up …” “…However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”  I take what the bible says seriously and this means that I have not stopped asking for healing, or letting people pray for me whenever the Lord asks them to do it. I have, however, stopped making healing my main focus because otherwise discouragement grips me by the throat, and I don’t want to get out of bed!  Good health is definitely a desired part of my life — but I have learnt it is not all of it.

The Lord has shown me that running about … or even waiting as patiently as I could to be healed … can become a snare. I became so focussed on seeing that kind of prayer answered I couldn’t see anything else. My thought process was this – I can serve Him better if I am healed. Unfortunately what happened was, I stopped serving Him at all, I became so intent on being healed, or going after it. During that time that I lived in a kind of limbo of chronic illness, and overall, it added to my daily frustration. In the end I made a quality decision that if I am to serve Him, then serving HIM needs to be my focus, not my comfort or discomfort.

Just to be clear, I have experienced healing along the way. My dear hubby prayed for a gaping wound on my side and the wound disappeared within hours. I’ve also seen pain disappear. I want to say that I am not writing this to discourage anyone from fighting for their own healing. But I do want to encourage others that they should not let a lack of healing stop them, or even be a deterrent to their personal responsive obedience to God’s leading in their lives! Going after healing can be a distraction to our primary purpose – which is to love and glorify Him in what we say, do and think. And, sadly, a lack of healing can end up being a logical excuse, plus a means of elimination from every day simple obedience to what He asks us to do.  

The bible talks about having faith. I want to look at a couple of verses that have helped me with my focus.“It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that He exists and that He cares enough to respond to those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6. As you can see … this life is not about healing, or being healed, it is all about FAITH. My problem was that I wanted to be in charge of His response! 

The result of endlessly praying for healing, without maintaining my spiritual focus on loving Him and other people, was eventually quite detrimental to my day by day walk with Him. I started to believe that the Lord didn’t love me the way He loves other people ….who have been healed!  It seems I saw healing as a badge of honour and approval, rather than the goodness of God doing what it does best – blessing people! I often felt less of a ‘Christian’ because I wasn’t able to meet my own imposed standard – which was … only well people can serve God! 

The Lord fixed all this fuss and bother with one verse from the bible, which lit up like a Christmas tree. He took me off the side track I was stuck on and put me firmly back in the fight. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul quotes Jesus who said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”And that’s when I began to see the blessing I had been missing in my preoccupation with injury and illness, and my overly-focussed desire to be healed! I realised I am weak – and that means I definitely qualify to ask for His power to help me. That thought changed my life. 

Now I had a golden God-given opportunity to experience His power in a way I never had before. The next thing, I learnt was to let my weakness teach me about humility and dependence on Him. And then I found a rare gem in an unexpected place. His strength totally beats mine at every opportunity! I have seen some of the greatest miracles of my life, so far, after I chose to serve the Lord anyway – healed or not. Bye. 👋

P 2594 Guess Who’s coming to dinner?

/ DVH

“God, who gets invited to dinner at Your place? How do we get on Your guest list?“Walk straight;  act right, tell the truth. “Don’t hurt your friend, don’t blame your neighbour; despise the despicable. “Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living, never take a bribe. “You’ll never get blacklisted if you live like this.” Psalm 15.(MSG) The psalmist is longing to be so close to Almighty God he wants to have dinner at His place. He wants to be invited. 

Let’s move on — in the Old Testament in Exodus, there is a lovely story about 70 elders who were literally invited to dinner at Almighty God’s place. “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise His hand against these leaders of the Israelites;they saw God, and they ate and drank.”Exodus 24:9-11. (NIV) Imagine that! They saw God and they ate and drank in His Presence. They got onto His guest list and were invited.

OK. One more … “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”  For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. (NIV) Here we are again. God, in the Person of Jesus Christ was sitting down again with twelve carefully chosen men eating and drinking, and remembering that first Passover together. Christ Jesus gave this invitation.

The Lord brought these three separate moments from very different places in the Word into my mind when I was preparing this blog. For the first time I saw how these three different stories reveal the our Heavenly Father’s heart toward mankind. The psalmist wants to go to dinner with Almighty God, but he knows that there is a series of very strong criteria to qualify him to be a guest. We actually don’t know if he ever qualified or not!

However, in the second story, Moses and the elders go up and not only see God – but they go there at His invitation. They were invited to His house and they ate and drank with Him. This is a covenant meal. I personally think that God’s grace asked them up into that heavenly place. At that time the Old Covenant had been given to Moses, and that day it was sealed with blood of hundreds of animals. These men all ate and drank in His Presence.

Lastly we have God Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ, providing food for here and now and this time the participants do not go up to heaven … this time heaven came down to them!! Because of that final and fulfilling covenant meal instigated by Christ, we can eat with God at any time, in any place – and we no longer have to qualify for it by our behaviour. SomeBody Else paid for us to eat and drink with God Himself and NOW, Jesus Christ is our meal. We are now on God’s guest list, like … forever.

We no longer have to be ashamed anymore of not qualifying, because now we know for sure that none of us ever qualified!  But then the Lord Jesus came and fulfilled all of the criteria the psalmist mentioned AND MORE. Much much more. God’s intention from the beginning of the bible has always been to be with us, to have fellowship with us, to share a meal with us. So the next time you take communion together with other members of the Body of Christ, let’s remember the privilege we have been given. God Himself sits down with us as we remember what we have been given.

Almighty God and man sat down together and drank, and ate a meal at the bottom of Mount Sinai, and then Christ and twelve disciples sat down together in an upper room on Mount Zion and they shared a meal that is still being shared today. We call this meal they all shared communion .. God and man communing together.  🙌  Guess Who came to dinner? 🙌

P 2593 Duty.

/ DVH

Luke 17:7-10: “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?  So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

Now there’s a scripture everyone wants to carefully embroider and put into a prominent place in a nice picture frame in the lounge! Hmmm. Not-so-much?? Gee, I wonder why not!? Maybe this scripture throws a spanner in the idea that we can have whatever we want, whenever we want it —- we just need to ask for it. Sometimes I think our attitudes to Who He is and who WE are, are completely out of whack. The biggest smack upside our heads is the fact that Luke is quoting Jesus Himself. We serve Him, He does not serve us! And the Lord Himself calls that our duty. 

Now there’s a word that has kind of fallen out of favour eh? Right along with the idea that we are His servants. Here’s another nice chewy verse or two to mull over. Matthew 20:26-28 “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

FYI … that thought is also in Mark and John — just in case you or I were worried it has been taken out of context, or it is just a one off! It is time we accepted that God’s truth is w-a-y bigger than ours, and it is a bit more final too! After all, He’s God … a-n-d  we’re not! And that’s the end of that story. 

I love the way Jesus opened up the Father’s Love for our understanding, as well as toward us — however, He did not die to open up avenues for presumption. Jesus Christ did not come here to be the kind of Santa Claus/Genie we have sometimes made Him out to be. The way He interacted with His disciples made it perfectly clear how much He loved them, as well as WHO was in charge … and it wasn’t them! He gave clear directives and expected them to be carried out. That is a good thing to remember.

We can easily get trapped in our own human rationale and excuse ourselves, when the Lord plainly told us what we are here for, and what we need to do. He knows we are basically just glorified dust. However personally, I’d much rather try to do my duty, with the help of His grace, than sit about making well-crafted excuses that are really based on rebellion. PS, I often don’t want to do heaps of stuff either, but He rarely asks me for my opinion! Plus you die daily quicker when you do stuff you don’t want to do … and you do it  – just because He said so.

Here’s another bible story that could put a spoke in our bicycle wheel, and trip us all up. Matthew 21:28-31“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered.” 

Yes, it is Jesus talking! Yes, He is telling us that our grumpy attitude does not matter – what matters is whether we obey or not! Check out the bible, God loves cheerful givers but He looks for obedience whether we are grumpy and non-compliant or not. The really, really good news is that we don’t have to do any of the things He told us to do ALONE. Oh! Praise God, we have a Helper! 🙌 What would we do without Him? Whenever my get-up-and-go, gets-up-and-goes … without me … He is the One Who empowers me to keep moving on.

Here’s a quick update: above is a picture of our car. We are off to Armidale to pass on some of the 66 blankets etc. Actually I have no idea how the Lord fitted any of that stuff in our car! Kudos to my hubby, he’s a hero, with the Lord’s help he did it – praying all the way. Now our car looks like it has been eating too many Tacos!  Bye. 🚙 …

P 2575 Part of witnessing is giving away the map!

/ DVH

Christianity can seem a bit obscure to the rest of the world from the outside. WE know that it is not a secret IN-club with special passwords, music, codes, actions, and rules! But the-people-who-don’t-know-Jesus think what we believe is simply another opinion in the many ideas and religious practices that exist today. They do not understand what makes our belief system different from any other.  It is like a foreign language to them.

Meeting Jesus Christ can sound more like a mental exercise, rather than a spiritual encounter. I think that what we believe is often full of old-fashioned words that make no sense to other people. Think about it, what does ‘saved’ mean? ?? Talking to others or handing them a tract is good, but it is not enough.  It is up to us to take the time to digest His word by acting on it. Then the power of the Holy Spirit can speak through us, for Himself. Hubby and I have discovered something wonderful – they know HIS voice when they hear it.  We don’t need more knowledge WE need HIM to speak to them for Himself – through US.

In some countries in this world a mother chews up food for an infant and gives them the food she has chewed up — because infants can’t eat lumpy hard stuff, they can choke on it.  This is quite literally what Christians do when we witness. We hand others our own pre-digested spiritual food. (Chewing is part of digestion!!)  We tell them what we’ve seen, and what we personally know about Jesus. What we believe is not about knowledge, anybody can spout knowledge – it’s about our own personal relationship with Him. That’s what we share with others. That’s what a witness does, they tell what they’ve seen, from their own POV.

If someone asked me how to get to the city from my house I would say: “You can take a train, or a bus, or drive the car, or even walk.” You and I are the people who hand out the proverbial spiritual timetables and maps!  We are not the journey … JESUS is the journey. The bible is their Jesus’ map. Give them a map and talk about Jesus, as YOU know Him. Tell them what you’ve learnt from praying, reading, researching and digesting the map info. Brevity is helpful. This is their moment. Encourage them to ask questions. Say “I dunno” if you don’t know, and don’t be embarrassed by it. Forget about your credibility and reputation – take a risk. Witnessing is about taking risks.

Jesus’ disciples didn’t always understand Him and what He did, so not knowing everything shouldn’t stop us! There were some times that the Lord explained Himself, and other times that He didn’t. He loved to say things that turned what people thought, upside down .. it was actually right side up, but that’s a moot point! We need to translate what we read, into actions, and go on to act on it, in ordinary everyday situations. Then what we believe becomes current and alive. The bible is an action book, not just a study-’til-you’ve-memorised-it book. You don’t have to be articulate. I often ask the Lord – ‘how the heck do I say that?’ 

Our bible is a Holy book purely because the Holy Spirit kisses it for us, in ways we cannot comprehend. But we are the beneficiaries of His wisdom and power. He reveals our own road map, (the bible), so we can see the Lord Jesus in any situation. He translates the bible to us, every single day in such a way that it stops being fancy old-fashioned words on a page, and instead, it is the source of His life in us. We do this for others just like we would explain to them how to get to the shops! 

Doing what it says is simply the very best way of digesting the book. We are kind because the book says be kind. Even if we don’t feel like being kind, then we ask Him for His help! Living like that leads us into receiving fresh insight about God and His Ways. Simply analysing what we read aids comprehension, but it does not make the book part of you – your life and your experiences. Obedience does. Our lives become the witness.

Like I said before, the disciples asked questions. When what Jesus told them did not make sense they asked Him questions. Now, these men had prayed for the sick and seen them get well, they’d cast out demons, and seen all kinds of miracles —  but when they didn’t understand what Jesus said – they asked Him about it. We gotta stop long enough to ask questions and wait for His insight. “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7. We don’t just need to know what it says – we need to know how to become what it says! He will tell us how to apply what we are reading into our own lives. We must move from knowing into experiencing. Then we have something that is living to share with others. 

We can answer other people’s questions simply by drawing from what we’ve learnt from our own personal experiences — without any dry theology attached to the answer. Jesus is the Way to God. He’s the map, the journey and the destination. Tell them what happens to you when you take the map and follow it. It doesn’t rely upon human skill – just willingness. The Holy Spirit will help us, He will speak to their hearts – we just tell them what we’ve seen, heard and know about Jesus. And don’t forget to give them a map! Part of witnessing is giving away the map! The Holy Spirit will work on them even when we are not there. 👋

P 2574 That time factor, again.

/ DVH

I have been reading in 2 Samuel, and while I was reading it, I was reminded again that there was a time factor involved in establishing David as a King over Israel. There were many battles, many hardships and great losses between God’s choice and David being crowned king. That victory didn’t happen overnight. My point today is this: before David actually became king, in God’s eyes He was already His appointed man for the job! Samuel anointed David to be king as a YOUTH … even before he fought Goliath.

BUT, there was a very long period of time between those two events —- between the anointing and the actual appointing. 14 years, some people say. Yet this man was always God’s chosen man for the job. In this illustration we can see that time is not always the biggest factor in God’s Ways! The time between what God says and does, and it happening, can be longer than men are happy to talk about. We must not take things into our own hands, even when we know we heard what He was telling us.

My next question was why? Why was that time factor allowed? A whole lot of good men died during that time. I came to the conclusion that time can often clarify our motives – good or bad. Yet in that large passage of time, David grew more and more loyal to the king, despite Saul’s persecution of him. This illustrates that David’s best qualities were enhanced through that longer amount of time. If we think this life is about enforcing the kingdom, we are in error. David was tested about his beliefs and true motivation, and he had an incredibly honourable attitude – even to his own hurt. As the king in a powerful role, David was going to need some of the things that obedience, pressure and time bring out in a life – in order to fulfil that role, well. 

The other thing I thought about relates to us. Today we like to have an idea and bring it to fruition almost instantly. Yet it is apparent in the book that the Lord likes to take His own time! He has an appointed time for things to happen. Read Ecclesiastes 3! Even when we look at Calvary, there was a time period between the Lord Jesus’ death, and His resurrection. Then there was more time between Him revealing Himself to His disciples and His ascension into heaven. After that there was even more time between the ascension and Pentecost! Forty years to make an 11 day journey – those Israelites could not go in … they were not ready! When I notice stuff like that, I like to ask why.

My thought was that the Lord God seems to regard time in a different way to the way we see it. That made me wonder if we could give up on the things He tells us He is doing, too soon. Simply because it appears that the Lord is not meeting our timetable. Instead of pressing on in to learn perseverance, maybe we lose heart? What could we miss out on, when we push things along for the sake of convenience etc. instead of waiting on Him? Are we drawing the wrong conclusions, based on our needs, ideas and agendas? Time sometimes passes and then – we see a suddenly.

We all know that the Lord is never late, and the bible says, His timing is always perfect. Maybe we would manage things better if we stopped putting our own expiry dates on our ideas and hopes, and start asking Him what HE thinks. Then we need to take the time to wait for His answer. He’s never in a hurry so that  ‘hurry hurry rush rush’ thing that often happens is most likely not HIM! The devil pushes us — but Jesus leads us. He’s the Shepherd and He goes out in front!

It is not good to let our circumstances dictate our responses. Despair destroys faith. Holding things loosely allows Him to be in charge. Even if things seem pressing, it is better to continue to hand them over to the Lord and wait for His response. There is a little story about a persistent woman in Luke 18:1-8 …  “And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will He keep putting them off?”I think this story beautifully illustrates our Father’s character, it is not just about getting our prayers answered by bothering God until He answers us! By all means ask and keep on asking, but I recommend handing things back over to Him after you do it.

Ephesians 6:18: “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” James 5:16: “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Never stop praying.”‘Never stop praying’ could also mean don’t give up too soon!

The lack of an immediate answer does not mean that the Lord has not heard us. Our confidence, our faith is in the fact that He ALWAYS hears us and His timing is perfect, so now we are waiting for Him to guide us through things. The time factor is not the criteria, David could have legally seized the kingdom, everyone knew he was the chosen one. Instead, he chose to endure persecution and hardship as well as honouring the Lord’s principles over a very long time. Time can be an important factor, even in difficult situations. We will need eyes to see His answers even more than we need the answers. Bye. 👋

P 2571 He isn’t here …

/ DVH

Matthew 28:1-7 “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.  The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him.’ Now I have told you.”

I love that line uttered by the angel who was sitting in that empty tomb. “He is not here; …”   My first thought was – “then where is He??”… And the Lord smiled at me and said: “EVERYWHERE!!”  My second thought was that God left that angel there to talk to those women ... he waited for them. Makes you think doesn’t it? Nothing happens to us that is outside of His gaze – the Lord is prepared for any circumstance.  

Man those things are mind boggling. And what Jesus said to me made me think. We want to advertise Him as being at our church Sunday by Sunday but He’s not limited by time and space anymore … HE goes where the Wind blows. Let’s pray: ‘Please Holy Spirit, blow on me!’  Amen. With that end in mind, perhaps we should start asking HIM where He is going to be today? … Instead of expecting Him to automatically turn up where we are. Maybe we need to be more sensitive to His desires? Couldn’t hurt!! Moving on …

These two ordinary little women may have been scared, but they were still able to talk to, and listen to the angel without falling over.  All they cared about was finding the Lord! Unlike those big burly guards installed by Pilate’s order, together with the religious oversight. Those soldiers were scared spit-less by the same angel and promptly fell down as if dead. Knowing Jesus personally makes all the difference. We may be awed sometimes, but we will not be totally overwhelmed. Supernatural stuff should be praiseworthy but normal to you and I. We know HIM. 

Here’s another fun thought:  the disciples, who followed Jesus day after day, promptly forgot everything He said when He died. They were so overcome by grief and fear, they were not expecting His resurrection.  But Pilate, who handed the Lord over to the religious leaders, made a point to put guards on the tomb – because he remembered that Jesus said He would rise again! So they installed guards to make sure nobody could pinch the body and tell everyone He was resurrected. Now there’s the rocks crying out! The non-believers remembered!

Once you and I know for sure for ourselves, that He is risen – then our next job is to go and tell others. I remember the day when the Lord impacted my life, the first thing I was told to do was to tell somebody. So I rang the pastor’s wife and she about came right through the phone at me she was so excited. After that I told everybody! I wasn’t trying to be a smartie pants – I was just so excited because I knew that I knew, that God loved me. I had encountered something real, something worth talking about.

I dunno why many people think that telling other people about what happened to each one of us is hard, I really don’t. It seems to me that most of the time we do our best to avoid it. But it is the most natural thing in the world to talk to others, when something incredible happens to us. Especially when we discover what we thought was a theory turns out to be a reality! If we are asked to tell others about what is going on with our spouse, our friends, our kids, our parents, even our teachers, our fav past-time … we can easily say something! But when it comes to our faith – it seems we instantly get shtum. Why is that so?

Maybe somewhere over the years, other people have made a great big thing about what you are supposed to say or do when passing on the good news that that tomb was empty, and Jesus is alive, today. The further we walk away from our initial encounter with Him – whether we believed the book, or saw Him in Person –  the harder it seems to get. You know, those two women did not have a speech prepared. They were so joyful they simply related what they saw. That’s all our job is! Not to preach at others, or bash them with our church’s theological thoughts … we just need to tell them what happened to us. Nobody else has a testimony like yours.

We all have a story and Father God will pick the people who need to hear it. Not everybody will yell: ‘yippee can I do that too?’ It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to save them – and it’s our job to tell them what we know… I think the simpler we keep our explanation of what happened to us, the better! Something like: “Believe it or not, Christ isn’t dead, He’s alive and I’ve met Him.”  We are meant to be salt – not the whole stew! We are here to make them thirsty… the rest is up to the Lord. 👋

P 2565 Jesus teaches about prayer.

/ DVH

“Jesus was matter-of-fact: “Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you. This mountain, for instance: Just say, ‘Go jump in the lake’—no shuffling or hemming and hawing—and it’s as good as done. That’s why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you’ll get God’s everything. And when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it’s not all asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive—only then will your heavenly Father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins.””Mark 11:22-25 MSG.

Mark 11 is a terrific chapter, there is a lot in it. To start with, Jesus enters into Jerusalem and He is cheered on by absolutely everybody. These people are spiritually responding to the King of all Kings! However, their responses in those moments, also teach me that what other people say or do, even when they have the best of intentions can be hollow. Good intentions go out of the window unless God is at work in our hearts transforming our minds and actions. In this instance those same people called out “Crucify Him!” … just a few days later. No fruit on that tree either!

Anyway, the next day, Jesus is looking for breakfast and He finds a fig tree, but that tree has no fruit on it, so He curses it without any explanation. He moves on from there, and He goes into the temple and then … He clears out the temple – throwing out the buyers and sellers.After that, the disciples notice that the fig tree the Lord cursed has withered up from the roots, and, boy, are they are impressed? BTW, isn’t it interesting that they comment on the fig tree but not His clearing out the temple?? Nobody asked Him why He did that!! The above verses from Mark are about the conversation that followed when Jesus talked with His disciples about tree-cursing and what the power of God can do — when we position ourselves to live this life, HIS way!

I think that these two, very extremely different events, are linked. Jesus was looking for fruit, for nourishment from that fig tree, and there was none. But then He went on into a supposedly spiritual place and it too was not fruitful, it was lifeless, and barren. So He dealt with that situation as well! That temple that the Lord entered, was designed to be a place where the Jewish people found life, and spiritual fruit they could eat, that would nourish their relationship with God. But what the temple presented had been reduced to making money, and a whole heap of rituals. It definitely was not fruitful for them.

Did you notice that the Lord’s focus on the cursed fig tree is about prayer? He is using that tree to teach them about prayer. I believe He is telling us that we need to pray all the time about everything, whether it is big, like a mountain – or small like a fig tree. And He makes it clear that prayer is not just about asking. Prayer is an avenue of forgiveness, where we can sort out our sins with the Lord and then go and fix them with other people. He is showing people how to deal with their sins. They can talk to God about them, personally … not just by participating in a religious system that does not help them know God better!

He is encouraging the disciples to have a bigger faith than sacrificing an animal once a year, to take care of their spiritual needs. Our God is never meant to be a thoughtless routine! He is everyone’s Father and He dearly loves people plus He clearly wants us to love one another. The old system let the people down, it allowed them to treat God dispassionately, as a routine thing. Then the participants would go back to their ordinary lives feeling that they had paid their debt with a dove, sheep or a heifer … but there was so much more available to them. PEACE OF MIND – the sort of peace that passes human understanding.

Jesus goes on to interact with the high priests, and religious scholars etc. again, because they want to know who gave Him the right to upset their money-making systems?! And in response He asks them a question they can’t answer — because John the Baptist was totally outside their rule books. The guy with spiritual life in him, is never at a disadvantage when he is confronting religion. Religion is hollow – it has no substance, like that fig tree! It temporarily mollifies our feelings but it can not cleanse our spiritual debts. Jesus taught His disciples to pray in many more ways not just the Lord’s prayer. We simply have to look for them. ‘Those who seek, will find!’ 👋

P 2535 We need to learn to lift our shields.

/ DVH

“Look with wonder at the depth of the Father’s marvellous love that He has lavished on us! He has called us and made us His very own beloved children. The reason the world doesn’t recognize who we are is that they didn’t recognize Him.”1 John 3:1 TPT

When I read that scripture today, my first thought was: ‘What if I started to pray for the people around me, to recognise Him?’ Come to think of it, what if I prayed for ME to recognise Him in the things that go on around me? We sing and pray: “I want to know You, I want to see You,” Then waddle about as blind as a bat – well, you may not waddle but I sure do! 🤪 After those thoughts I asked myself yet again: “What is there in my life, right now, that would distract me from my God-given ability to see and reflect His love and His Presence to others?” I don’t want to be a muddy mirror! I want to progressively see Him more clearly and reflect Him better too.

I’m not talking about going on a witch-hunt to look for stuff, I am talking about discovering the things that are easily tolerated to the point that they become like background noise in our lives — instead of the subject of fervent prayer for deliverance. Those things we put up with because that mountain of change seems too high! Instead, like His book says: we simply must “… be (continually) looking at Jesus Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith.” Jesus Christ started up our faith in Him, and the bible clearly says He can finish it! We simply need to hold fast to our faith in His ability to do the job. His track record is already astonishing!!

At the same time we cannot afford to tolerate any rotten attitudes toward other people. Things like: … ‘We can’t help it! Look at how mean they are!’ And start speaking “His life” into their lives instead. Every single human being has potential in Christ. I believe we need to look hard at the people that we have chosen to avoid like the plague, simply because they challenge our nicey nice feelings about ourselves! How about we choose to use every opportunity to show these difficult people His Grace in action — in the fervent hope that we may win some of them!

Like Jesus said to the disciples when they were being tossed about in a huge storm in Luke 8:25 “Where is YOUR FAITH?”…”  From day to day, and minute by minute, what happens to OUR faith that He can and will help us overcome difficult people and circumstances? Speaking for myself, some days my faith in other people’s sins and failure seems to be greater than my faith that He can get me through anything! 

We don’t have to make excuses for other people’s sins either, or debate whether He will help them or not – we simply let them go free on the grounds that HE let us go free. ← That’s a full stop right there! Our faith needs to be used to overcome our sin, their sin against us, as well as the temptation to avoid the painful people. We are all tempted by stuff, but we must learn to hide behind our faith shield that says:“In Christ I can do all things because HE gives me strength.” What we do with temptation is an important key. If we have doubts, then we need to talk to the Lord about them, and trust Him to help us to walk through them, and/or overcome them.

At the same time there is definitely plenty of opportunities to monitor our own personal attitudes to others. My very best advice is, don’t just put up with people – faith demands that we press on until we love them! Prayer doesn’t just change things – it changes ME!  The thing to remember about our faith shield is that it only works because of what Christ did! You and I have the power residing within us to change this world for the better. Let’s not waste it, or our limited energies by hiding behind our weaknesses, or complaining or seeking sympathy from others. Let’s serve our King with all we have, and serve others with the same sort of passion He had for us.

We need to learn to use our shield against the barrage of attacks that come at us, through our own circumstances, personal media, from the news, and from media favourites. The reason we can get crushed and disappointed regarding other people, is because sometimes we expect everything from them … and very little from ourselves.

Dream yourself bigger. Start to think of your faith as so big, it can move any mountain that comes up in front of you. Use your shield to deflect the thoughts, and evil arrows that pierce your mind and heart, trying to lead you into despair. Life will not always be like this – one day we will stand in front of our King. The battle scars we have down here, will be badges of honour to His goodness, glory and grace up there. Amen. 👋🏻

“So, what does all this mean? If God has determined to stand with us, tell me, who then could ever stand against us?”Romans 8:31 TPT